Lad: A Dog

umber of people. But the miles were uninspiring, except for a cross-country tramp with the Master. And the people were foolish and

ed it. It was assuredly his to enjoy, to guard, t

the Master and the Mistress. And because the dog was strong of soul and chivalric, withal, and because the Mistr

been taught the sacredness of the Guest Law. Civilly, he would endure the pettings of these visiting outlanders. Gravely, he would shake hands with them, on request. He would even permit them to paw him

big Lad alone had free run of

access to the sacred dining-room, at mealtimes-whe

f a puppy; rolling on the ground at her feet, making as though to seize and crush one of her little shoes in his mighty jaws; wriggling and w

his earliest days he had never forgotten he was an aristocrat

he sweet routine of the H

turn trip, about fifty yards from shore, the canoe struck sharply and obliquely against a half-submerged log that a Fall freshet had swept down from the river abov

and glanced around at the Mistress to learn if this were a new practical jo

. And the dog flung himself through the water toward her with a rush that left his shoulders and half his

he dog's burden was thus made infinitely lighter than if she had struggled or had lain in a posture less easy for towing. Yet he made

wrenched every giant muscle in the col

he Mistress were music to him. Indefinably, he understood he had done a very wonderful thing and

etired at last to his "cave" under the piano to escape from it

it had ju

een half-sick with a cold-was stricken with a chill,

ime to escort the Mistress, as usual, to the dining-room. But to his light scratch at her door there was

lso, as she did not appear at dinner and as he was for the first time in his life forbidde

eted for an interminable time in the Mistress' room. Lad had crept dejectedly upstairs behind them; and

to the crack at the bottom of the door,

ut undeniably the Mistress'. And his tail thumped hopefully on the hall floor. But no one c

the Master. Being a dog-owner himself, the doctor understood and his narrow escape fro

e stairs, "raised a fearful racket when my car came down the drive, just now. Better s

essed close against the Mistress' door, crouched Lad. S

g," he answered. "All except Lad. He and I are going to se

e, Lad lay outside the sick-room door, his nose between his absurdly small white paws,

owl a throaty menace. It was as though he heard, in the tempest's racket, the strife of evil gale-spirits to burst in through the rattling windows and att

om sleeplessness, came out. He was there when the other dogs we

an with yellow hair and a yellower suitcase-a horrible woman who vaguely smelt of disinfectants and of ri

sit to the invalid. And again he tried to edge his o

rse, later in the day, as she came out of the room and chanced to meet the Master on the landing. "Do p

e," briefly ord

called Lad over to him. Reluctantly, the d

ng very slowly and distinctly. "You

make no unnecessary sound. But, at least, the Master had not forbidden him to snarl so

s one grain

m, and put him out of the house. For, after all, a shaggy eighty-p

dow into the cellar and thence upstairs; and was stretched ou

a day, the nurse stumbled over his massive, inert body, and fumed in impotent rage. The Master, too, came back and forth

ithin a minute or two. And never once did the door of the Mistr

cross his body. Sometimes their feet drove agonizingly into his tender flesh. But never a wh

n he was ordered away by the Master, Lad would not stir from his place at the door. A

n did the glories of Autumn woods call to him. The rabbits would be thick, out yonder in the forest, just now. So would the squ

in that forbidden room-the Something that was seeking to take the Mistress away with It. He yearned unspe

rushing his body close ag

he black bag fought their "no-quarter" duel for the life

he room and sat down for a moment on the stairs, his face in his hands. Then and then

rept over to the Master; he lay down beside him, his huge head athwart the

ne in the darkness-to wonder and to listen and to wait. With a tired s

dog's body. She almost smiled. And presently the Master came out through the doorway. He stopped at sight of Lad, and turned back into the room. Lad could hear him speak. And

Master, opening the door and s

istress. She was very thin, very white, very feeble. Bu

c barking that would have deafened every one in

ui

im a world of will-power to do it. As sedately as he

stretched weakly forth to stroke him. And she

the man's praise, but to the woman's caressing whisper-and he quivered from head to tail. He fought furiously with himself once again, to choke back the rapturous barking that clamored

! And the whole house was smiling. That was enough. And the yearning to show,

You can come b

e his way out of the ro

t day. They were unworthy of a mongrel puppy. And never before in all his blameless, stately life had Lad so grossly misbehaved a

ramental gray cat, was picking its dainty way

wrath. Like a furry whirlwind he bore down upon the amazed feline. The cat, in dire offense, scratched his nose with

could not follow, Lad remembered the need for silence and forbore to bark threats at

ere ranged side by side on a shelf. Rising on his hind-legs and bracing his forepaws on the shelf, Lad seized edges of the deep p

d to the cries of the scandalized cook, he charged forth in the open again. His eye

st the stables, straight at the astonished bovine. In terror, the cow threw up her tail and sought to lumber away at top speed. Being controlled by her tether she could

rough to the refrigerator. There, in a pan, he found a raw leg of mutton. Seizing this twelve-pound morsel in his teeth and dodging the indignant housewife, he care

drowsy jog into a really industrious effort at a runaway. Already, Lad had sprung clear of the front wheel. As the w

f the reach of the pursuing agrarian; and at last he deposited the stole

wide detour that brought him through t

scorned to notice. But, most decidedly, he noticed the dog now. He routed it out of its kennel and bes

ter further, in face of a half-dozen

arge white object. It was palpably a nurse's uniform-palpably the nurse

marring its stiff surface. In less than thirty seconds, it was reposing in th

neglected prey, the rabbits. And he loped off to the forest to wage gay warfare upon th

d cow till it would be a miracle if she didn't fall sick of it. Lad had scared poor dear little Peter Grimm so badly that

nd had given the horse's owner a blasphemous half-mile run over a plowed field after a cherished and ravished lap-robe. Lad had well-nigh killed

that ran the whole gamut from tears to lurid profanity; and,

hell-Lad and I! He's doing the thing

manifestly asinine way

ecility had worn itself out. He was once more his calmly dignified self, though not a

yet. The Mistress was alive! And while the craziness had passed, the happiness had not. T

fter everyone on The Place was sound asleep. Lad was joyously pursuing, through the forest aisles of dreamland, a whole army of squirrels

g the highway, a furlong distant, would not have awakened Lad from sleep. Also, he knew and could classify, at any distance, the footsteps of everyone who lived on The Place. But the

obliquely, toward the house. It was a man, and he was still nearly two hundred yards away

other dogs been at home instead of at the boarding-kennels, The Place would by this time have been re-e

earing was enough. Plainly, he heard the softly advancing steps-heard and read them. He read them for an intruder's-r

e strangled back the tumultuous bark and listened in silence. He had risen to his feet and had come out from under the piano. In the middle of the living-room he stood, head lowered,

and then onto the springy grass of the lawn. Now they crunched lightly on the

stled ever so slightly as he brushed past them. H

. Presently, by half inches, the window began to rise. Before it had risen an inch, Lad k

hing, as the negro ran a knife-blade along the crac

dow-sill the man threw a leg. Then he

a second, evide

breathe, something in the dar

a half-inch, and the graze left a red-hot searing pain along the negro's throat. In the merest fraction of a moment, the murderously snapping jaws sank into the thief's shoulder. It i

pact, lost his balance and crashed to the hardwood floor, overturning a table and a lamp in his fall. Certain that a devil had attacked him there in the black

t away because of the Mistress' illness. Hence his attempt at b

e house; but there was still time to escape if he could rid himself of this silent, terrible creature.

convenient hold. Having secured that hold-be it good or bad-he locks his jaws and hangs on. You can well-nigh cut his head

, he is ready to shift that hold for a better. He may bite or slash a dozen times in as many seconds and in a

fitless shoulderhold to a grip on the stabbing arm. The knife blade plowed an ugly furrow along his side

away a handful of wool and flesh; and his weight threw the thief forward on hands and knees again. Twisting, the man found the dog's furry throat; and with both hands sought to strangle him; at the same time backing out through the

d half made the turn, Lad was at his throat again, and the two crashed through the vines togethe

the electric ray through the window. On the ground below, stunned by striking against a stone jardinière in his fall, the negro sprawled senseless upon his bac

The negro was trussed up and the local constable was summoned

house and to his "cave" under the piano; where he procee

most ungodly lot of noise. The commandment "Quiet!" had been fractured past repair. And, somehow, Lad felt blame for it all. It was really his fa

s place of refuge. Head adroop, tail low, Lad crept out to meet his

the Master had found the deep scratch on his side and was dressing it, and stopping every minute or so, to pra

air. Instead, he went out-of-doors and away from The Place. And, when he tho

eedful to canine happiness a bark really is. He had long and pressing arrears of barks in

led homeward, to take up normal life ag