love to. And Laddie struck its trail and followed it up here.
It heard Lad coming and it got out through the window. Then, just now,
something outside scared it; and it climbed back in again. I wonder
if--"

As she talked, the Mistress had moved toward the nearest window.

"See?" she finished, in triumph, as she pointed out and down.

On the patch of back lawn, below, stood a very much flustered old lady,
her worried gaze upraised to the study. In one hand she carried a
leash, in the other a half-peeled banana.

"It's Mrs. McMurdle!" exclaimed Harmon. "The maid was right. She must
have disobeyed the ordinance and had the miserable monkey hidden in her
house all the time. It must have gotten out, this morning; and she
hunted around till she saw it perched on the top of the window cornice.
I suppose it dived back in here, at sight of her. She--"

"Come on, Laddie!" whispered the Mistress, under cover of a new
outbreak of multiple talk. "YOU'RE acquitted, anyhow. And the rest of
the scene is really no business of ours. The sooner we get you to the
boarding kennels again, the less chance there is of trouble. And Master
and I will come to see you there, every single day, till we go back
home."

A week later, the car turned in again at the gates of the Place. This
time, Lad rode in state atop the flat trunk on the rear seat. As the
car halted at the veranda, he sprang to earth without waiting for the
tonneau door to be opened.

For, dashing toward him from the direction of the lake, Lady hove in
sight. Behind her, and trotting more leisurely, came Wolf. At sight and
scent of her returned mate, Lady fairly squealed with delight. She
whirled up to Lad, frantically licking his face and spinning about him
with little staccato yelps of joy.

Lad was deliriously happy. Not only was he at home again; but Lady was
welcoming him with an effusion that she had not shown him for many a
sorrowful month. He could not understand it. Nor did he try to. He was
content to accept the miracle; and to rejoice in it with all his great
honest heart.

Knowing nothing of feminine psychology, he could not realize that a
week of Puppy Wolf's sole and undiluted companionship had bored Lady
horribly and had begun to get on her nerves;--nor that she had learned
to miss and yearn for the big, wise, ever-gentle mate whom she had so
long neglected.

It was enough for Lad to know that he was no longer a neglected
outsider, in the Place's canine