to avenge; even as he
had been too late to save. By the time he could reach the spot where
Lady lay crumpled and moveless in the ditch, the runabout had gathered
full speed and was disappearing down the bend of the highway.

After it flew Lad, silent, terrible,--not stopping to realize that the
fleetest dog,--even with all four of his legs in commission,--cannot
hope to overhaul a motor-car driven at fifty miles an hour.

But, at the end of a furious quarter-mile, his wise brain took charge
once more of his vengeance-craving heart. He halted, snarled hideously
after the vanished car, and limped miserably back to the scene of the
tragedy.

There, he found the Mistress sitting in the roadside dust, Lady's head
in her lap. She was smoothing lovingly the soft rumpled fur; and was
trying hard not to cry over the inert warm mass of gold-and-white
fluffiness which, two minutes earlier, had been a beautiful
thoroughbred collie, vibrant with life and fun and lovableness.

The Master had risen from his brief inspection of his pet's fatal
injuries. Scowling down the road, he yearned to kick himself for his
stupidity in failing to note the Juggernaut's number.

Head and tail a-droop, Lad toiled back to where Lady was lying. A queer
low sound, strangely like a human sob, pulsed in his shaggy throat, as
he bent down and touched his dead mate's muzzle with his own. Then,
huddling close beside her, he reverted all at once to a trait of his
ancestors, a thousand generations back.

Sitting on his haunches and lifting his pointed nose to the summer sky,
he gave vent to a series of long-drawn wolf howls; horrible to hear.
There was no hint of a housebred twentieth century dog in his lament.
It was the death-howl of the primitive wolf;--a sound that sent an
involuntary shiver through the two humans who listened aghast to their
chum's awesome mourning for his lost mate.

The Master made as though to say something,--in comfort or in
correction. The Mistress, wiser, motioned to him not to speak.

In a few seconds, Lad rose wearily to his feet; the spasm of primal
grief having spent itself. Once more he was himself; sedate, wise, calm.

Limping over to where the car had halted so briefly, he cast about the
ground, after the manner of a bloodhound.

Presently, he came to an abrupt halt. He had found what he sought. As
motionless as a bird-dog at point, he stood there; nose to earth,
sniffing.

"What in blazes--?" began the Master,