feet. I opened it, and well, it had
everything of value in it that had been in the safe over there. That
and the thief's story make it perfectly plain. Laddie caught the man as
he was climbing out of that window. He got the bag away from him; and
the man chased him, firing as he went. And he stumbled into the ditch
and--"

"Nonsense!" laughed the Master. "I'll grant all you say about Lad's
being the most marvelous puppy on earth. And I'll even believe all the
miracles of his cleverness. But when it comes to taking a bag of
jewelry from a burglar and then enticing him to a ditch and then coming
back here to you with the bag--"

"Then how do you account--?"

"I don't. None of it makes sense to me. As I just said. But, whatever
happened, it's turned Laddie into a real watchdog. Did you notice how
he went for the police when they started down the drive, last night?
We've got a watchdog at last."

"We've got more than a watchdog," amended the Mistress. "An ordinary
watchdog would just scare away thieves or bite them. Lad captured the
thief and then brought the stolen jewelry back to us. No other dog
could have done that."

Lad, enraptured by the note of praise in the Mistress's soft voice,
looked adoringly up into the face that smiled so proudly down at him.
Then, catching the sound of a step on the drive, he dashed out to bark
in murderous fashion at a wholly harmless delivery boy whom he had seen
every day for weeks.

A watchdog can't afford to relax vigilance, for a single
instant,--especially at the responsible age of five months.

CHAPTER II. The Fetish

From the night of the robbery, Lad's high position at the Place was
assured.

Even in the months of ganglingly leggy awkwardness which generally
separate furry puppyhood from dignified collie maturity, he gave sure
promise of his quality. He was such a dog as is found perhaps once in a
generation; the super-collie that neither knows nor needs such things
as whip and chain; and that learns the Law with bewildering swiftness.
A dog with a brain and a mighty heart, as well as an endless fund of
loveableness and of gay courage.

Month by month, the youngster developed into a massive giant; his
orange-mahogany coat a miracle of thickness and length, his deep chest
promising power as well as wolflike grace. His mind and his oddly human
traits developed as fast as did his body.

After the first month or so he received privileges never to be accorded
to any