h to be heard above the
subsiding din. "I think I've seen you at Westminster and at some of the
local shows. Higham is your name, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," returned the kennel man, truculent, but surprised almost
into civility. "And this is my assistant, Mister Rice. And these two
young lady friends of ours are--Say!" he broke off, furiously,
remembering his plight and swinging back to rage, as he began to wade
shoreward. "We're going to have the law on you, friend! Your collie
tackled us when we was peaceably-"

"When you were peaceably ignoring this trespass sign of mine?" finished
the Master. "Don't forget that. If you didn't have these girls with
you, I'd keep my hands off Lad's collar and let him hold you out in the
lake till it freezes for the winter. As it is, one of you men can swim
out for your canoe and tow it in; and then the rest of you can bundle
aboard it and finish your picnic on somebody else's land."

"Well!" shrilled the wet damsel, striding shoreward like some sloppily
overdressed Venus rising from the sea. "Well! I MUST say! Nice
neighborly, hospitable way to treat poor unfortunate--!"

"Trespassers?" suggested the Master, as she groped for a climax word.
"You're right. It is no way to treat a woman who has fallen into the
lake; trespasser or not. If you and this other young lady care to go up
to the kitchen, the maids will see that your clothes are dried; and
they'll lend you other clothes to go home in. Lad won't hurt you. And
in this hot weather you're in no danger of catching cold. While you're
gone, Higham and Rice can get hold of the canoe and right it and bail
it out. And, by the way, I want one of you two men to clear that litter
of food and greasy paper off my lawn. Then--"

"Into the kitchen!" snorted the wet maid. "Into the KITCHEN? I'm a
lady! I don't go into kitchens. I--"

"No?" queried the Master, trying once more not to laugh. "Well, my wife
does. So does my mother. I spoke of the kitchen because it's the only
room with a fire in it, in this weather. If you'd prefer the barn or--"

"I won't step one foot in your house!" declaimed the girl. "Nor yet I
didn't come here to be insulted. You've gone and spoiled our whole day,
you big brute! Boys, go get that canoe! We won't lower ourselves by
staying another minute on his rotten land. Afterward, our lawyer'll see
what's the penalty for treating us like this! Hurry up!"

Rice had clumped along shore until he found a dead branch wash