itedly to
the girl and then whispered to the Colonel.

"You took him home?" pursued Marden. "Couldn't you see he was a
valuable dog?"

"I c'd see he was a sufferin' an' dyin' dawg," retorted Link. "I c'd
see he was a goner, 'less I took him home an' 'tended him. If you're
aimin' at findin' out why I went on keepin' him after that, I done so
because no one claimed him. I put up notices 'bout him. I put one up at
the post-office here, too. I--"

"He did!" interrupted the girl. "That's true! I saw it. Only--the
notice said it was a bird dog. That's why we didn't follow it up. He--"

"Miss Gault," suggested Marden in lofty reproof, "suppose you leave the
interrogatory to me, if you please? Yes, I recollect that notice. My
attention was called to it at the time. But," again addressing Link,
"why did you call 'Glenmuir Cavalier' a 'BIRD dog'? Was it to throw us
off the track or--"

"Don't know no What's-His-Name Cav'lier!" snapped Ferris. "This dawg's
name is Chum. Like you c'n see in my entry blank, what's layin' on the
table in front of you. I adv'tised Chum as a bird dawg because I
s'posed he WAS a bird dawg. I ain't a sharp on dawgs. He's the fust one
ever I had. If he ain't a bird dawg, 'tain't my fault. He looks more
like one than like 'tother breeds I'd seen. So I called him one."

"There is no need to raise your voice at me!" rebuked the colonel. "I
am disposed to accept your explanation. But if you read the local
papers you must have seen--"

"I did read 'em," said Ferris. "I read 'em steady for a month or more,
to see was there was adv'tisement fer a lost dawg. Nary an adv'tisement
did I see excep' one fer a 'sable' collie. 'Sable' means 'black.' I
know, because our dominie told me so. I asked him, when I see that
piece in the paper. Chum ain't black, nor nowheres near black. So I
knowed it couldn't be him. What d'j' want of me, anyhow?" he demanded
once more.

"Again, I am disposed to credit your explanation," boomed the colonel,
frowning down a ripple of giggles that had its rise in Miss Gault. "And
I am disposed to acquit you of consciously dishonest intent. I am glad
to do so. Here is the situation: Early last spring, Mr. Gault,"
indicating the sport-suit wearer at his left, "bought from the famous
Glenmuir Collie Kennels, on the Hudson, an unusually fine young
collie--a dog for which connoisseurs predicted a great future in the
show ring. He purchased it as a gift for his daughter, Miss Marion
Gault