!
It's dreadful!" she cried.

He patted her soothingly, his cheek against her fair hair. "Well, what is
it, kiddie? Let's hear! One of the youngsters in trouble, what? Not
Jeanie, I say?"

"No, no, no! It's--Mike." The name came out with a great burst of tears.

"Mike!" Piers looked at Avery, mystified for the moment. "Ah, to be sure!
The dog! Well, what's happened to him? He isn't dead, what?"

"He is! He is!" sobbed Gracie. "He--he has been killed--by--by his
own chain!"

"What!" said Piers again.

Gaspingly she told him the tragic tale. "Father always will have him kept
on the chain, and--and--"

"An infernally cruel thing to do!" broke indignantly from Piers.

"Yes, we--we all said so. And we tried to give him little outings
sometimes to--to make up. But to-day--somehow--we forgot him, and--and he
must have seen us go, and jumped the wall after us. Pat and I went back
afterwards to fetch him, and found him--found him--oh, Piers!" She cried
out in sudden agony and said no more.

"Choked?" said Piers. "Choked with his own chain, poor devil!" He looked
up again at Avery with something unfathomable in his eyes. "Oh, don't cry
so, child!" he said. "A chained creature is happier dead--a thousand
times happier!"

He spoke passionately, so passionately that Gracie's wild grief was
stayed. She lifted her face, all streaming with tears. "Do you think
so really?"

"Of course I think so," he said. "Life on a chain is misery unspeakable.
No one with any heart could condemn a dog to that! It's the refinement of
cruelty. Don't wish the poor beast back again! Be thankful he's gone!"

The vehemence of his speech was such that it carried conviction even to
Gracie's torn heart. She looked up at him with something of wonder and of
awe. "If only--he hadn't suffered so!" she whispered.

He put his hand on her forehead and smoothed back the clustering hair.
"You poor kid!" he said pityingly. "You've suffered much more than he did
at the end. But it's over. Don't fret! Don't fret!"

Gracie lifted trembling lips to be kissed. He was drying her eyes with
his own handkerchief as tenderly as any woman. He stooped and kissed her.
"Look here! I'll walk home with you," he said. "Avery, you go back with
Crowther! I shan't be late."

Avery turned at once. The sight of Piers soothing the little girl's
distress had comforted her subtly. She felt that his mood had softened.

"Won't you go too?" said Crowther, as she joined him. "Pl