cy laid down
her work and looked at James. The new dog was lying at her feet. "Uncle
Tom bought this dog on account of him," she said. As she spoke, she gave
an odd significant gesture over her shoulder as if the man were there,
and a look of horror came over her face. Immediately the dog growled,
and sprang up, raced to the door, and let forth a volley of howls and
barks. "He knows," said Clemency. "Isn't it queer? That dog knows there
is something wrong just by the way I spoke and looked."

James himself was not quite so sure. He glanced at the closed shutters.
Then he went himself to the door to be sure that it was bolted as usual,
and through into the study. Everything was fast, but the dog continued
to race wildly back and forth from door to windows, barking wildly, with
a slender crest of hair erect on his glossy white back. Emma, the maid,
came in from the kitchen, and met James and Clemency in the hall. She
looked white, and was trembling. "I know there was somebody about the
house," she said.

James hesitated. He thought of a possible patient. Still there had been
no ring at the office door. He considered a moment. Then he sent
Clemency, the maid, and the dog back into the parlor, and before he
opened the outer door of the office he locked the other which
communicated with the rest of the house, and put the key in his pocket.
Then he threw open the outer door and called, "Anybody there?"

Utter silence answered him. He looked into a black wall of night. It was
not snowing, but the clouds were low and thick, and no stars were
visible. He called again in a shout, "Hullo there! Who is it?" and
obtained no response. Then he closed the door, fastened it, and returned
to the living-room. "I guess you were right," he said to Clemency.

"Yes, I think so," said Clemency. She spoke to Emma. "Jack acted so
because of something I said to Doctor Elliot," she added. "He thought
something was wrong. He is very intelligent." The dog was again lying at
her feet.

But Emma shook her head obstinately. She was the middle-aged daughter of
a New Jersey farmer, and had lived with the family ever since they had
resided in Alton. She had a harsh face, although rather good-looking, "I
have been used to dogs all my life," said she, "and I never knowed a dog
to act like that unless there was somebody about the house."

"Well, I have done all I could," said James. "I called out the office
door, and nobody answered. It could not have