(both for company and safeguard), and
he was not a dog who would dream of recognizing a person to whom he had
been rashly introduced. And he knew that he was in a mighty difficulty
now, which made self-respect all the more imperative. However, on the
whole, he had been pleased with Insie at their first interview, and had
patronized her--for she had an honest fragrance, and a little taste of
salt--and now with a side look he let her know that he did not wish to
hurt her feelings, although his business was not with her. But if she
wanted to give him some refreshment, she might do so, while he was
considering.

The fact was, though he could not tell it, and would scorn to do so
if he could, that he had not had one bit to eat for more hours than he
could reckon. That wicked hostler at Middleton had taken his money and
disbursed it upon beer, adding insult to injury by remarking, in the
hearing of Saracen (while strictly chained), that he was a deal too fat
already. So vile a sentiment had deepened into passion the dog's ever
dominant love of home; and when the darkness closed upon him in an
unknown hungry hole, without even a horse for company, any other dog
would have howled; but this dog stiffened his tail with self-respect. He
scraped away all the straw to make a clear area for his experiment, and
then he stood up like a pillar, or a fine kangaroo, and made trial of
his weight against the chain. Feeling something give, or show propensity
toward giving, he said to himself that here was one more triumph for him
over the presumptuous intellect of man. The chain might be strong enough
to hold a ship, and the great leathern collar to secure a bull; but the
fastening of chain to collar was unsound, by reason of the rusting of a
rivet.

Retiring to the manger for a better length of rush, he backed against
the wall for a fulcrum to his spring, while the roll of his chest and
the breadth of his loins quivered with tight muscle. Then off like the
charge of a cannon he dashed, the loop of the collar flew out of the
rivet, and the chain fell clanking on the paving-bricks. With grim
satisfaction the dog set off in the track of the horse for Scargate
Hall. And now he sat panting in the cottage of the gill, to tell his
discovery and to crave for help.

"Where do you come from, and what do you want?" asked Bert, as the dog,
soon beginning to recover, looked round at the door, and then back again
at him, and jerked up his chin impati