. I'm
goin' to show him that sheep fust. Whar's that sheep, Daws?"

Daws led the way down the road, over the fence, across the meadow, and
up the hill-side where lay the slain sheep. Chad and Melissa saw them
coming--the whole crowd--before they themselves were seen. For a minute
the boy watched them. They were going to kill Jack where the Dillons
said he had killed the sheep, and the boy jumped to his feet and ran up
the hill a little way and disappeared in the bushes, that he might not
hear Jack's death-shot, while Melissa sat where she was, watching the
crowd come on. Daws was at the foot of the hill, and she saw him make a
gesture toward her, and then the Sheriff came on with Jack--over the
fence, past her, the Sheriff saying, kindly, "Howdy, Melissa. I shorely
am sorry ta have to kill Jack," and on to the dead sheep, which lay
fifty yards beyond. If the Sheriff expected to drop head and tail and
look mean he was greatly mistaken. Jack neither hung back nor sniffed
at the carcass. Instead he put one fore foot on it and with the other
bent in the air, looked without shame into the Sheriff's eyes--as much
as to say:

"Yes, this is a wicked and shameful thing, but what have I got to do
with it? Why are you bringing ME here?"

The Sheriff came back greatly puzzled and shaking his head. Passing
Melissa, he stopped to let the unhappy little girl give Jack a last
pat, and it was there that Jack suddenly caught scent of Chad's tracks.
With one mighty bound the dog snatched the rawhide string from the
careless Sheriff's hand, and in a moment, with his nose to the ground,
was speeding up toward the woods. With a startled yell and a frightful
oath the Sheriff threw his rifle to his shoulder, but the little girl
sprang up and caught the barrel with both hands, shaking it fiercely up
and down and hieing Jack on with shriek after shriek. A minute later
Jack had disappeared in the bushes, Melissa was running like the wind
down the hill toward home, while the whole crowd in the meadow was
rushing up toward the Sheriff, led by the Dillons, who were yelling and
swearing like madmen. Above them, the crestfallen Sheriff waited. The
Dillons crowded angrily about him, gesticulating and threatening, while
he told his story. But nothing could be done--nothing. They did not
know that Chad was up in the woods or they would have gone in search of
him--knowing that when they found him they would find Jack--but to look
for Jack now would be