usually sat when bending his mind intently on a patient.
Presently he turned and looked steadily at the little white heap curled
up in the big armchair.

The room was very still.

"Peter!" said the doctor, suddenly.

Peter sat up at once, and peeped at the doctor, through his curls.

"Poor little Peter," said the doctor, kindly.

Peter moved to the edge of the chair; sat very upright, and looked
eagerly across to where the doctor was sitting. Then he wagged his tail,
tapping the chair with quick, anxious, little taps.

"The first wag I have seen in twenty-four hours," remarked Lady Ingleby;
but neither Deryck Brand nor Shockheaded Peter heeded the remark.

The anxious eyes of the dog were gazing, with an agony of question, into
the kind keen eyes of the man.

Without moving, the doctor spoke.

"_Yes_, little Peter," he said.

Peter's small tufted tail ceased thumping. He sat very still for a
moment; then quietly moved back to the middle of the chair, turned round
and round three or four times; then lay down, dropping his head between
his paws with one long shuddering sigh, like a little child which has
sobbed itself to sleep.

The doctor turned, and looked at Lady Ingleby.

"What does that mean?" queried Myra, astonished.

"Little Peter asked a question," replied Sir Deryck, gravely; "and I
answered it."

"Wonderful! Will you talk this telepathy over with Michael when he comes
home? It would interest him."

The doctor looked into the fire.

"It is a big subject," he said. "When I can spare the time, I am thinking
of writing an essay on the mental and spiritual development of animals,
as revealed in the Bible."

"Balaam's ass?" suggested Lady Ingleby, promptly.

The doctor smiled. "Quite so," he said. "But Balaam's ass is neither the
only animal in the Bible, nor the most interesting case. Have you ever
noticed the many instances in which animals immediately obeyed God's
commands, even when those commands ran counter to their strongest
instincts? For instance:--the lion, who met the disobedient man of God on
the road from Bethel. The instinct of the beast, after slaying the man,
would have been to maul the body, drag it away into his lair, and devour
it. But the Divine command was:--that he should slay, but not eat the
carcass, nor tear the ass. The instinct of the ass would have been to
flee in terror from the lion; but, undoubtedly, a Divine assurance
overcame her natural fear; and all men who pa