ake fresh demands on him.

He washed the wound on the head and poured iodine into it. He did the
same with the hole in the leg, cleansing it from the dried blood and
hair. It had stopped bleeding. He disinfected it, stitched it, closed
it, bound it with adhesive tape and strengthened it with a bandage
adjusted as expertly as any surgeon could have done. He pried open the
jaws with but little resistance and let the tongue slip back before he
poured in a measure of Scotch and water between the canine and incisor
teeth. He tilted Grit's limp head, shut off his muzzle, stroked his
throat and let the restorative trickle into the gullet. For a moment
there was no response, then Grit coughed, choked, swallowed. Sandy
repeated the dose with less water. It went down naturally. Almost
immediately he felt the heart stroke strengthen. Grit sneezed, opened
his eyes and feebly thumped his tail as he licked Sandy's hand.

"Grit, ol' pardner," said Sandy seriously, the dog's head between his
hands, "yo're sure mussed up a heap an' I hate to do it, but I got to
call on you, son. Mebbe it won't be such a long trick, but I can't git
by without yore nose, Grit. It's worth more'n all I've got. An' I know
yo're game. I'm goin' to give you some mo' of Keith's special Scotch,
which I sure had a hunch w'ud come in handy, an' then we'll try it."

Grit wagged his tail more vigorously and tried to get on his feet, but
Sandy prevented him until the third dose was administered. Then he
carried the dog outside to save him every foot of unnecessary progress,
and set him down. The collie stood up, wabbly on one foot but able to
stand, looking eagerly at Sandy, commencing to snuff the air. Sandy let
him smell the coin, the strand of hair, the piece of cloth and, with his
keenest sense stimulated with the perfume that stood to Grit for love,
the dog wrinkled his nose and cast around. But he led direct to Blaze
and stood by the horse uncertain while Blaze nosed down at him.

"Carried out of the cabin, son," said Sandy. "We'll guess at Plimsoll.
He's got clear of the locality. Blaze knows but he can't tell. We've got
to cast about." He picked up the dog again, puzzled, and looked about
him in the gulch, suffused with moonlight. "There sh'ud be soft dirt
under those asps, let's give a look-see there."

They had not gone five feet into the trees before man and dog made a
simultaneous discovery. For Sandy it was a heel-mark left by Plimsoll,
treading heav