g struggled frantically to free himself from Aileen's arms; again
and again she choked him that he might not bark and betray his master.
The terrified sheep bleated loud and long, trampling one another in vain
efforts to get through or over the wall.

"Oh, Rag, Rag,--stop, or I must kill you, dear, dear little Rag--oh, I
can't choke you--I can't--I can't! Rag, be still, I say--oh--"

Between his desire to free his limbs, to breathe freely, and the
instinctive longing to follow his master, the dog's powerful muscles
were doing double work.

"Oh, what shall I do--what shall I do--" she groaned in her
helplessness. The dog's frantic struggles were proving too much for her
strength, for she had to hold him with one hand; the other was on his
windpipe. She knew 'Lias would soon be coming home; he could hear the
sheep from the road, as she already heard the subdued bay of the hound
and the muffled bark of the collie, shut--thanks to Mrs. Caukins'
premonition of what might happen--within four walls. She looked about
her--a strip of her white skirt lay on the ground--_Could she--?_

"No, Rag darling--no, I can't, I can't--" she began to cry. Through her
tears she saw something sticking up from the hoof-trampled earth near
the strip of cotton--a knife--

She was obliged to take her hand from the dog's throat in order to pick
it up--there was one joyous bark....

"O Rag, forgive me--forgive!" she cried under her breath, sobbing as if
her heart would break.

* * * * *

She picked up the piece of skirt, and fled with the knife in her
hand--over the wall, over the pastures, that seemed lighter beneath the
rising stars, down the highroad into the glare of an arc-light. She
looked at the instrument of death as she ran; it was a banana knife such
as Luigi used continually in his shop. She crossed the bridge, dropped
the knife over the guard into the rushing Rothel; re-crossed the bridge
and, throwing back the wings of the Scotch plaid cape she wore, examined
in the full light of the powerful terminal lamp her hands, dress, waist,
cuffs.--There was evidence.

She took off her cape, wrapped it over head and shoulders, folded it
close over both arms, and went back to the house. She heard carriages
coming up the road to The Gore.

Mrs. Caukins, in a quivering state of excitement, called to her from the
back porch:

"Come out here, Aileen; 'Lias hasn't got back yet--the sheep are making
the most