s he was about to turn away and fasten the door, it seemed strange
that the place should be lit up by sunshine coming aslant through the
trees, when it was late in the evening and dark. But so it was, with
Lupe couching down, making no attempt to follow or pass him as he closed
the door, but resting his long, fierce-looking jaws upon his extended
paws, till, after trying hard to puzzle out why it was so, Marcus came
fully to his waking senses and sat up suddenly, while Lupe followed his
example, to burst out into a deep, joyous bark.

"What!" now came in a deep voice from behind Marcus. "Why, Lupe, dog,
have you found your way here?"

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

THE NEW RECRUIT.

The dog had been lying for hours watching the sleepers, who had lain
perfectly unconscious of the presence of such a sentry and guardian,
while he had crouched there with his muzzle almost touching Marcus'
breast, pricking up his ears at the slightest sound made by some
nocturnal food-seeking creature, and uttering a low sigh of content as
he settled himself down again.

Several times over he had heard some sound which he could not
understand, and upon these occasions he sprang up, smothering the low
growl that tried for exit, and seeming to understand the necessity for
caution, he began to reconnoitre in the direction from which the
suspicious noise had come.

Had anybody been there to watch the dog, what they had seen would have
excited wonder at the amount of reason that the animal displayed; not
that Lupe, big wolf-hound, one of the kind kept by the peasantry in the
far-back past for the protection of their flocks, was anything
exceptional, for plenty of dogs at the present time are ready to display
an instinct that is almost human.

Point out some very human act, and there are plenty who will tell you
either that it is the result of teaching, or that it has come naturally
from the dog's long continued intercourse with man. One ventures to
think that it is something more than teaching that makes a shut-out dog
wait till he sees what he considers to be a suitable stranger whom he
has never seen before, and then trot up to him and begin to gambol and
lead him on till the gate or door is reached, stopping short then and
saying as plainly as a dog can speak in barks--not the most expressive
language in the world--Open it and let me in.

Lupe was evidently a dog that could reason in his way, and attributing
two of these interruptions of t