e moonlight.

The huge hound, which was still coming direct toward the house, was
now only a field away. Separating the field from the road was a stone
wall about three and a half feet in height. Anyone crouching behind
it, on the side of the road, could not be seen from the field. The
one, and only chance of intercepting the animal, flashed across her
mind, and calling Baptiste to follow her she ran across the road and
crouched behind the portion of the wall over which the animal must
jump, unless it quickly altered its course. Baptiste made a pitiful
effort to follow her, but his weary limbs were unable to bear the
strain any longer, and he fell unconscious to the floor.

As she ran across the road, had she glanced down it toward the village
she would have seen a man, only a few rods distant, walking somewhat
unsteadily toward the house. He stopped abruptly and raised his hand
in amazement as he saw the woman, knife in hand, hurry across the road
and crouch behind the wall. He ran toward her calling "Mother!" but
the baying of the hound drowned his voice. Before he could reach her
she sprang to her feet just as the dog rose into the air from the
opposite side of the wall. She was exactly in front of it. The beast
uttered a howl of terror as the strange apparition so unexpectedly
rose up before it. Bravely she seized with her left hand one of the
paws of the animal, and as it fell, the knife in her right hand
gleamed again and was buried deep in the shoulder of the dog. As she
fell, the enraged animal turned upon her and buried its teeth in her
arm. She did not feel the bite; the crisis had passed--the unnatural
strength born of intense excitement had now deserted her. Just as
unconsciousness was dimming her eyes, she saw a man towering above
her; she saw the stick in his hand fall with fearful force on the head
of the animal, which rolled over on its side without uttering a sound.
Then the figure, which was growing more and more indistinct, caught
her up in his arms, and a voice that she knew and loved so well called
"Mother, mother!" She opened her eyes wearily and looked into the face
of the man, and a smile, very beautiful to see, passed over her face.

"My Pierre; my son," she murmured. "I said I would release you. I saw
the blood on the knife, then I saw you spring up before me, and now I
am in your arms."

Her lips grew very white and her head fell back on his shoulder. As he
ran into the house with her he s