nd turn into the bedroom. He heard the spectacled man talking in
there, then Steve Earle, then Marian Earle, the boy's mother, but not
the boy, prick his ears as he would. He sat down on his haunches,
panting and whining softly to himself. He lay down, head between his
paws, agate-brown eyes deep with worry. Still no sound of the boy. He
got up and fumbled at the screen door with his paw, fumbled sternly, all
concentration on his task.

It was not the first time he had turned the trick. He managed to catch
the lower frame with his claw, and, before the door sprang shut, to
insert his nose. The rest was easy and he went silently down the hall.
He stopped in the bedroom doorway. The boy was the centre of attention:
he was sitting on his mother's lap; the spectacled man, satchel at his
feet, was leaning forward toward him; Steve Earle stood above them,
looking down.

The dog's ears drooped. Usually where the boy was, there was also noise.
But this room was very quiet. The shades had been partly pulled; in
contrast with the brilliant out of doors it looked dim in here, like
late afternoon. The mother was smoothing the boy's hair back from his
forehead. There was something helpless in the head leaned against the
mother's breast and in the dangling, listless feet.

Frank took a tentative step forward. In winter he was welcomed always
to the fire, but in summer they said he brought in flies. Now no one
seemed to notice him, though he was a big fellow and red. He took
another step into the room, his eyes fastened longingly on the boy's
flushed face. Suddenly his long tail began to beat an eager tattoo
against the bureau. The boy's eyes had looked straight into his.

"F'ank?"

The mother glanced round. "I told Frank he mustn't come into the house,
dear."

"Why can't he stay wif me, Mama?"

The voice was complaining, as if Tommy were about to cry, and Tommy
seldom cried. Then he seemed to forget, and usually when he wanted
anything he kept on till he got it. The dog watched closely while Steve
Earle lifted him out of the mother's lap and placed him on the bed. Then
he made his way to the foot of the bed and lay down firmly and with an
air of quiet finality. He would stay here until this strangeness passed
away.

But Earle, following the spectacled man out of the room, stopped in the
doorway.

"Come on, Frank!"

He raised his eyes beseechingly to his master's face, then dropped his
head between his paws, his bushy ta