l at his side the bargain they had made, right in this room.

For a moment she was silent, with staring eyes; then she cried out:

"Dad--Dad--he wrote the letter that night--after Drake was made
champion. I know--I saw him doing it. He tried to hide it.... I know!"

On the train that very night, in the stateroom, Ferris spoke to his
boss.

"I know a man, sir, who owns a dog I believe will win next year."

In the deep-set eyes came a twinkle that lit them up like tiny
electrics.

"Has the man a broken leg and a daughter?"

"No, sir."

"Then buy the dog, Ferris."

IV

OLD FRANK SEES IT THROUGH

It was with grave misgiving that old Frank, Irish setter, followed
little Tommy Earle out of the precincts of the big shaded yard and into
the hot field of rustling corn, twice as tall as they. That this morning
of all mornings the boy belonged back there in the yard he knew well
enough, but all his efforts to keep him there had failed. He had tried
to divert his mind. He had loitered behind. He had glanced back
wistfully at the big white house, hoping in the absence of the boy's
father and mother to attract the attention of old Aunt Cindy the cook to
the fact that Tommy was running away.

But old Aunt Cindy was nowhere to be seen. There was no one to catch his
signals of distress. There was no one to see Tommy enter the corn. And
no one knew what he knew--that strangers were camped down there in his
master's woods. As for him, he had smelled them the night before after
everybody was asleep. He had barked a while in their general direction,
then gone down there to investigate. They had not seen him, for he had
kept out of sight. There had been two men and a woman sitting by a
small fire, an old car in the background. He had not liked their looks.

And that wasn't all. Not long ago he had seen one of the men, half
hidden in the cornfield, looking toward the house. The man had stood
there while Steve Earle, the boy's father, drove off in the car. He had
stood there while Marian Earle, the boy's mother, went off across the
orchard in another direction with a basket of fruit for a neighbour. He
had stood there until Frank, left alone with the boy, had started toward
the cornfield, tail erect, eyes fierce. Then the man had turned
hurriedly and entered the woods.

But the man was still down there. So were those other people. Frank's
nose told him that. Therefore his eyes were deep with trouble and he
followed cl