and jigging. A rut in
the roadway made the nearest trunk tilt one edge in the air and shift
position, so that when it tilted back again it rested on Michael's paw.
The unexpectedness of the crushing hurt of it caused him to yelp and at
the same time instinctively and spasmodically to pull back with all his
strength. This wrenched his shoulder and added to the agony of the
imprisoned foot.

And blind fear descended upon Michael, the fear that is implanted in all
animals and in man himself--_the fear of the trap_. Utterly beside
himself, though he no longer yelped, he flung himself madly about,
straining the tendons and muscles of his shoulder and leg and further and
severely injuring the crushed foot. He even attacked the bars with his
teeth in his agony to get at the monster thing outside that had laid hold
of him and would not let him go. Another rut saved him, however, tilting
the trunk just sufficiently to enable his violent struggling to drag the
foot clear.

At the railroad station, the crate was handled, not with deliberate
roughness, but with such carelessness that it half-slipped out of a
baggageman's hands, capsized sidewise, and was caught when it was past
the man's knees but before it struck the cement floor. But, Michael,
sliding helplessly down the perpendicular bottom of the crate, fetched up
with his full weight on the injured paw.

"Huh!" said Del Mar a little later to Michael, having strolled down the
platform to where the crate was piled on a truck with other baggage
destined for the train. "Got your foot smashed. Well, it'll teach you a
lesson to keep your feet inside."

"That claw is a goner," one of the station baggage-men said,
straightening up from an examination of Michael through the bars.

Del Mar bent to a closer scrutiny.

"So's the whole toe," he said, drawing his pocket-knife and opening a
blade. "I'll fix it in half a jiffy if you'll lend a hand."

He unlocked the box and dipped Michael out with the customary strangle-
hold on the neck. He squirmed and struggled, dabbing at the air with the
injured as well as the uninjured forepaw and increasing his pain.

"You hold the leg," Del Mar commanded. "He's safe with that grip. It
won't take a second."

Nor did it take longer. And Michael, back in the box and raging, was one
toe short of the number which he had brought into the world. The blood
ran freely from the crude but effective surgery, and he lay and licked
the wou