ade a playful little rush at it.
Before the Master could intervene, Lad had dashed between her and the
sacred trophy; and had shouldered her gently but with much firmness out
of the room; disregarding her little swirl of temper at the
interference.

The Master called her back into the study. Taking her up to the eagle,
he pointed at it, and said, with slow emphasis:

"Lady! Let it ALONE! Let--it--ALONE!"

She understood. For, from babyhood, she had learned, by daily practice,
to understand and interpret the human voice. Politely, she backed away
from the alluring bird. Snarling slightly at Lad, as she passed him in
the doorway, she stalked out of the room and went out on the veranda to
sulk.

"I'm glad I happened to be here when she went for the eagle," said the
Master, at lunch that day. "If I hadn't, she might have tackled it
sometime, when nobody was around. And a good lively collie pup could
put that bit of taxidermy out of commission in less than five seconds.
She knows, now, she mustn't touch it."

He spoke smugly; his lore on the subject being bounded by his
experiences in teaching Lad the simple Law of the Place. Lad was one of
the rare dogs to whom a single command or prohibition was enough to fix
a lesson in his uncannily wise brain for life. Lady was not. As the
Master soon had occasion to learn.

Late one afternoon, a week afterward, the Mistress had set forth on a
round of neighborhood calls. She had gone in the car; and had taken Lad
along. The Master, being busy and abhorring calls, had stayed at home.
He was at work in his study; and Lady was drowsing in the cool lower
hall.

A few minutes before the Mistress was due to return for dinner, a whiff
of acrid smoke was wafted to the man's nostrils.

Now, to every dweller in the country, there is one all-present peril;
namely, fire. And, the fear of this is always lurking worriedly in the
back of a rural householder's brain. A vagrant breath of smoke, in the
night, is more potent to banish sleep and to start such a man to
investigating his house and grounds than would be any and every other
alarm known to mortals.

Even now, in broad daylight, the faint reek was enough to bring the
Master's mind back to earth and the Master's body to its feet.
Sniffing, he went out to find the cause of the smell. The chimneys and
the roof and the windows of the house showing no sign of smoke, he
explored farther; and presently located the odor's origin in a small