nd, coming closer, both recognized the
strange bundle-carrier as a dark-hued collie dog.

The identification did little to ease their feeling of incredulous
mystification. But it banished their superstitious dread. Both of them
were used to dogs. And though neither could guess how this particular
dog happened to be stealing the twice-stolen baby, yet neither had the
remotest fear of tackling the beast and rescuing its human plunder.

Roodie brought the abused runabout to another jerky stop within a few
inches of the unconcerned collie. And he and Eitel swarmed earthward
from opposite sides of the machine. In a trice, Roodie had struck Lad
over the head; while Eitel grabbed at the bundle to drag it away from
the dog.

Now, the weight of years was beginning to tell on Laddie. But that
weight had not robbed him of the ability to call, at will, upon much of
his oldtime strength and bewildering swiftness. Nor had it in any way
dampened his hero-spirit or dulled his uncannily wise brain.

He had been plodding peacefully along, bearing home a wonderful gift--a
gift oftener confided to the care of storks than of collies--when he
had been attacked from two sides in most unprovoked fashion. He had
been struck! His blood surged hot.

There was no Law governing such a case. So, as usual in new crises, Lad
proceeded to make his own Law and to put it into effect.

A deft turn of the head eluded Eitel's snatching hand. With the
lightness of a feather, Lad deposited the bundle in the soft dust of
the road. In practically, the same gesture, the dog's curving eye-tooth
slashed Eitel's outstretched wrist to the bone.

Then, staggering under a second head-blow from Roodie, the collie
wheeled with lightning-swift fury upon this more hostile of his two
assailants.

Hurling himself at the man's throat, in silent ferocity, he well-nigh
turned the nocturnal battle into a killing. But Roodie's left arm, by
instinct, flew up to guard his threatened jugular.

Through coat and shirt and skin and flesh,--as in the case of Lady's
slayer,--the great dog's teeth clove their way; their rending snap
checked only by the bone of the forearm. The impetus of his
eighty-pound body sent the man clean off his balance. And together the
two crashed backward to the ground.

Lad was not of the bulldog breed which seeks and gains a hold and then
hangs on to it with locked jaws. A collie fights with brain as much as
with teeth. By the time he and Roodie s