no such sign. And the light bullet-graze on
his hip was hurting like the very mischief.

Moreover, every window in the house beyond was blossoming forth into
lights. There were sounds,--reassuring human sounds. And doors were
opening. His deities were coming forth.

All at once, Laddie stopped being a vengeful beast of prey; and
remembered that he was a very small and very much hurt and very lonely
and worried puppy. He craved the Mistress's dear touch on his wound,
and a word of crooning comfort from her soft voice. This yearning was
mingled with a doubt lest perhaps he had been transgressing the Place's
Law, in some new way; and lest he might have let himself in for a
scolding. The Law was still so queer and so illogical!

Lad started toward the house. Then, pausing, he picked up the bag which
had been so exhilarating a plaything for him this past few minutes and
which he had forgotten in his pain.

It was Lad's collie way to pick up offerings (ranging from slippers to
very dead fish) and to carry them to the Mistress. Sometimes he was
petted for this. Sometimes the offering was lifted gingerly between
aloof fingers and tossed back into the lake. But, nobody could well
refuse so jingly and pretty a gift as this satchel.

The Master, sketchily attired, came running down the lawn, flashlight
in hand. Past him, unnoticed, as he sped toward the ditch, a collie pup
limped;--a very unhappy and comfort-seeking puppy who carried in his
mouth a blood-spattered brown bag.

"It doesn't make sense to me!" complained the Master, next day, as he
told the story for the dozenth time, to a new group of callers. "I
heard the shots and I went out to investigate. There he was lying, half
in and half out of the ditch. The fellow was unconscious. He didn't get
his senses back till after the police came. Then he told some babbling
yarn about a creature that had stolen his bag of loot and that had
lured him to the ditch. He was all unnerved and upset, and almost out
of his head with pain. So the police had little enough trouble in
'sweating' him. He told everything he knew. And there's a wholesale
round-up of the motor-robbery bunch going on this afternoon as a result
of it. But what I can't understand--"

"It's as clear as day," insisted the Mistress, stroking a silken head
that pressed lovingly against her knee. "As clear as day. I was
standing in the doorway here when Laddie came pattering up to me and
laid a little satchel at my