earing and narrowing the vision.

Yes, Lad was old. And he was a bit unwieldy from weight and from age.
No longer could he lead Wolf and Bruce in the forest rabbit chases.
Wherefore he stayed at home, for the most part and seldom strayed far
from the Mistress and the Master whom he worshiped.

Moreover, he deputed the bulk of trespass-repelling to his fiery little
son, Wolf; and to the graver and sweeter Bruce;--"Bruce, the Beautiful."

Which brings us by needfully prosy degrees to a morning, when two
marauders came to the Place at the same time, if by different routes.
They could not well have come at a more propitious time, for
themselves; nor at a worse time for those whose domain they visited.

Bruce and Wolf had trotted idly off to the forest, back of the Place,
for a desultory ramble in quest of rabbits or squirrels. This they had
done because they were bored. For, the Mistress and the Master had
driven over for the morning mail; and Lad had gone with them, as usual.
Had it been night, instead of morning, neither Wolf nor Bruce would
have stirred a step from the grounds. For both were trained watchdogs,
But, thus early in the day, neither duty nor companionship held them at
home. And the autumn woods promised a half-hour of mild sport.

The superintendent and his helpers were in the distant "upper field,"
working around the roots of some young fruit trees. But for the maids,
busy indoors, the Place was deserted of human or canine life.

Thus, luck was with the two intruders.

Through the fence-gap in the oak-grove, bored Titus Romaine's hugest
and oldest and crankiest sow. She was in search of acorns and of any
other food that might lie handy to her line of march. In her owner's
part of the grove, there was too much competition, in the food-hunt,
from other and equally greedy pigs of the herd. These she could fight
off and drive from the choicest acorn-hoards. But it was easier to
forage without competition.

So through the gap she forced her grunting bulk; and on through the
Place's half of the oak-grove. Pausing now and then to root amid the
strewn leaves, she made her leisurely way toward the open lawn with its
two-hundred-year-old shade-oaks, and its flower-borders which still
held a few toothsome bulbs.

The second intruder entered the grounds in much more open fashion. He
was a man in the late twenties; well-set up, neatly, even sprucely,
dressed; and he walked with a slight swagger. He looked very