at a level with her
throat. She did not cry out; nor faint. That was not the Mistress's
way. Like Lad, she was thoroughbred in soul as well as in body. And
neither she nor her dog belonged to the breed of screamers. Through her
mind, in that briefest fraction of a second whizzed the consoling
thought:

"He's not mad, whatever else he is. A mad dog never swerves from his
path."

But if the Mistress remained moveless, Lad did not. Seeing her peril
even more swiftly than did she, he made one lightning dive from his
perch on the car seat.

He did not leap at random. Lad's brain always worked more quickly than
did his lithe body; flyingly rapid as were that body's motions. As he
gathered himself for the spring, his campaign was mapped out.

Down upon the charging beast swooped a furry whirlwind of burnished
mahogany-and-snow. Down it swooped with the whirring speed and unerring
aim of an eagle. Sixty-odd pounds of sinewy weight smote the lunging
mongrel, obliquely, on the left shoulder; knocking the great brute's
legs from under him and throwing him completely off his balance. Into
the dust crashed the two dogs; Lad on top. Before they struck ground,
the collie's teeth had found their goal ire the side of the larger
dog's throat; and every whalebone muscle in Lad's body was braced to
hold his enemy down.

It was a clever hold. For the fall had thrown the mongrel on his side.
And so long as Lad should be able to keep the great foaming head in
that sideways posture, the other dog could not get his feet under him
again. With his legs in their present position, he had no power to get
up; but lay thrashing and snapping and snarling; and trying with all
his cramped might to free himself from the muscular grip that held him
prostrate.

It was all over in something like two seconds. Up stormed the crowd;
the pistol-wielder at its head. Three shots were fired at point-blank
range. By some miracle none of them harmed Lad; although one bullet
scratched his foreleg on its way to the black giant's brain.

As soon as she could, the Mistress got herself and the loudly-praised
Lad into the car and set off for home. Now that the peril was over, she
felt dizzy and ill. She had seen what it is not well to see. And the
memory of it haunted her for many a night thereafter.

As for Lad, he was still atingle with excitement. The noisy praise of
those babbling humans had bothered him; and he had been glad to escape
it. Lad hated to be ma