soul. It was not fear. It was something beyond
fear, and he would not have been otherwhere for any reward. All his mind
remained poised, expectant, as the astronomer waits for the new star
which his calculations have predicted to enter the field of his
telescope.

He caught the sound of another horse coming, far different even to his
unpracticed ear from the beat of hoofs which announced the coming of
Buck Daniels. The rhythm of their fall was slower, as if the stride of
the animal were much longer. He pictured a mighty creature with a vast
mane blown back against the chest of a giant rider. There was a murmur
from Kate: "Dan, my dear, my dear!"

Then he heard a padding footfall, hardly louder than the light, light
step of the wolf. The knob of the door turned slowly, without a sound;
it opened, and a man stepped in. He was not larger than the doctor; a
slender fellow, almost dapper in his dress, with hardly a sign of travel
about him, except that the brim of his sombrero was folded back from his
face as if from continual pressure of wind. These things Randall Byrne
noted vaguely; what he was sharply aware of were the eyes of the man. He
had the feeling that he had seen them before; he remembered the yellow
light that had swirled in the eyes of the wolf at the window.

The newcomer flashed a glance about the room, yet for all its speed it
seemed to linger an instant on each face, and when it crossed the stare
of Byrne the doctor shrank.

"Where is Buck?" asked the man. "I've come for him!"

As if in answer, the great, shaggy dog slipped through the entrance past
his master and glided across the room. As he passed, Kate held out a
hand to him. She called softly: "Bart!" but she was greeted with a
silent baring of fangs; and she caught her hand back against her breast,
with the tears springing in her eyes. On the other side of the room the
black dog paused and looked back to his master, while Byrne realised
with a shudder that the door before which it stood was the door through
which Buck Daniels had disappeared. Straight to that door Barry stepped,
and Byrne realised, with an eerie emotion, that the footfalls made no
sound.

Before he reached the door, however, the girl started forward and sprang
before him. With her outstretched arms she barred the way. Her skirt
brushed almost in the face of the dog, and the beast shrank away not in
fear, but crouching in readiness to leap. The sharp ears twitched back;
a murde