ldn't be seen, hardly,
from the barn. Someone must have waited here. Look about, Bart, you'll
be findin' a pile of signs, around here. It means that them that done
the shootin' and the firin' of the barn stood right here behind this
hill-top and watched the barn burn--and was hopin' that Satan and you
wouldn't ever come out alive. That's the story."

He dropped to his knees and caught Bart as the big dog ran by.

"Find'em, Bart!" he whispered. "Find'em!"

And he struck sharply on the scar where the bullet had ploughed its way
into Bart's flesh.

The answer of Bart was a yelp too sharp and too highly pitched to have
come from the throat of any mere dog. Once more he darted out and ran
here and there, and Doctor Byrne heard the beast moaning as it ran. Then
Bart ceased circling and cut down the slope away from the hill at a
sharp trot.

A cry of inarticulate joy burst from Dan, and then: "You've found it!
You have it!" and the master ran swiftly after the dog. He followed the
latter only for a short distance down the slope and then stood still
and whistled. He had to repeat the call before the dog turned and ran
back to his master, where he whined eagerly about the man's feet. There
was something uncanny and horrible about it; it was as if the dumb beast
was asking for a life, and the life of a man. The doctor turned back and
walked thoughtfully to the house.

At the door he was met by Kate and a burst of eager questions, and he
told, simply, all that he had seen.

"You'll get the details from Mr. Barry," he concluded.

"I know the details," answered the girl. "He's found the trail and he
knows where it points, now. And he'll want to be following it before
many hours have passed. Doctor Byrne, I need you now--terribly. You must
convince Dan that if he leaves us it will be a positive danger to Dad.
Can you do that?"

"At least," said the doctor, "there will be little deception in that. I
will do what I can to persuade him to stay."

"Then," she said hurriedly, "sit here, and I shall sit here. We'll meet
Dan together when he comes in."

They had hardly taken their places when Barry entered, the wolf at his
heels; at the door he paused to flash a glance at them and then crossed
the room. On the farther side he stopped again.

"I might be tellin' you," he said in his soft voice, "that now's Bart's
well I got to be travellin' again. I start in the morning."

The pleading eyes of Kate raised Byrne to his feet.