ng
counsel.

"I don't."

"Does Finn?"

"No; I don't think so."

"Didn't Shandy always have a gob of it in his cheek--the dirty pig?"

"Yes, he did, Mike."

"I t'ought so; I t'ought it was that blackguard. But how did the swine
get in here? The stable was locked, an' I had the key in me pocket. I'll
take me oath to that."

Carter took his cap off, ran a hand reflectively up and down the crown
of his head, canvassing every possible entry there might be to the
stalls. Suddenly he replaced his cap and whistled softly. "I know, Mike;
he crawled through the dung window. I've seen him do it half a dozen
times. When he was too lazy to go for the keys, he'd wiggle through that
hole."

Mike said nothing, but led the way to the back of the stable. There he
climbed upon the pile of rotting straw, and examined closely the small,
square opening, with its board slide, through which Shandy had passed
the night before.

"God! I t'ought so!" he ejaculated. "Here's more tobacco spit, where the
cutt'roat divil stood when he opened the winder."

Looking down, his eye caught the glint of something bright deep in the
straw. He dug his hand down into the mass and brought up a knife. "Whose
is that, Ned?" he queried.

Carter looked at it closely. "Shandy's," he answered; "I'll swear to
that. I've borrowed it from him more than once to clean out the horses'
hoofs."

"Bot' t'umbs up! I'd hang that b'y to a beam if I had him here. He cut
that rein as sure as God made little apples," declared Mike, vehemently.
"An' the gall av him to go an' sit there in the ould stand to watch the
Black run away wit' somewan an' kill 'em. Now jest kape yer mouth shut,
Ned, an' we'll put a halter on this rooster. By hivins! when I git him
I'll make him squale, too!"

XVII

The seriousness of Porter's accident became clearer to Doctor Rathbone
the following day. He imparted this information to Allis; told her that
in all probability it would be weeks before her father would be strong
again.

"In the meantime, little woman, what are you to do with all these hungry
horses on your hands?" he asked.

The girl's answer came quickly enough, for she had lain awake through
all the dreary night, thinking out this problem. Without medical
knowledge she had felt certain that her father was badly injured, and
the gloomy future had come to her in the darkness instead of sleep.

"I'll look after them," she answered the doctor, quite simply.

A sm