."

He inclined his head slightly toward the girl; then proceeded:

"As Mr. Glenmuir was disbanding his kennel, Mr. Gault was able to
secure the dog--Glenmuir Cavalier. He started for Craigswold, with the
dog on the rear seat of the car. At first he kept a hand on the dog's
collar, but as the collie made no attempt to escape, he soon turned
around--he was in the front seat--and paid no more attention to him.
Just outside of Suffern, he looked back--to find Cavalier had
disappeared. He advertised, and made all possible efforts to locate the
dog. But he could get no clew to him, until to-day. Seeing this dog of
yours in the show ring, he recognized him at once."

The pompously booming voice, with its stilted diction, ceased. All eyes
were upon Link Ferris. The mountaineer, stung to life by the silence
and the multiple gaze, came out of his trance of shock.

"Then--then," he stuttered, forcing the words from a throat sanded by
sudden dread, "then Chum rightly b'longs to this man?"

"Quite so!" assented Marden, in some relief. "I am glad you grasp the
point so readily. Mr. Gault has talked the matter over with me, and he
is taking a remarkably broad and generous view of the case if I may say
so. He is not only willing that you should keep the cup and the cash
prize which you have won to-day, but he is also ready to pay to you the
seventy-five dollar reward he offered for the return of Glenmuir
Cavalier. I repeat, this strikes me as most gener--"

"NO!" yelled Link, a spasm of foreseen loneliness sweeping over him.
"NO!! He can't have him! Nobody can! Why Chum's my dawg! I've learned
him to fetch cows an' shake hands an'--an' everything! An' he drug me
out'n the lake, when I was a-drowndin'! An' he done a heap more'n that
fer me! He's drug me up to my feet, out'n wuthlessness, too; an' he's
learned me that livin' is wuth while! He's my--my--he's my dawg!" he
finished lamely, his scared eyes sweeping the circle of faces in panic
appeal.

"That will do, Ferris!" coldly exhorted the colonel. "We wish no scenes
here. You will take this seventyfive dollar check which Mr. Gault has
so kindly made out for you, and you will go."

"Leavin' Chum behind?" babbled Ferris, aghast. "Not leavin' Chum
behind? PLEASE not!"

He pulled himself together with an effort that drove his nails bitingly
into his palms and left his face gray. He saw the uselessness of
pleading with these people of polished iron, who could not understand
h