gor."

Ailie stared after him with frightened eyes. Into her mind flashed that
ominous remark of the policeman two days before: "I didna ken ye had a
dog, John?" She overtook Sandy in front of the sheriff's court on the
bridge.

"What--what hae the police to do wi' bittie dogs?"

"If a dog has nae master to pay for his license the police can tak' him
up and put him out o' the way."

"Hoo muckle siller are they wantin'?"

"Seven shullings. Gude day, lassie; I'm fair late." Sandy was not really
alarmed about Bobby since the resourceful Mr. Traill had taken up
his cause, and he had no idea of the panic of grief and fright that
overwhelmed this forlorn child.

Seven shullings! It was an enormous sum to the tenement bairn, whose
half-blind grandmither knitted and knitted in a dimly lighted room, and
hoarded halfpennies and farthings to save herself from pauper burial.
Seven shullings would pay a month's rent for any one of the crowded
rooms in which a family lived. Ailie herself, an untrained lassie who
scarcely knew the use of a toasting-fork, was overpaid by generous Mr.
Traill at sixpence a day. Seven shullings to permit one little dog to
live! It did not occur to Ailie that this was a sum Mr. Traill could
easily pay. No' onybody at all had seven shullings all at once! But, oh!
everybody had pennies and halfpennies and farthings, and she and Tammy
together had a sixpence.

Darting back to the gate, to catch the laddie before he could be off to
school, she ran straight into the policeman, who stood with his hand on
the wicket. He eyed her sharply.

"Eh, lassie, I was gangin' to spier at the lodge, gin there's a bit dog
leevin' i' the kirkyaird."

"I--I--dinna ken." Her voice was unmanageable. She had left to her only
the tenement-bred instinct of concealment of any and all facts from an
officer of the law.

"Ye dinna ken! Maister Traill said i' the coort a' the bairns aboot
kenned the dog. Was he leein'?"

The question stung her into angry admission. "He wadna be leein'.
But--but--the bittie--dog--isna here noo."

"Syne, whaur is he? Oot wi' it!"

"I--dinna--ken!" She cowered in abject fear against the wall. She could
not know that this officer was suffering a bad attack of shame for his
shabby part in the affair. Satisfied that the little dog really did
live in the kirkyard, he turned back to the bridge. When Tammy came
out presently he found Ailie crumpled up in a limp little heap in the
gateway alcove.