t of so many adventures I should still persist in
keeping up my struggle after Fame. I might fairly have given her up
after the honest endeavours I had made to win her. But, whatever others
might do, as long as a chance remained everything combined to keep
Hannibal Trotter at his post.

So, with not a little searching of heart, I turned my attention to mad
dogs. I must confess that my heart did not go out towards them, and I
could have wished that that mark of heroism had been omitted by the
authorities. But, on the contrary, it was insisted upon vehemently, and
there was no getting out of it. So, like another Perseus, I choked down
my emotion and girded myself for the new fray.

I knew the authorities, as a rule, were silent as to any precautions
which their heroes may have taken for this particular service. Still,
as they said nothing against it, I did the best I could by means of my
unaided genius.

I contrived a pair of secret zinc leggings to wear under my trousers.
They hurt me, it is true, and impeded my movements; still, I felt pretty
safe in them. I also adopted the habit of wearing stout leather
driving-gloves on every occasion, besides concealing an effective life-
preserver about my person. Nothing, in short, was wanted to complete my
equipment but the mad dog; and he never turned up.

One day I saw by the paper that there was one at large in Hackney, and
thither I repaired, in greaves and gauntlets, with my life-preserver in
my bosom. But though I met many dogs, they were all of them sane. Not
one of them foamed at the mouth or looked out of the corner of his eyes.

There was one collie certainly who appeared to me more excited than the
rest, and who by his proceedings seemed to menace the safety of a small
group of children who were taking their walks abroad with their nurse.
Not to be precipitate, I watched him for some time, to make quite sure I
was right. Then, when one of the children uttered a scream, I felt my
hour was come. So I drew my life-preserver and advanced boldly to the
rescue. At the sight of me in this threatening attitude the children
and nurse all set up a scream together, and the dog, showing his teeth
and uttering a low growl, caught me by the fleshy part of my leg above
the zinc and held me there until his little masters and mistresses,
having recovered their wits and heard my scarcely articulate
explanations, called him off, and allowed me to go in peace--I might
al