e hall with her hands behind
her, watching the clock and running to the door to peer out in the
darkness, every time she heard a sound.

Some one played a noisy two-step on the loose-jointed old piano. A young
man sang a serenade in Italian, and two girls, after much coaxing,
consented to join in a high, shrill duet.

Light-hearted laughter and a babel of conversation floated from the
parlour to the hall, where Lloyd watched and waited. Her father waited
with her, but he had a newspaper. Lloyd wondered how he could read while
such an important search was going on. She did not know that he had little
faith in the dog's ability to find his master. She, however, had not a
single doubt of it.

The time seemed endless. Again and again the little cuckoo in the hall
clock came out to call the hour, the quarters and halves. At last there
was a patter of big soft paws on the porch, and Lloyd springing to the
door, met Hero on the threshold. Something large and gray was in his
mouth.

"Oh, Papa Jack!" she cried. "He's found him! Hero's found him! This is the
Majah's Alpine hat. The flask is gone from his collah, so the Majah must
have needed help. And see how wild Hero is to start back. Oh, Papa Jack!
Hurry, please!"

Her call brought every one from the parlour to see the dog, who was
springing back and forth with eager barks that asked, as plainly as words,
for some one to follow him.

"Oh, let me go with you! _Please_, Papa Jack," begged Lloyd.

He shook his head decidedly. "No, it is too late and dark, and no telling
how far we shall have to climb. You have already done your part, my dear,
in sending the dog. If the Major is really in need of help, he will have
you to thank for his rescue."

The landlord called for lanterns. Several of the guests seized their hats
and alpenstocks, and in a few minutes the little relief party was hurrying
along the street after their trusty guide, with Mr. Sherman in the lead.
He had caught up a hammock as he started. "We may need some kind of a
stretcher," he said, slinging it over his shoulder.

They trudged on in silence, wondering what they would find at the end of
their journey. The mountain path was strewn with limbs broken off by the
storm. Although the moon came up presently and added its faint light to
the yellow rays of the lanterns, they had to pick their steps slowly,
often stumbling.

Hero, bounding on ahead, paused to look back now and then, with impatient
barks. They