white leap of attack
might easily cause the aim to go wrong. It would be like aiming at
lightning. He knew how the dog would gather himself together, all ready
for that terrible leap, the second he opened the door. He knew that he
might be able to open the door for the leap without attracting the
man's attention, faced as he was the other way, if he could keep the dog
quiet. He knew how it would be. He could see that tall dark figure
rolled on the drive, struggling as one struggles with death, for breath,
under the vise-like grip on his throat. Gordon knew that the dog's
unerring spring would be for the throat; that was the instinct of his
race, a noble race in its way, to seize vice and danger by the throat,
and attack the very threshold of life.

Gordon returned to the window. It seemed to him again that he heard a
horse's trot. He felt sure that it was not the trot of the gray, who had
a slight lameness. He knew the trot of the gray. He became sure that
James and Clemency would the next moment enter the drive. He set his
mouth hard, crept toward the dog, and patted him. As he patted him he
felt the rage-crest rise higher on his back. Gordon bade him be quiet,
and slipped his leash from the staple. Then he took it from the collar.
He listened again. It seemed to him that his ears could not deceive him.
It seemed to him that James and Clemency were coming. He was almost
delirious. He fancied he heard their voices and the girl's laugh ring
out. Holding the dog firmly by the collar, he rose and very carefully
and noiselessly slipped the bolt of the door back. Then he waited a
second. Then as slowly and carefully, still holding the dog by the
collar, and whispering commands to hush his growls, he turned the door
knob.

[Illustration: "There was a white flash of avenging brute force upon the
man." Page 177.]

Then the thing was done. He flung the door open. He saw the man in the
drive, standing with his face toward the road. He had heard nothing.
Then he loosened his grasp of the straining dog's collar, and there was
a white flash of avenging brute force upon the man. Gordon saw only one
leap of the dog before the man was down. A futile pistol shot rang out.
Then came the snarl and growl of a fighting dog fastened upon his prey.

CHAPTER IX

When Clemency and James returned from their drive, they saw a glimmer of
light between the house and stable. "Aaron is out there with a lantern,"
whispered Clemency. She