sat up straight, leaned into her corner of the
buggy, and adjusted her hat and straightened her hair with the pretty
young girl motions of secrecy and modesty.

James peered ahead into the darkness through which the lantern moved
like a will-o'-the-wisp. "Your uncle is here, too," he said. Then he
drew rein with a sudden, "Halloo, what is wrong?" Aaron came forward,
leaving the lantern on the ground. It lit weirdly Dr. Gordon, who was
kneeling on the ground beside a dark mass, which looked horribly
suggestive. Then James saw another dark mass to the right, the balky
mare and a buggy.

"Doctor Gordon says you had better hitch to this post here," said Aaron
in a sort of hoarse whisper, "and then come to him. He says he needs
help, and Miss Clemency, he says, must go around the house and in the
front door, and be careful not to let the dog out, but go upstairs, and
if her mother is awake, tell her it ain't anything for her to fret
about, and Doctor Gordon will be in very soon."

"Oh, Aaron, what is the matter?" said Clemency, in a frightened whisper,
as James sprang out of the buggy.

"It ain't nothin'," replied Aaron doggedly. "Jest a man fell coming to
the office. Reckon he had a jag on. Doctor says he may have broke a rib.
He's doctorin' him. You jest run round the house, and in the front door,
Miss Clemency, and don't let out the dog, an' see to your ma."

James assisted Clemency out, and she fled, with a wild glance over her
shoulder at the lantern-lit group in front of the office door. While
Aaron tied the horse to the post James ran to Doctor Gordon. When he
drew nearer the sight became sanguinary in its details, and he could
hear from the office the raging growls and howls of the dog. He also
heard him leap against the door, as if he would break it down. Gordon
had a pail of water and a basin beside him, and he was applying water
vigorously to the throat of the prostrate figure. The water in the
basin gleamed, in the lantern light, blood red. "Just empty this basin
and fill it up from the pail," ordered Gordon in a husky voice, and
again he squeezed the reddened cloth over the throat, which James now
discerned was badly torn. The man lay doubled up upon himself as limp as
a rag.

"No, I don't think so," replied Gordon, as if in answer to an unspoken
question, as James, having complied with his request, drew near with the
basin of fresh water.

"Was it the dog?" asked James in a low voice.

"Yes, the fool