the white
shapes lay still before him. There was a great steaming red splotch on
the snow, and a strange odor in the air that made him dizzy; but only
for a moment. Another white shape rushed by. A tawny streak followed,
and then, in a patch of moonlight, Satan saw the yellow cur with his
teeth fastened in the throat of his moaning playmate. Like lightning
Satan sprang at the cur, who tossed him ten feet away and went back to
his awful work. Again Satan leaped, but just then a shout rose behind
him, and the cur leaped too as though a bolt of lightning had crashed
over him, and, no longer noticing Satan or sheep, began to quiver with
fright and slink away. Another shout rose from another direction--another
from another.

"Drive 'em into the barn-yard!" was the cry.

Now and then there was a fearful bang and a howl of death-agony, as some
dog tried to break through the encircling men, who yelled and cursed as
they closed in on the trembling brutes that slunk together and crept on;
for it is said, every sheep-killing dog knows his fate if caught, and
will make little effort to escape. With them went Satan, through the
barn-yard gate, where they huddled in a corner--a shamed and terrified
group. A tall overseer stood at the gate.

"Ten of 'em!" he said grimly.

He had been on the lookout for just such a tragedy, for there had
recently been a sheep-killing raid on several farms in that
neighborhood, and for several nights he had had a lantern hung out on
the edge of the woods to scare the dogs away; but a drunken farm-hand
had neglected his duty that Christmas Eve.

"Yassuh, an' dey's jus' sebenteen dead sheep out dar," said a negro.

"Look at the little one," said a tall boy who looked like the overseer;
and Satan knew that he spoke of him.

"Go back to the house, son," said the overseer, "and tell your mother to
give you a Christmas present I got for you yesterday." With a glad whoop
the boy dashed away, and in a moment dashed back with a brand-new .32
Winchester in his hand.

The dark hour before dawn was just breaking on Christmas Day. It was the
hour when Satan usually rushed upstairs to see if his little mistress
was asleep. If he were only at home now, and if he only had known how
his little mistress was weeping for him amid her playthings and his--two
new balls and a brass-studded collar with a silver plate on which was
his name, Satan Dean; and if Dinnie could have seen him now, her heart
would have broke