l. Your joinering performances are apt to be
somewhat grubby and messy."

There was quite a good garden at the back of the bungalow, with rows of
vegetables and gooseberry bushes and fruit-trees. At the end was a
wooden shed where the motor-bicycle was kept, and a small wired
enclosure originally made for hens.

"It's exactly the place for rabbits, when I get a hutch for them,"
explained Hereward, putting down his box of tools, and turning over the
packing-case with a professional eye. "Now a wooden frame covered with
wire, and a pair of hinges will just do the job. I can saw these pieces
to fit. Hold the wood steady, that's a mascot!"

The two were kneeling on the ground by the side of the packing-case,
much absorbed in the process of exact measurements, when suddenly there
was a rustling and a scrambling noise, and on the wall close to them
appeared a collie dog, growling, snarling, and showing its teeth. Ingred
sprang to her feet in alarm. Wynchcote was so retired that they had
scarcely realized that its garden adjoined the garden of another house.
The collie must have jumped up on to the dividing wall, and, being an
ill-tempered beast, did not use proper discrimination between neighbors
and tramps.

"Shoo! Get away!" urged Ingred, with rather shaking knees.

"Be off, you ill-mannered brute!" shouted Hereward.

The dog, however, appeared to think the wall was his own special
property, and that it was his business to drive them away from their own
garden. It continued to bark and snarl. Now, as Hereward wished to fix
the rabbit-hutch in exactly the spot over which the creature had mounted
guard, he was naturally much annoyed, and sought for some ready means of
dislodging it from its point of vantage. He did not relish the prospect
of being bitten, so did not want to engage it at close quarters, and no
pole or other weapon lay handy.

Looking hastily round, his eye fell upon the garden-syringe with which
Athelstane sometimes cleaned the motor-bicycle. It had been left, with a
bucket of water, outside the shed. He drew out the piston, filled the
syringe, then discharged its contents straight at the dog. But at that
most unlucky moment a quick change took place on the wall; the collie
retired in favor of his master, and the stream of water charged full
into the astonished countenance of a precise and elderly gentleman from
next door. For a few moments there was a ghastly silence, while he wiped
his face and recov