ckly jumped the ropes. In a moment he was upon me, and
had knocked me to the ground with one blow. When I opened my eyes and
got to my feet Vitalis, who had sprung from I don't know where, stood
before me. He had just seized the policeman's wrist.

"I forbid you to strike that child," he cried, "what a cowardly thing to
do!"

For some moments the two men looked at each other. The officer was
purple with rage. My master was superb. He held his beautiful white head
high; his face expressed indignation and command. His look was enough to
make the policeman sink into the earth, but he did nothing of the kind.
He wrenched his hand free, seized my master by the collar and roughly
pushed him before him. Vitalis stumbled and almost fell, but he drew
himself up quickly and with his free hand struck the officer on the
wrist. My master was a strong man, but still he was an old man, and the
policeman was young and robust. I saw how a struggle would end. But
there was no struggle.

"You come along with me," said the officer, "you're under arrest."

"Why did you strike that child?" demanded Vitalis.

"No talk. Follow me."

Vitalis did not reply, but turned round to me.

"Go back to the inn," he said, "and stay there with the dogs. I'll send
word to you."

He had no chance to say more, for the officer dragged him off. So ended
the performance that my poor master had wanted to make amusing. The dogs
at first had followed their master, but I called them back, and
accustomed to obey, they returned to me. I noticed that they were
muzzled, but instead of their faces being inclosed in the usual
dog-muzzle, they simply wore a pretty piece of silk fastened round their
noses and tied under their chins. Capi, who was white, wore red;
Zerbino, who was black, wore white, and Dulcie, who was gray, wore blue.
My poor master had thus carried out the order of the law.

The public had quickly dispersed. A few stragglers remained to discuss
what had happened.

"The old man was right."

"He was wrong."

"Why did the cop strike the boy? He did nothing to him; never said a
word."

"Bad business. The old fellow will go to jail, for sure!"

I went back to the inn, depressed. I had grown very fond of my master,
more and more every day. We lived the same life together from morning
till night, and often from night to morning, when we had to sleep on the
same bed of straw. No father could have shown more care for his child
than he showed for