owing us. Capi and Dulcie were
still at my heels, Zerbino was in the distance. He had stopped probably
to eat his piece of meat. I called him, but he knew very well that he
deserved a severe punishment, so instead of coming to me, he ran away as
fast as he could. He was famished, that was why he had stolen the meat.
But I could not accept this as an excuse. He had stolen. If I wanted to
preserve discipline in my troop, the guilty one must be punished. If
not, in the next village Dulcie would do the same, and then Capi would
succumb to the temptation. I should have to punish Zerbino publicly. But
in order to do that I should have to catch him, and that was not an easy
thing to do.

I turned to Capi.

"Go and find Zerbino," I said gravely.

He started off at once to do what I told him, but it seemed to me that
he went with less ardor than usual. From the look that he gave me, I saw
that he would far rather champion Zerbino than be my envoy. I sat down
to await his return with the prisoner. I was pleased to get a rest after
our mad race. When we stopped running we had reached the bank of a canal
with shady trees and fields on either side.

An hour passed. The dogs had not returned. I was beginning to feel
anxious when at last Capi appeared alone, his head hanging down.

"Where is Zerbino?"

Capi laid down in a cowed attitude. I looked at him and noticed that one
of his ears was bleeding. I knew what had happened. Zerbino had put up a
fight. I felt that, although Capi had obeyed my orders, he had
considered that I was too severe and had let himself be beaten. I could
not scold him. I could only wait until Zerbino chose to return. I knew
that sooner or later he would feel sorry and would come back and take
his punishment.

I stretched myself out under a tree, holding Pretty-Heart tight for fear
he should take it into his head to join Zerbino. Dulcie and Capi slept
at my feet. Time passed. Zerbino did not appear. At last I also dropped
off to sleep.

Several hours had passed when I awoke. By the sun I could tell that it
was getting late, but there was no need for the sun to tell me that. My
stomach cried out that it was a long time since I had eaten that piece
of bread. And I could tell from the looks of the two dogs and
Pretty-Heart that they were famished. Capi and Dulcie fixed their eyes
on me piteously; Pretty-Heart made grimaces. But still Zerbino had not
come back. I called to him, I whistled, but in vain. Hav