f mine is a
splendid animal, by George! You ought to have heard him bark last night.
A strange dog came around my place; my dog tackled him, and 'oh,
Moses,' how they _fit_! It ended by my dog's killing his antagonist.
Come and see how he _chawed_ him up!"

He led the way to where the dead carcass lay. As soon as they came in
sight of it Josh. dashed forward, and raising the dead animal by its
caudal appendage, angrily exclaimed: "That's my dog! You must be the man
who was lurking around my house last night! You had better go down and
explain to Mrs. Maroney what you were doing around there."

[Illustration: _Raising the dead animal by its caudal appendage, he
angrily exclaimed, "That's my dog!"_--Page 226.]

"What do you suppose I could be doing at your house?" asked Barclay,
much perplexed. "Why, I was not out of my house once last night."

"I tell you," said Josh., "Mrs. Maroney will walk into you when she
finds this out. You ought to have seen her last night. She smashed a
pitcher over my head, and I believe she would have killed me, if my wife
had not pitched into her. Of course I could not strike back, as she is a
woman."

Rivers invited them up to Stemples's, and in less than an hour Cox and
he had impressed upon Barclay the necessity of his seeing Mrs. Maroney
and explaining to her that he had not been lurking around the night
before.

They started off together, and arrived at Josh.'s residence just as
Madam Imbert and Mrs. Maroney were coming out. Barclay immediately went
up to her and assured her that he had not been loafing around the night
before.

"Who said you had?" said Mrs. Maroney, now fully convinced that it _was_
he. "Who said you had?" and she opened upon him with a perfect tirade of
abuse.

Madam Imbert took her by the arm and drew her to one side. "Mrs.
Maroney, don't take any notice of that man. He is a fool, and your best
plan is to let him severely alone. Some people may be wiser than others,
and will begin to suspect that something is wrong if you go on so. You
know the old saying: 'Walls have ears?'"

"You are right, you seem to be always right," said Mrs. Maroney, and she
let the matter drop.

_CHAPTER XXV._

The two women left Barclay perfectly dumbfounded and walked over to the
garden. Mrs. Maroney said she was going to New York in the morning to
see her husband, and begged the Madam to accompany her. Madam Imbert
agreed to go, saying that she had some purchases to ma