"State your proposition."
"I propose," began the Master, "that Lad be paroled, in my custody, for the s.p.a.ce of twenty-four hours. I will deposit with the court, here and now, my bond for the sum of one thousand dollars; to be paid, on demand, to t.i.tus Romaine; if one or more of his sheep are killed by any dog, during that s.p.a.ce of time."
The cra.s.s oddity of the proposal set t.i.tus"s leathery mouth ajar. Even the Judge gasped aloud at its bizarre terms. Schwartz looked blank, until, little by little, the purport of the words sank into his slow mind. Then he permitted himself the rare luxury of a chuckle.
"Do I und"stand you to say," demanded t.i.tus Romaine, of the Master, "that if I"ll agree to hold up this case for twenty-four hours you"ll give me one thousan" dollars, cash, for any sheep of mine that gets killed by dogs in that time?"
"That is my proposition," returned the Master. "To cinch it, I"ll let you make out the written arrangement, your self. And I"ll give the court a bond for the money, at once, with instructions that the sum is to be paid to you, if you lose one sheep, through dogs, in the next day. I furthermore agree to shoot Lad, myself, if you lose one or more sheep in that time, and in that way, I"ll forfeit another thousand if I fail to keep that part of my contract. How about it?"
"I agree!" exclaimed t.i.tus.
Schwartz"s smile, by this time, threatened to split his broad face across. Maclay saw the Mistress" cheek whiten a little; but her aspect betrayed no worry over the possible loss of a thousand dollars and the far more painful loss of the dog she loved.
When Romaine and Schwartz had gone, the Master tarried a moment in the courtroom.
"I can"t make out what you"re driving at," Maclay told him. "But you seem to me to have done a mighty foolish thing. To get a thousand dollars Romaine is capable of scouring the whole country for a sheep-killing dog. So is Schwartz--if only to get Lad shot. Did you see the way Schwartz looked at Lad as he went out? He hates him."
"Yes," said the Master. "And I saw the way Lad looked at _him_. Lad will never forget that kick at me. He"ll attack Schwartz for it, if they come together a year from now. That"s why we arranged it. Say, Mac; I want you to do me a big favor. A favor that comes within the square and angle of your work. I want you to go fishing with me, to-night. Better come over to dinner and be prepared to spend the night. The fishing won"t start till about twelve o"clock."
"Twelve o"clock!" echoed Maclay. "Why, man, nothing but catfish will bite at that hour. And I----"
"You"re mistaken," denied the Master. "Much bigger fish will bite. _Much_ bigger. Take my word for that. My wife and I have it all figured out. I"m not asking you in your official capacity; but as a friend. I"ll need you, Mac. It will be a big favor to me. And if I"m not wrong, there"ll be sport in it for you, too. I"m risking a thousand dollars and my dog, on this fishing trip. Won"t you risk a night"s sleep? I ask it as a worthy and distressed----"
"Certainly," a.s.sented the wholly perplexed Judge, impressed, "but I don"t get your idea at all. I----"
"I"ll explain it before we start," promised the Master. "All I want, now, is for you to commit yourself to the scheme. If it fails, you won"t lose anything, except your sleep. Thanks for saying you"ll come."
At a little after ten o"clock that night the last light in t.i.tus Romaine"s farmhouse went out. A few moments later the Master got up from a rock on Mount Pisgah"s summit, on which he and Maclay had been sitting for the past hour. Lad, at their feet, rose expectantly with them.
"Come on, old Man," said the Master. "We"ll drop down there, now. It probably means a long wait for us. But it"s better to be too soon than too late; when I"ve got so much staked. If we"re seen, you can cut and run. Lad and I will cover your retreat and see you aren"t recognized.
Steady, there, Lad. Keep at heel."
Stealthily the trio made their way down the hill to the farmstead at its farther base. Silently they crept along the outer fringe of the home-lot, until they came opposite the black-gabled bulk of the barn. Presently, their slowly cautious progress brought them to the edge of the barnyard, and to the rail fence which surrounds it. There they halted.
From within the yard, as the huddle of drowsy sheep caught the scent of the dog, came a slight stirring. But, after a moment, the yard was quiet again.
"Get that?" whispered the Master, his mouth close to Maclay"s ear. "Those sheep are supposed to have been raided by a killer-dog, for the past two nights. Yet the smell of a dog doesn"t even make them bleat. If they had been attacked by _any_ dog, last night, the scent of Lad would throw them into a panic."
"I get something else, too," replied Maclay, in the same all-but soundless whisper. "And I"m ashamed I didn"t think of it before.
Romaine said the dog wriggled into the yard through the bars, and out again the same way. Well, if those bars were wide enough apart for an eighty-pound collie, like Lad, to get through, what would there be to prevent all these sheep from escaping, the same way, any time they wanted to? I"ll have a look at those bars before I pa.s.s judgment on the case. I begin to be glad you and your wife coerced me into this adventure."
"Of course, the sheep could have gotten through the same bars that the dog did," answered the Master. "For, didn"t Romaine say the dog not only got through, but dragged three dead sheep through, after him, each night, and hid them somewhere, where they couldn"t be found? No man would keep sheep in a pen as open as all that. The entire story is full of air-holes."
Lad, at a touch from his Master, had lain softly down at the men"s feet, beside the fence. And so, for another full hour, the three waited there.
The night was heavily overcast; and, except for the low drone of distant tree-toads and crickets, it was deathly silent. Heat lightning, once in a while, played dimly along the western horizon.
"Lucky for us that Romaine doesn"t keep a dog!" whispered Maclay.
"He"d have raised the alarm before we got within a hundred yards of here."
"He told my foreman he gave his mongrel dog away, when he stocked himself with sheep. And he"s been reading a lot of rot about dogs being non-utilitarian, too. His dog would have been anything but non-utilitarian, to-night."
A touch on the sleeve from Maclay silenced the rambling whisper.
Through the stillness, a house door shut very softly, not far away. An instant later, Lad growled throatily, and got to his feet, tense and fiercely eager.
"He"s caught Schwartz"s scent!" whispered the Master, exultantly.
"Now, maybe you understand why I made the man try to kick me?
Down, Lad! _Quiet!_"
At the stark command in the Master"s whisper, Lad dropped to earth again; though he still rumbled deeply in his throat, until a touch from the Master"s fingers and a repeated "_Quiet_" silenced him.
The hush of the night was disturbed, once more--very faintly. This time, by the m.u.f.fled padding of a man"s bare feet, drawing closer to the barnyard. Lad as he heard it made as if to rise. The Master tapped him lightly on the head, and the dog sank to the ground again, quivering with hard-held rage.
The clouds had piled thicker. Only by a dim pulsing of far-away heat lightning could the watchers discern the shadowy outline of a man, moving silently between them and the far side of the yard. By the tiny glow of lightning they saw his silhouette.
By Lad"s almost uncontrollable trembling they knew who he must be.
There was another drowsy stirring of the sheep; checked by the rea.s.suring mumble of a voice the animals seemed to know. And, except for the stealthy motion of groping feet, the barnyard seemed as empty of human life as before.
Perhaps a minute later another sulphur-gleam of lightning revealed the intruder to the two men who crouched behind the outer angle of the fence. He had come out of the yard, and was shuffling away. But he was fully a third wider of shoulder now, and he seemed to have two heads, as his silhouette dimly appeared and then vanished.
"See that?" whispered the Master. "He has a sheep slung over his back. Probably with a cloth wrapped around its head to keep it quiet. We will give him twenty seconds" start and then----"
"_Good!_" babbled Maclay, in true buck-ague fever of excitement. "It"s worked out, to a charm! But how in the blazes can we track him through this dark? It"s as black as the inside of a cow. And if we show the flashlights----"
"Trust Lad to track him," rejoined the Master, who had been slipping a leash around the dog"s low-growling throat. "That"s what the old fellow"s here for. He has a kick to punish. He would follow Schwartz through the Sahara desert, if he had to. Come on."
Lad, at a word from the Master, sprang to the end of the leash, his mighty head and shoulders straining forward. The Master"s reiterated "Quiet!" alone kept him from giving tongue. And thus the trio started the pursuit.
Lad went in a geometrically straight line, swerving not an inch; with much difficulty held back to the slow walk on which the Master insisted. There was more than one reason for this insistence. Not only did the two men want to keep far enough behind Schwartz to prevent him from hearing their careful steps; but Lad"s course was so uncompromisingly straight that it led them over a hundred obstacles and gullies which required all sorts of skill to negotiate.
For at least two miles, the snail-like progress continued; most of the way through woods. At last, with a gasp, the Master found himself wallowing knee-deep in a bog. Maclay, a step behind him, also plunged splashingly into the soggy mire.
"What"s the matter with the dog?" grumpily demanded the Judge. "He"s led us into the Pancake Hollow swamp. Schwartz never in the world carried a ninety pound sheep through here."
"Maybe not," puffed the Master. "But he has carried it over one of the half-dozen paths that lead through this marsh. Lad is in too big a hurry to bother about paths. He----"
Fifty feet above them, on a little mid-swamp knoll, a lantern shone. Apparently, it had just been lighted. For it waxed brighter in a second or so. The men saw it and strode forward at top speed. The third step caused Maclay to stumble over a hummock and land, noisily, on all fours, in a mud-pool. As he fell, he swore--with a loud distinctness that rang through the swampy stillnesses, like a pistol shot.
Instantly, the lantern went out. And there was a crashing in among the bushes of the knoll.
"After him!" yelled Maclay, floundering to his feet. "He"ll escape!
And we have no real proof who he is or----"
The Master, still ankle-high in sticky mud, saw the futility of trying to catch a man who, unimpeded, was running away, along a dry-ground path. There was but one thing left to do. And the Master did it.
Loosening the leash from the dog"s collar he shouted:
"Get him, Laddie! _Get_ him!"