There, for the day was cool, a jolly wood fire blazed on the hearth. In front of the fireplace was an enormous and cavernous couch. In the precise center of the couch was curled something that looked like a ball of the grayish fluff a maid sweeps under the bed.
As Mortimer came into the room the infatuated Lad at his heels, the fluffy ball lazily uncurled and stretched--thereby revealing itself as no ball, but a superfurry gray kitten--the Mistress" temperamental new Persian kitten rejoicing in the dreamily Oriental name of Tipperary.
With a squeal of glad discovery, Mortimer grabbed Tipperary with both hands, essaying to pull her fox-brush tail. Now, no sane person needs to be told the basic difference between the heart of a cat and the heart of a dog. Nor will any student of Persian kittens be surprised to hear that Tipperary"s reception of the ruffianly baby"s advances was totally different from Lad"s.
A lightning stroke of one of her shapeless fore-paws, and Tipperary was free. Morty stood blinking in amaze at four geometrically regular red marks on the back of his own pudgy hand. Tipperary had not done her persecutor the honor to run away. She merely moved to the far end of the couch and lay down there to renew her nap.
A mad fury fired the brain of Mortimer; a fury goaded by the pain of his scratches. Screaming in rage he seized the cat by the nape of the neck--to be safe from teeth and whizzing claws--and stamped across toward the high-burning fire with her. His arm was drawn back to fling the squirming and offending kitten into the scarlet heart of the flames. And then Lad intervened.
Now Lad was not in the very least interested in Tipperary; treating the temperamental Persian always with marked coldness. It is even doubtful if he realized Morty"s intent.
But one thing he did realize--that a silly baby was toddling straight toward the fire. As many another wise dog has gone, before and since, Lad quietly stepped between Morty and the hearth. He stood, broadside to the fire and to the child--a s.h.a.ggy wall between the peril and the baby.
But so quickly had anger carried Mortimer toward the hearth that the dog had not been able to block his progress until only a bare eighteen inches separated the youngster from the blaze.
Thus Lad found the heat from the burning logs all but intolerable. It bit through his thick coat and into the tender flesh beneath. Like a rock he stood there.
Mortimer, his gentle plan of kitten killing foiled, redoubled his screeches. Lad"s back was higher than the child"s eyes. Yet Morty sought to hurl the kitten over this stolid barrier into the fire.
Tipperary fell short; landing on the dog"s shoulders, digging her needle claws viciously therein, and thence leaping to the floor, from which she sprang to the top of the bookshelves, spitting back blasphemously at her tormentor.
Morty"s interest in the fire had been purely as a piece of immolation for the cat, but finding his path to it barred, he straightway resolved to go thither himself.
He started to move round to it, in front of Lad. The dog took a forward step that again barred the way. Morty went insane with wrath at this new interference with his sweet plans. His howls swelled to a sustained roar, that reached the ears of the grown-ups on the lawn.
He flew at Lad, beating the dog with all the puny force of his fists, sinking his milk teeth into the collie"s back, wrenching and tearing at the thick fur, stamping with his booted heels upon the absurdly tiny white forepaws, kicking the short ribs and the tender stomach.
Never for an instant did the child slacken his howls as he punished the dog that was saving him from death. Rather, he increased their volume from moment to moment. Lad did not stir. The kicking and beating and gouging and hair-pulling were not pleasant, but they were wholly bearable. The heat was not. The smell of singed hair began to fill the room, but Lad stood firm.
And then in rushed the relief expedition, the Wall Street Farmer at its head.
At once concluding that Lad had bitten his son"s bleeding hand, the irate father swung aloft a chair and strode to the rescue.
Lad saw him coming.
With the lightning swiftness of his kind he whirled to one side as the ma.s.s of wood descended. The chair missed him by a fraction of an inch and splintered into pieces. It was a Chippendale, and had belonged to the Mistress" great grandparents.
For the first time in all his blameless life Lad broke the sacred Guest Law by growling at a vouched-for visitor. But surely this fat bellower was no guest! Lad looked at his G.o.ds for information.
"Down, Lad!" said the Master very gently, his voice not quite steady.
Lad, perplexed but obedient, dropped to the floor.
"The brute tried to kill my boy!" stormed the Wall Street Farmer right dramatically as he caught the howling Morty up in his arms to study the extent of the wound.
"He"s my guest! _He"s my guest!_ HE"S MY GUEST!" the Master was saying over and over to himself. "Lord, help me to keep on remembering he"s my GUEST!"
The Mistress came forward.
"Lad would sooner die than hurt a child," she declared, trying not to think of the wrecked heirloom chair. "He loves children. Here, let me see Morty"s hand. Why, those are claw-marks! Cat scratches!"
"Ve na.s.sy cat scwatched me!" bawled Morty. "Kill her, daddy! I twied to. I twied to frow her in ve fire. But ve mizz"ble dog wouldn"t let me! Kill her, daddy! Kill ve dog too!"
The Master"s mouth flew wide open.
"Won"t you go down to the paddock, dear," hastily interposed the Mistress, "and see if the sheep are all right? Take Lad along with you."
Lad, alone of all The Place"s dogs, had the run of the house, night and day, of the sacred dining-room. During the rest of that day he did not avail himself of his high privilege. He kept out of the way--perplexed, woe-begone, his burns still paining him despite the Master"s ministrations.
After talking long and loudly all evening of his sheep"s peerless quality and of their certain victory over all comers in the fair the Wall Street Farmer consented at last to go to bed. And silence settled over The Place.
In the black hour before dawn, that same silence was split in a score of places--split into a most horrible cacophony of sound that sent sleep scampering to the winds.
It was the mingling of yells and bleats and barks and the scurry of many feet. It burst out all at once in full force, lasting for some seconds with increasing clangor; then died to stillness.
By that time every human on The Place was out of bed. In more or less rudimentary attire the house"s inhabitants trooped down into the lower hall. There the Wall Street Farmer was raving noisily and was yanking at a door bolt whose secret he could not fathom.
"It"s my sheep!" he shouted. "That accursed dog of yours has gotten at them. He"s slaughtering them. I heard the poor things bleating and I heard him snarling among them. They cost me----"
"If you"re speaking of Lad," blazed the Master, "he"s----"
"Here are the flashlights," interposed the Mistress. "Let me open that door for you. I understand the bolt."
Out into the dark they went, all but colliding with McGillicuddy. The Scot, awakened like the rest, had gone to the paddock. He had now come back to report the paddock empty and all the sheep gone.
"It"s the collie tike!" sputtered McGillicuddy. "I"ll tak" oath to it. I ken it"s him. I suspeecioned him a" long, from how he garred at oor sheep the day. He----"
"I said so!" roared the Wall Street Farmer. "The murderous brute!
First, he tries to kill Morty. And now he slaughters my sheep. You----"
The Master started to speak. But a white little hand, in the darkness, was laid gently across his mouth.
"You told me he always slept under the piano in your music room!"
accused the guest as the four made their way paddock-ward, lighting a path with the electric flashlights. "Well, I looked there just now. He isn"t under the piano. He---- He----"
"Lad!" called the Master; then at the top of his lungs. "_Lad!_"
A distant growl, a snarl, a yelp, a scramble--and presently Lad appeared in the farthest radius of the flashlight flare.
For only a moment he stood there. Then he wheeled about and vanished in the dark. Nor had the Master the voice to call him back. The momentary glimpse of the great collie, in the merciless gleam of the lights, had stricken the whole party into an instant"s speechlessness.
Vividly distinct against the darkness they had seen Lad. His well-groomed coat was rumpled. His eyes were fire-b.a.l.l.s. And--his jaws were red with blood. Then he had vanished.
A groan from the Master--a groan of heartbreak--was the first sound from the four. The dog he loved was a killer.
"It isn"t true! It isn"t true!" stoutly declared the Mistress.
The Wall Street Farmer and McGullicuddy had already broken into a run. The shepherd had found the tracks of many little hoofs on the dewy ground. And he was following the trail. The guest, swearing and panting, was behind him. The Mistress and the Master brought up the rear.