I could hear the cracking of more branches once farther down the
hill.

Then I called to the dog, knowing that he and the shepherd would
not be far apart, and at the call the dog turned quickly toward me
and leaped back a yard, cowering a little with drooping tail. So I
called him again, and more loudly.

"Hither, lad! Hither, good dog!"

But the beast backed yet more from me, and I saw the dull gleam of
yellow teeth and heard him snarl as he did so, and then he growled
fiercely, so that I thought him sorely ill-tempered. But I had no
fear of dogs, and I called him again cheerily, and at that he sank
on his haunches and set back his head and howled and yelled as I
had never heard any dog give tongue before. And presently from a
long way off I heard the like howls, as if all the dogs of some
village answered him, and I thought their tongue was strange also.

Then came the shout of a man, even as I expected, and there was the
noise of one who tears his way through briers and brambles in
haste; but at that shout the dog turned and fled like a grey shadow
into the farther thickets, and was gone.

"Who calls?" one said loudly, and from the hillside climbed hastily
into the open a tall man, bearded and strong, and with a
pleasant-looking, anxious face. He was dressed in leather like our
shepherds, and like them carried but quarterstaff and seax for
weapons. I suppose that I was in some shadow, for at first he did
not see me.