"Enter quickly, I beg, Lady Ruth."

She turns her head in curiosity for one last look, impelled by an
unknown power--turns, and is at once petrified by what she sees.

They notice the look of horror on her lovely face, and instinctively
guessing, also cast a glance in the direction where last the savage
brute was seen.

He has continued to advance in the interim, and is now quite close,
though not moving out of the straight line in the center of the
street--a repulsive looking object truly, and enough to horrify the
bravest.

Colonel Lionel gives a gasp. He is trembling all over, for it chances
that this brave soldier, who has led forlorn hopes in the Zulu war, and
performed prodigies of valor on Egyptian battle-fields, has a peculiar
dread of dogs, inherited from one of his parents.

It is not the animal that has fixed Lady Ruth's attention. Just in front
and directly in the line of the dog's advance is a small native child
that has been playing in the street.

He cannot be over three years of age, and with his curly black head and
half-naked body presents a picture of robust health.

Apparently engrossed in his play, he sees and hears nothing of the clamor
around until, chancing to look up, he sees the dog, and fearlessly
extends his chubby arms toward it.