"Did you see any signs on the dawg when he got home?" The gaunt man hesitated,
with one swift glance at the boy, who almost paled in answer.

"Why," said the school-master, and again he hesitated, but old Joel, in a
voice that was without hope, encouraged him:

"Go on!"

"What was they?"

"Jack had blood on his muzzle, and a little strand o' wool behind one ear."

There was no hope against that testimony. Melissa broke away from her mother
and ran out to the road--weeping. Chad dropped with a sob to his bench and
put his arms around the dog: then he rose up and walked out the opening while
Jack leaped against his leash to follow. The school-master put out his hand
to stop him, but the boy struck it aside without looking up and went on. He
could not stay to see Jack condemned. He knew what the verdict would be, and
in twenty minutes the jury gave it, without leaving their seats.

"Guilty!"

The Sheriff came forward. He knew Jack and Jack knew him, and wagged his tail
and whimpered up at him when he took the leash.

"Well, by --, this is a job I don't like, an' I'm damned ef I'm agoin' to
shoot this dawg afore he knows what I'm shootin' him fer. I'm goin' to show
him that sheep fust. Whar's that sheep, Daws?"

Daws led the way down the road, over the fence, across the meadow, and up the