wink, and you wouldn't catch on. So I had to make the grandstand
play. I'm no more stuck on having a measly she-dog around here
than you are. And we're not going to have her, either. But--"

"Then why did you say you were going to? Why did you make a fool
of me before Irene and everything?" she demanded, wrathful yet
bewildered.

"It's the boy's birthday, isn't it?" urged Hazen. "And I'd
promised him, hadn't I? And, last time he had one of those
'turns,' didn't Doc Colfax say we mustn't let him fret and worry
any more'n we could help? Well, if he had to take that dog back
to-day, it'd have broke his heart. He'd have felt like we were
his enemies, and he'd never have felt the same to us again. And
it might have hurt his health too--the shock and all. So--"

"But I tell you," she persisted, "I won't have a dirty little
female--"

"We aren't going to," he assured her. "Keep your hair on, till
I've finished. Tonight, after Dick's asleep, I'm going to get rid
of her. He'll wake up in the morning and find she's gone; and the
door'll be open. He'll think she's run away. He'll go looking for
her, and he'll keep on hoping to find her. So that'll ease the
shock, you see, by letting him down bit by bit, instead of
snatching his pet away from him violent-like. And he won't hold
it up against US, either, as he would the other way. I can offer
a reward for her, too."

There was a long and thought-crammed pause. The woman plunged