As he undid the first boot-latchet, he felt the Mistress's tense
fingers on his shoulder.

"Wait!" she exhorted

Astounded at this cold-blooded counsel from his tender-hearted
wife, he looked up, and followed the direction of her eagerly
pointing hand.

"Look!" she was exulting. "It'll all solve itself! See if it
doesn't. Look! He can't shoot Laddie, after--after--"

The Master was barely in time to see Lad swirl along the dock
with express-train speed and spring far out into the lake.

The dog struck water, a bare ten inches from Wefers' madly
tossing head. The constable, in his crazy panic, flung both bony
arms about the dog. And, man and collie together disappeared
under the surface, in a swirl of churned foam.

The Mistress cried aloud, at this hideous turn her pretty plan
had taken. The Master, one shoe off and one shoe on, hobbled at
top pace toward the dock.

As he reached the foot of the lawn, Lad's head and shoulders came
into view above the little whirlpool caused by the sinking
bodies' suction. And, at the same moment, the convulsed features
of Homer Wefers showed through the eddy. The man was thrashing
and twisting in a way that turned the lake around him into a