"I'm glad I happened to be here when she went for the eagle,"
said the Master, at lunch that day. "If I hadn't, she might have
tackled it sometime, when nobody was around. And a good lively
collie pup could put that bit of taxidermy out of commission in
less than five seconds. She knows, now, she mustn't touch it."

He spoke smugly; his lore on the subject being bounded by his
experiences in teaching Lad the simple Law of the Place. Lad was
one of the rare dogs to whom a single command or prohibition was
enough to fix a lesson in his uncannily wise brain for life. Lady
was not. As the Master soon had occasion to learn.

Late one afternoon, a week afterward, the Mistress had set forth
on a round of neighborhood calls. She had gone in the car; and
had taken Lad along. The Master, being busy and abhorring calls,
had stayed at home. He was at work in his study; and Lady was
drowsing in the cool lower hall.

A few minutes before the Mistress was due to return for dinner, a
whiff of acrid smoke was wafted to the man's nostrils.

Now, to every dweller in the country, there is one all-present
peril; namely, fire. And, the fear of this is always lurking
worriedly in the back of a rural householder's brain. A vagrant
breath of smoke, in the night, is more potent to banish sleep and
to start such a man to investigating his house and grounds than
would be any and every other alarm known to mortals.

Even now, in broad daylight, the faint reek was enough to bring