than I'm--"

Her sob-broken voice scaled high and swelled out into a cry of
stark astonishment. Slowly Chum was lifting his splendid head and
blinking stupidly about him!

The fender had smitten the collie just below the shoulder, in a
mass of fur-armored muscles. In falling into the wayside ditch
his skull had come into sharp contact with a rock. Knocked
senseless by the concussion, he had lain as dead, for the best
part of five minutes. After which he had come slowly to his
senses--bewildered, bruised and sore, but otherwise no worse for
the accident.

He came to himself to find a weeping woman clutching him
stranglingly round the neck, while she tried to kiss his
dust-smeared head.

Chum did not care at all for this treatment, especially from a
comparative stranger. But he saw his adored master looking so
idiotically happy--over that or something else--that the dog
forbore to protest.

"If you really wanted him put out of the way so bad--" began
Link, when he could trust himself to speak.

He got no further. Dorcas Chatham turned on him in genuine
savageness. The big eyes were no longer grave and patronizing.
The air of aloofness had fallen from the girl like a discarded
garment.