crossing to her side of the table, to enable her better to feel the
influence of my presence. "Let us be content to sit here by the door,
for we should be taking too great a risk of discovery if we ventured
into the open."

I had barely spoken these words and placed my fingers on her hand to
lead her forward when the small door which opened into the shed was
thrown back noisily, and two great shaggy dogs, the evident mates of
the dead brute at our feet, leaped fiercely in. She shrank toward me
with a sob of terror; but even as I drew a revolver from my belt, a man
and a woman appeared almost simultaneously in that same opening.

"Down, Douglas! down, Roderick! Ha! 'There lies Red Murdoch, stark and
stiff!'--down, you brutes; you'll be dead yourselves sometime."

The man strode forward as he spoke, clubbing the frenzied brutes with
the stock of the long rifle he carried.

"'Yelled on the view the opening pack,'" he quoted, as he distributed
his blows impartially to right and left; "'rock, glen, and cavern paid
them back.' Them thar be Scott's words, stranger, an' I reckon as how
ol' Sir Walter knew whut he wus writin' 'bout. Stop thet blame youlin',
you Roderick, er I'll take t' other end o' this gun ter ye."

He redoubled his efforts for peace, finally driving the rebellious
beasts back into one corner, where they sat upon their haunches and
eyed us wistfully.

"'Two dogs of black Saint Hubert's breed, unmatched for courage,
breath, and speed,'" he exclaimed, wiping the perspiration from his