The Piper had reached home before he missed his dog.  He waited a little, then called, but there was no answer.  It was not like Laddie to stray, for he was usually close at his master’s heels.

“Poor little man,” said the Piper to himself, “I’m thinking we went too far.”

He retraced his steps over the dusty road, searching the ground.  He discovered that Laddie’s tracks ended in the road near Doctor Dexter’s house, and turned toward the gate.  Tales of mysterious horrors, vaguely hinted at, came back to him now with ominous force.  He searched the yard carefully, looking in every nook and corner, then a cry of anguish reached his ears.

Great beads of sweat stood out upon Piper Tom’s forehead, as he burst in at the laboratory door.  On a narrow table, tightly strapped down, lay Laddie, fully conscious, his faithful heart laid bare.  The odour of anesthetics was so faint as to be scarcely noticeable.  At the dog’s side stood Doctor Dexter, in a blood-stained linen coat, with a pad of paper and a short pencil in his white, firm hands.  He was taking notes.

With infinite appeal in his agonised eyes, Laddie recognised his master, who at last had come too late.  Piper Tom seized the knife from the table, and, with a quick, clean stroke, ended the torture.  Doctor Dexter looked up, his mask-like face wearing an expression of insolent inquiry.

“Man,” cried the Piper, his voice shaking, “have you never been loved by a dog?”

The silence was tense, but Doctor Dexter had taken out his watch, and was timing the spasmodic pulsations of the heart he had been so carefully studying.

“Aye,” said the Piper, passionately, “watch it till the last—­you cannot hurt him now.  ’T is the truest heart in all the world save a woman’s, and you do well to study it, having no heart of your own.  A poor beast you are, if a dog has never loved you.  Take your pencil and write down on the bit of paper you have there that you’ve seen the heart of a dog.  Write down that you’ve seen the heart of one who left his own kind to be with you, to fight for you, even against them.  Write down that ’t is a good honest heart with red blood in it, that never once failed and never could fail.

“When a man’s mother casts him off, when his wife forsakes him, when his love betrays him, his dog stays true.  When he’s poor and his friends pass him by on the other side of the street, looking the other way, his dog fares with him, ready to starve with him for very love of him.  ’T is a man and his dog, I’m thinking, against the whole world.

“This little lad here was only a yellow mongrel, there was no fine blood in him; he couldn’t bring in the birds nor swim after the ducks men kill to amuse themselves.  He was worth no high price to anybody—­nobody wanted him but me.  When I took him away from the boys who were hurting him, and set his poor broken leg as best I could, he knew me for his master and claimed me then.