“Yes, sir.”

The butler’s well-trained voice had vibrated with surprise and Julian had found himself mechanically smiling as he noted this.  Then the footsteps of servant and visitor had retreated.  Presently a door was heard to shut.  Lawler returned, and was passing discreetly by, to wonder, in his pantry, if his master had gone mad, when the doctor again called to him.

“Go downstairs, Lawler, and in a moment I shall bring the dogs to you.”

“Yes, sir.”

The butler’s voice was now almost shrill with scarcely governable astonishment, and his footsteps seemed to tremble uneasily upon the stairs as he retired.  Then the doctor went to a corner of the room and took down from a hook a whip with a heavy thong.

“I haven’t had to use this since they were both puppies,” he said, with a side glance at the dogs.  “Now, Addison, keep hold of Mab and go in front of me down the servants’ stairs.  If the dogs once get out of hand we shall have trouble in the house to-night.”

The door was opened, and then a veritable affray began.  The animals seemed half mad.  They tore at their collars, and struggled furiously to break loose, snarling and even snapping, their great heads turned in the direction of the dining-room.  The doctor, firmest as well as kindest of men, recognized necessity, and used the whip unsparingly, lashing the animals through the door to the servants’ quarters, and down the stairs.  It was a violent procession to the lower regions.  Julian could not get it out of his head.  Entangled among the leaping dogs on the narrow stairway, he had a sense of whirling in the eddies of a stream, driven from this side to the other.  His arms were nearly pulled out of their sockets.  The shriek of the lash curling over and around the dogs, the dim vision of the doctor’s compressed lips and eyes full of unaccustomed fire, the damp foam on his hands as he rocked from one wall to the other, amid a dull music of growls, and fierce, low barks, came back to him now as he trimmed the sails to catch the undecided winds, or felt the tiller leap under his hold.  Each moment he had expected to be bitten, but somehow they all tumbled together unhurt into Lawler’s pantry, where they found that factotum standing grim and wire-strung with anticipation.  Beyond the pantry were the dogs’ night quarters, and they were quickly driven into them and shut up.  But they still bounded and beat against the door, and presently began to howl a vain chorale.

“Lord, Lord, sir! what’s come to them?” Lawler exclaimed.

His fat face had become as white as a sheet, and the doctor was scarcely less pale as he leaned against the dresser, whip in hand, drawing panting breaths.

“I can’t tell.  They will be all right in a minute.”

He pulled himself up.

“Go to bed now if you like, Lawler,” he said, rather abruptly.  “Come, Addison.”

They regained the hall, and made their way to Valentine.  He was sitting by the dining-table in a watchful attitude, and sprang hastily up as they came in.