[Illustration:  “There was a white flash of avenging brute force upon the man.”  Page 177.]

Then the thing was done.  He flung the door open.  He saw the man in the drive, standing with his face toward the road.  He had heard nothing.  Then he loosened his grasp of the straining dog’s collar, and there was a white flash of avenging brute force upon the man.  Gordon saw only one leap of the dog before the man was down.  A futile pistol shot rang out.  Then came the snarl and growl of a fighting dog fastened upon his prey.

CHAPTER IX

When Clemency and James returned from their drive, they saw a glimmer of light between the house and stable.  “Aaron is out there with a lantern,” whispered Clemency.  She sat up straight, leaned into her corner of the buggy, and adjusted her hat and straightened her hair with the pretty young girl motions of secrecy and modesty.

James peered ahead into the darkness through which the lantern moved like a will-o’-the-wisp.  “Your uncle is here, too,” he said.  Then he drew rein with a sudden, “Halloo, what is wrong?” Aaron came forward, leaving the lantern on the ground.  It lit weirdly Dr. Gordon, who was kneeling on the ground beside a dark mass, which looked horribly suggestive.  Then James saw another dark mass to the right, the balky mare and a buggy.

“Doctor Gordon says you had better hitch to this post here,” said Aaron in a sort of hoarse whisper, “and then come to him.  He says he needs help, and Miss Clemency, he says, must go around the house and in the front door, and be careful not to let the dog out, but go upstairs, and if her mother is awake, tell her it ain’t anything for her to fret about, and Doctor Gordon will be in very soon.”

“Oh, Aaron, what is the matter?” said Clemency, in a frightened whisper, as James sprang out of the buggy.

“It ain’t nothin’,” replied Aaron doggedly.  “Jest a man fell coming to the office.  Reckon he had a jag on.  Doctor says he may have broke a rib.  He’s doctorin’ him.  You jest run round the house, and in the front door, Miss Clemency, and don’t let out the dog, an’ see to your ma.”

James assisted Clemency out, and she fled, with a wild glance over her shoulder at the lantern-lit group in front of the office door.  While Aaron tied the horse to the post James ran to Doctor Gordon.  When he drew nearer the sight became sanguinary in its details, and he could hear from the office the raging growls and howls of the dog.  He also heard him leap against the door, as if he would break it down.  Gordon had a pail of water and a basin beside him, and he was applying water vigorously to the throat of the prostrate figure.  The water in the basin gleamed, in the lantern light, blood red.  “Just empty this basin and fill it up from the pail,” ordered Gordon in a husky voice, and again he squeezed the reddened cloth over the throat, which James now discerned was badly torn.  The man lay doubled up upon himself as limp as a rag.