James felt a vague horror steal over him.  He tried to speak lightly to cover it.  “I trust there is no question of crime?” he said, laughing.

“Not the slightest,” replied Gordon.  “I have no intention to use a weapon, but my shield I must stick to.  Thank the Lord, you were awake last night, and to-night Clemency is in another room.  By the way, I have bought a dog.”

“A dog?”

“Yes, a bull terrier, well trained, but he has a voice like a whole pack of hounds.  Clemency likes dogs.  I will venture that no one comes near the house after this without waking him up.”

“You will keep him tied though.”

“Yes, unless I get driven too far,” replied Gordon grimly.

“Does Mrs. Ewing like dogs?”

“She is as fond of them as Clemency.”

When, the next day, the dog arrived James was assured of the fact that both Clemency and Mrs. Ewing did like dogs.  They seemed more pleased than he had ever seen them, and the dog responded readily to their advances.  He was a splendid specimen of his breed, very large, without a spot on his white coat, and with beautiful eyes.  Doctor Gordon had a staple fixed in the vestibule, and the dog was leashed to it at night.  “I can’t have my patients driven away,” he said with a laugh.

That evening Doctor Gordon had a call, and he took Aaron with him.  That left James alone with Clemency, as Mrs. Ewing retired almost immediately after Doctor Gordon left.

After the jingle of the sleigh-bells had died away Clemency laid down her work and looked at James.  The new dog was lying at her feet.  “Uncle Tom bought this dog on account of him,” she said.  As she spoke, she gave an odd significant gesture over her shoulder as if the man were there, and a look of horror came over her face.  Immediately the dog growled, and sprang up, raced to the door, and let forth a volley of howls and barks.  “He knows,” said Clemency.  “Isn’t it queer?  That dog knows there is something wrong just by the way I spoke and looked.”

James himself was not quite so sure.  He glanced at the closed shutters.  Then he went himself to the door to be sure that it was bolted as usual, and through into the study.  Everything was fast, but the dog continued to race wildly back and forth from door to windows, barking wildly, with a slender crest of hair erect on his glossy white back.  Emma, the maid, came in from the kitchen, and met James and Clemency in the hall.  She looked white, and was trembling.  “I know there was somebody about the house,” she said.

James hesitated.  He thought of a possible patient.  Still there had been no ring at the office door.  He considered a moment.  Then he sent Clemency, the maid, and the dog back into the parlor, and before he opened the outer door of the office he locked the other which communicated with the rest of the house, and put the key in his pocket.  Then he threw open the outer door and called, “Anybody there?”