266 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



with undiminished vigour. And a few days 

 later, Brace Timmins avenged his favourite 

 by publicly thrashing his too hasty neigh- 

 bour, in front of the cross-roads store. The 

 neighbour, pounded into exemplary penitence, 

 apologized, and as far as the murdered dog 

 was concerned, the score was wiped clean. 

 But the problem of the sheep-killing was no 

 nearer solution. If not Brace Timmins' s 

 dog, as every one now made prudent haste 

 to acknowledge, then whose dog was it ? 

 The life of every dog in the settlement, if 

 bigger than a wood-chick, hung by a thread, 

 which might, it seemed, at any moment turn 

 into a halter. Brace Timmins loved dogs ; 

 and not wishing that others should suffer 

 the unjust fate which had overtaken his own, 

 he set his whole woodcraft to the discovery 

 of the true culprit. 



Before he had made any great progress, 

 however, on this trail, a new thing happened, 

 and suspicion was lifted from the heads of 

 all the dogs. Joe Anderson's dog, a power- 

 ful beast, part sheep-dog and part Newfound- 

 land, with a far-off streak of bull, and the 

 champion fighter of the settlements, was 

 found dead in the middle of Anderson's sheep- 

 pasture, his whole throat fairly ripped out. 

 He had died in defence of his charges ; and 



