REASON IN THE DOG. 267 



to submit tamely to any sort of imposition , I liad 

 just given up any hope in the deer dog, when 

 the old retriever came from my heels, got in front 

 of me, and looked up in my face with an expression 

 I shall never forget, and seeing that I observed 

 him, he went up to the pool of blood, put his 

 nose to the ground^ looked at me again, and 

 began to trot off through the furze and over the 

 heather in the oddest fashion I ever saw, not a 

 bit like his usual action on game, but more 

 resembling the pace of a mad dog : his head to 

 the ground, his stern listless and hanging down, 

 and his manner very unusual. At once I saw 

 that he had understood my loss, and had set about 

 to retrieve it. I followed him with a word of 

 encouragement, and he went for some distance 

 on the exact path my men had taken. When he 

 came to where they had separated, he paused, 

 tried a little way to the left and tlien to the right, 

 and then again looked at me to see if I observed 

 him. '^ Good dog*," I cried, '' where is it ? " 



On this he asrain went off in the same odd 

 fashion, on a line that I knew neither of my men 

 had taken, and I saw at once that he not only 

 knew what he was about, but that as neither of 



