obeyed, stepping slowly and cautiously, his feet splashing and sinking deep in the mud at every step, and drawing out with difficulty.

     The rain now was falling with less violence, and the thunder and lightning were not so frequent. Carlos was wet through to the skin, and the water ran from each side of his horse in little streams. Both animal and man were chilled and shivering. They plodded on slowly through the darkness, which was so dense as to seem almost like a material substance. Carlos gave himself up to a gloomy despondency, for, although innocent, he had a foreboding that the events of the night would bring evil and misfortune to him.

     Suddenly the horse altered his course and turned quickly to the right. As he proceeded, the hub of one of the buggy wheels came in contact with some object—not with such force, however, as to stop the vehicle; and in a moment Carlos no longer felt the rain beating down upon him, but heard it over him, striking some intervening object. They were under a shelter. The horse had turned into a farm-yard and walked under a shed. He stood still, evidently determined to postpone the remainder of his journey until an improvement in the weather should take place.

     This was a new and vexatious phase of affairs, and Carlos was confronted with the prospect of remaining in his strange quarters until daybreak.

     He had not, up to this moment, heard a sniffing, smelling noise, which came from a large watch-dog, who had been walking around the buggy silently and regarding the new arrival with suspicion. The darkness had prevented him from seeing and the rain from hearing the animal. But now, as he was about to step from the buggy to tie the horse and make things secure for the night, a low growling arrested him. He stopped and listened, and knew that a large dog was in close proximity.

     He leaped to the ground notwithstanding, and instantly the growls deepened and a shaggy body sprang against his breast. The dog had aimed for his throat, but seized his coat-collar instead.

     Carlos did not lose his presence of mind, but seized the brute suddenly around the lower jaw, holding it with a vise-like grip. There was all the energy of a life-struggle in his grasp, and so tightly was his jaw held that the dog couldnot bring his teeth together. He was a large, heavy animal, and he bore Carlos to the ground.There they lay, and struggled and floundered, the dog uttering howls of rage, but Carlos never once relinquished his grasp.

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