CHAPTER XXVIII.
WHAT THE DOG BARKED AT.About half past six the following morning, Mrs. Simpson’s maid, who had slept out, let herself into the house with her latchkey and quietly made her way to the kitchen.
As usual, her first act was to open the door and windows, for the weather was warm. In doing so, she was attracted by a disturbance in the back yard, and realized that she had heard a dog barking furiously as she came along the street and through the house.
She had paid no particular attention to the persistent barking, but now that she found the animal was in the rear of the Simpson lot, and acting very strangely, her curiosity was fully aroused.
She did not know the dog. It was brownish in hue, collarless, and neglected in appearance. Obviously it was a stray animal which had fou
