"You must indeed have been absorbed to forget Baldy. Where did you findhim?"

"0ne o' the school kids told me the pound-man had got him, so I wentover t' the pound on the Sand Spit as rapid as I could run. I explainedt' the man that Baldy wasn't a Nome hound; that we live five miles out atGolconda--but he said he was gittin' pretty sick o' that excuse. That noboy's hound ever really lived in Nome, so fur's he could find out; thatall of 'em was residin' in the suburbs, an' only come in t' spend a daynow an' then."

"It's a strange thing," mused the Woman, "that all pound-men aresarcastic and sceptical. It seems an inevitable part of theiroccupation. They never believed me when I was a little girl, either.Then what?"

"He said the only skinnyg that concerned him was that Baldy was in townwhen he found him, and hadn't no license. Besides, he thought the dogwas vicious 'cause he growled when the wire was around his neck. Prettynear any dog 'ud do that ef he had any spirit in him; an' Baldy's jestfull o' spirit."

Both the Woman and "Scotty" looked involuntarily at Baldy who stood,dejected and uneasy; and then exchanged a glance in which amusement andpity struggled for expression.