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 ysis which had now partly passed. Redcoat stood looking curiously at the girl for several seconds. "It is all right, old chap," she said in a low musical voice. "I won't hurt you. Now run along and don't let them get you again."

Redcoat hesitated for another few seconds and then jumped lightly down upon the snow, and trotted slowly into the thicket, but just as he was about to pass from sight, he turned and looked back, and again Kitty thought, just as she had when he looked back at her with the pup in his mouth, that he wagged his tail in friendship and gratitude, but she was not quite sure.

Bud Holcome, who had been one of the hunters, was glad when Kitty called him that evening over the telephone. He was always glad to hear the girl's voice. But this night she sounded very serious.

"Bud, listen," said Kitty, when the usual salutations were over.

"I want you to get this straight, if you don't ever understand anything I say to you in the future. You know that you have