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"Did you ever see a black dog that had been scalded?" he asked, "with white hairs grown out on the scars?"

"I have," said Balbinus, "but the white hair would only be in little streaks. She is more than half white."

"Her belly is black," said Proculus, "and her tail is black."

"If she had been scalded over as much of her skin as shows white hairs, she would have been killed," Balbinus argued. "I believe those are natural colors on her. The edges of the white are too irregular for scald marks. Look at her face now while it is towards us. That black patch over her left eye and ear looks perfectly natural."

"Perhaps it is natural," said Proculus. "But I never heard of such a beast."

"You must have heard of her," said Balbinus. "That is the very panther that killed Fonteius Bucco."

"Killed Fonteius Bucco!" Proculus exclaimed.

"Oh well," said Balbinus. "He had no right to the name of course, but he had passed under it."

"But which Fonteius Bucco," queried Proculus, "and how did she come to kill him?"

"Do you mean to say you never heard of the