"Then how did he get away? If he killed the octerocap and the snaffle, he must have got here before you."
"He did. Fact is, I was careless," confessed Anthony shamefacedly. "I stopped to light a cigaret, and he tugged the leash out of my hand before I could get a good grip on it. He headed for this place because it was the only human-looking habitation in the neighborhood. Good thing, too. He got here in time to take care of those creatures."
Alice stared at the monster. "Good heavens, how big is he, anyway?"
"Seven feet at the shoulder, and weighs 2000 pounds. No wonder he could handle those animals, even though he is a pup."
"A pup!"
"Four months old. Two months when they shipped him out. It seems that the catalogue That Idiot Tapling sent us is a little out of date. In the past few centuries they've bred new kinds of dogs, entirely different from those they used to have on Earth. They've got them small enough to fit into a thimble, and big enough—well, as big as this one will be. Naturally, when we wrote away and asked for a protector type, one of the biggest they had, we didn't have any idea that they'd developed this. If Tapling had only sent us a modern catalogue—"
"I like him," announced Small suddenly. "Is his name Rover?"
"Absolutely."
"Will he knock me over again?"
"Of course not. That was just an accident."