My uncle fell back on the grass, and with a blow of my fist I opened the already half open door. At this, Johann, who was on the watch behind it, fell back, bleeding at the nose, and then I penetrated to the courtyard, and decided to take away the dog at any hazard, and never again be separated from it.
The pack slipped into their kennels. I saw Nell immediately. They had given her a kennel apart from the others. Her great starved, hairless, wretched body was lying against the grating.
I called out, “Donovan, Donovan!” She did not budge.
The eyes of the dogs gleamed in the depths of their somber huts, and some of them growled.
“Donovan! Nell!” I had an intuition of the truth. There also the scythe of Death had done its work. Yes, Nell also was cold and stiff. A chain twisted round her neck seemed to have strangled her. I was going to make sure of this, when Lerne and Johann showed themselves at the entrance of the courtyard.
“Villains,” I cried, “you have killed her.”
“No, on my honor, I swear,” declared my uncle. “They found her this morning, exactly as you see.”
“Do you think, then, that she did it of her own accord—that she put an end to herself? Oh, what a horrible end!”
“Perhaps,” said Lerne. “However, there is another solution, and a more likely one. A supreme convulsion, I think, twisted the chain. The body was sickly. Hydrophobia declared itself some days ago. I hide nothing from you, Nicolas. I am not exculpating myself in any way. You can see that.”
“Oh,” I cried, in terror, “rabies.”