But among the crowd of passengers in the morning, I had noticed several men whose appearance I highly disapproved. Some of them scowled at me as they passed, and I felt sure they were bent upon no good; but one, the worst-looking of all, stopped, and whistled to me, holding out a piece of meat. I need scarcely say that I indignantly rejected his bribe--for such I knew it was--meant to entice me in some way or other to neglect my duty; so I growled and snarled, and watched him well as he passed on. No fear of my not knowing him again by sight or smell. Several of these ill-looking men returned intoxicated, to my great disgust; for I had a peculiar objection to persons in that condition, and never trusted a man who could degrade himself below my own level. I watched them all, every moment expecting the one who had tried to curry favour with me, for I had an instinctive assurance that I had not seen the last of him. Night drew on while I was still on the look-out, and yet he did not appear. The rest of the family went calmly to bed, taking no notice of my disquietude; but nothing could have induced _me_ to curl myself round and shut my eyes. I was sure danger was near, and it was my part as a faithful guardian to be prepared for it. So I alternately paced cautiously round the court, or sat up in my kennel with my head out listening for every sound. By degrees the returning parties of revellers dwindled to now and then a solitary pedestrian; and the hum of voices gradually subsided, till all was silent, and the whole country seemed asleep. Still I watched on, with unabated vigilance, deep into the night. At last I thought I heard outside the wall a very cautious footstep, accompanied by an almost inaudible whisper. I pricked up my ears; the footstep came nearer, and a hand was upon the lock of the courtyard-gate. I sniffed the air; there was no mistake; I smelt the very man whom I expected. Others might be with him, but there was _he_. Without a moment's delay, I set up an alarum that might have wakened the whole village; at any rate, it woke our whole house. Down stairs came my master in his dressing-gown; down came old John, lantern in hand, and red nightcap on head. Lily peeped out of her bedroom window, with a shawl over her shoulders; and seeing her papa in the court, ran down to help him,--as if she could have been any help against robbers, poor little darling! The servants assembled in such strange attire, that they looked to me like a herd of animals who had got into each other's coats by mistake. But the maids had kept their own voices at any rate, for they screamed almost as loud as I barked. It was a proud moment for me; and the greater everybody's fright, and the more noise and confusion they made, the prouder I was. It was all _my_ doing. It was _I_ who had called them all in the middle of the night. Their confidence in me was such, that at the sound of my voice they had all left their beds, and