"I said so, right off, as
soon as I got here. Only, you're wrong about the dog being
'sick.' He was mad. Had rabies. I'd ought to know. I--"
"How and why ought you to know?" demanded the Master, still
battling for perfect calm, and succeeding none too well. "How
ought you to know? Are you a veterinary? Have you ever made a
study of dogs and of their maladies? Have you ever read up,
carefully, on the subject of rabies? Have you read Eberhardt or
Dr. Bennett or Skinner or any of a dozen other authorities on the
disease? Have you consulted such eminent vets as Hopper and
Finch, for instance? If you have, you certainly must know that a
dog, afflicted with genuine rabies, will no more turn out of his
way to bite anyone than a typhoid patient will jump out of bed to
chase a doctor. I'm not saying that the bite of any sick animal
(or of any sick human, for that matter) isn't more or less
dangerous; unless it's carefully washed out and painted with
iodine. But that's no excuse to go around the country, shooting
every dog that some sick mongrel has snapped at.
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