Lad's experience with scents was
far-reaching. But this smell lay totally outside all his
knowledge or memory.
It was a rank and queer smell;--not strong enough, out there in
the open, to register in a human-brain; but almost stingingly
acute to the highly sensitized dog. It was an alluring scent; the
sort of odor that roused all his curiosity and seemed to call for
prompt investigation.
Nose to ground, Lad set off to trace the smell to its source.
Strong as it was, it grew stronger and fresher at every step.
Even a mongrel puppy could have followed it. Oblivious to all
else, Lad broke into a canter; nose still close to earth;
pleasurably excited and keenly inquisitive.
He ran along the private road for perhaps a hundred yards. Then,
he wheeled in at another paved walk and ran up a low flight of
veranda steps. The front door of a house stood invitingly open to
the cool air of the morning. In through the doorway went Lad;
unheeding the gobbling call of a maid-servant who was sweeping
the far end of the veranda.
Lad did not know he was committing trespass.
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