Part 2

The creature at the door kept working steadily, as if unaware that a half hour after its arrival a competitor had arrived at one of the shutters, and that a pretty race was on to see which would get Alice as its prey. She stared at her watch and tried to guess when Anthony would be coming home. Probably, as far as she could estimate, a half hour after the first creature had reached her. She might stop it with the explosive gun, and she might not. And then, if another showed up at the same window or door, while she was still unsteady from the recoil....

Her only hope was that they would come after her one by one, not too close together. She considered seriously the possibility of opening the shutter to allow the entrance of the snaffle which she was sure was tearing at it, getting rid of that, and then closing the shutter again while she recovered her steadiness. But she knew that the thing might come at her faster than she could handle it, and decided to leave the shutter alone.

For another half hour the animals worked away, each intent upon its own means of arriving at the victim. Then, for the first time, Alice heard the sound of a struggle between animals outside the house. The scratching at the shutter stopped, there came a thin shriek, a crash against the side, and then silence except for the vibration of the shutter.

The scratching at the door stopped next. This time there came the howling of octerocap heads, and then a crash high up, as if the creature had been hurled with great force against the house. The thing that had hurled it next pounded on the door, and to her horror Alice saw the door yield at the same time both at the bottom and at the top, as if it had been hit by both head and foot at once. Never before had any animal been large enough to accomplish such a feat. This must be a predator of a new type, huger and stronger than the others.

For the second time in two days, Alice fainted.

* * * * *

She was awakened a little later by a great pounding on the door. At first she thought she would faint again, but the unexpected sound of Anthony's voice reassured her. He was yelling to her to open up.

She lifted the bolt, and Anthony stepped toward her. As she fell forward to fling her arms around his neck, however, she caught sight of something over his shoulder ... she closed her eyes and shrieked.

"Take it easy," said Anthony. "He may look frightening, but he's of a breed that's been trained to be gentle with humans."

"It's--"

"It's the thing that smashed the snaffle and trampled the octerocap. It's the dog they sent us."

She drew back, and a monster stepped into the room, its clumsy gait almost knocking the door off its hinges. It gazed at her with saucer eyes, and then, as Small came toward it, his own little eyes wide with a puzzled sort of delight, the dog stretched out a tongue bigger than Small's head and tried to lick Small's face. The boy fell over backward, squalling in fright.

"No, Rover!" said Anthony sternly.

The dog hung its head in shame.

"Down, Rover!"

The dog stood motionless, Anthony smacked him on the rear. The dog squatted down on his haunches, his head somewhere near the ceiling.

"See how gentle he is? He may look like a monster, but he wouldn't lay a paw or a tooth on a human being. They breed his kind for gentleness."

"But--are you sure it's a dog? How--why didn't you--"

"I tried to call you late this afternoon, when he arrived," said Anthony reasonably, "but the wire was cut. And your radio wasn't receiving. So I set out to walk him home. Had him on a leash. Not that I could hold him if he really tried to pull away, but he won't exert his full force against a human who has him on a leash."

"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."

"Are we going to keep him?"

Anthony looked at Alice and grinned. "I don't think we have any choice in the matter. It's a question of life and death."

"But not in the house," said Alice. "There's no room for him in the house. And he'll be quite safe outside."

"I'm afraid not," said Anthony. "He's strong, but as a pup he's still delicate. Very susceptible to virus infections."

"That elephant?" exclaimed Alice incredulously. "Afraid of little things like viruses?"

Anthony nodded. "His kind catch cold very easily. After he grows older, of course, he'll be different. He'll be able to sleep outside, if you make him a chest protector. The chest has to stay warm. You used to knit well, Alice."

"I can't knit a chest protector for an elephant!"

"You're exaggerating. Even full-grown, he probably won't top 4600 pounds. Some elephants come a lot bigger than that."

"I'll sew him a protector out of an old blanket. I won't knit it."

"I guess that will do. Meanwhile, as I said, we'll have to keep him in the house. And about food--" He coughed delicately. "Later on, he'll be able to supply himself. Meanwhile, he's still a pup, as I must keep on reminding you. We'll have to buy special dog food. And vitamin concentrates. A few gallons a year, no more. He'll be mature at about two."

Alice groaned. "He probably saved my life, but I can't help it, Anthony, I can't welcome him like the guest he should be. Either he'll eat us out of house and home, or he'll crowd us out--"

"I can take him back or give him to someone else," observed Anthony. "I already have an offer."

"No--I'm afraid we need him too much." She looked at the animal grimly, and said, "You win, Rover. You're one of the family."

Rover bent his head, and Anthony scratched it. Small said, "Daddy, could he give me a ride?" and Anthony put the boy on the dog's back, and watched him parade clumsily around the room, knocking over no more than two chairs. A moment later, the boy slipped off, beaming.

"I think it'll work out," said Anthony.

As if in answer, Small's eyes seemed to pop out of his head, while his finger pointed. Alice shrieked, and in her voice there was the expression of stark tragedy such as Aristotle had never known, of the ultimate outrage of a malignant and remorseless fate: "_He isn't housebroken!_"