What could there be to spy about in Berwickshire?
And besides, Major Elliott knew all about him, and he would not show him such respect if there were anything amiss.
I had just got as far as this in my thoughts when I heard a cheery hail, and there was the Major himself coming down the hill from his house, with his big bulldog Bounder held in leash.

This dog was a savage creature, and had caused more than one accident on the countryside; but the Major was very fond of it, and would never go out without it, though he kept it tied with a good thick thong of leather.

Well, just as I was looking at the Major, waiting for him to come up, he stumbled with his lame leg over a branch of gorse, and in recovering himself he let go his hold of the leash, and in an instant there was the beast of a dog flying down the hillside in my direction.
I did not like it, I can tell you; for there was neither stick nor stone about, and I knew that the brute was dangerous.

The Major was shrieking to it from behind, and I think that the creature thought that he was hallooing it on, so furiously did it rush.

But I knew its name, and I thought that maybe that might give me the privileges of acquaintanceship; so as it came at me with bristling hair and its nose screwed back between its two red eyes, I cried out "Bounder! Bounder!" at the pitch of my lungs.