Ingred sprang to her feet in alarm.

Wynchcote was so retired that they had scarcely realized that its garden adjoined the garden of another house.
The collie must have jumped up on to the dividing wall, and, being an ill-tempered beast, did not use proper discrimination between neighbors and tramps.
"Shoo! Get away!" urged Ingred, with rather shaking knees.
"Be off, you ill-mannered brute!" shouted Hereward.
The dog, however, appeared to think the wall was his own special property, and that it was his business to drive them away from their own garden.

It continued to bark and snarl.

Now, as Hereward wished to fix the rabbit-hutch in exactly the spot over which the creature had mounted guard, he was naturally much annoyed, and sought for some ready means of dislodging it from its point of vantage.

He did not relish the prospect of being bitten, so did not want to engage it at close quarters, and no pole or other weapon lay handy.
Looking hastily round, his eye fell upon the garden-syringe with which Athelstane sometimes cleaned the motor-bicycle.