But, it was still strong enough to register the trace of intruders.

His hackles bristled.

Up went the classically splendid head, to sniff the light breeze, for further information as to the reek of pig and the lighter but more disquieting scent of man.
Turning his head, to reinforce with his near-sighted eyes the failing evidence of his nostrils, he saw the sow emerge from the canna-clump.
He saw, too--or he divined--the look in her pale little red-rimmed eyes; as they glared defiantly at the Mistress.

And Lad cleared the porch steps at one long leap.
For the instant, he forgot he was aged and stout and that his joints ached at any sudden motion; and that his wind and his heart were not what they had been;--and that his once-terrible fangs were yellowed and blunt; and that his primal strength was forever fled.

Peril was facing the Mistress.