Lad: A Dog

dly, as men will, after a good dinner and in

ryday life? I don't mean the most

up cited a helpless man between two qu

ild in a c

aster con

g in a cit

know their psychology-their souls, if you prefer. The dog-man was right. A lost dog in a city st

piteous enough, heaven knows. Yet his plight v

cry. In one minute fifty amateur and professional rescuers have flocked to the Lost O

assuredly not in kindness. A policeman seeking a record for "mad dog" shooting-a professional dog-catche

last seen-darts ahead once more to find him, through the press of other human folk-halts, hesitat

e anything sadder on earth? All this, before the pursuit of boys and the fever of thirst and the fi

the gaze of a man or woman who understands dogs.

the North Jersey hinterland and all to make him presentable for the Westminster Kennel Show at New York's Madison Square Garde

ng among the lesser folk for so many years. It ended at Madison S

two victories to his credit, the Mistress had taken pity on his misery and had decreed th

e side exit of the Garden. The Mistress gathered up Lad's belonging

sand canine throats, she went. Lad paced, happy and majestic, at her side. He

of the dog to his bench" (to which bench of agony she vowed, secretly, Lad should never retur

y to the One Hundred and Thirtieth Street ferry. The door attendant insisted that the law was inexorable. So, lest

her straps. It looked like a rat-trap. And it fenced in the nose a

The splendid eighty-pound collie had been as free of The Place and of the forests as a

s she adjusted the thing to his beautiful head, could lessen the degradation. And the disc

e-implement. He strove to rub it off against the Mistress' skirt. But beyond shif

, her affection, her sweet understanding. Yet, to-day, she had brought him to this abode of noisy torment, and had kept him there from morning to dusk. And now-just as the

d, I'm just as sorry about it as you are. But it's only for a few minutes. Just as soon as we get to the ferry, we'll take it off and

ad was to wear the accursed muzzle for

er, as the Mistress and Lad arrived alongside the car. "The poor old chap has been so c

d the collie was on the cushion, and proceeded to curl up thereon. The Mistress got in

f emotion. The Milan Cathedral, the Taj Mahal, the Valley of the Arno at sunset-these be sights to dream of for years. But show them to a man who has an

lended noises confused and deafened him. The myriad blended smells assailed his keen nostrils. The swirl of countless multicolored lights stung and blurred his vision. Noises, smells and lights were

kening of all the day's

g else-the Mistress had never been unkind; and most assuredly not cruel. It must be she did not understand. At all events, she had not scolded or forbidden, whe

but that was all. And each shift of the steel bars hurt his tender nose and tenderer sensibilities wors

Mistress, or the Master turn around, on general principles, to speak a word of cheer to the sufferer. They were in a mixup of crossways

is balance, while he rubbed a corner of the muzzle against one of the supports of the car's lowere

aster put on speed, and, darting ahead of a delivery

f his precarious balance on the seat, and

e eighty-pound impact. It burst open. And Lad was

Directly above his head glared the twin lights of the delivery truck the Master had just shot past. The tru

he has more of the wolf's lightning-swift instinct than has any other breed of canine. For which re

gether, his feet well under him, and sprang far to one side. The lu

hfare. It brought him under the very fender of a touring car that was going at a good pace in the opposite direct

ess and Master were a full half-block away, down the less crowded side street, and were making up for lost time by putting on all the speed they dared, before turning into the next westward t

ive, nearly a mile to the north, did either the Master o

f Columbus Circle. Cars of a million types, from flivver to trolley

ld carry him out of one such peril-barely out

ck out of danger, his frightened eyes and his pul

m what it had not been able to tell him since morning-namely, that, through the reek of gasoline and horseflesh and countless human scen

brought him no scent of the Mistress nor of the Master. And it was they-infinitely more than his beloved countryside-that he craved. He ran up the street, on the sidewalk, for a few rods, hesitant, alert, watching in every direction. Then, per

e of the many things he had to dodge, and the greasy slipperiness of the unfamiliar roadway. An upward glance, as

, bewildered,

ld a city-dweller snatched up by magic and set down amid the tra

lloping aimlessly back and forth, running hopefully up to every stranger

left him; as had the Master; in this bedlam place-all alone. He stood

zle. In the stress of the past few minutes Lad had actually forgotten the pain a

for solitude, so the soul-sick Lad now turned from the clangor and evi

ward with a crash among the leafless shrubs

ut they were few, and they were far off. Around the dog was a gratef

ld. The brown-gray earth and the black trees had a faint odor of slow-comi

g day's ordeal of the dog show had wearied him and had worn down his nerves more than could a fifty-mile run. The nasty thrills of the past half-hour had comple

as cruelly thirsty. He got up from his slushy couch on the dead turf and trotted wearil

eft a half-inch skim of water over it. Lad tried to lap up e

ment or from his own futile efforts to scrape it off, the awkward steel hinge had

, but it was a painful and drearily slow process absorbing water drop by drop in this way. More th

igent and torturing and wholly useles

bleeding; the muzzle as firmly fixed in place as ever. Another journey to the lake and ano

odge it nor, in that clamorous and ill-smelling city beyond the park wall, could he hope to find the Mistres

nt, where his two gods abode, where there were no clang and

er. For a full minute he stood thus. Then he lowered his head and trotted westward. No longer he moved uncertainly, but with as

icated case of a collie who, in 1917, made his way four hundred miles from the home of a new owner in southern Georgia to the doorstep of his former and better loved master in the mountains of North Carolina; any more than I can account for the flight of

all of Central Park. Without turning aside to seek a gateway, he cleared

ong to the next westward street and turned down it toward the Hudson River. So

mented by the racket of a train that reverberated above him; his sense so bl

ty-ninth Street police station to report for night duty, was so taken up by his own lofty

y. Because, on reaching the station, he learned that a distressed man and woman had just been there in a car to

r-old baby-a mere fluff of gold and white and pink-was crossing the avenue convoyed by a fat wom

the baby flung herself upon Lad and w

lled, ecstatically. "W

y, but his big heart went out in eagerly loving answer to the impulsive caress. H

ed in glad friendliness; his muzzled nose sought wistfully to kiss the pink little face on a

Doggie!" she whisp

g. Then, seeing that the mud on Lad's shoulder had soiled the child's white coat, she whirled a

ieved astonishment. This unpleasant fat creature in black was not a man, wherefore Lad conte

screamed loudly. On the instant the

ma'am?" asked

r at Lad, who had taken up his westward jour

, hysterically. "He-he b

patrolman gave chase. Here was a chance for honorable blot

nd was in the side street beyond. He was not hurrying, but

street and avenue the dog was nearly a half-block ahead.

l to any chance of accuracy. No marksman-no one who has the remotest knowledge of marksmanship-will do such a thing. The ver

g a second-story window and making the echoes

boy, who stood beside a barre

d the policeman

the chase, outdistancing the officer,

to face his invisible foe, and he found himself looking at a half-dozen boys who charged

he had loathed strangers, and these new strangers se

pace. The hue-and-cry broke into louder yells and three or four new rec

ally rabid dogs seen at large in New York or in any other city in the course of a year. Yet, at the back of the human

thus hunted down and shot or kicked or stoned to death in the sacred name of Humanity, just because some idiot

him. His tongue lolls and his eyes glaze with fear. Then, ever, rises the

the shouting crowd. Twice, by sprinting, the patrolman gained the front rank of the hunt, and twice he fired-both bullets going wide. Across West End Avenue and acr

none the less resolved that these howling New Yorke

n, as Lad flashed by, hurled a heavy joist of wood at the dog. It

ind him the crowd raced; sure it had

d to south. Everywhere the wide river stretched away, unbridged. It must be crossed if

ub he carried. Down came the club with murderous for

bound had carried him over the ed

hat gushed into his mouth and nostrils was salty and foul, not at all like the water of the lake at the edge

eautiful head appeared, a yell went up from the clustering riff-raff at the pier end. Bits of wood and coal b

ass of blackness and of light-blurs, and presently t

urn for one thing, and while, in a way, this helped him, yet the myriad eddies and cross-currents engendered by it turned and jostled and buffeted him in a most

Its wake caught the dog and sucked him under and spun his

n kicked for an hour. The bullet-graze along his flank was hurting him as

ather than through his splendid

e mechanical action of his wrenched muscles held him in motion. Twice tugs narrowly

and with his last vestige of strength Lad crawled feebly ashore on a narrow sandspit at the base of

back some of his wind and his motive-pow

the Palisades-foot to northward, until he found one of the several precipice-paths that Sunday picnick

amp-flecked water, rose the inky skyline of the city with a lurid furnace-glow between

, but this time his jog-trot was slower and his light step was growing heavier. The terrible strain of his swim was passing from his mighty sinews, but i

salt meadows to westward he traveled; sometimes on road or path, some

ove Hackensack. Through a lightless one-street village he went, head low, stride l

orture was beginning to do queer things to his nerves and brain. Even a stolid, ne

brooks he crossed. So tight-jammed was the steel jaw-hinge now that he could no

front yard dived a monstrous shape that hur

hoose-had been dozing on his squatter-owner's doorstep when the

ap or growl at the wanderer, but as Lad had been big and had followed

e muzzle rendered Lad powerless and therefore saw every prospect of a safe and easy vi

r nor see the foe. His first notice of the attack was a flying weight of seventy-odd pounds th

prawlingly into the road on hi

unprofitable shoulder grip to a far more promisi

earth-human and otherwise-except a dog. A dog is terrible by reason of its teeth. Encase

foe's attack. Exhausted, flung prone to earth, hi

ides against that. Even as he fell Lad instinctively gathered

throat-grip. His weariness was forgotten and his wondrous reserve strength leaped into play. Which w

table mattress of hair. Into this hair the mongrel had driven his teeth. The ha

The mongrel sprang at him for a fresh grip. Lad reared to meet him, opposing his

e in again to the assault. This time he did not give his muzzled antagonist a chance to rear, but s

nemy he could not outfight. To stand his ground was to be torn, eventually, to death. Being anything but a f

m to block the big mongrel's rushes. The fourth time, as he s

a heap, and the

Pinning down the muzzled dog, the mongrel proceeded to improve his hold by grinding his way toward the j

y mistaking it for flesh. Lad writhed to free himself and to regain his feet,

owled in savage triumph. Th

l bars excruciatingly deep into Lad's bruised nose for a moment. Then, by magic, the torture-imp

unging deliriously into the fray. Through a miracle, his jaws were free; his tormen

a helpless dog, but a maniac wolf. Lad sought no permanent hold. With dizzying quickness his head and body

nd ever kept boring in. To the quivering bone his short front teeth sank. Deep

led howling into the road; and Lad t

reamed. Lad glanced up to note this new diversion. The stricken mongrel yelping in terror

jogged along on his journe

en he went on. Unmuzzled and with his thirst slaked, he forgot his pain, his fatig

going

m one end of Manhattan Island to the other-from Police Headquarters to dog pound-they had driven. And now the Mast

but before it had traversed half the distance the dawn-hush w

orward to bar the way. Then as he ran his eyes and nose s

ng down from the car before it came to a halt. On her knee

bbed incoherently

ace bending so tearfully above him. Then, with an abandon of puppylike joy, he rolled on the ground waving a

lie. But Lad didn't care, because it made the Mistress stop c