Lad: A Dog

ck raccoon. At times he would crane his thin neck and peer about h

raccoon pose, he would look murderously

tic barking or in capering excitedly about. Instead, he lay at maje

-the treer and the treed. Thus, from present sig

ed by a dog. The man, in the present case, supplied the only element of comed

owy and absurdly small. His eyes were seal-dark and sorrowful-eyes that proclaimed not only an unc

er to the man he had seen slouching through the undergrowth

, for example, that no one openly approaching the house along the driveway from the furlong-distant highroad was to be molested. Such a

rom road or lake by circuitous and stealthy means. Such roundabout methods spell Trespass. Every good watchdog know

. He had moved softly and obliquely and had made little furtive dashes from one bit of co

een him. For, in spite of theory, a dog's eye by daylight is not so keen or so far-seeing as is a human's. But the wind had

e-fashion, fore and aft, and trotted quickly away to inves

vancing with head lowered, and growling softly far down in his throat. He was making stra

d from his approach. But when the pace slackens to a stiff walk and his head sinks low, that is a

urker in the sumac patch, for as the great dog drew near the man inc

e utilized by flinging himself bodily at a l

chased cat. Lad arrived at the tree bole barely in time to col

guard on his arboreal prisoner. For half an hour he lay thus, varying his vigil once or twice by sniffing thoughtfully at a ragg

t. A single loud yell would have brought aid from the stables or from the house or even from the lodge up by the gate. Yet, t

ed the ugly missile with all his force at the dog. As the man had shifted his position to get at the k

for the aim was not bad, and a dog lying down cannot easily dodge. A

e whizzed, harmless, into the sumac patch. Lad's teeth bared themselves in so

"Lad! La-ad!" It was the Master calling him. The summons could not be ignored. Usually it was obeyed with eager g

guest. Before the Master could speak to the dog, Lad rushed up to him, whimpering in star

d the guest-an obese and elderly man, right

r. "Something he wants me to come and

know?" ask

age as well as he knows m

ited dog. The guest followed in m

ou out of the shade on a red-hot day like this

aves like that, unless it's pretty well worth while, he's changed a lot in the

"Perhaps he may lead us to a treasure cav

amuses you," s

me to see any grown man think so much of a d

. "My stable is the only one in the same radius that hasn't been rifled by harness-and-tire thieves. Thieves who see

he was standing beneath a low-fork

irritating as a kick. "Extra! Come out and get a nice

in the tree. Lad's aspect shrank from hope to depression. He looked apologeticall

the tree. From a jut of bark dangled a shred of the same clo

he said. "It was a m

d favorite perfume from the color of the bark on the tree. You people are always telling

n eyes when he herded that flock of stampeded prize sheep for you last spring, and of your own eyes again when he won the 'Gold Hat' cup at the Labor Day Dog Show. No, there's plenty of evidence

e of the porch. "It's what I drove over here to talk with you about. I'm making the rounds of all

anted to see him. Most people ask to if he do

unded Mr. Glure, "because I hoped you ha

choed the Ma

rouse dog owners to a sense of their duty. I've just fo

" warmly approved the Master,

ught to. That's why I volunteered to make this canvass. It was my own idea. Some of the others wer

of self-adulation. "You say it's 'to rouse dog owners to a sense of their duty.' Along what line? We dog men have raised a good many thousand dollars

broke in Glure. "It is something that involves sacrifice. A nee

approved the Master. "Count in all re

rse, it's been agitated by other people in letters to newspapers and

gested the w

re. "That's the very thing I want dog

-wh

xpounded Glure, warming to his theme.

es bulged. His face began to assume an

own on sugar and meat and fat, but for every cent we save that way we're throwing away a dollar in feeding our dogs. Our dogs that are a useless, senseless, costly luxury! They serve no utilitarian end. They eat food that belongs t

of his temper. "What wall-eyed idiocy do you think you're trying to talk? How many dog men do y

Glure. "I had hoped you were more broad-min

"The 'rest?' Then I'm not the first? I'm gl

ething after me that I sincerely hope I didn't hear aright. If I did, I have a strong action for slander against hi

't anything unique for me to say-or do. Now listen to me for two minutes. I've read a few of those anti-dog le

r for argument," l

alking about the big kennels where one man keeps a hundred dogs as he'd herd so many prize hogs. Though look what the owners of such kennels did for the country at the last New York show at Madison Square Garden! Every penny of the thousands and tho

king for sta

fter I read one of those anti-dog letters. The total upkeep of all my dogs aver

nterposed Glure eagerly, "w

need now, because no stranger dares to sneak up to my house at night. Part of it would go to make up for things stolen around The Place. For instance, in the harness room of my stable there

ine scorn. "We saw no man th

stable-on this side of the lake that has never been looted. Mine is the only orchard-and mine is the only garden-that is never robbed. And this is the only place, on our side of the

ut

sh Lad turned over to the Red Cross when we sent that $1600 'Gold Hat' cup he won, to be melted down. And I'm not speaking of our dogs' comradeship, and what that means to us. Our dogs are an asset in every way-not a liability. They aren't deadheads either. For I pay the state tax on them every year. They're

ld austerity, "it's not a matter fo

children mourning for the gentle protecting playmates they loved. And there'll be a million men and women whose lives have all at once become lonely and empty and miserable. Isn't this war causing enough crying and loneline

timental bosh," decla

o are most of the worth-while things in lif

tack. "I had a group that cost me, dog for dog, more than any other kennel in

t a Chicago man sold to you for $1100," supplemented the Master,

practicing what I preach. I began this splendid ca

l, and you tried doctoring the dogs on a theory of your own instead of sending for a vet. So they all died. Tough luc

y rising and waddling toward his car. "I'm disappointed; because I hoped y

ed the Master. "I'm not, I

re's no use asking you to come to the little cattle show I'm organizing for week after next, b

e've signed its pledge and we're boosting it in every way we know how, except by killing our dogs; an

ribbons for second and third. Three dollars an entry. Only one class for each breed. Every entrant must have been raised by the exhibitor. Gate admission fifty cents. Red Cross to get the gross

only head of quality stock I ever bred. I doubt if she is worth taking up there, but I

nhappy. He had had no trouble at all in catching the scent of the man he had treed. He had followed

well as did the Mistress or the Master, and he knew equally well that his own jurisdiction ended at thos

not his anger, nor his memory of the marauder's scent. The man had trespassed slyly on

e Ramapo River was lined on two sides with impromptu sheds. The third side was blocked by something between a grand stand and a marquee. The tree-h

ctural crime, known as The Towers-homestead

h, he had erected for himself a hideously expensive estate among the Ramapo Mountains and had settled down to the task of patronizing his rura

he matter of stock raising. Horses, cattle, pigs, chickens, even a very few sheep were bred for generations along lin

per-stock result. The local stock shows formed the only means of proving or disproving the ex

stock producing and as he had no breeding theories of his own he proceeded to acquire a set. As it would necessarily take years to work out these

add materially to his prestige as an exhibitor, for the judges had an exasperating way of handing him a second o

o buy prize stock and exhibit it as one's own. At approximately the same time three calves were born to newl

tle. Three breeds were represented among the trio of specimens. By points and by lineage they were well-nigh peerless

d sought to win the capital prize by formulating a set of conditions that co

lovers could resist; and on the morning of the show no fewer than fifty-two

t-the pretty little Alderney heifer of which the Master had spoken to Glure and

a second prize, all the first for their three breeds going to two nonplutocratic

Towers on the morning of the show in their one c

e with his Master than to stay at home without him. Witness the glad alacrity wherewith the wear

t last parked behind the sunken meadow. The Mistress and the Master, with Lad at

ey advanced. Also, before they had traversed more than

d like a blend of Landseer's "Edinburgh Drover" and a

an enormous Holstein bull toward the judging enclosure. The bull wa

lder. "Glad to see you! You're late. Almost too late for the best part of the show. Before judging begins, I'm having some of my choicest European stock par

er, who could think of

re, with a wave toward the approaching Holstein and his guide. "B

e staring, not at the bull, but at the beast's leader. The spectacle of a groom

grumpy, independent Jersey rustics. Not much. He's a treasure, Winston is. Used to be chief handler for some of the biggest cattle breeders in the Ea

fined an assembly. The man in livery had convoyed the bull to within a few feet of the proudly exhorting G

ed the narrowing distance between

the air, an eighty-pound furry cata

cent that spelt deathless hatred. The scent had been verified by a singl

a bare half inch. That they missed it at all was because th

t, sent the groom sprawling backward to the ground, Lad's slas

which the fangs sank to their depth. Down w

at misted his brain the great dog heard. With a choking sound that was

n. Then, still more instinctively, and without even coming to a standstill before going into reverse, the

en a sudden and acti

his exportation to America he had gored to death no fewer than three over-confident stable attendants. The bull's homici

es, he guards its safety most zealously. Thus, with a stout leadin

bar, as Lad's weight had smitten him. Freed, T

e heavy leading-bar, digging the nose ring cruelly into his sensitive nostrils. The pain maddened Tene

only thing that gave humans a control over him. A second bellow-a furious pawing of the earth

ich sent the Master and Glure reco

the ring. He followed her into that refuge's fragile safety with a speed that held no dignit

did not f

ound, not six feet away, rolled and moaned a man.

y-or may not-explain the Spanish theory that bullfights are safer than cow-fi

at the prostrate groom. Head down, nose in, short horns on a

ething was amiss with his pleasantly anticipated ch

ainst the side of his lowered head, and a new and unb

ne side, throwing up his head to

hoofs missed him altogether. At the same moment the weight was gone

bout him. A yard or two away a shaggy dog was rising from

hy Lad should have flown to the rescue of a human whom he loathed, and arr

aught of a beast. Or perhaps not. One can go only by the facts. And the facts were that the collie

a dog, he had flown at the bull in time-in the barest tim

ncing dog to the howling man. The dog could wait. The bu

h his enormous bulk into full motion-before he could

d the ragged nostrils. Tenebris halted his own incipient rush and strove to pi

with his battering-ram forehead and his short horns. But Lad was not there. Instead,

is feet again. Not only on his feet, but back to the assault. Back, before his unwieldy foe could gauge the

aign. Apparently his first ideas had been wrong. It was the man

th tail down, as befits a beaten dog. Brush wavingly aloft, he gamboled along at top speed, just a str

been so riotously happy. All the pent-up misc

Tenebris opened his eyes he saw the dog, not ten feet in front of him,

er, brought pursuer and pursued to

ng winded. He came to a wavering standstill, s

im. Burnished shaggy coat a-bristle, tail delightedly wagging, the

and out under the giant's clumsy body; easily avoiding the bewilderingly awkward kicks and lunges of his enemy. Then, forefeet crouching and muzzl

And it set Tenebris int

and by his lurches to one side or another to keep away from the dog's sharp bites. But he w

the river, at a point where the bank shelved, clif

ead. Then he sprang lightly over the threatening horns, and land

, the dog nipped Tenebris on the

Beside himself with maniac wrath, he shut both eyes and launched himself forward. Lad slipped

half scrambling, he crashed down the ste

, where, with head to one side and ears cocked, he

-deep in stickily soft mud. So tightly bogged down that it later took the efforts

arest runners and sought to regain the spot where last he had seen the Mistress and Master. Also, if his luck held go

together. The groom, hysterical, was s

bitten man cried aloud in fear and

"He'll kill me! He hates me, the ugly hairy devil!

he tried to kill you once bef

on! That's why he went for me again to-day. He rememb

en this chap applied to you for work, did he wear g

r that. He said a savage dog had jumped into the ro

een the missing parts of them-on a tree and on the ground near it, at The Place.

d Glure. "Why, h

coming cross-lots to a stable to ask for work. And

call. So was Mr. Glure. So was at least one of my men. An honest seeker for work needn

last. "You measly sneak thief! Get out or I'll have

an apprehensive glance to see that Lad

He might have stolen everything at Glu

Master. "For that matter, if it hadn't been for a non-utilitarian dog, that mad bull's horns, instead of his

sly at his sleeve. The Master, in obedience to hi

been for Lad, the bull would never have broken loose in the first place. By another half-hour that