The Ordeal
By dawn on Labor Day Link Ferris was astir. A series of discomfiting
baths and repeated currying with the dandy brush had made Chum's grand
coat stand out in shimmering fluffiness. A course of
carefully-conducted circular promenades on the end of a chain had
taught the dog to walk gaily and unrestrainedly in leash. And any of
several cryptic words, relating to hypothetical rats, and so forth,
were quite enough to send up his ears.
It was sheer excitement that brought Link broad awake before sunrise on
that day of days. Ferris was infected with the most virulent form of
that weird malady known as "dog-showitis." At first he had been tempted
solely by the hope of winning the hundred-dollar prize. But latterly
the urge of victory had gotten into his blood. And he yearned, too, to
let the world see what a marvelous dog was his.
He hurried through the morning chores, then dressed himself in his
shabby best and hitched his horse to the antiquated Concord buggy--a
vehicle he had been washing for the state occasion almost as vehemently
as he had scrubbed Chum.
After a gobbled breakfast, Ferris mounted to the seat of the aged
buggy, signaled Chum to leap to the battered cushion at his side and
set off for Craigswold. Long before ten o'clock his horse was safely
stabled at the Craigswold livery, and Ferris was leading Chum proudly
through the wicket gate leading into the country-club grounds.
All happened as the postmaster had foretold. The clerk at the wicket
asked him his name, fumbled through a ledger and a pile of envelopes
and presently handed Ferris a numbered tag.
"Sixty-five," read the clerk for Link's benefit. "That's down at the
extreme right. Almost the last bench to the right."
Into the hallowed precinct Link piloted the much-interested Chum. There
he paused for a dazzled instant. The putting green and the fore-lawn in
front of the field-stone clubhouse had been covered with a mass of
wooden alleyways, each lined with a double row of stalls about two feet
from the ground, carpeted with straw and having individual zinc water
troughs in front of them. In nearly every one of these "benches" was
tied a dog.
There were more dogs than Link Ferris had seen before in all his
quasi-dogless life. And all of them seemed to be barking or yelping.
The din was egregious. Along the alleyways, men and women in sport
clothes were drifting, in survey of the chained exhibits. In a central
space among the lines of benches was a large square enclosure, roped
off except for one aperture. In the middle of this space, which Link
rightly guessed to be the judging ring, stood a very low wooden
platform. At one side of the ring were a chair and a table, where sat a
steward in a Palm Beach suit, fussily turning over the leaves of a
ledger and assorting a heap of high-packed and vari-colored ribbons.
Link, mindful of instructions, bore to the right in search of a stall
labeled "65." As he went, he noted that the dogs were benched in such a
way that each breed had a section to itself. Thus, while he was still
some distance away from his designated bench, he saw that he was coming
into a section of dogs which, in general aspect, resembled Chum. Above
this aggregation, as over others, hung a lettered sign. And this
especial sign read "Collie Section."
So Chum was a "collie"--whatever that might be. Link took it to be a
fancy term for "bird dog." He had seen the word before somewhere. And
he remembered now that it had been in the advertisement that offered
seventy-five dollars for the return of a lost "sable-and-white collie."
Yes, and Dominie Jansen had said, "sable" meant "black." Link felt a
glow of relief that the advertisement had not said "a brown-and-white
collie."
Chum was viewing his new surroundings with much attention, looking up
now and then into his master's face as they moved along the rackety
line--as though to gain reassurance that all was well.
To a high-strung and sensitive dog a show is a terrific ordeal. But
Chum, like the aristocrat he was, bore its preliminaries with debonair
calm.
Arriving at Bench 65 in the collie section, Link enthroned his dog
there, fastening the chain's free end to a ring in the stall's corner.
Then, after seeing that the water pan was where Chum could reach it in
case he were thirsty and that the straw made a comfortable couch for
him, Ferris once more patted the worried dog and told him everything
was all right. After which Link proceeded to take a survey of the
neighboring collies, the sixteen dogs which were to be Chum's
competitors.
His first appraising glance of the double row of collies caused the
furrow between his eyes to vanish and brought a grin of complacent
satisfaction to his thin lips. For he did not see a single entrant
that, in his eyes, seemed to have a ghost of a chance against his
idolized pet--not a dog as handsome or with half the look of
intelligence or with the proudly gay bearing of Chum.
Of the sixteen other collies the majority were sables of divers shades.
There were three tricolors and two mist-hued merles. Over nearly all
the section's occupants a swarm of owners and handlers were just now
busy with brush and cloth. For word had come that collies were to be
the second breed judged that day. The first breed was to be the Great
Danes. As there were but three Danes in the show, their judging would
be brief. And it behooved the collies' attendants to have their entries
ready.
Link, following the example of those around him, took from his pocket
the molting dandy brush and set to work once more on Chum's coat. He
observed that the rest were brushing their dogs' fur against the grain,
to make it fluff up. And he reversed his own former process in
imitation of them. He had supposed until now that a collie's hair, like
a man's, ought to be slicked down smooth for state occasions. And it
troubled him to find that Chum's coat rebelled against such treatment.
Now, under the reverse process, it stood out in wavy freedom.
At the adjoining stall to the left a decidedly pretty girl was watching
a groom put the finishing touches to the toilet of her tricolor collie.
Link heard her exclaim in protest as the groom removed from the dog's
collar a huge cerise bow she had just affixed there.
"Sorry, Miss," Ferris heard the groom explain, "but it's agin rules for
a dog to go in the ring with a ribbon on. If the judge thinks he's good
enough for a ribbon he'll award him one. But--"
"Oh, he simply can't help awarding one to Morven, here!" broke in the
girl. "CAN he, Stokes?"
"Hard to say, Miss," answered the groom imperturbably, as he wrought
with brush and cloth. "Judges has their own ideas. We'll have to hope
for the best for him and not be too sick if he gets gated."
"Gated?" echoed the girl--an evident newcomer to the realm of showdom.
"Yes, Miss," expounded the groom. "'Gated' means 'shown the gate.' Some
judges thins out a class that way, by sending the poorest dogs out of
the ring first. Then again, some judges--"
"Oh, I'm glad I wore this dress!" sighed the girl. "It goes so well
with Morven's color. Perhaps the judge--"
"Excuse me, Miss," put in the groom, trying not to laugh, "but the
collie judge to-day is Fred Leightonhe bred the great Howgill Rival,
you know--and when Leighton is in the ring, he hasn't got eyes for
anything but the dogs themselves. Begging your pardon, he wouldn't
notice if you was to wear a horse blanket. At that, Leighton's the
squarest and the best--"
"Look!" whispered the girl, whose attention had wandered and whose
roving gaze had settled on Chum. "Look at that dog in the next bench.
Isn't he magnificent?"
Link swelled with pride at the lowspoken praise. And turning away to
hide his satisfaction, he saw that quite a sizable knot of spectators
had gathered in front of Chum's bench. They were inspecting the collie
with manifest approval. Chum, embarrassed by the unaccustomed notice,
had moved as far as possible from his admirers, and was nuzzling his
head into Ferris's hand for refuge.
"Puppy Class, Male Scotch Collies!" droned a ring attendant, appearing
for a moment at the far end of the section. "Numbers 60, 61, 62."
Three youngsters, ranging in age from seven to eleven months, were
coaxed down from their straw couches by three excited owners and were
convoyed fussily toward the ring.
"Novice Class next, Miss," Link heard the groom saying to the girl at
the adjoining bench. "Got his ring leash ready?"
"Ring leash!" This was a new one to Ferris. His eyes followed the trio
of puppies shuffling ringward. He saw that all three were on leather
leashes and that their chains had been left in the stalls. Presumably
there was a law against chains in the ring. And Link had no leash.
For an instant he was in a quandary. Then his brow cleared. True, he
had no leash. Yet, if chains, like bows of ribbon, were barred from the
ring, he could maneuver Chum every bit as well with his voice as with
any leash. So that problem was solved.
A minute later, the three pups reappeared at the end of the section.
And behind them came the attendant, intoning:
"Novice Class, Male Scotch Collies! Numbers 64, 65, 66, 67."
There was an absurd throbbing in Link Ferris's meridian. His calloused
hands shook as he unchained Chum and motioned him to leap from the
bench to the ground.
Chum obeyed, but with evident uneasiness. His odd surroundings were
getting on the collie's nerves. Link bent over him, under pretense of
giving him a farewell rub with the brush.
"It's all right, Chummie!" he crooned soothingly. "It's all RIGHT! I'm
here. An' nobody's goin' to bother you none. You're a-helpin' me win
that hundred. An' you're lettin' these gold-shirt folks see what a
clam' gorgeous dawg you be! Come along, ol' friend!"
Under the comfort of his god's voice, Chum's nervousness fled. Safe in
his sublime trust that his master would let no harm befall him, the
collie trotted toward the ring at Ferris's heels.
Three other novice dogs were already in the ring when Link arrived at
the narrow opening. The steward was sitting at the table as before. At
the corner of the ring, alongside the platform, stood a man in tweeds,
unlighted pipe in mouth, half-shut shrewd eyes studying the dogs as
they filed in through the gap in the ropes. The inscrutable eyes
flickered ever so little at sight of Chum, but at once resumed their
former disinterested gaze.
"Walk close!" whispered Link as the parade started.
Chum, hearing a command he had long since learned, ranged himself at
Ferris's side and paced majestically in the procession of four. Two of
the other novice dogs were straining at their leashes; the third was
hanging back and pawing frantically to break away. Chum, unleashed,
guided only by the voice, drew every eye to him by his rare beauty and
his lofty self-possession.
But he was not allowed to finish the parade. Stepping up to Ferris,
Judge Leighton tapped him on the arm.
"Take your dog over to that corner," he ordered, "and keep him there."
Link fought back a yearning to punch the judge, and surlily he obeyed
the mandate. Into his memory jumped the things the groom had said about
a dog being "gated." If that judge thought for one second that any of
those mutts could hold a candle to Chum--. Again he yearned to enforce
with his two willing fists his opinion of the judge.
But, as he well knew, to start a fight in this plutocratic assemblage
would mean a jail term. And in such case, what would befall the
deserted Chum? For the dog's sake he restrained himself, and he began
to edge surreptitiously toward the ring exit, with a view to sliding
out unperceived with his splendid, underrated dog.
But Ferris did not reach the gate unchecked.
Judge Leighton had ended the parade and had stood the three dogs, one
by one and then two at a time, on the platform while he studied them.
Then he had crossed to the table and picked up the judging book and
four ribbons--one blue, one red, one yellow and one white. Three of
these ribbons he handed to the three contestants' handlers.
Then he stepped across the ring to where Ferris was edging his way
toward the exit; and handed Link the remaining ribbon. It was dark
blue, with gilt lettering.
Leighton did not so much as subject Chum to the handling and close
inspection he had lavished on the three others. One expert glance had
told the judge that the dark-sable collie, led by this loutish
countryman, was better fitted to clean up prizes at Madison Square
Garden than to appear in a society dog show in the North Jersey
hinterland.
Leighton had viewed Chum, as a bored musician, listening to the
piano-antics of defective children, might have regarded the playing of
a disguised Paderewski. Wherefore, he had waved the dog to one side
while he judged the lesser entrants, and then had given him the merited
first-prize ribbon.
Link, in a daze of bliss, stalked back to the bench; with Chum capering
along at his side. The queer sixth sense of a collie told Chum his god
was deliriously happy, and that Chum himself had somehow had a share in
making him so. Hence the dog's former gloomy pacing changed to a series
of ecstatic little dance steps, and he kept thrusting his cold muzzle
into the cup of Ferris's palm.
Again Bench 65 was surrounded by an admiring clump of spectators. Chum
and Link vied each other in their icy aloofness toward these admirers.
But with a difference.
Chum was unaffectedly bothered by so much unwelcome attention from
strangers. Ferris, on the other hand, reveled in the knowledge that his
beloved pet was the center of more adulation than was any other dog in
all the section.
Class after class went to be judged. Link was sorry he had not spent
more money and entered Chum in every class. The initial victory had
gone to his head. He had not known he could be so serenely happy. After
a while, he started up at the attendant's droning announcement of,
"Winners' Class, Male Scotch Collies! Numbers 62, 65, 68,70, 73!"
Again Link and Chum set out for the ring. Link's glee had merged into
an all-consuming nervousness, comparable only to a maiden hunter's
"buck ague." Chum, once more sensing Ferris's state of mind, lost his
own glad buoyancy and paced solemnly alongside, peering worriedly up
into Link's face at every few steps.
All five entrants filed into the ring and began their parade. Leighton,
in view of the importance of this crowning event, did not single out
any one dog, as before, to stand to one side; nor did he gate any. He
gave owners and spectators their full due, by a thorough inspection of
all five contestants. But as a result of his examination, he ended the
suspense by handing Link Ferris a purple rosette, whereon was blazoned
in gilt the legend, "Winners."
A salvo of handclaps greeted the eminently just decision. And Chum left
the ring, to find a score of gratulatory hands stretched forth to pat
him. Quite a little crowd escorted him back to his bench.
A dozen people picked acquaintance with Link. They asked him all sorts
of questions as to his dog. Link made monosyllabic and noncommittal
replies to all of these--even when the great Col. Cyrus Marden himself
deigned to come over to the collie section and stare at Chum,
accompanying his scrutiny with a volley or patronizing inquiries.
From the bystanders Link learned something of real interest--namely,
that one of the "specials" was a big silver cup, to be awarded to "best
collie of either sex"; and that after the females should have been,
judged, the winning female and Chum must appear in the ring together to
compete for this trophy.
Sure enough, in less than thirty minutes Chum was summoned to the ring.
There, awaiting him, was a dainty and temperamental merle, of the
Tazewell strain. Exquisite and high-bred as was this female competitor,
Judge Leighton wasted little time on the examination before giving
Ferris a tricolored ribbon, whose possession entitled him to one of the
shimmering silver mugs in the near-by trophy case.
After receiving full assurance that the big cup should be his at the
close of the show, Link returned to Chum's bench in ecstasy and sat
down beside his tired dog, with one arm thrown lovingly round the
collie's ruff. Chum nestled against his triumphant master, as Link
fondled his bunch of ribbons and went over, mentally, every move of his
triumphal morning.
The milling and changing groups of spectators in front of Bench 65 did
not dwindle. Indeed, as the morning went on, they increased. People
kept coming back to the bench and bringing others with them. Some of
these people whispered together. Some merely stared and went away. Some
asked Ferris carefully worded questions, to which the shyly happy
mountaineer replied with sheepish grunts.
The long period of judging came at last to an end. And the "Best Dog in
Show" special was called.
Into the ring Ferris escorted Chum, amid a multitude of fellow winners,
representing one male or female of every breed exhibited. Leighton and
another judge stood in the ring's center, and around them billowed the
heterogeneous array. The two went at their Gargantuan task with an
expert swiftness. Mercilessly, dog after dog was weeded out and gated.
At last, Chum and two others were all remaining of the many which had
thronged the ring. The spectators were banked, five deep and
breathless, round the ropes.
The two judges went into brief executive session in one corner. Then
Leighton crossed to Link, for the fourth time that day, and gave him
the gaudy rosette which proclaimed Chum "best dog in the show." A roar
of applause went up. Link felt dizzy--and numb. Then, with a gasp of
rapture, he stooped and gathered the bored Chum in his long arms, in a
bearlike, ecstatic hug.
"We done it, Chummie!" he chortled. "WE DONE IT!"
Still in a daze, he followed the steward to the trophy case, where he
received not only the shining silver cup, but a "sovereign purse,"
wherein were ensconced ten ten-dollar gold pieces.
It was all a dream--a wonder dream from which presently he must awaken.
Link was certain of that. But while the golden dream lasted, he knew
the nameless joys of paradise.
Chum close at his side, he made his way through the congratulating
crowd toward the outer gate of the country club grounds. He had almost
reached the wicket when someone touched him, with unnecessary firmness,
on the shoulder.
Not relishing the familiarity, Link turned a scowling visage on the
interrupter of his triumphal homeward progress. At his elbow stood a
stockily-built man, dressed with severe plainness.
"You're Lincoln Ferris?" queried the stranger, more as if stating
aggressively a fact than making an inquiry.
"Yep," said Link, cross at this annoying break-in upon his trance of
happiness. "What d'j' want?" he added.
"Please step back to the clubhouse a minute with me," returned the
stranger, civilly enough, but with the same bossy firmness in his tone
that had jarred Ferris in his touch. "One or two people want to speak
to you. Bring along your dog."
Link glowered. He fancied he knew what was in store. Some of the ultra
select had gathered in the holy interior of the clubhouse and wanted a
private view of Chum, unsullied by the noisy presence of the crowd
outside. They would talk patronizingly to Link, and perhaps even try to
coax him into selling Chum. The thought decided Ferris.
"I'm goin' home!" he said roughly.
"You're coming with me," contradicted the man in that same quiet voice,
but slipping his muscular arm into Link's.
With his other hand he shifted the lapel of his coat, displaying a
police badge on its reverse. Still avoiding any outward appearance of
force, he turned about, with his arm locked in Ferris's and started
toward the clubhouse.
"Here!" expostulated poor Link, with all a true mountaineer's horror of
the police. "What's all this? I ain't broke no law! I--"
An ugly growl from Chum punctuated his scared plea. Noting the terror
in his master's tone and the grip of the stranger on Link's arm, Chum
had spun round to face the two.
The collie's eyes were fixed grimly upon the plainclothes man's
temptingly thick throat. One corner of Chum's upper lip was curled
back, displaying a businesslike if snowy fang. His head was lowered.
Deep in his furry throat a succession of legato growls were born.
The plain-clothes man knew much about dogs. He knew, for example, that
when a dog holds his head high and barks there is no special danger to
be feared from him. But he also knew that when a dog lowers his head
and growls, showing his eyetooth, he means business.
And the man shrank from the menace. One hand crept back instinctively
toward his hip pocket.
Link saw the purely involuntary gesture, and he shook in his boots. It
was thus a Hampton constable had once reached back when a stray cur
snapped at him. And that constable had completed the movement by
drawing a pistol and shooting the cur. Perhaps this non-uniformed
stranger meant to do the same thing.
"Hold on!" begged Link, intervening between the man and the dog. "I'll
go along with you peaceful. Quit, Chum! It's all right!"
The dog still looked undecided. He did not like this new note in his
god's voice. But he obeyed the injunction, and fell into step at Link's
side as usual. Ferris suffered himself to be piloted, unresisting,
through the tattered remnant of the crowd and up the clubhouse steps.
There his conductor led him through the sacred portals and down a wide
hallway to the door of a committee room. Throwing open the door, he
ushered in his captive and the dog, entering behind them and reclosing
the heavy door.
In the room, round a table, sat several persons--all men except one.
The exception was the girl whose collie had had the bench next to
Chum's. At the table head, looking very magisterial indeed, sat Colonel
Marden. Beside him lounged a larger and older man in a plaid sport suit.
Link's escort ranged his prisoners at the foot of the table; Chum
standing tight against Ferris's knee, as if to guard him from possible
harm. Link stood glowering in sullen perplexity at the Colonel. Marden
cleared his voice pompously, then spoke.
"Ferris," he began with much impressiveness, "I am a magistrate of this
county--as you perhaps know. You may consider yourself before the Bar
of Justice, and reply to my questions accordingly."
Awed by this thundered preamble, Ferris made shift to mutter:
"I ain't broke no laws. What d'j' want of me, anyhow?"
"First of all," proceeded Marden, "where did you get that dog?"
"Chum here?" said Ferris. "Why, I come acrost him, early last spring,
on the patch of state road, jes' outside of Hampton. He was a-layin' in
a ditch, with his leg bust. Throwed off'n a auto, I figgered it. I took
him home an'--"
He paused, as the sport-suited man next to Marden nodded excitedly to
the girl and then whispered to the Colonel.
"You took him home?" pursued Marden. "Couldn't you see he was a
valuable dog?"
"I c'd see he was a sufferin' an' dyin' dawg," retorted Link. "I c'd
see he was a goner, 'less I took him home an' 'tended him. If you're
aimin' at findin' out why I went on keepin' him after that, I done so
because no one claimed him. I put up notices 'bout him. I put one up at
the post-office here, too. I--"
"He did!" interrupted the girl. "That's true! I saw it. Only--the
notice said it was a bird dog. That's why we didn't follow it up. He--"
"Miss Gault," suggested Marden in lofty reproof, "suppose you leave the
interrogatory to me, if you please? Yes, I recollect that notice. My
attention was called to it at the time. But," again addressing Link,
"why did you call 'Glenmuir Cavalier' a 'BIRD dog'? Was it to throw us
off the track or--"
"Don't know no What's-His-Name Cav'lier!" snapped Ferris. "This dawg's
name is Chum. Like you c'n see in my entry blank, what's layin' on the
table in front of you. I adv'tised Chum as a bird dawg because I
s'posed he WAS a bird dawg. I ain't a sharp on dawgs. He's the fust one
ever I had. If he ain't a bird dawg, 'tain't my fault. He looks more
like one than like 'tother breeds I'd seen. So I called him one."
"There is no need to raise your voice at me!" rebuked the colonel. "I
am disposed to accept your explanation. But if you read the local
papers you must have seen--"
"I did read 'em," said Ferris. "I read 'em steady for a month or more,
to see was there was adv'tisement fer a lost dawg. Nary an adv'tisement
did I see excep' one fer a 'sable' collie. 'Sable' means 'black.' I
know, because our dominie told me so. I asked him, when I see that
piece in the paper. Chum ain't black, nor nowheres near black. So I
knowed it couldn't be him. What d'j' want of me, anyhow?" he demanded
once more.
"Again, I am disposed to credit your explanation," boomed the colonel,
frowning down a ripple of giggles that had its rise in Miss Gault. "And
I am disposed to acquit you of consciously dishonest intent. I am glad
to do so. Here is the situation: Early last spring, Mr. Gault,"
indicating the sport-suit wearer at his left, "bought from the famous
Glenmuir Collie Kennels, on the Hudson, an unusually fine young
collie--a dog for which connoisseurs predicted a great future in the
show ring. He purchased it as a gift for his daughter, Miss Marion
Gault."
He inclined his head slightly toward the girl; then proceeded:
"As Mr. Glenmuir was disbanding his kennel, Mr. Gault was able to
secure the dog--Glenmuir Cavalier. He started for Craigswold, with the
dog on the rear seat of the car. At first he kept a hand on the dog's
collar, but as the collie made no attempt to escape, he soon turned
around--he was in the front seat--and paid no more attention to him.
Just outside of Suffern, he looked back--to find Cavalier had
disappeared. He advertised, and made all possible efforts to locate the
dog. But he could get no clew to him, until to-day. Seeing this dog of
yours in the show ring, he recognized him at once."
The pompously booming voice, with its stilted diction, ceased. All eyes
were upon Link Ferris. The mountaineer, stung to life by the silence
and the multiple gaze, came out of his trance of shock.
"Then--then," he stuttered, forcing the words from a throat sanded by
sudden dread, "then Chum rightly b'longs to this man?"
"Quite so!" assented Marden, in some relief. "I am glad you grasp the
point so readily. Mr. Gault has talked the matter over with me, and he
is taking a remarkably broad and generous view of the case if I may say
so. He is not only willing that you should keep the cup and the cash
prize which you have won to-day, but he is also ready to pay to you the
seventy-five dollar reward he offered for the return of Glenmuir
Cavalier. I repeat, this strikes me as most gener--"
"NO!" yelled Link, a spasm of foreseen loneliness sweeping over him.
"NO!! He can't have him! Nobody can! Why Chum's my dawg! I've learned
him to fetch cows an' shake hands an'--an' everything! An' he drug me
out'n the lake, when I was a-drowndin'! An' he done a heap more'n that
fer me! He's drug me up to my feet, out'n wuthlessness, too; an' he's
learned me that livin' is wuth while! He's my--my--he's my dawg!" he
finished lamely, his scared eyes sweeping the circle of faces in panic
appeal.
"That will do, Ferris!" coldly exhorted the colonel. "We wish no scenes
here. You will take this seventyfive dollar check which Mr. Gault has
so kindly made out for you, and you will go."
"Leavin' Chum behind?" babbled Ferris, aghast. "Not leavin' Chum
behind? PLEASE not!"
He pulled himself together with an effort that drove his nails bitingly
into his palms and left his face gray. He saw the uselessness of
pleading with these people of polished iron, who could not understand
his fearful loss. For the sake of Chum--for the sake of the
self-respecting man he himself had become--he would not let himself go
to pieces. Forcing his shaken voice to a dry steadiness, he addressed
the uneasily squirming Gault.
"What d'j' you pay for Chum when you bought him off'n that Hudson River
feller--that Glenmuir chap?" he demanded.
"Why, as a matter of fact," responded Gault, "as Colonel Marden has
told you, I couldn't have hoped to get such a promising collie at any
price it--"
"What d'j' you pay for him?" insisted Link, his voice harsh and
unconsciously domineering as a vague new hope dawned on his troubled
mind.
"I paid six hundred dollars," answered Gault shortly, in annoyance at
the boor's manner.
"Good!" approved Link, "That gives us suthin' to go on. I'll pay you
six hundred dollars fer him back. This hundred dollars in gold an' this
yer silver cup an' seven dollars more I got with me--to bind the
bargain. An' a second mortgage on my farm fer the rest. Fer as much of
the rest," he amended, "as I ain't got ready cash for."
In his stark earnestness, Link's rough voice sounded more hectoring and
unpleasant than before. Gault, unused to such talk from the alleged
"peasantry," resolved to cut short the haggling.
"Sell for six hundred a dog that's cleaned up 'best in the show?'" he
rasped. "No, thank you. Leighton says Cavalier will go far. One man,
ten minutes ago, offered me a thousand for him."
"A thousan'?" repeated Ferris, scared at the magnitude of the
sum--then, rallying, he asked:
"What WILL you let me have him fer, then? Set a price, can't you?"
"The dog is not for sale," curtly replied Gault, busying himself with
the lighting of a cigarette.
"Take Mr. Gault's check and go," commanded Marden, thrusting the slip
of paper at Link. "I think there is nothing more to say. I have an
appointment at--"
He hesitated. Regardless of the others' presence, Ferris dropped to one
knee beside the uncomprehending dog. With his arm about Chum's neck, he
bent close to the collie's ear and whispered:
"Good-by, Chummie! It's good-by, fer keeps, too. Don't you get to
thinkin' I've gone an' deserted you, nor got tired of you, nor nothnn',
Chum. Because I'd a dam' sight ruther leave one of my two legs here
than to leave you. I--I guess only Gawd rightly knows all you done fer
me, Chum. But I ain't a-goin' to ferget none of it. Lord, but it's
goin' to be pretty turrible, to home, without you!" He got to his feet,
winking back a mist from his red eyes, and turning blindly toward the
door.
"Here!" boomed Marden after him. "You've forgotten your check."
"I don't aim to take no measly money fer givin' up the only friend I
got!" snarled Link over his shoulder. "Keep it--fer a tip!"
It was a good exit line. But it was spoiled. Because, as Ferris reached
the door and groped for its knob, Chum was beside him--glad to get out
of this uncongenial assembly and to be alone with the master who seemed
so unhappy and so direly in need of consolation. Link stiffened to his
full height. With one hand lovingly laid on the collie's silken head,
he mumbled:
"No, Chum, you can't come along. Back, boy! Stay HERE!"
Lowering at Gault, he added:
"He ain't never been hit, nor yet swore at. An' he don't need to be.
Treat him nice, like he's used to bein' treated. An' don't get sore on
him if he mopes fer me, jes' at fust. Because he's sure to. Dogs ain't
like folks. They got hearts. Folks has only got souls. I guess dogs has
the best of it, at that."
Ferris swung open the door and stumbled out, not trusting himself for a
backward glance at the wistfully grieved dog he had left behind.
Lurchingly he made off, across the lawn and out through the wicket. He
was numb and sick. He moved mechanically and with no conscious power of
thought or of locomotion.
Out in the highroad, a homing instinct guided his leaden feet in the
direction of Hampton. And he plodded dazedly the interminable four
miles that separated him from his desolate farm.
As he turned in at his own gate, he was aware of a poignant dread that
pierced his numbness. And he knew it for a dread of entering the house
and of finding no one to welcome him. Setting his teeth he went
forward, unlocked the door and stamped into the silent kitchen.
Upon the table he dumped the paper-swathed cup he had been carrying
unnoticed under his arm. Beside it he threw the little purse full of
gold pieces and the wad of prize ribbons. Stepping back, his foot
struck something. He looked down and saw it was a gay-colored rubber
ball he had bought, months ago, for Chum--the dog's favorite plaything.
His face twisting, Link snatched up the ball and went out onto the
steps to throw it far out of sight; that it might no more remind him of
the pet who had so often coaxed him to toss it for retrieval.
Ferris hurled the ball far out into the garden. As the missile left his
hand an exultant bark re-echoed through the silence of the sunset.
Chum, who had been trotting demurely up the walk, sprang gleefully in
pursuit of the ball, and presently came galloping back to the dazedly
incredulous Link, with the many-colored sphere of rubber between his
jaws.
Chum had had no trouble at all in catching his master's trail and
following it home. He would have overtaken the slow-slouching Ferris,
had he been able to slip out of the clubhouse sooner. And now it
pleased him to be welcomed by this evident invitation to a game of ball.
Link gave a gulping cry and buried both hands in the collie's ruff,
staring down at the dancing dog in an agony of rapture. Then, all at
once, his muscles tensed, and his newly flushed face went green-white
again.
"I--I guess we got to play it square, Chum!" he muttered aloud, with
something like a groan. "I was blattin' to 'em, up there, how you'd
made a white man of me. An' a reg'lar white man don't keep what ain't
his own prop'ty. Come along, Chummie!"
His jaw very tense, his back painfully stiff, Link strode heavily down
the lane and out into the highroad. Chum, always eager for a walk with
his god, frisked about him in delight.
He had traversed the bulk of the distance to Craigswold, the dog beside
him, when he remembered that he had left his horse and buggy at the
livery stable there in the morning. Well, that would save his aching
feet a four-mile walk home. In the meantime--
He and Chum stepped to the roadside to avoid a fast-traveling little
motor car which was bearing down on them from the direction of
Craigswold.
The car did not pass them. Instead, it came to a gear-racking halt
close beside Ferris. Link, glancing up in dull lack of interest, beheld
Gault and the latter's daughter staring down at him.
"Chum came home," said Ferris, scowling at them. "He trailed me. Don't
lick him fer it! He's only a dog, an' he didn't know no better. I was
bringin' him back to you."
The girl looked sharply at her father. Gault fidgeted uneasily, as he
had done once or twice that afternoon in the clubhouse. And he avoided
his daughter's gaze. So she turned her level eyes on Link.
"Mr. Ferris," she said very quietly, "do you mean to say, when this dog
came back to you, you were actually going to return him to us, instead
of hiding him somewhere till the search was over?"
"I'm here, ain't I?" countered Ferris defiantly.
"But why?" she insisted. "WHY?"
"Because I'm a fool, I s'pose," he growled. "I guess Chum wouldn't care
much 'bout livin' with a thief. Take him up there with you on the seat.
Don't let him fall out. An'"--his voice scaling a half octave in its
pain--"keep him to home after this. I ain't no measly angel. I can't
swear I'd have the grit to fetch him back another time."
He stopped, to note a curious phenomenon. There were actually tears in
the girl's big grave eyes. Link wondered why. Then she said:
"Cavalier isn't my father's dog. He is mine. My father gave him to me
when he bought him, last spring. Colonel Marden seemed to have
forgotten that to-day. And I didn't want to start a squabble by
reminding him of it. After all, it's my father's affair, and mine.
Nobody else's. My father got me another collie last spring to take
Cavalier's place. A collie I'm ever so fond of. So I don't need
Cavalier. I don't want him. I tried to find you to tell you so. But you
had gone. So I got my father to drive me to your place. We'd have
started sooner, but Cavalier got away. And we waited to look for
him--to bring him along."
"Bring him along?" mutteringly echoed the blankbrained Link. "What fer?"
"Why," laughed the girl, "because your house is where he belongs and
where he is going to live. Just as he has been living all summer."
Ferris caught his breath in a choked wheeze of unbelieving ecstasy.
"Gawd!" he breathed. "GAWD!"
Then, he stammered brokenly
"They--they don't seem no right words to--to thank you in, Ma'am. But
maybe you und'stand what I'd want to say if I could?"
"Yes," she said gently. "I think I understand. I understood from the
minute I saw you and the dog together. That's why I decided I didn't
want him. That's why I--"
"An' you'll get that thousand dollars!" cried Link, his fingers buried
rapturously in Chum's fur. "Ev'ry cent of it. I--"
"I think," interrupted the girl, winking very fast. "I think I've got
what I wanted, already. My father doesn't want the money either. Do
you, Dad?"
"Oh, for heaven's sake, stop rubbing it in!" fumed Gault. "Come on
home! It's getting cold. I ought to thank the Lord for not having you
anywhere near me in Wall Street, girl! You'd send me under the hammer
in a week."
He kicked the accelerator, and the little car whizzed off in the
twilight.
"Chum," observed Ferris, gaping after it. "Chum, I guess the good Lord
built that gal the same day He built YOU. If He did--well, He sure done
one grand day's work!"