AN HEROIC DOG

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

AN HEROIC DOG

All admirers of dogs know tliat they are capable of great courage and that tliey are very intelligent. Many stories are told of the bravery and good sense of dogs. Here is another story that I read in the "Children's Newspaper." It is the tale of a dog who suffered to cave his master's life.

Far away in Alaska, in America, two men were working. With them was a dog called Nigger. He wa3 enjoying himself scampering about and hoping that soon the men would be going home for he wanted his supper. Suddenly there was a tremendous noise, and then silence. The two men were lying on the the ground, groaning and injured by the explosion. Nigger was some way off when the explosion occurred, but he came bounding up, and when he saw the two men lying so still he knew that something had happened. He licked their faces and gave a short bark, but they did not speak, so Nigger sat down to wait. He waited for hours, giving little barks now and then. At last, when it was quite dark, one of the men stirred. Nigger barked again to show he was there, and' went to the man, who pulled himself up and searched, with slowmovements, through his pockets until he found a scrap of paper and a pencil* The other lay still, with his arm over his face.

'"Here, Nigger," said the man, in & weak voice. Nigger came obediently, and waited while the man succeeded in tying something to his collar. "Good dog, Nigger! Now go home!" said the man. Nigger wagged his tail and stood for a minute. Again came the order, and Nigger knew that there was something wrong and he had to go. He turned and ran a little way, and then came back. He knew he would have to pass across the Book Mountain, and he hated the id?o, of going alone in the darkness of the night. But again the man said, "Home, Nigger." Nigger turned away and began his long journey home. Poor Nigger! How frightened and lonely and terribly cold he felt as he crossed the 3000 ft pass in the bitter midnight of the frozen North! Over the frozen track he went, pressing, pressing steadily on, although the darkness was thick and he heard many a strange sound. It was nearly morning when Nigger came to the end of his journey. His master's brother, fast asleep in. bed, was slowly awakened by a scratching which went on. In a few minutes he was wide awake, and knew that something strange had happened. He opened the door and let in Nigger, utterly weary and half-frozen. He was white with frost, his hair matted into icicles. He lay down at the man's feet, for his work was over. The man looked at him in a puzzled way. Then ha saw the note. The words written were: "Come. Both seriously injured- Explosion." Immediately he flung on his clothes, and in a few minutes a couple of men had set out with a aledge and a team of dogs to the rescue of the injured men. When it was seen how seriously they were injured a wireless message was sent for an aeroplane to fetch tha men to hospital, and in time they recovered, but if they had been left lying helpless and in pain much lonsrer they would have died. It was entirely owing to Nigger's pluck and cleverness that their lives were saved.