THE DOG.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10963, 4 May 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE DOG.

This is the story of a dog and love enters into it only by implication. Still, if one has imagination — > — • When the One Hundred and FortyEighth went to the Islands, Pine, captain, went with it. Pine was a tall, symmetrical, straight-grained young fellow, good to look at, and very much m love with the Girl. Whether the Girl was m love with Pine or not i. another proposition, but she met him m the station as the army train passed through. .hei city, and they talked fast during the five minutes wliich it took to change engines. Just what they -said is a matter of conjecture, but certain it is that, when Pinleft her, at the starting of the train, his jaw had dropped a full inch and he walked with the dazed look of ;- a man who has received a sudden and unexpected blow and is having hard work to realise it. .

As for the Girl, she seemed a little troubled, too — now tliat he was gone — and .for the first time since she had owned her bull-terrier failed to notice that he was not on the seat beei d her as she drove away.. ..The story, of the dog really begins at this point.. • He had followed her into the station upon the arrival of the train, jabbed liis. nose against Pine's leg as the soldier came up, wagged his stubby tail into a blur of welcome, and then, finding himself unnoticed, trotted across the platform and boarded the train. The coach was crowded with . men who wpre uniforms something like the butler, m the house of his mistress, and the dog had toothsome memories of the butler and the kitchen that .he lorded over; Half-way down the . car- lie saw a seat : with but one man m it. . He ■; jumped; upon it, and putting his. feet on' McGrath's leg, stood, there, with his head tilted alertly to . one side and one ear dropping like a broken wing. M.Gratli loved well-bred dogs, and at first sight he coveted the terrier. Quickly he thieved a glance up and down the aisle, saw that no one was. noticing him, and grabbing the dog. by the neck, thrust his head into liis lap arid held' him tightly there until the train was* once more' speeding westward. . -, ! tv McGrath had been .born, amid . the wharves, twenty-fivs yeaas before. Ig a good many ways he was about as bad as they make ihemT , .He was not very toll, but he weighed a,- good deal, arid his arms were plaited with muscles until, except for their size, they looked like a China, man's . cue. He had a sombre, silent mind: that scowled blackly at the world, and he took delight m but two tliing^Tletting the blood of his fellow, man , and teaching dumb animals to love him. For a few years McGrath had been a fairly sucr^sfulheayy-weight.pvigilist, prosperous m the manner of his kind.' Then a mightier man oaine along and broke McGrath's ribs and heart with a single blow.! Thereafter he spent most of his time beneath the wharves with a piece of cracker m his. hand, patiently teaching the rats to come and eat from his fingers. When the war broke out McGrath enlisted— not that be hud much idea what it was all about, but because he had been told that the dagos liad blown up an American warship and' that tliere would be fighting— which was plenty to know for Tun McGrath, riverfront pugilist. .-"'.-).., Tlie train sped ori," with the inter : , minable backward leap of ,, 'telegraphpoles, while gradually the struggles of the dog ceased beneath the rough caresses of the soldier. McGrath had -started m to win the dog's heart and McGrath knew how to, win. a d6gs heart as ceir tainly as gome men know how to. win_ a! woman's. It is almost a week's trip across the continent, and in 1 that length of time many tilings can be done. When the train rumbled up to the city of the Golden Gate the dog had been sworn m and was as much a part of the army as Pippin himself, the neVirsboy~»drun_mer. He had learned to strut on his hind legs with a drumstick held over his' shoulder after the manner of a man carrying -a gun, and could salute an officer- better thau the National Guard of some States. And m additiou to these things, he could do something else, a something which no man had taught him, but which endeared him to the men above all other accoriiplishments. He could fight beyond the power of telling. The One Hundred' -a_id_ Forty-Eighth first became aware of this when they were disembarking from the ferry at 'Frisco. From out of an' alley a tancoated mongrel, three- times the size of the terrier, came slouching j and going up to him, threw one leg over liis shoulder and began to bully him after the fashion of street-arab canines.* The next instant the terrier was at the bully's tliroat with a leap that was like tliat ol an uncoiling spring, and the fight which followed raged from the point of beginning .to the uttermost end of the square. The One Hundred and FortyEighth saw somo pretty desperate hand-to-nand conflicts before they were mustered out, but never did they follow the to-the-death struggle of man and man more intently than they now did tliis battle of dogs. ... When, after five minutes, the hig mongrel fled yelping' up the street and the terrier trotted serenely back to the army luggage and sat down upon it lolling indifferently, the regiment stood upon its tiptoes and caterwauled until toe dog threw up his -head and added : lus own self-applause to the infernal' din. Beginning at that moment, the dog was no longer a mere mascot, but became an institution. Later on he developed into an idol, also, bat that is a matter requiring considerable telling. On the grey sand-flato where the-tent-first squatted, and afterward at ■_ the Presidio, the dog's military education grew apace. He learned tne bugle-calls as quickly as does the average^ recruit, and took tar more interest m seeing- that they were obeyed. As the first notes of the reveille went ringing down the company streets of mornings with its plaint of I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up m the morning, the dog would rush furiously down the white-bordered lane,, barking -into the tent 6, tugging at the blankets of loiterers, until the last sleep-befuddled soldier stumbled into line and stood dreamily tlirough the roll-call. Mess-call never failed to find the dog at the head of his company. - - r > But it -was at drill that he really asserted his authority. With the first command of the sergeant as he formed the company, tlie dog would squat on the grass beside him until inspection ; then trotting behind the line he" would smell of each heel as he passed, and the farther the heel was out of column the sharper the nip tliat aligned it. Aud so his days passed busily, each witlrits myriad of duties to perform until "taps" sounded and the men crept into their blankets. But on many a moonlight night a sentry, passing to and fro full of thoughts of the girl, that he had left behind him. would see the dog sitting on the grass ,flf the paradeground, his face always pointed eastward. For though the dog loved tho army with the love of a born soldier, he also had a mistress far beyond desert and plain, and he worshiped her from the bottom of his fond dog's heart.

The Ninetieth Tennessee came to 'Frisco, bringing with them a mascot. He was a pedigreed bulldog, bow-legg _d aud muscular, and he weighed over thirty pounds. The terrier tipped the beam at a scant twenty. The two dogs saw each other for the first time one day after drill, and the next instant- met m mid air like a pair of game-cocks. McGrath fell upon them as they rolled each _ other m the dirt, and after choking them "apart, held one m each hand as he called for some one to relieve him of the bulldog. Half a dozen men from the Ninetieth came up at his summons.

"Let 'em fight," said one, with a grin. "Take your cur away." retorted McGrath * savagely. "You're a good sport, you are, when your dog is half again as big as mine, and a fighting bull at that. I don't fight dogs. But- if you've got a man ' McGrath ttopped speaking, glowered at them for a moment, and then walked away, muttering, leaving the owner of the bull lo iking after him with a vengeful light m his eyes. "All right fo' yu," suh," the mountaineer murmured as the pugilist disappeared. "But yu dawg has got to fight, all the same." He turned on his comE anions with a short laugh. "If.yu Hoys appens to meet up with me ovah m the sand-patch at six to-night— well, I reck ous you-alls will see a terrier turn up his toes."

McGrath's dog had shown a proper fighting spirit, and nobody loves gamcness m man or beast more than do the men from the region of the Great Smokies. They said they would come, and went away looking Very pleased at tbe prospect. True to his word at the hour stated the Tcnnesseean dropped thc kidnapped terrier upon the sand squarely m front of the raging bull. Grotesquely overmatched, half-bewildered, yet realising

that a battle to the death lay before him, the terrier met the rush of the bull halfway, and grappling him as best he could, silently fought the fight of a heart that fear of beast never entered. What fallowed is not pleasant telling, but a quarter of an hour later the terrier, with one ear forever missing, one leg that bent under him like a hinge, and to all appearances wheezing his life out, came dragging himself across the paradeground. As for the bulldog, they were burying him back m the sand-patch. The rage of McGrath was like the rage of a gorilla that sees its. young m the grasp of an enemy.. His eyes. blurred with hate, his jaws worked, and- he beat upon his breast as he stood looking from his pet into the distance. Then with a roar he doubled his fists into knotted blocks arid leaped into action. ! He hit the astonished grave-diggers like a-cata-pult, drove clear through them, and th .n started, back with fists flying like flails. Half a dozen soldiers went down like bowled' tenpins at- his first wild rush, then some one swung a club from behind arid McGrath went down and out like a stunned bullock. The pugilist had been knocked < lit before, and had grown accustomed to harsh treatment, but never had he received such a blow as this.. Two .lays passed before he was able to walk again, and then it was with a shamble. But the first thing he did was to go looking for the corpse of his terrier. He found him afc lost,! and, much to his surprise, the dog still lived. He had crawled under the barracks, where the man could not follow, and lay there licking his wounds with a hot tongue and ; now and- then whimpering aTli_ie.-. For the next week, when offTduty, McGrath spent most of his time 'yirig on. his belly irii frorit of the hole trying to c coax the terrier forth, but all ,- his efforts were unavailing, and on* Thi.s seventh day he arose and; started for bis gun with a great grief m his heart. McGrath had made up his mind that the terrier was about to die, and had decided fa. put him out Of his misery with avbullet. Btit what was his astonishment, upon returning teri' minutes later,, to me aToorie-eared, crippled skeleton of a dog wobbling V feebly across the parade ground arid headed m the direction of the sand-patch. '-'":■ J ' . It was then that they made him an idol,

Captain "Pine wrote letters 1 to the Giri now and; then, and about this time he sent her' one that had much about the dog m it. The Girl know-there could be but one bull-terrier m the world with a perfect star and crescent on his brea«*t, arid that therefore this dog must be her ;dog; '-" ■-•'■■-••■ '■-.•'■■•'•.

Immediately she sat down and " wrote a long letter to the officer. It had a" somewhat different tone than had her E receding missives,: and a once rejected ut * still hopeful lover might not have been utterly discouraged upon reading it. But there was one strain running through it all that was unmistakable and that strain, now pleading, now com maudirig, ever voiced the same refrain . "first get me my dog." " After she had mailed itsfae werit to her room and. sat there for a Jong time with a worried look. But that was net to be much wondered at,-' either; for to have a dog and a man on ! the mind at the same time is plenty of trouble for .any-woman. /_ ■_ . // It takes -a jood while to send a letter from the Pacific to the Atlantic and get a reply,' arid when the Girl's missive reached 'Frisco Prine was half-way to the Islands. The letter followed him ,on the next ship,, but, like most very important letters, was fnisdelivered, arid ;it was a month. after he had gone ou. | Camaray way before he got .'it. | Then he began thinking.; He could [not get. the dog from the men by forco |or bribei andvto have kidnapped him would have made Pine the worse-hated officer m the army. There seemed to-be riothing.to.do'but wait and bide his opportunity;, so Pine waited and bided, 'n the interim he wrote the Girl telling he. that- nothing but- death, could prevent him sending her the canine, only begging her to kave a little patience and put her faith m him. He also! told her other things, but they were confidential, and cannot be repeated. •'• a. -, !*The Ninetieth Tennessee came to the Islands and went into camp almost withiri the shadow of McGrath's black scowl. To th§ core of his soul he hated them — hated them for what Hhey had done to his dog, hated them: for what they had done to him, hated them to the last hair bn their heads and^the last drop of blooJ m their bodies.. „

The crisis cariie when one day he met two of them on a narrow jungle road, and brushing them aside, cursed them with phrases that had been handed down to and. improved upon by. generations if longshoremen. Next they fought. The Tenuesseeans were muSculai' and active, and wh 1 Is McGrath could have whipped either *ot them without difficulty, he , had plenty of work to hold his own - against the pair. The dog had; .been trotting along a short distance behind, and now, seeing his master; m the midst of a desperate broil, hurled himself into the conflict. With a growl, he fastened his teeth m the calf of one of the Southerners and tried to' shake him, and the man, smarting m the grip, whipped the rbayonrt from his belt and .raised. it for a thru-t which; had it gone home, would . hays erided the dog's history. But . McGrath, now frenzied with pas sion and seeing that: his dog was aboutto die, tore himself from his adversary with a bellow and , jerked out his revolver. Then m thejflash of aneye h. shot twice, and the two men fell heavily? .while -the slayer stood lookirig down upon, theni like a bull that has just gored his enemy. And then suddenly realising what he had done, the world swam m a bloodred sea before his eyes, and McGrath ran amuck. Moaning, beating upon his breast, he plunged heavily into the jungle, with a hate for all men burning fiercely m his heart. Well he knew that he , had forfeited his right to live, but one thing he swore to himself as he ran his last race — he would not die- alone. So on he went, flicking his bloodshot eyes about for a place where he could make a stand.

Pine happened to be returning from the village when the affair occurred, and saw it all from a distance. When the men fell he went to them as fast as he could, found that they were beyond human help, and then leaped hotfoot en the murderer's trail.

For five minutes he ran rapidly, guided by occasional crashes ahead oJ him, and at the end of that time cams to a sudden halt. Just before him . _uy a clearing m the jungle, on the opposite side of which was a half-roofless, doorless nipa hut, with the black f%ce ot McGrath glowering from the window, while m front of the face was a revolver that spat a bullet -at the pursuer at the very instant of his appearing. Pine made a sidcwise leap an instant ahead of the flash and escaped leath by a matter of inches ; then he sat dow.i behind a palm and began to think hard The situation was different m. many respects from anything he hhd road m his "Tactics," and was pregnant with perplexities. McGrath had ammuhithn.which he would undoubtedly husband for close, sure work, and to advance openly, upon the hub was out of the qiu.. i tion.

Then, too, dusk was but an hour away, and should he leave to summon help McGrath might easily enough escape and flee into the arms of the insurgents. Strategy seemed to be the only alternative, and Pine fired a tentative shot at the door as he sat trying to evolve a plan. As the bullet nipped a splinter from the threshold the terrier leaped forth from .the interior, and pouncing upon the piece of wood, worried it as if it had been a rat. At the sight of the dog a new light came into the eyes of tho watcher, and throwing himself upon his stomach, he worthed his way out jf sight into the long grass. The ground was still soggy from .I<> rains, and the rank smell of thc forest was strong m his nostrils. Thom-I'ke twigs pierced his palms, and jungle insects settled upon his neck and bit ami stung unmolested as he snaked himsf.f through the growth with. his body fift and his head on a line with it.

The sweat poured down his face In streams and nearly blinded him with i.s smart, while the bites and stings of n.s tormentors grew almost unbearable. _r was not more than. a hundred yards to the point for which he was headed, yet the better part, of an hour haa passed before he reached the rear and windowless side of the hut. He lay as motionless as the jungle itself as he coaxed back his breath and studied the limb of a mango that hung low over the-roof-less end of McGrath's shelter. *-_er that he doubled i up. took off his shoes, and silently ro'so to' his feet.

Within the hut, all was silence, ani Pine unconsciously folded his coatw'th as much care as if he had been packing his suit-case as he laid it on the ground beside the shoes. Next he loosened the revolver m its holster, and then swung

himself upon the limb above his head. Very slowly he lifted himself high enough to peer over into the hut. McGrath was crouched m the gloom bes'de the window, with his eyes fastened upon the opposito side of the clearing, where he thought his pursuer lay m wait, eagerly waiting for the darkness to thicken, that he might issue forth wi.uout being riddled. Pine could easily have shot him m the back, and "would have done so but. for the fact that Pine did not shoot men that way, while the dog, which seemed to have sensed something, was running nervously about the floor, with lowwhines, but not looking, up. Two .Sng, silent steps Pine made along the limb, and then sprang down into the centre o f the room, ' well knowing that he must alight fairly, and m a position for instant attack.

A yelp cariie froni the dog, and out | of the side r of his eye McGrath saw _a costless, shoeless figure falling upon Cirri from out of the. skies. An ami bulging with muscle was flung around his throat from behind and. his head was forced -back until his neck cracked and a fare of red leaped before his eyes. 'hit twisting like a worm, he threw the muzzle of his weapon over his shoulder and fired just at the instant that', the butt of- the ! captain's revolver crashed upon his head arid sent him Jimply. to t.».ie ground,, where he lay ! with a third and very .bad knock-out his record. Pine fell, too, but got upon his feet Elmost instantly, and stood dizzily clut:hirig at the window-sill to keep himself from falling again. It is hard" work for a T man with a smashed shoulder-blade to bind even; a senseless person ; v but the victor did it^ arid then, picked up the dog. The terrier know the captain - very well, and liked him exceedingly, and so, ; while ;■■ herefused to leave his master voluntarily, he offered no resistance * beyond a .squirrii or two wheri the officer wobbled away "holding him under J his T sound shoulder. It was rather a bad trip back to; camp, but, Pine eventually made' il, and after telling them where they could find McGrath, he played a heroiric's trick upon them. For the first trine m his life, lie fainted.

They made a good deal out of Pine's exploit over there ip the Islands, ai-d his company started a subscription to get, him a silver-plated,, gbld-mopnte J, ridiculous sword, ' but he laughed them Out of the notion arid said he would rather 1 have .the ; dog, ; - ' - ' '!."-„ <: ;,,J . At; firsi. they demurred a .good deal,, but .finally consented, . partially for the reasprr that the terrier had caused enough trouble, already, but principally because! they had lately become "possessed of a game-cock that could whip ariythirig.th.it wore f eathers. " - „ Of course, the story' of the affair was not long m getting to. the coast, and a day or two later the papers oyer-;! m the States were full of if. The Girl v. as reading the account* with soriieihing mort than interest when a boy brought, her a cablegram, which' she. held fdr A full minute before she got up courage enough to open it. ; -.-'" "Have been sent home invalided," she read when she finally ; broke the seal_ •'will bring what is left of your dog with me."

The Girl'is lips'- trembled, and she thrust the message iri her bosom", 'and ran to her 'room, where she shed' tears of relief irito her haridkerchiefT She hai never thrust the captain's missives iri her bosom .. before, nor; had „she cried when ; she got theni, so now it; -was 'prob-: ably because she was glad ;the. dog was coming back. . „ -: .. ..!.TT:-.. : '" r Fh'ty. evenings later, 'the captain call )d upon the Girl, , a crooked-legged, battlescarred, one-eared terrier trotting behind him, and she led them . to a seat before the grate, where they watched the advance and retreat of the shadows.

-There he told her ..many things, that seemed to . her, but the one thing that he did not tell was, .that he would .never have gone after, McGrath singles handed had it not been for a much? coveted terrier. She attributed the feat to 3 pure sense of duty, and Pine_- was scoundrel enough to let her think as she seemed to want to think .

The flames flickered and burned low, and the clock "struck maoy times without stopping, but still.. the. captain ! and the Girl.sat it, out. This is. the story of a dog, and loveenters irito ' it only by iriiplication, so whether or riot they sat . close together has nothing to do with the matter, As for the dog, he lay through it. all with his head m the Girl's Tap .and hii. hind legs on the man's knee. Neither was he a very long dog. ''■'■; '—Harry Irving Greene, m the/Scrap "•' .-:. '-■'■-' . ..'■■■ ■ • . Book,