dressed with severe plainness.
"You're Lincoln Ferris?" queried the stranger, more as if statingaggressively a fact than making an inquiry.
"Yep," said Link, cross at this annoying break-in upon his trance ofhappiness. "What d'j' want?" he added.
"Please step back to the clubhouse a minute with me," returned thestranger, civilly enough, but with the same bossy firmness in his tonethat had jarred Ferris in his touch. "One or two people want to speakto you. Bring along your dog."
Link glowered. He fancied he knew what was in store. Some of the ultraselect had gathered in the holy interior of the clubhouse and wanted aprivate view of Chum, unsullied by the noisy presence of the crowdoutside. They would talk patronizingly to Link, and perhaps even try tocoax 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 apolice badge on its reverse. Still avoiding any outward appearance offorce, he turned about, with his arm locked in Ferris's and startedtoward the clubhouse.
"Here!" expostulated poor Link, with all a true mountaineer's horror ofthe police. "What's all this? I ain't broke no law! I--"
An ugly growl from Chum punctuated his scared plea. Noting the terrorin his master's tone and the grip of the stranger on Link's arm, Chumhad spun round to face the two.
The collie's eyes were fixed grimly upon the plainclothes man'stemptingly thick throat. One corner of Chum's upper lip was curledback, 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, thatwhen a dog holds his head high and barks there is no special danger tobe feared from him. But he also knew that when a dog lowers his headand growls, showing his eyetooth, he means business.
And the man shrank from the menace. One hand crept back instinctivelytoward his hip pocket.
Link saw the purely involuntary gesture, and he shook in his boots. Itwas thus a Hampton constable had once reached back when a stray cursnapped at him. And that constable had completed the movement bydrawing a pistol and shooting the cur. Perhaps this non-uniformedstranger meant to do the same thing.
"Hold on!" begged Link, intervening between the man and the dog. "I'llgo along with you peaceful. Quit, Chum! It's all right!"
The dog still looked undecided. He did not like this new note in hisgod's voice. But he obeyed the injunction, and fell into step at Link'sside 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 widehallway to the door of a committee room. Throwing open the door, heushered in his captive and the dog, entering behind them and reclosingthe 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 toChum's. At the table head, looking very magisterial indeed, sat ColonelMarden. 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; Chumstanding tight against Ferris's knee, as if to guard him from possibleharm. Link stood glowering in sullen perplexity at the Colonel. Mardencleared his voice pompously, then spoke.
"Ferris," he began with much impressiveness, "I am a magistrate of thiscounty--as you perhaps know. You may consider yourself before the Barof 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' ina ditch, with his leg bust. Throwed off'n a auto, I figgered it. I tookhim home an'--"
He paused, as the sport-suited man next to Marden nodded excitedly tothe girl and then whispered to the Colonel.
"You took him home?" pursued Marden. "Couldn't you see he was avaluable dog?"
"I c'd see he was a sufferin' an' dyin' dawg," retorted Link. "I c'dsee he was a goner, 'less I took him home an' 'tended him. If you'reaimin' at findin' out why I went on keepin' him after that, I done sobecause no one claimed him. I put up notices 'bout him. I put one up atthe post-office here, too. I--"
"He did!" interrupted the girl. "That's true! I saw it. Only--thenotice 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 theinterrogatory to me, if you please? Yes, I recollect that notice. Myattention was called to it at the time. But," again addressing Link,"why did you call 'Glenmuir Cavalier' a 'BIRD dog'? Was it to throw usoff the track or--"
"Don't know no What's-His-Name Cav'lier!" snapped Ferris. "This dawg'sname is Chum. Like you c'n see in my entry blank, what's layin' on thetable in front of you. I adv'tised Chum as a bird dawg because Is'posed he WAS a bird dawg. I ain't a sharp on dawgs. He's the fust oneever I had. If he ain't a bird dawg, 'tain't my fault. He looks morelike 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. "Iam disposed to accept your explanation. But if you read the localpapers 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'tisementdid I see excep' one fer a 'sable' collie. 'Sable' means 'black.' Iknow, because our dominie told me so. I asked him, when I see thatpiece in the paper. Chum ain't black, nor nowheres near black. So Iknowed it couldn't be him. What d'j' want of me, anyhow?" he demandedonce 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. "AndI am disposed to acquit you of consciously dishonest intent. I am gladto do so. Here is the situation: Early last spring, Mr. Gault,"indicating the sport-suit wearer at his left, "bought from the famousGlenmuir Collie Kennels, on the Hudson, an unusually fine youngcollie--a dog for which connoisseurs predicted a great future in theshow ring. He purchased it as a gift for his daughter, Miss MarionGault."
He inclined his head slightly toward the girl; then proceeded:
"As Mr. Glenmuir was disbanding his kennel, Mr. Gault was able tosecure the dog--Glenmuir Cavalier. He started for Craigswold, with thedog on the rear seat of the car. At first he kept a hand on the dog'scollar, but as the collie made no attempt to escape, he soon turnedaround--he was in the front seat--and paid no more attention to him.Just outside of Suffern, he looked back--to find Cavalier haddisappeared. He advertised, and made all possible efforts to locate thedog. But he could get no clew to him, until to-day. Seeing this dog ofyours in the show ring, he recognized him at once."
The pompously booming voice, with its stilted diction, ceased. All eyeswere upon Link Ferris. The mountaineer, stung to life by the silenceand the multiple gaze, came out of his trance of shock.
"Then--then," he stuttered, forcing the words from a throat sanded bysudden dread, "then Chum rightly b'longs to this man?"
"Quite so!" assented Marden, in some relief. "I am glad you grasp thepoint so readily. Mr. Gault has talked the matter over with me, and heis taking a remarkably broad and generous view of the case if I may sayso. He is not only willing that you should keep the cup and the cashprize which you have won to-day, but he is also ready to pay to you theseventy-five dollar reward he offered for the return of GlenmuirCavalier. 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 learnedhim to fetch cows an' shake hands an'--an' everything! An' he drug meo
ut'n the lake, when I was a-drowndin'! An' he done a heap more'n thatfer me! He's drug me up to my feet, out'n wuthlessness, too; an' he'slearned me that livin' is wuth while! He's my--my--he's my dawg!" hefinished lamely, his scared eyes sweeping the circle of faces in panicappeal.
"That will do, Ferris!" coldly exhorted the colonel. "We wish no sceneshere. You will take this seventyfive dollar check which Mr. Gault hasso kindly made out for you, and you will go."
"Leavin' Chum behind?" babbled Ferris, aghast. "Not leavin' Chumbehind? PLEASE not!"
He pulled himself together with an effort that drove his nails bitinglyinto his palms and left his face gray. He saw the uselessness ofpleading with these people of polished iron, who could not understandhis fearful loss. For the sake of Chum--for the sake of theself-respecting man he himself had become--he would not let himself goto pieces. Forcing his shaken voice to a dry steadiness, he addressedthe uneasily squirming Gault.
"What d'j' you pay for Chum when you bought him off'n that Hudson Riverfeller--that Glenmuir chap?" he demanded.
"Why, as a matter of fact," responded Gault, "as Colonel Marden hastold you, I couldn't have hoped to get such a promising collie at anyprice it--"
"What d'j' you pay for him?" insisted Link, his voice harsh andunconsciously domineering as a vague new hope dawned on his troubledmind.
"I paid six hundred dollars," answered Gault shortly, in annoyance atthe boor's manner.
"Good!" approved Link, "That gives us suthin' to go on. I'll pay yousix hundred dollars fer him back. This hundred dollars in gold an' thisyer silver cup an' seven dollars more I got with me--to bind thebargain. An' a second mortgage on my farm fer the rest. Fer as much ofthe rest," he amended, "as I ain't got ready cash for."
In his stark earnestness, Link's rough voice sounded more hectoring andunpleasant 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?'" herasped. "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 thesum--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 withthe lighting of a cigarette.
"Take Mr. Gault's check and go," commanded Marden, thrusting the slipof paper at Link. "I think there is nothing more to say. I have anappointment at--"
He hesitated. Regardless of the others' presence, Ferris dropped to oneknee beside the uncomprehending dog. With his arm about Chum's neck, hebent close to the collie's ear and whispered:
"Good-by, Chummie! It's good-by, fer keeps, too. Don't you get tothinkin' 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 herethan to leave you. I--I guess only Gawd rightly knows all you done ferme, Chum. But I ain't a-goin' to ferget none of it. Lord, but it'sgoin' 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 thedoor.
"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 Igot!" snarled Link over his shoulder. "Keep it--fer a tip!"
It was a good exit line. But it was spoiled. Because, as Ferris reachedthe door and groped for its knob, Chum was beside him--glad to get outof this uncongenial assembly and to be alone with the master who seemedso unhappy and so direly in need of consolation. Link stiffened to hisfull 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 onhim if he mopes fer me, jes' at fust. Because he's sure to. Dogs ain'tlike folks. They got hearts. Folks has only got souls. I guess dogs hasthe best of it, at that."
Ferris swung open the door and stumbled out, not trusting himself for abackward glance at the wistfully grieved dog he had left behind.
Lurchingly he made off, across the lawn and out through the wicket. Hewas numb and sick. He moved mechanically and with no conscious power ofthought or of locomotion.
Out in the highroad, a homing instinct guided his leaden feet in thedirection of Hampton. And he plodded dazedly the interminable fourmiles that separated him from his desolate farm.
As he turned in at his own gate, he was aware of a poignant dread thatpierced his numbness. And he knew it for a dread of entering the houseand of finding no one to welcome him. Setting his teeth he wentforward, unlocked the door and stamped into the silent kitchen.
Upon the table he dumped the paper-swathed cup he had been carryingunnoticed under his arm. Beside it he threw the little purse full ofgold pieces and the wad of prize ribbons. Stepping back, his footstruck something. He looked down and saw it was a gay-colored rubberball he had bought, months ago, for Chum--the dog's favorite plaything.
His face twisting, Link snatched up the ball and went out onto thesteps to throw it far out of sight; that it might no more remind him ofthe 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 hishand an exultant bark re-echoed through the silence of the sunset.Chum, who had been trotting demurely up the walk, sprang gleefully inpursuit of the ball, and presently came galloping back to the dazedlyincredulous Link, with the many-colored sphere of rubber between hisjaws.
Chum had had no trouble at all in catching his master's trail andfollowing it home. He would have overtaken the slow-slouching Ferris,had he been able to slip out of the clubhouse sooner. And now itpleased 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 atonce, his muscles tensed, and his newly flushed face went green-whiteagain.
"I--I guess we got to play it square, Chum!" he muttered aloud, withsomething like a groan. "I was blattin' to 'em, up there, how you'dmade a white man of me. An' a reg'lar white man don't keep what ain'this own prop'ty. Come along, Chummie!"
His jaw very tense, his back painfully stiff, Link strode heavily downthe lane and out into the highroad. Chum, always eager for a walk withhis god, frisked about him in delight.
He had traversed the bulk of the distance to Craigswold, the dog besidehim, when he remembered that he had left his horse and buggy at thelivery stable there in the morning. Well, that would save his achingfeet a four-mile walk home. In the meantime--
He and Chum stepped to the roadside to avoid a fast-traveling littlemotor car which was bearing down on them from the direction ofCraigswold.
The car did not pass them. Instead, it came to a gear-racking haltclose beside Ferris. Link, glancing up in dull lack of interest, beheldGault and the latter's daughter staring down at him.
"Chum came home," said Ferris, scowling at them. "He trailed me. Don'tlick him fer it! He's only a dog, an' he didn't know no better. I wasbringin' him back to you."
The girl looked sharply at her father. Gault fidgeted uneasily, as hehad done once or twice that afternoon in the clubhouse. And he avoidedhis daughter's gaze. So she turned her level eyes on Link.
"Mr. Ferris," she said very quietly, "do you mean to say, when this dogcame back to you, you were actually going to return him to us, insteadof 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 caremuch '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 itspain--"keep him to ho
me after this. I ain't no measly angel. I can'tswear I'd have the grit to fetch him back another time."
He stopped, to note a curious phenomenon. There were actually tears inthe 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 mewhen he bought him, last spring. Colonel Marden seemed to haveforgotten that to-day. And I didn't want to start a squabble byreminding 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 takeCavalier's place. A collie I'm ever so fond of. So I don't needCavalier. I don't want him. I
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