The Dog Megapack

by Robert Reginald

  “My Gawd,” he breathed. “I believe—it’s so—”

  As if in response to the thought in his mind, there came once more across the plain Gray Wolf’s mate-seeking cry of grief and of loneliness. Swiftly as though struck by a lash Kazan was on his feet—oblivious of Joan’s touch, of her voice, of the presence of the man. In another instant he was gone, and Joan flung herself against her husband’s breast, and almost fiercely took his face between her two hands.

  “Now do you believe?” she cried pantingly. “Now do you believe in the God of my world—the God I have lived with, the God that gives souls to the wild things, the God that—that has brought—us, all—together—once more—home!”

  His arms closed gently about her.

  “I believe, my Joan,” he whispered.

  “And you understand—now—what it means, ‘Thou shalt not kill’?”

  “Except that it brings us life—yes, I understand,” he replied.

  Her warm soft hands stroked his face. Her blue eyes, filled with the glory of the stars, looked up into his.

  “Kazan and she—you and I—and the baby! Are you sorry—that we came back?” she asked.

  So close he drew her against his breast that she did not hear the words he whispered in the soft warmth of her hair. And after that, for many hours, they sat in the starlight in front of the cabin door. But they did not hear again that lonely cry from the Sun Rock. Joan and her husband understood.

  “He’ll visit us again tomorrow,” the man said at last. “Come, Joan, let us go to bed.”

  Together they entered the cabin.

  And that night, side by side, Kazan and Gray Wolf hunted again in the moonlit plain.

  MERCY’S REWARD, by Sir Edwin Arnold [Poem]

  Hast seen

  The record written of Salah-ud-Deen,

  The Sultan—how he met, upon a day,

  In his own city on the public way,

  A woman whom they led to die? The veil

  Was stripped from off her weeping face, and pale

  Her shamed cheeks were, and wild her fixed eye,

  And her lips drawn with terror at the cry

  Of the harsh people, and the rugged stones

  Borne in their hands to break her flesh and bones;

  For the law stood that sinners such as she

  Perish by stoning, and this doom must be;

  So went the adult’ress to her death.

  High noon it was, and the hot Khamseen’s breath

  Blew from the desert sands and parched the town.

  The crows gasped, and the kine went up and down

  With lolling tongues; the camels moaned; a crowd

  Pressed with their pitchers, wrangling high and loud

  About the tank; and one dog by a well,

  Nigh dead with thirst, lay where he yelped and fell,

  Glaring upon the water out of reach,

  And praying succour in a silent speech,

  So piteous were its eyes.

  Which, when she saw,

  This woman from her foot her shoe did draw,

  Albeit death-sorrowful, and, looping up

  The long silk of her girdle, made a cup

  Of the heel’s hollow, and thus let it sink

  Until it touched the cool black water’s brink;

  So filled th’ embroidered shoe, and gave a draught

  To the spent beast, which whined, and fawned, and quaffed

  Her kind gift to the dregs; next licked her hand,

  With such glad looks that all might understand

  He held his life from her; then, at her feet

  He followed close, all down the cruel street,

  Her one friend in that city.

  But the King,

  Riding within his litter, marked this thing,

  And how the woman, on her way to die

  Had such compassion for the misery

  Of that parched hound: “Take off her chain, and place

  The veil once more about the sinner’s face,

  And lead her to her house in peace!” he said.

  “The law is that the people stone thee dead

  For that which thou hast wrought; but there is come

  Fawning around thy feet a witness dumb,

  Not heard upon thy trial; this brute beast

  Testifies for thee, sister! whose weak breast

  Death could not make ungentle. I hold rule

  In Allah’s stead, who is ‘the Merciful,’

  And hope for mercy; therefore go thou free—

  I dare not show less pity unto thee.”

  As we forgive—and more than we—

  Ya Barr! Good God, show clemency.

  SNAP: THE STORY OF A BULL-TERRIER, by Ernest Thompson Seton

  I.

  It was dusk on Halloween when first I saw him. Early in the morning I had received a telegram from my college chum Jack: “Lest we forget. Am sending you a remarkable pup. Be polite to him; it’s safer.” It would have been just like Jack to have sent an infernal machine or a Skunk rampant and called it a pup, so I awaited the hamper with curiosity. When it arrived I saw it was marked “Dangerous,” and there came from within a high-pitched snarl at every slight provocation. On peering through the wire netting, I saw it was not a baby Tiger but a small white Bull-terrier. He snapped at me and at anyone or anything that seemed too abrupt or too near for proper respect, and his snarling growl was unpleasantly frequent. Dogs have two growls: one deep-rumbled, and chesty; that is, polite warning—the retort courteous; the other mouthy and much higher in pitch: this is the last word before actual onslaught. The Terrier’s growls were all of the latter kind.

  I was a dog-man and thought I knew all about Dogs, so, dismissing the porter, I got out my all-round jackknife—toothpick—nail hammer-hatchet-toolbox-fire-shovel, a specialty of our firm, and lifted the netting. Oh, yes, I knew all about Dogs. The little fury had been growling out a whole-souled growl for every tap of the tool, and when I turned the box on its side, he made a dash straight for my legs. Had not his foot gone through the wire netting and held him, I might have been hurt, for his heart was evidently in his work; but I stepped on the table out of reach and tried to reason with him. I have always believed in talking to animals. I maintain that they gather something of our intention at least, even if they do not understand our words; but the Dog evidently put me down for a hypocrite and scorned my approaches. At first he took his post under the table and kept up a circular watch for a leg trying to get down. I felt sure I could have controlled him with my eye, but I could not bring it to bear where I was, or rather, where he was; thus I was left a prisoner. I am a very cool person, I flatter myself; in fact, I represent a hardware firm, and, in coolness, we are not excelled by any but perhaps the nosy gentlemen that sell wearing-apparel.

  I got out a cigar and smoked tailor-style on the table, while my little tyrant below kept watch for legs. I got out the telegram and read it: “Remarkable pup. Be polite to him; it’s safer.” I think it was my coolness rather than my politeness that did it, for in half an hour the growling ceased. In an hour he no longer jumped at a newspaper cautiously pushed over the edge to test his humor; possibly the irritation of the cage was wearing off; and by the time I had lit my third cigar, he waddled out to the fire and lay down, not ignoring me, however: I had no reason to complain of that kind of contempt. He kept one eye on me, and I kept both eyes, not on him, but on his stumpy tail. If that tail should swing sidewise once, I should feel I was winning; but it did not swing. I got a book and put in time on that table till my legs were cramped and the fire burned low. About 10 P.M. it was chilly, and at half-past ten the fire was out. My Halloween present got up, yawned, and stretched, then walked under my bed, where he found a fur rug. By stepping lightly from the table to the dresser, and then on to the mantel-shelf, I also reached the bed, and, very quietly undressing, got in without provoking any criticism from my master. I had not yet fallen asleep when I heard a slight scrambling and felt “thum
p-thump” on the bed, then over my feet and legs. Snap evidently had found it too cool down below, and proposed to have the best my house afforded.

  He curled up on my feet in such a way that I was very uncomfortable and tried to readjust matters, but the slightest wriggle of my toe was enough to make him snap at it so fiercely that nothing but thick woolen bedclothes saved me from being maimed for life.

  I was an hour moving my feet—a hair’s-breadth at a time—till they were so that I could sleep in comfort; and I was awakened several times during the night by angry snarls from the Dog—I suppose because I dared to move a toe without his approval, though once I believe, he did it simply because I was snoring.

  In the morning I was ready to get up before Snap was. You see, I call him Snap-Gingersnap in full. Some Dogs are hard to name, and some do not seem to need it—they name themselves.

  I was ready to rise at seven. Snap was not ready till eight, so we rose at eight. He had little to say to the man who made the fire. He allowed me to dress without doing it on the table. As I left the room to get breakfast, I remarked:

  “Snap, my friend, some men would whip you into a different way, but I think I know a better plan. The doctors nowadays favor the ‘no-breakfast cure.’ I shall try that.”

  It seemed cruel, but I left him without food all day. It cost me something to repaint the door where he scratched it, but at night he was quite ready to accept a little food at my hands.

  In a week we were very good friends. He would sleep on my bed now, and allow me to move my feet without snapping at them, intent to do me serious bodily harm. The no-breakfast cure had worked wonders; in three months we were—well, simply man and Dog, and he amply justified the telegram he came with.

  He seemed to be without fear. If a small Dog came near, he would take not the slightest notice; if a medium-sized Dog, he would stick his stub of a tail rigidly up in the air, then walk around him, scratching contemptuously with his hind feet, and looking at the sky, the distance, the ground, anything but the Dog, and noting his presence only by frequent high-pitched growls. If the stranger did not move on at once, the battle began, and then the stranger usually moved on very rapidly. Snap sometimes got worsted, but no amount of sad experience could ever inspire him with a grain of caution. Once, while riding in a cab during the Dog Show, Snap caught sight of an elephantine St. Bernard taking an airing. Its size aroused such enthusiasm in the Pup’s little breast that he leaped from the cab window to do battle, and broke his leg.

  Evidently, fear had been left out of his make-up and its place supplied with an extra amount of ginger, which was the reason of his full name. He differed from all other Dogs I have ever known. For example, if a boy threw a stone at him, he ran, not away, but toward the boy, and if the crime was repeated, Snap took the law into his own hands; thus he was at least respected by all. Only myself and the porter at the office seemed to realize his good points, and we only were admitted to the high honor of personal friendship, an honor which I appreciated more as months went on; and by midsummer not Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and Astor together could have raised money enough to buy a quarter of a share in my little Dog Snap.

  II.

  Though not a regular traveler, I was ordered out on the road in the autumn, and then Snap and the landlady were left together, with unfortunate developments. Contempt on his part—fear on hers; and hate on both.

  I was placing a lot of barb-wire in the northern tier of States. My letters were forwarded once a week, and I got several complaints from the landlady about Snap.

  Arrived at Mendoza, in North Dakota, I found a fine market for wire. Of course my dealings were with the big storekeepers, but I went about among the ranchmen to get their practical views on the different styles, and thus I met the Penroof Brothers’ Cow-outfit.

  One cannot be long in Cow country now without hearing a great deal about the depredations of the ever wily and destructive Gray-wolf. The day has gone by when they can be poisoned wholesale, and they are a serious drain on the rancher’s profits. The Penroof Brothers, like most live cattle-men, had given up all attempts at poisoning and trapping, and were trying various breeds of Dogs as Wolf-hunters, hoping to get a little sport out of the necessary work of destroying the pests.

  Foxhounds had failed—they were too soft for fighting; Great Danes were too clumsy, and Greyhounds could not follow the game unless they could see it. Each breed had some fatal defect, but the cow-men hoped to succeed with a mixed pack, and the day when I was invited to join in a Mendoza Wolf-hunt, I was amused by the variety of Dogs that followed. There were several mongrels, but there were also a few highly bred Dogs—in particular, some Russian Wolfhounds that must have cost a lot of money.

  Hilton Penroof, the oldest boy, “The Master of Hounds,” was unusually proud of them, and expected them to do great things.

  “Greyhounds are too thin-skinned to fight a Wolf, Danes are too slow, but you’ll see the fur fly when the Russians take a hand.”

  Thus the Greyhounds were there as runners, the Danes as heavy backers, and the Russians to do the important fighting. There were also two or three Foxhounds, whose fine noses were relied on to follow the trail if the game got out of view.

  It was a fine sight as we rode away among the Badland Buttes that October day. The air was bright and crisp, and though so late, there was neither snow nor frost. The Horses were fresh, and once or twice showed me how a Cow-pony tries to get rid of his rider.

  The Dogs were keen for sport, and we did start one or two gray spots in the plain that Hilton said were Wolves or Coyotes. The Dogs trailed away at full cry, but at night, beyond the fact that one of the Greyhounds had a wound on his shoulder, there was nothing to show that any of them had been on a Wolf-hunt.

  “It’s my opinion yer fancy Russians is no good, Hilt,” said Garvin, the younger brother. “I’ll back that little black Dane against the lot, mongrel an’ all as he is.”

  “I don’t unnerstan’ it,” growled Hilton. “There ain’t a Coyote, let alone a Gray-wolf, kin run away from them Greyhounds; them Foxhounds kin folly a trail three days old, an’ the Danes could lick a Grizzly.”

  “I reckon,” said the father, “they kin run, an’ they kin track, an’ they kin lick a Grizzly, maybe, but the fac’ is they don’t want to tackle a Gray-wolf. The hull darn pack is scairt—an’ I wish we had our money out o’ them.”

  Thus the men grumbled and discussed as I drove away and left them.

  There seemed only one solution of the failure. The Hounds were swift and strong, but a Gray-wolf seems to terrorize all Dogs. They have not the nerve to face him, and so, each time he gets away; and my thoughts flew back to the fearless little Dog that had shared my bed for the last year. How I wished he was out here, then these lubberly giants of Hounds would find a leader whose nerve would not fail at the moment of trial.

  At Baroka, my next stop, I got a batch of mail, including two letters from the landlady; the first to say that “that beast of a Dog was acting up scandalous in my room,” and the other still more forcible, demanding his immediate removal. “Why not have him expressed to Mendoza?” I thought. “It’s only twenty hours; they’ll be glad to have him. I can take him home with me when I go through.”

  III.

  My next meeting with Gingersnap was not as different from the first as one might have expected. He jumped on me, made much vigorous pretense to bite, and growled frequently, but it was a deep-chested growl and his stump waggled hard.

  The Penroofs had had a number of Wolf-hunts since I was with them, and were much disgusted at having no better success than before. The Dogs could find a Wolf nearly every time they went out, but they could not kill him, and the men were not near enough at the finish to learn why.

  Old Penroof was satisfied that “thar wasn’t one of the hull miserable gang that had the grit of a Jack-rabbit.”

  We were off at dawn the next day—the same procession of fine Horses and superb riders; the big blue Dogs, the yellow Dogs, the spot
ted Dogs, as before; but there was a new feature, a little white Dog that stayed close by me, and not only any Dogs, but Horses that came too near were apt to get a surprise from his teeth. I think he quarreled with every man, Horse, and Dog in the country, with the exception of a Bull-terrier belonging to the Mendoza hotel man. She was the only one smaller than himself, and they seemed very good friends.

  I shall never forget the view of the hunt I had that day. We were on one of those large, flat-headed buttes that give a kingdom to the eye, when Hilton, who had been scanning the vast country with glasses, exclaimed: “I see him. There he goes, toward Skull Creek. Guess it’s a Coyote.”

  Now the first thing is to get the Greyhounds to see the prey—not an easy matter, as they cannot use the glasses, and the ground was covered with sagebrush higher than the Dogs’ heads.

  But Hilton called, “Hu, hu, Dander,” and leaned aside from his saddle, holding out his foot at the same time. With one agile bound Dander leaped to the saddle and there stood balancing on the Horse while Hilton kept pointing. “There he is, Dander; sic him—see him down there.” The Dog gazed earnestly where his master pointed, then seeming to see, he sprang to the ground with a slight yelp and sped away. The other Dogs followed after, in an ever-lengthening procession, and we rode as hard as we could behind them, but losing time, for the ground was cut with gullies, spotted with badger-holes, and covered with rocks and sage that made full speed too hazardous.

  We all fell behind, and I was last, of course, being least accustomed to the saddle. We got several glimpses of the Dogs flying over the level plain or dropping from sight in gullies to reappear at the other side. Dander, the Greyhound, was the recognized leader, and as we mounted another ridge we got sight of the whole chase—a Coyote at full speed, the Dogs a quarter of a mile behind, but gaining. When next we saw them the Coyote was dead, and the Dogs sitting around panting, all but two of the Foxhounds and Gingersnap.