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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5759.txt b/5759.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2583f68 --- /dev/null +++ b/5759.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2293 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Day of the Dog, by George Barr McCutcheon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Day of the Dog + +Author: George Barr McCutcheon + +Illustrator: Harrison Fisher + +Posting Date: April 12, 2013 [EBook #5759] +Release Date: May, 2004 +First Posted: August 28, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAY OF THE DOG *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +THE DAY OF THE DOG + +by + +GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON +Author of "Grauslark" +"The Sherrods etc" + +With Illustrations by +Harrison Fisher +and decorations by +Margaret & Helen Maitland Armstrong + +New York +1904 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + SWALLOW (in color) Frontispiece + CROSBY DRIVES TO THE STATION + THE HANDS HAD GONE TO THEIR DINNER + THE BIG RED BARN + THE TWO BOYS + MRS. DELANCY AND MRS. AUSTIN + MR. AUSTIN + MRS. DELANCY PLEADS WITH SWALLOW + THEY EXAMINE THE DOCUMENTS + "SHE DELIBERATELY SPREAD OUT THE PAPERS ON THE BEAM" (in color) + SWALLOW + SHE WATCHES HIM DESCEND INTO DANGER + MR. CROSBY SHOWS SWALLOW A NEW TRICK + "SWALLOW'S CHUBBY BODY SHOT SQUARELY THROUGH THE OPENING" (in color) + THE MAN WITH THE LANTERN + MR. HIGGINS + "HE WAS SPLASHING THROUGH THE SHALLOW BROOK" (in color) + HE CARRIES HER OVER THE BROOK + MRS. HIGGINS + THEY ENJOY MRS. HIGGINS'S GOOD SUPPER + LONESOMEVILLE + THE DEPUTY SHERIFF + CROSBY AND THE DEPUTY + MRS. DELANCY FALLS ASLEEP + THEY GO TO THE THEATRE + "'GOOD HEAVENS!' 'WHAT IS IT?' HE CRIED. 'YOU ARE NOT MARRIED, + ARE YOU?'" + (in color) + "CROSBY WON BOTH SUITS" + + + + +THE DAY OF THE DOG + +PART I + + +"I'll catch the first train back this evening, Graves. Wouldn't go down +there if it were not absolutely necessary; but I have just heard that +Mrs. Delancy is to leave for New York to-night, and if I don't see her +to-day there will be a pack of troublesome complications. Tell Mrs. +Graves she can count me in on the box party to-night." + +"We'll need you, Crosby. Don't miss the train." + +[Illustration: Crosby Drives to the Station] + +"I'll be at the station an hour before the train leaves. Confound it, +it's a mean trip down there--three hours through the rankest kind of +scenery and three hours back. She's visiting in the country, too, but I +can drive out and back in an hour." + +"On your life, old man, don't fail me." + +"Don't worry, Graves; all Christendom couldn't keep me in Dexter after +four o'clock this afternoon. Good-by." And Crosby climbed into the +hansom and was driven away at breakneck speed toward the station. + +Crosby was the junior member of the law firm of Rolfe & Crosby, and his +trip to the country was on business connected with the settlement of a +big estate. Mrs. Delancy, widow of a son of the decedent, was one of the +legatees, and she was visiting her sister-in-law, Mrs. Robert Austin, in +central Illinois. Mr. Austin owned extensive farming interests near +Dexter, and his handsome home was less than two miles from the heart of +the town. Crosby anticipated no trouble in driving to the house and back +in time to catch the afternoon train for Chicago. It was necessary for +Mrs. Delancy to sign certain papers, and he was confident the +transaction could not occupy more than half an hour's time. + +At 11:30 Crosby stepped from the coach to the station platform in +Dexter, looked inquiringly about, and then asked a perspiring man with a +star on his suspender-strap where he could hire a horse and buggy. The +officer directed him to a "feed-yard and stable," but observed that +there was a "funeral in town an' he'd be lucky if he got a rig, as all +of Smith's horses were out." Application at the stable brought the first +frown to Crosby's brow. He could not rent a "rig" until after the +funeral, and that would make it too late for him to catch the four +o'clock train for Chicago. To make the story short, twelve o'clock saw +him trudging along the dusty road covering the two miles between town +and Austin's place, and he was walking with the rapidity of one who has +no love for the beautiful. + +The early spring air was invigorating, and it did not take him long to +reduce the distance. Austin's house stood on a hill, far back from the +highway, and overlooking the entire country-side. + +The big red barn stood in from the road a hundred yards or more, and he +saw that the same driveway led to the house on the hill. There was no +time for speculation, so he hastily made his way up the lane. Crosby had +never seen his client, their business having been conducted by mail or +through Mr. Rolfe. There was not a person in sight, and he slowed his +progress considerably as he drew nearer the big house. At the barn-yard +gate he came to a full stop and debated within himself the wisdom of +inquiring at the stables for Mr. Austin. + +He flung open the gate and strode quickly to the door. This he opened +boldly and stepped inside, finding himself in a lofty carriage room. +Several handsome vehicles stood at the far end, but the wide space near +the door was clear. The floor was as "clean as a pin," except along the +west side. No one was in sight, and the only sound was that produced by +the horses as they munched their hay and stamped their hoofs in +impatient remonstrance with the flies. + +"Where the deuce are the people?" he muttered as he crossed to the +mangers. "Devilish queer," glancing about in considerable doubt. "The +hands must be at dinner or taking a nap." He passed by a row of mangers +and was calmly inspected by brown-eyed horses. At the end of the long +row of stalls he found a little gate opening into another section of the +barn. He was on the point of opening this gate to pass in among the +horses when a low growl attracted his attention. In some alarm he took a +precautionary look ahead. On the opposite side of the gate stood a huge +and vicious looking bulldog, unchained and waiting for him with an eager +ferocity that could not be mistaken. Mr. Crosby did not open the gate. +Instead he inspected it to see that it was securely fastened, and then +drew his hand across his brow. + +"What an escape!" he gasped, after a long breath. "Lucky for me you +growled, old boy. My name is Crosby, my dear sir, and I'm not here to +steal anything. I'm only a lawyer. Anybody else at home but you?" + +An ominous growl was the answer, and there was lurid disappointment in +the face of the squat figure beyond the gate. + +"Come, now, old chap, don't be nasty. I won't hurt you. There was +nothing farther from my mind than a desire to disturb you. And say, +please do something besides growl. Bark, and oblige me. You may attract +the attention of some one." + +By this time the ugly brute was trying to get at the man, growling, and +snarling savagely. Crosby complacently looked on from his place of +safety for a moment, and was on the point of turning away when his +attention was caught by a new move on the part of the dog. The animal +ceased his violent efforts to get through the gate, turned about +deliberately, and raced from view behind the horse stalls. Crosby +brought himself up with a jerk. + +"Thunder," he ejaculated; "the brute knows a way to get at me, and he +won't be long about it, either. What the dickens shall I--by George, +this looks serious! He'll head me off at the door if I try to get out +and--Ah, the fire-escape! We'll fool you, you brute! What a cursed idiot +I was not to go to the house instead of coming--" He was shinning up a +ladder with little regard for grace as he mumbled this self-condemnatory +remark. There was little dignity in his manner of flight, and there was +certainly no glory in the position in which he found himself a moment +later. But there was a vast amount of satisfaction. + +The ladder rested against a beam that crossed the carriage shed near the +middle. The beam was a large one, hewn from a monster tree, and was free +on all sides. The ladder had evidently been left there by men who had +used it recently and had neglected to return it to the hooks on which it +properly hung. + +When the dog rushed violently through the door and into the carriage +room, he found a vast and inexplicable solitude. He was, to all +appearances, alone with the vehicles under which he was permitted to +trot when his master felt inclined to grant the privilege. + +Crosby, seated on the beam, fifteen feet above the floor, grinned +securely but somewhat dubiously as he watched the mystified dog below. +At last he laughed aloud. He could not help it. The enemy glanced upward +and blinked his red eyes in surprise; then he stared in deep chagrin, +then glared with rage. For a few minutes Crosby watched his frantic +efforts to leap through fifteen feet of altitudinal space, confidently +hoping that some one would come to drive the brute away and liberate +him. Finally he began to lose the good humor his strategy in fooling the +dog had inspired, and a hurt, indignant stare was directed toward the +open door through which he had entered. + +"What's the matter with the idiots?" he growled impatiently. "Are they +going to let this poor dog snarl his lungs out? He's a faithful chap, +too, and a willing worker. Gad, I never saw anything more earnest than +the way he tries to climb up that ladder." Adjusting himself in a +comfortable position, his elbows on his knees, his hands to his chin, he +allowed his feet to swing lazily, tantalizingly, below the beam. "I'm +putting a good deal of faith in this beam," he went on resignedly. The +timber was at least fifteen inches square. + +"Ah, by George! That was a bully jump--the best you've made. You didn't +miss me more than ten feet that time. I don't like to be disrespectful, +you know, but you are an exceedingly rough looking dog. Don't get huffy +about it, old fellow, but you have the ugliest mouth I ever saw. Yes, +you miserable cur, politeness at last ceases to be a virtue with me. If +I had you up here I'd punch your face for you, too. Why don't you come +up, you coward? You're bow-legged, too, and you haven't any more figure +than a crab. Anybody that would take an insult like that is beneath me +(thank heaven!) and would steal sheep. Great Scott! Where are all these +people? Shut up, you brute, you! I'm getting a headache. But it doesn't +do any good to reason with you, I can see that plainly. The thing I +ought to do is to go down there and punish you severely. But I'll-- +Hello! Hey, boy! Call off this--confounded dog." + +Two small Lord Fauntleroy boys were standing in the door, gazing up at +him with wide open mouths and bulging eyes. + +"Call him off, I say, or I'll come down there and kick a hole clear +through him." The boys stared all the harder. "Is your name Austin?" he +demanded, addressing neither in particular. + +"Yes, sir," answered the larger boy, with an effort. + +"Well, where's your father? Shut up, you brute! Can't you see I'm +talking? Go tell your father I want to see him, boy." + +"Dad's up at the house." + +"That sounds encouraging. Can't you call off this dog?" + +"I--I guess I'd better not. That's what dad keeps him for." + +"Oh, he does, eh? And what is it that he keeps him for?" + +"To watch tramps." + +"To watch--to watch tramps? Say, boy, I'm a lawyer and I'm here on +business." He was black in the face with indignation. + +"You better come up to the house and see dad, then. He don't live in the +barn," said the boy keenly. + +"I can't fly to the house, boy. Say, if you don't call off this dog I'll +put a bullet through him." + +"You'd have to be a purty good shot, mister. Nearly everybody in the +county has tried to do it." Both boys were grinning diabolically and the +dog took on energy through inspiration. Crosby longed for a stick of +dynamite. + +"I'll give you a dollar if you get him away from here." + +"Let's see your dollar." Crosby drew a silver dollar from his trousers +pocket, almost falling from his perch in the effort. + +"Here's the coin. Call him off," gasped the lawyer. + +"I'm afraid papa wouldn't like it," said the boy. The smaller lad nudged +his brother and urged him to "take the money anyhow." + +"I live in Chicago," Crosby began, hoping to impress the boys at least. + +"So do we when we're at home," said the smaller boy. "We live in Chicago +in the winter time." + +"Is Mrs. Delancy your aunt?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I'll give you this dollar if you'll tell your father I'm here and want +to see him at once." + +"Throw down your dollar." The coin fell at their feet but rolled +deliberately through a crack in the floor and was lost forever. Crosby +muttered something unintelligible, but resignedly threw a second coin +after the first. + +"He'll be out when he gets through dinner," said the older boy, just +before the fight. Two minutes later he was streaking across the barn lot +with the coin in his pocket, the smaller boy wailing under the woe of a +bloody nose. For half an hour Crosby heaped insult after insult upon the +glowering dog at the bottom of the ladder and was in the midst of a +rabid denunciation of Austin when the city-bred farmer entered the barn. + +"Am I addressing Mr. Robert Austin?" called Crosby, suddenly amiable. +The dog subsided and ran to his master's side. Austin, a +black-moustached, sallow-faced man of forty, stopped near the door and +looked aloft, squinting. + +"Where are you?" he asked somewhat sharply. + +"I am very much up in the air," replied Crosby. "Look a little sou' by +sou'east. Ah, now you have me. Can you manage the dog? If so, I'll come +down." + +"One moment, please. Who are you?" + +"My name is Crosby, of Rolfe & Crosby, Chicago. I am here to see Mrs. +Delancy, your sister-in-law, on business before she leaves for New +York." + +"What is your business with her, may I ask?" + +"Private," said Crosby laconically. "Hold the dog." + +"I insist in knowing the nature of your business," said Austin firmly. + +"I'd rather come down there and talk, if you don't mind." + +"I don't but the dog may," said the other grimly. + +"Well, this is a nice way to treat a gentleman," cried Crosby +wrathfully. + +"A gentleman would scarcely have expected to find a lady in the barn, +much less on a cross-beam. This is where my horses and dogs live." + +"Oh, that's all right now; this isn't a joke, you know." + +"I quite agree with you. What is your business with Mrs. Delancy?" + +"We represent her late husband's interests in settling up the estate of +his father. Your wife's interests are being looked after by Morton & +Rogers, I believe. I am here to have Mrs. Delancy go through the form of +signing papers authorizing us to bring suit against the estate in order +to establish certain rights of which you are fully aware. Your wife's +brother left his affairs slightly tangled, you remember." + +"Well, I can save you a good deal of trouble. Mrs. Delancy has decided +to let the matter rest as it is and to accept the compromise terms +offered by the other heirs. She will not care to see you, for she has +just written to your firm announcing her decision." + +"You--you don't mean it," exclaimed Crosby in dismay. He saw a +prodigious fee slipping through his fingers. "Gad, I must see her about +this," he went on, starting down the ladder, only to go back again +hastily. The growling dog leaped forward and stood ready to receive him. +Austin chuckled audibly. + +"She really can't see you, Mr. Crosby. Mrs. Delancy leaves at four +o'clock for Chicago, where she takes the Michigan Central for New York +to-night. You can gain nothing by seeing her." + +"But I insist, sir," exploded Crosby. + +"You may come down when you like," said Austin. "The dog will be here +until I return from the depot after driving her over. Come down when you +like." + +Crosby did not utter the threat that surged to his lips. With the wisdom +born of self-preservation, he temporized, reserving deep down in the +surging young breast a promise to amply recompense his pride for the +blows it was receiving at the hands of the detestable Mr. Austin. + +"You'll admit that I'm in a devil of a pickle, Mr. Austin," he said +jovially. "The dog is not at all friendly." + +"He is at least diverting. You won't be lonesome while I'm away. I'll +tell Mrs. Delancy that you called," said Austin ironically. + +He turned to leave the barn, and the sinister sneer on his face gave +Crosby a new and amazing inspiration. Like a flash there rushed into his +mind the belief that Austin had a deep laid design in not permitting him +to see the lady. With this belief also came the conviction that he was +hurrying her off to New York on some pretext simply to forestall any +action that might induce her to continue the contemplated suit against +the estate. Mrs. Delancy had undoubtedly been urged to drop the matter +under pressure of promises, and the Austins were getting her away from +the scene of action before she could reconsider or before her solicitors +could convince her of the mistake she was making. The thought of this +sent the fire of resentment racing through Crosby's brain, and he fairly +gasped with the longing to get at the bottom of the case. His only hope +now lay in sending a telegram to Mr. Rolfe, commanding him to meet Mrs. +Delancy when her train reached Chicago, and to lay the whole matter +before her. + +Before Austin could make his exit the voices of women were heard outside +the door and an instant later two ladies entered. The farmer attempted +to turn them back, but the younger, taller, and slighter of the +newcomers cried: + +"I just couldn't go without another look at the horses, Bob." + +Crosby, on the beam, did not fail to observe the rich, tender tone of +the voice, and it would have required almost total darkness to obscure +the beauty of her face. Her companion was older and coarser, and he +found delight in the belief that she was the better half of the +disagreeable Mr. Austin. + +"Good-afternoon, Mrs. Delancy!" came a fine masculine voice from +nowhere. The ladies started in amazement, Mr. Austin ground his teeth, +the dog took another tired leap upward; Mr. Crosby took off his hat +gallantly, and waited patiently for the lady to discover his +whereabouts. + +"Who is it, Bob?" cried the tall one, and Crosby patted his bump of +shrewdness happily. "Who have you in hiding here?" + +"I'm not in hiding, Mrs. Delancy. I'm a prisoner, that's all. I'm right +near the top of the ladder directly in front of you. You know me only +through the mails, but my partner, Mr. Rolfe, is known to you +personally. My name is Crosby." + +"How very strange," she cried in wonder. "Why don't you come down, Mr. +Crosby?" + +"I hate to admit it, but I'm afraid. There's the dog, you know. Have you +any influence over him?" + +"None whatever. He hates me. Perhaps Mr. Austin can manage him. Oh, +isn't it ludicrous?" and she burst into hearty laughter. It was a very +musical laugh, but Crosby considered it a disagreeable croak. + +"But Mr. Austin declines to interfere. I came to see you on private +business and am not permitted to do so." + +"We don't know this fellow, Louise, and I can't allow you to talk to +him," said Austin brusquely. "I found him where he is and there he stays +until the marshal comes out from town. His actions have been very +suspicious and must be investigated. I can't take chances on letting a +horse thief escape. Swallow will watch him until I can secure +assistance." + +"I implore you, Mrs. Delancy, to give me a moment or two in which to +explain," cried Crosby. "He knows I'm not here to steal his horses, and +he knows I intend to punch his head the minute I get the chance." Mrs. +Austin's little shriek of dismay and her husband's fierce glare did not +check the flow of language from the beam. "I AM Crosby of Rolfe & +Crosby, your counsel. I have the papers here for you to sign and--" + +"Louise, I insist that you come away from here. This fellow is a fraud--" + +"He's refreshing, at any rate," said Mrs. Delancy gaily. "There can be +no harm in hearing what he has to say, Bob." + +"You are very kind, and I won't detain you long." + +"I've a mind to kick you out of this barn," cried Austin angrily. + +"I don't believe you're tall enough, my good fellow." Mr. Crosby was +more than amiable. He was positively genial. Mrs. Delancy's pretty face +was the picture of eager, excited mirth, and he saw that she was +determined to see the comedy to the end. + +"Louise!" exclaimed Mrs. Austin, speaking for the first time. "You are +not fool enough to credit this fellow's story, I'm sure. Come to the +house at once. I will not stay here." Mrs. Austin's voice was hard and +biting, and Crosby also caught the quick glance that passed between +husband and wife. + +"I am sure Mrs. Delancy will not be so unkind as to leave me after I've +had so much trouble in getting an audience. Here is my card, Mrs. +Delancy." Crosby tossed a card from his perch, but Swallow gobbled it up +instantly. Mrs. Delancy gave a little cry of disappointment, and Crosby +promptly apologized for the dog's greediness. "Mr. Austin knows I'm +Crosby," he concluded. + +"I know nothing of the sort, sir, and I forbid Mrs. Delancy holding +further conversation with you. This is an outrageous imposition, Louise. +You must hurry, by the way, or we'll miss the train," said Austin, +biting his lip impatiently. + +"That reminds me, I also take the four o'clock train for Chicago, Mrs. +Delancy. If you prefer, we can talk over our affairs on the train +instead of here. I'll confess this isn't a very dignified manner in +which to hold a consultation," said Crosby apologetically. + +"Will you be kind enough to state the nature of your business, Mr. +Crosby?" said the young woman, ignoring Mr. Austin. + +"Then you believe I'm Crosby?" cried that gentleman triumphantly. + +"Louise!" cried Mrs. Austin in despair. + +"In spite of your present occupation, I believe you are Crosby," said +Mrs. Delancy merrily. + +"But, good gracious, I can't talk business with you from this confounded +beam," he cried lugubriously. + +"Mr. Austin will call the dog away," she said confidently, turning to +the man in the door. Austin's sallow face lighted with a sudden +malicious grin, and there was positive joy in his voice. + +"You may be satisfied, but I am not. If you desire to transact business +with this impertinent stranger, Mrs. Delancy, you'll have to do so under +existing conditions. I do not approve of him or his methods, and my dog +doesn't either. You can trust a dog for knowing a man for what he is. +Mrs. Austin and I are going to the house. You may remain, of course; I +have no right to command you to follow. When you are ready to drive to +the station, please come to the house. I'll be ready. Your Mr. Crosby +may leave when he likes--IF HE CAN. Come, Elizabeth." With this defiant +thrust, Mr. Austin stalked from the barn, followed by his wife. Mrs. +Delancy started to follow but checked herself immediately, a flush of +anger mounting to her brow. After a long pause she spoke. + +"I don't understand how you came to be where you are, Mr. Crosby," she +said slowly. He related his experiences rapidly and laughed with her +simply because she had a way with her. + +"You'll pardon me for laughing," she giggled. + +"With all my heart," he replied gallantly. "It must be very funny. +However, this is not business. You are in a hurry to get away from here +and--I'm not, it seems. Briefly, Mrs. Delancy, I have the papers you are +to sign before we begin your action against the Fairwater estate. You +know what they are through Mr. Rolfe." + +"Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Crosby, to say to you that I have decided to +abandon the matter. A satisfactory compromise is under way." + +"So I've been told. But are you sure you understand yourself?" + +"Perfectly, thank you." + +"This is a very unsatisfactory place from which to argue my case, Mrs. +Delancy. Can't you dispose of the dog?" + +"Only God disposes." + +"Well, do you mind telling me what the compromise provides?" She stared +at him for a moment haughtily, but his smile won the point for him. She +told him everything and then looked very much displeased when he swore +distinctly. + +"Pardon me, but you are getting very much the worst of it in this deal. +It is the most contemptible scheme to rob that I ever heard of. By this +arrangement you are to get farming lands and building lots in rural +towns worth in all about $100,000, I'd say. Don't you know that you are +entitled to nearly half a million?" + +"Oh, dear, no. By right, my share is less than $75,000," she cried +triumphantly. + +"Who told you so?" he demanded, and she saw a very heavy frown on his +erstwhile merry face. + +"Why--why, Mr. Austin and another brother-in-law, Mr. Gray, both of whom +are very kind to me in the matter, I'm sure." + +"Mrs. Delancy, you are being robbed by these fellows. Can't you see that +these brothers-in-law and their wives will profit immensely if they +succeed in keeping the wool over your eyes long enough? Let ME show you +some figures." He excitedly drew a packet of papers from his pocket and +in five minutes' time had her gasping with the knowledge that she was +legally entitled to more than half a million of dollars. + +"Are you sure?" she cried, unable to believe her ears. + +"Absolutely. Here is the inventory and here are the figures to +corroborate everything I say." + +"But THEY had figures, too," she cried in perplexity. + +"Certainly. Figures are wonderful things. I only ask you to defer this +plan to compromise until we are able to thoroughly convince you that I +am not misrepresenting the facts to you." + +"Oh, if I could only believe you!" + +"I'd toss the documents down to you if I were not afraid they'd join my +card. That is a terribly ravenous beast. Surely you can coax him out of +the barn," he added eagerly. + +"I can try, but persuasion is difficult with a bulldog, you know," she +said doubtfully. "It is much easier to persuade a man," she smiled. + +"I trust you won't try to persuade me to come down," he said in alarm. + +"Mr. Austin is a brute to treat you in this manner," she cried +indignantly. + +"I wouldn't treat a dog as he is treating me." + +"Oh, I am sure you couldn't," she cried in perfect sincerity. "Swallow +doesn't like me, but I'll try to get him away. You can't stay up there +all night." + +"By Jove!" he exclaimed sharply. + +"What is it?" she asked quickly. + +"I had forgotten an engagement in Chicago for to-night. Box party at the +comic opera," he said, looking nervously at his watch. + +"It would be too bad if you missed it," she said sweetly. "You'd be much +more comfortable in a box." + +"You are consoling at least. Are you going to coax him off?" + +"In behalf of the box party, I'll try. Come, Swallow. There's a nice +doggie!" + +Crosby watched the proceedings with deepest interest and concern and not +a little admiration. But not only did Swallow refuse to abdicate but he +seemed to take decided exceptions to the feminine method of appeal. He +evidently did not like to be called "doggie," "pet," "dearie," and all +such. + +"He won't come," she cried plaintively. + +"I have it!" he exclaimed, his face brightening. "Will you hand me that +three-tined pitchfork over there? With that in my hands I'll make +Swallow see--Look out! For heaven's sake, don't go near him! He'll kill +you." She had taken two or three steps toward the dog, her hand extended +pleadingly, only to be met by an ominous growl, a fine display of teeth, +and a bristling back. As if paralyzed, she halted at the foot of the +ladder, terror suddenly taking possession of her. + +"Can you get the pitchfork?" + +"I am afraid to move," she moaned. "He is horrible--horrible!" + +"I'll come down, Mrs. Delancy, and hang the consequences," Crosby cried, +and was suiting the action to the word when she cried out in +remonstrance. + +"Don't come down--don't! He'll kill you. I forbid you to come down, Mr. +Crosby. Look at him! Oh, he's coming toward me! Don't come down!" she +shrieked. "I'll come up!" + +Grasping her skirts with one hand she started frantically up the ladder, +her terrified eyes looking into the face of the man above. There was a +vicious snarl from the dog, a savage lunge, and then something closed +over her arm like a vice. She felt herself being jerked upward and a +second later she was on the beam beside the flushed young man whose +strong hand and not the dog's jaws had reached her first. He was obliged +to support her for a few minutes with one of his emphatic arms, so near +was she to fainting. + +"Oh," she gasped at last, looking into his eyes questioningly. "Did he +bite me? I was not sure, you know. He gave such an awful leap for me. +How did you do it?" + +"A simple twist of the wrist, as the prestidigitators say. You had a +close call, my dear Mrs. Delancy." He was a-quiver with new sensations +that were sending his spirits sky high. After all it was not turning out +so badly. + +"He would have dragged me down had it not been for you. And I might have +been torn to pieces," she shuddered, glancing down at the now infuriated +dog. + +"It would have been appalling," he agreed, discreetly allowing her to +imagine the worst. + +"How can I ever thank you?" cried she impulsively. He made a very +creditable show of embarrassment in the effort to convince her that he +had accomplished only what any man would have attempted under similar +circumstances. She was thoroughly convinced that no other man could have +succeeded. + +"Well, we're in a pretty position, are we not?" he asked in the end. + +"I think I can stick on without being held, Mr. Crosby," she said, and +his arm slowly and regretfully came to parade rest. + +"Are you sure you won't get dizzy?" he demanded in deep solicitude. + +"I'll not look down," she said, smiling into his eyes. He lost the power +of speech for a moment. "May I look at those figures now?" + +For the next ten minutes she studiously followed him as he explained the +contents of the various papers. She held the sheets and they sat very +close to each other on the big beam. The dog looked on in sour disgust. + +"They cannot be wrong," she cried at last. Her eyes were sparkling. "You +are as good as an angel." + +"I only regret that I can't complete the illusion by unfolding a strong +and convenient pair of wings," he said dolorously. "How are we to catch +that train for Chicago?" + +"I'm afraid we can't," she said demurely. "You'll miss the box party." + +"That's a pleasure easily sacrificed." + +"Besides, you are seeing me on business. Pleasure should never interfere +with business, you know." + +"It doesn't seem to," he said, and the dog saw them smile tranquilly +into each other's eyes. + +"Oh, isn't this too funny for words?" He looked very grateful. + +"I wonder when Austin will condescend to release us." + +"I have come to a decision, Mr. Crosby," she said irrelevantly. + +"Indeed?" + +"I shall never speak to Robert Austin again, and I'll never enter his +house as long as I live," she announced determinedly. + +"Good! But you forget your personal effects. They are in his house." He +was overflowing with happiness. + +"They have all gone to the depot and I have the baggage checks. My +ticket and my money are in this purse. You see, we are quite on the same +footing." + +"I don't feel sure of my footing," he commented ruefully. "By the way, I +have a fountain pen. Would you mind signing these papers? We'll be quite +sure of our standing at least." + +She deliberately spread out the papers on the beam, and, while he +obligingly kept her from falling, signed seven documents in a full, +decisive hand: "Louise Hampton Delancy." + +"There! That means that you are to begin suit," she said finally, +handing the pen to him. + +[Illustration: "SHE DELIBERATELY SPREAD OUT THE PAPERS ON THE BEAM."] + +"I'll not waste an instant," he said meaningly. "In fact, the suit is +already under way." + +"I don't understand you," she said, but she flushed. + +"That's what a lawyer says when he goes to court," he explained. + +"Oh," she said, thoroughly convinced. + +At the end of another hour the two on the beam were looking at each +other with troubled eyes. When he glanced at his watch at six o'clock, +his face was extremely sober. There was a tired, wistful expression in +her eyes. + +"Do you think they'll keep us here all night?" she asked plaintively. + +"Heaven knows what that scoundrel will do." + +"We have the papers signed, at any rate." She sighed, trying to revive +the dying spark of humor. + +"And we won't be lonesome," he added, glaring at the dog. + +"Did you ever dream that a man could be so despicable?" + +"Ah, here comes some one at last," he cried, brightening up. + +The figure of Robert Austin appeared in the doorway. + +"Oho, you're both up there now, are you?" he snapped. "That's why you +didn't go to the depot, is it? Well, how has the business progressed?" + +"She has signed all the papers, if that's what you want to know," said +Crosby tantalizingly. + +"That's all the good it will do her. We'll beat you in court, Mr. +Crosby, and we won't leave a dollar for you, my dear sister-in-law," +snarled Austin, his face white with rage. + +"And now that we've settled our business, and missed our train, perhaps +you'll call off your confounded dog," said Crosby. Austin's face broke +into a wide grin, and he chuckled aloud. Then he leaned against the +door-post and held his sides. + +"What's the joke?" demanded the irate Crosby. Mrs. Delancy clasped his +arm and looked down upon Austin as if he had suddenly gone mad. + +"You want to come down, eh?" cackled Austin. "Why don't you come down? I +know you'll pardon my laughter, but I have just remembered that you may +be a horse thief and that I was not going to let you escape. Mrs. +Delancy refuses to speak to me, so I decline to ask her to come down." + +"Do you mean to say you'll keep this lady up here for--" began Crosby +fiercely. Her hand on his arm prevented him from leaping to the floor. + +"She may come down when she desires, and so may you, sir," roared Austin +stormily. + +"But some one will release us, curse you, and then I'll make you sorry +you ever lived," hissed Crosby. "You are a black-hearted cur, a cowardly +dog--" + +"Don't--don't!" whispered the timid woman beside him. + +"You are helping your cause beautifully," sneered Austin. "My men have +instructions to stay away from the barn until the marshal comes. I, +myself, expect to feed and bed the horses." + +Deliberately he went about the task of feeding the horses. The two on +the beam looked on in helpless silence. Crosby had murder in his heart. +At last the master of the situation started for the door. + +"Good-night," he said sarcastically. "Pleasant dreams." + +"You brute," cried Crosby, hoarse with anger. A sob came from his tired +companion and Crosby turned to her, his heart full of tenderness +and--shame, perhaps. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and her +shoulders drooped dejectedly. + +"What shall we do?" she moaned. Crosby could frame no answer. He gently +took her hand in his and held it tightly. She made no effort to withdraw +it. + +"I'm awfully sorry," he said softly. "Don't cry, little woman. It will +all end right, I know." + +Just then Austin reentered the barn. Without a word he strode over and +emptied a pan of raw meat on the floor in front of the dog. Then he +calmly departed, but Crosby could have sworn he heard him chuckle. The +captives looked at each other dumbly for a full minute, one with wet, +wide-open, hurt eyes, the other with consternation. Gradually the sober +light in their eyes faded away and feeble smiles developed into peals of +laughter. The irony of the situation bore down upon them irresistibly +and their genuine, healthy young minds saw the picture in all of its +ludicrous colorings. Not even the prospect of a night in mid-air could +conquer the wild desire to laugh. + +"Isn't it too funny for words?" she laughed bravely through her tears. + +Then, for some reason, both relapsed into dark, silent contemplation of +the dog who was so calmly enjoying his evening repast. + +"I am sorry to admit it, Mr. Crosby, but I am growing frightfully +hungry," she said wistfully. + +"It has just occurred to me that I haven't eaten a bite since seven +o'clock this morning," he said. + +"You poor man! I wish I could cook something for you." + +"You might learn." + +"You know what I mean," she explained, reddening a bit. "You must be +nearly famished." + +"I prefer to think of something more interesting," he said coolly. + +"It is horrid!" she sobbed. "See, it is getting dark. Night is coming. +Mr. Crosby, what is to become of us?" He was very much distressed by her +tears and a desperate resolve took root in his breast. She was so tired +and dispirited that she seemed glad when he drew her close to him and +pressed her head upon his shoulder. He heard the long sigh of relief and +relaxation and she peered curiously over her wet lace handkerchief when +he muttered tenderly: + +"Poor little chap!" + +Then she sighed again quite securely, and there was a long silence, +broken regularly and rhythmically by the faint little catches that once +were tearful sobs. + +"Oh, dear me! It is quite dark," she cried suddenly, and he felt a +shudder run through her body. + +"Where could you go to-night, Mrs. Delancy, if we were to succeed in +getting away from here?" he asked abruptly. She felt his figure +straighten and his arm grow tense as if a sudden determination had +charged through it. + +"Why--why, I hadn't thought about that," she confessed, confronted by a +new proposition. + +"There's a late night train for Chicago," he volunteered. + +"But how are we to catch it?" + +"If you are willing to walk to town I think you can catch it," he said, +a strange ring in his voice. + +"What do you mean?" she demanded, looking up at his face quickly. + +"Can you walk the two miles?" he persisted. "The train leaves Dexter at +eleven o'clock and it is now nearly eight." + +"Of course I can walk it," she said eagerly. "I could walk a hundred +miles to get away from this place." + +"You'll miss the New York train, of course." + +"I've changed my mind, Mr. Crosby. I shall remain in Chicago until we +have had our revenge on Austin and the others." + +"That's very good of you. May I ask where you stop in Chicago?" + +"My apartments are in the C--- Building. My mother lives with me." + +"Will you come to see me some time?" he asked, an odd smile on his lips. + +"Come to see you?" she cried in surprise. "The idea! What do you mean?" + +"I may not be able to call on you for some time, but you can be very +good to me by coming to see me. I'll be stopping at St. Luke's Hospital +for quite a while." + +"At St. Luke's Hospital? I don't understand," she cried perplexed. + +"You see, my dear Mrs. Delancy, I have come to a definite conclusion in +regard to our present position. You must not stay here all night. I'd be +a coward and a cur to subject you to such a thing. Well, I'm going down +to tackle that dog." + +"To--tackle--the--dog," she gasped. + +"And while I'm keeping him busy you are to cut and run for the road down +there. Then you'll have easy sailing for town." + +"Mr. Crosby," she said firmly, clasping his arm; "you are not to leave +this beam. Do you think I'll permit you to go down there and be torn to +pieces by that beast, just for the sake of letting me cut and run, as +you call it? I'd be a bigger brute than the dog and--and--" + +"Mrs. Delancy, my mind is made up. I'm going down!" + +"That settles it! I'm coming too," she proclaimed emphatically. + +"To be sure. That's the plan. You'll escape while I hold Swallow." + +"I'll do nothing of the sort. You shall not sacrifice yourself for my +sake. I'd stay up here with you all the rest of my life before I'd +permit you to do that." + +"I'll remind you of that offer later on, my dear Mrs. Delancy, when we +are not so pressed for time. Just now you must be practical, however. We +can't stay up here all night." + +"Please, Mr. Crosby, for my sake, don't go down there. To please me, +don't be disfigured. I know you are awfully brave and strong, but he is +such a huge, vicious dog. Won't you please stay here?" + +"Ten minutes from now it will be too dark to see the dog and he'll have +an advantage over me. Listen: I'll meet you at the depot in an hour and +a half. This is final, Mrs. Delancy. Will you do as I tell you? Run for +the road and then to town. I'll promise to join you there." + +"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" she moaned, as he drew away from her and swung one +foot to the ladder. "I shall die if you go down there." + +"I am going just the same. Don't be afraid, little woman. My pocket +knife is open and it is a trusty blade. Now, be brave and be quick. +Follow me down the ladder and cut for it." + +"Please, please, please!" she implored, wringing her hands. + +But he was already half-way down the ladder and refused to stop. + +Suddenly Crosby paused as if checked in his progress by some +insurmountable obstacle. The dog was at the foot of the ladder, snarling +with joy over the prospective end of his long vigil. Above, Mrs. Delancy +was moaning and imploring him to come back to her side, even threatening +to spring from the beam to the floor before he could reach the bottom. + +"By George!" he exclaimed, and then climbed up three or four rounds of +the ladder, greatly to the annoyance of the dog. + +"What is it?" cried Mrs. Delancy, recovering her balance on the beam. + +"Let me think for a minute," he answered, deliberately resting his elbow +on an upper round. + +"It is about time you were doing a little thinking," she said, relief +and asperity in her voice. "In another second I should have jumped into +that dog's jaws." + +"I believe it can be done," he went on, excited enthusiasm growing in +his voice. "That's what bulldogs are famous for, isn't it?" + +"I don't know what you are talking about, but I do know that whenever +they take hold of anything they have to be treated for lockjaw before +they will let go. If you don't come up here beside me I'll have a fit, +Mr. Crosby." + +"That's it--that's what I mean," he cried eagerly. "If they close those +jaws upon anything they won't let go until death them doth part. Gad, I +believe I see a way out of this pickle." + +"I don't see how that can help us. The dog's jaws are the one and only +obstacle, and it is usually the other fellow's death that parts them. +Oh," she went on, plaintively, "if we could only pull his teeth. Good +heaven, Mr. Crosby," sitting up very abruptly, "you are not thinking of +undertaking it, are you?" + +"No, but I've got a scheme that will make Swallow ashamed of himself to +the end of his days. I can't help laughing over it." He leaned back and +laughed heartily. "Hold my coat, please." He removed his coat quickly +and passed it up to her. + +"I insist on knowing what you intend doing," she exclaimed. + +"Just wait and see me show Mr. Swallow a new trick or two." He had +already taken his watch and chain, his fountain pen, and other effects +from his vest, jamming them into his trousers pockets. Mrs. Delancy, in +the growing darkness, looked on, puzzled and anxious. + +"You might tell me," she argued resentfully. "Are you going to try to +swim out?" + +Folding the vest lengthwise, he took a firm grip on the collar, and +cautiously descended the ladder. + +"I'll not come to the hospital," she cried warningly. "Don't! he'll bite +your leg off!" + +"I'm merely teasing him, Mrs. Delancy. He sha'n't harm my legs, don't +fear. Now watch for developments." Pausing just beyond reach of the +dog's mightiest leaps, he took a firm hold on the ladder and swung down +with the vest until it almost slapped the head of the angry animal. It +was like casting a fly directly at the head of a hungry pickerel. +Swallow's eager jaws closed down upon the cloth and the teeth met like a +vice. The heavy body of the brute almost jerked Crosby's arm from the +socket, but he braced himself, recovered his poise, and clung gaily to +the ladder, with the growling, squirming dog dangling free of the floor. +Mrs. Delancy gave a little shriek of terror. + +"Are you--going to bring him up here?" she gasped. + +"Heaven knows where he'll end." + +"But he will ruin your vest." + +"I'll charge it up to your account. Item: one vest, fifteen dollars." + +By this time he was swinging Swallow slowly back and forth, and he +afterwards said that it required no little straining of his muscles. + +"You extravagant thing!" she cried, but did not tell whether she meant +his profligacy in purchasing or his wantonness in destroying. "And now, +pray enlighten me. Are you swinging him just for fun or are you crazy?" + +"Everything depends on his jaws and my strong right arm," he said, and +he was beginning to pant from the exertion. Swallow was swinging higher +and higher. + +"Well, it is the most aimless proceeding I ever saw." + +"I hope not. On second thought, everything depends on my aim." + +"And what is your aim, Mr. Hercules?" + +"See that opening above the box-stall over there?" + +"Dimly." + +"That's my aim. Heavens, he's a heavy brute." + +"Oh, I see!" she cried ecstatically, clapping her hands. "Delicious! +Lovely! Oh, Mr. Crosby, you are so clever." + +"Don't fall off that beam, please," he panted. "It might rattle me." + +"I can't help being excited. It is the grandest thing I ever heard of. +He can't get out of there, can he? Dear me, the sides of that stall are +more than eight feet high." + +"He can't--get--out--of it if--I get him--in," gasped Crosby. + +Not ten feet away to the left and some four feet above the floor level +there was a wide opening into a box-stall, the home of Mr. Austin's +prize stallion. As the big horse was inside munching his hay, Crosby was +reasonably sure that the stall with its tall sides was securely closed +and bolted. + +[Illustration: "SWALLOW'S CHUBBY BODY SHOT SQUARELY THROUGH THE +OPENING"] + +Suddenly there was a mighty creak of the ladder, the swish of a heavy +body through the air, an interrupted growl, and then a ripping thud. +Swallow's chubby body shot squarely through the opening, accompanied by +a trusty though somewhat sadly stretched vest, and the deed was done. A +cry of delight came from the beam, a shout of pride and relief from the +ladder, and sounds of a terrific scramble from the stall. First there +was a sickening grunt, then a surprised howl, then the banging of +horse-hoofs, and at last a combination of growls and howls that proved +Swallow's invasion of a hornet's nest. + +"Thunderation!" came in sharp, agonized tones from the ladder. + +"What is the matter?" she cried, detecting disaster in the exclamation. + +"I am a--a--blooming idiot," he groaned. "I forgot to remove a roll of +bills from an upper pocket in that vest!" + +"Oh, is that all?" she cried, in great relief, starting down the ladder. + +"All? There was at least fifty dollars in that roll," he said, from the +floor, not forgetting to assist her gallantly to the bottom. + +"You can add it to my bill, you know," she said sweetly. + +"But it leaves me dead broke." + +"You forget that I have money, Mr. Crosby. What is mine to-night is also +yours. I think we should shake hands and congratulate one another." +Crosby's sunny nature lost its cloud in an instant, and the two clasped +hands at the bottom of the ladder. + +"I think it is time to cut and run," he said. "It's getting so beastly +dark we won't be able to find the road." + +"And there is no moon until midnight. But come; we are free. Let us fly +the hated spot, as they say in the real novels. How good the air feels!" + +She was soon leading the way swiftly toward the gate. Night had fallen +so quickly that they were in utter darkness. There were lights in the +windows of the house on the hill, and the escaped prisoners, with one +impulse, shook their clenched hands toward them. + +"I am awfully sorry, Mr. Crosby, that you have endured so much hardship +in coming to see me," she went on. "I hope you haven't many such clients +as I." + +"One is enough, I assure you," he responded, and somehow she took it as +a compliment. + +"I suppose our next step is to get to the railway station," she said. + +"Unless you will condescend to lead me through this assortment of plows, +wood-piles, and farm-wagons, I'm inclined to think my next step will be +my last. Was ever night so dark?" Her warm, strong fingers clutched his +arm and then dropped to his hand. In this fashion she led him swiftly +through the night, down a short embankment, and into the gravel highway. +"The way looks dark and grewsome ahead of us, Mrs. Delancy. As your +lawyer, I'd advise you to turn back and find safe lodging with the +enemy. It is going to storm, I'm sure." + +"That's your advice as a lawyer, Mr. Crosby. Will you give me your +advice as a friend?" she said lightly. Although the time had passed when +her guiding hand was necessary, he still held the member in his own. + +"I couldn't be so selfish," he protested, and without another word they +started off down the road toward town. + +"Do you suppose they are delaying the opera in Chicago until you come?" +she asked. + +"Poor Graves! he said he'd kill me if I didn't come," said Crosby, +laughing. + +"How dreadful!" + +"But I'm not regretting the opera. Quive does not sing until to-morrow +night." + +"I adore Quive." + +"You can't possibly have an engagement for to-morrow night either," he +said reflectively. + +"I don't see how I could. I expected to be on a Pullman sleeper." + +"I'll come for you at 8:15 then." + +"You are very good, Mr. Crosby, but I have another plan." + +"I beg your pardon for presuming to--" he began, and a hot flush mounted +to his brow. + +"You are to come at seven for dinner," she supplemented delightedly. + +"What a nice place the seventh heaven is!" he cried warmly. + +"Sh!" she whispered suddenly, and both stopped stock-still. "There is a +man with a lantern at the lower gate. See? Over yonder." + +"They're after me, Mrs. Delancy," he whispered. A moment later they were +off the road and in the dense shadow of the hedge. + +"Is he still in the barn, Mr. Austin?" demanded the man in the buggy. + +"I am positive he is. No human being could get away from that dog of +mine." Crosby chuckled audibly, and Mrs. Delancy with difficulty +suppressed a proud giggle. + +"Well, we might as well go up and get him then. Do you think he's a +desperate character?" + +"I don't know anything about him, Davis. He says he is a lawyer, but his +actions were so strange that I thought you'd best look into his case. A +night in the jail won't hurt him, and if he can prove that he is what he +says he is, let him go to-morrow. On the other hand, he may turn out to +be a very important capture." + +"Oh, this is rich!" whispered Crosby excitedly. "Austin is certainly +doing the job up brown. But wait till he consults Swallow, the +infallible; he won't be so positive." For a few minutes the party of men +at the gate conversed in low tones, the listeners being able to catch +but few of the words uttered. + +"Please let go of my arm, Mrs. Delancy," said Crosby suddenly. + +"Where are you going?" + +"I am going to tell Austin what I think of him. You don't expect me to +stand by and allow a pack of jays to hunt me down as if I were Jesse +James or some other desperado, do you?" + +"Do you suppose they would credit your story? They will throw you into +jail and there you'd stay until some one came down from Chicago to +identify you." + +"But a word from you would clear me," he said in surprise. + +"If they pinned me down to the truth, I could only say I had never seen +you until this afternoon." + +"Great Scott! You know I am Crosby, don't you?" + +"I am positive you are, but what would you, as a lawyer, say to me if +you were cross-examining me on the witness stand? You'd ask some very +embarrassing questions, and I could only say in the end that the +suspected horse thief told me his name and I was goose enough to believe +him. No, my dear friend, I think the safest plan is to take advantage of +the few minutes' start we have and escape the law." + +"You mean that I must run from these fellows as if I were really a +thief?" + +"Only a suspected thief, you know." + +"I'd rather be arrested a dozen times than to desert you at this time." + +"Oh, but I'm going with you," she said positively. + +"Like a thief, too? I could not permit that, you know. Just stop and +think how awkward for you it would be if we were caught flying +together." + +"Birds of a feather. It might have been worse if you had not disposed of +Swallow." + +"I must tell you what a genuine brick you are. If they overtake us it +will give me the greatest delight in the world to fight the whole posse +for your sake." + +"After that, do you wonder I want to go with you?" she whispered, and +Crosby would have fought a hundred men for her. + +The marshal and his men were now following Mr. Austin and the lantern +toward the barn, and the road was quite deserted. Mrs. Delancy and +Crosby started off rapidly in the direction of the town. The low rumble +of distant thunder came to their ears, and ever and anon the western +blackness was faintly illumined by flashes of lightning. Neither of the +fugitives uttered a word until they were far past the gate. + +"By George, Mrs. Delancy, we are forgetting one important thing," said +Crosby. They were striding along swiftly arm in arm. "They'll discover +our flight, and the railway station will be just where they'll expect to +find us." + +"Oh, confusion! We can't go to the station, can we?" + +"We can, but we'll be captured with humiliating ease." + +"I know what we can do. Scott Higgins is the tenant on my farm, and he +lives half a mile farther from town than Austin. We can turn back to his +place, but we will have to cut across one of Mr. Austin's fields." + +"Charming. We can have the satisfaction of trampling on some of Mr. +Austin's early wheat crop. Right about, face! But, incidentally, what +are we to do after we get to Mr. Higgins's?" They were now scurrying +back over the ground they had just traversed. + +"Oh, dear me, why should we think about troubles until we come to them?" + +"I wasn't thinking about troubles. I'm thinking about something to eat." + +"You are intensely unromantic. But Mrs. Higgins is awfully good. She +will give us eggs and cakes and milk and coffee and--everything. Won't +it be jolly?" + +Five minutes later they were plunging through a field of partly grown +wheat, in what she averred to be the direction of the Higgins home. It +was not good walking, but they were young and strong and very much +interested in one another and the adventure. + +"Hello, what's this? A river?" he cried, as the swish of running waters +came to his ears. + +"Oh; isn't it dreadful? I forgot this creek was here, and there is no +bridge nearer than a mile. What shall we do? See there is a light in +Higgins's house over there. Isn't it disgusting? I could sit down and +cry," she wailed. In the distance a dog was heard barking fiercely, but +they did not recognize the voice of Swallow. A new trouble confronted +them. + +[Illustration: "HE WAS SPLASHING THROUGH THE SHALLOW BROOK"] + +"Don't do that," he said resignedly. "Remember how Eliza crossed the ice +with the bloodhounds in full trail. Do you know how deep and wide the +creek is?" + +"It's a tiny bit of a thing, but it's wet," she said ruefully. + +"I'll carry you over." And a moment later he was splashing through the +shallow brook, holding the lithe, warm figure of his client high above +the water. As he set her down upon the opposite bank she gave a pretty +sigh of satisfaction, and naively told him that he was very strong for a +man in the last stages of starvation. + +Two or three noisy dogs gave them the first welcome, and Crosby sagely +looked aloft for refuge. His companion quieted the dogs, however, and +the advance on the squat farmhouse was made without resistance. The +visitors were not long in acquainting the good-natured and astonished +young farmer with the situation. Mrs. Higgins was called from her bed +and in a jiffy was bustling about the kitchen, from which soon floated +odors so tantalizing that the refugees could scarcely suppress the +desire to rush forth and storm the good cook in her castle. + +"It's mighty lucky you got here when you did, Mrs. Delancy," said +Higgins, peering from the window. "Looks 's if it might rain before +long. We ain't got much of a place here, but, if you'll put up with it, +I guess we can take keer of you over night." + +"Oh, but we couldn't think of it," she protested. "After we have had +something to eat we must hurry off to the station." + +"What station?" asked Crosby sententiously. + +"I don't know, but it wouldn't be a bit nice to spoil the adventure by +stopping now." + +"But we can't walk all over the State of Illinois," he cried. + +"For shame! You are ready to give up the instant something to eat comes +in sight. Mr. Higgins may be able to suggest something. What is the +nearest----" + +"I have it," interrupted Crosby. "The Wabash road runs through this +neighborhood, doesn't it? Well, where is its nearest station?" + +"Lonesomeville--about four miles south," said Higgins. + +"Do the night trains stop there?" + +"I guess you can flag 'em." + +"There's an east-bound train from St. Louis about midnight, I'm quite +sure." + +While the fugitives were enjoying Mrs. Higgins's hastily but adorably +prepared meal, the details of the second stage of the flight were +perfected. Mr. Higgins gladly consented to hitch up his high-boarded +farm wagon and drive them to the station on the Wabash line, and half an +hour later Higgins's wagon clattered away in the night. To all +appearances he was the only passenger. But seated on a soft pile of +grain sacks in the rear of the wagon, completely hidden from view by the +tall "side-beds," were the refugees. Mrs. Delancy insisted upon this +mode of travel as a precaution against the prying eyes of persistent +marshal's men. Hidden in the wagon-bed they might reasonably escape +detection, she argued, and Crosby humored her for more reasons than one. +Higgins threw a huge grain tarpaulin over the wagon-bed, and they were +sure to be dry in case the rainstorm came as expected. It was so dark +that neither could see the face of the other. He had a longing desire to +take her hand into his, but there was something in the atmosphere that +warned him against such a delightful but unnecessary proceeding. +Naturally, they were sitting quite close to each other; even the severe +jolting of the springless wagon could not disturb the feeling of happy +contentment. + +[Illustration: THEY ENJOY MRS HIGGIN'S GOOD SUPPER] + +"I hope it won't storm," she said nervously, as a little shudder ran +through her body. The wind was now blowing quite fiercely and those +long-distant rolls of thunder were taking on the sinister sound of +near-by crashes. "I don't mind thunder when I'm in the house." + +"And under the bed, I suppose," he laughed. + +"Well, you know, lightning COULD strike this wagon," she persisted. "Oh, +goodness, that was awfully close!" she cried, as a particularly loud +crash came to their ears. + +The wagon came to an abrupt stop, and Crosby was about to crawl forth to +demand the reason when the sound of a man's voice came through the +rushing wind. + +"What is it?" whispered Mrs. Delancy, clutching his arm. + +"Sh!" he replied. "We're held up by highwaymen, I think!" + +"Oh, how lovely!" she whispered rapturously. + +"How far are you goin'?" came the strange voice from the night. + +"Oh, 's far ag'in as half," responded Higgins warily. + +"That you, Scott?" demanded the other. + +"Yep." + +"Say, Scott, gimme a ride, will you? Goin' as far as Lonesomeville?" + +"What you doin' out this time o' night?" demanded Higgins. + +"Lookin' for a feller that tried to steal Mr. Austin's horses. We +thought we had him cornered up to the place, but he got away somehow. +But we'll get him. Davis has got fifty men scouring the country, I bet. +I been sent on to Lonesomeville to head him off if he tries to take a +train. He's a purty desperate character, they say, too, Scott. Say, +gimme a lift as far as you're agoin', won't you?" + +"I--I--well, I reckon so," floundered the helpless Higgins. + +"Really, this is getting a bit serious," whispered Crosby to his +breathless companion. + +The deputy was now on the seat with Higgins, and the latter, bewildered +and dismayed beyond expression, was urging his horses into their fastest +trot. + +"How far is it to Lonesomeville?" asked the deputy. + +"'Bout two mile." + +"It'll rain before we get there," said the other significantly. + +"I'm not afeared of rain," said Higgins. + +"What are you goin' over there this time o' night for?" asked the other. +"You ain't got much of a load." + +"I'm--I'm takin' some meat over to Mr. Talbert." + +"Hams?" + +"No; jest bacon," answered Scott, and his two hearers in the wagon-bed +laughed silently. + +"Not many people out a night like this," volunteered the deputy. + +"Nope." + +"That a tarpaulin you got in the back of the bed? Jest saw it by the +lightnin'." + +"Got the bacon kivered to keep it from gittin' wet 'n case it rains," +hastily interposed Scott. He was discussing within himself the +advisability of knocking the deputy from the seat and whipping the team +into a gallop, leaving him behind. + +"You don't mind my crawlin' under the tarpaulin if it rains, do you, +Scott?" + +"There ain't no--no room under it, Harry, an' I won't allow that bacon +to git wet under no consideration." + +A generous though nerve-racking crash of thunder changed the current of +conversation. It drifted from the weather immediately, however, to a +one-sided discussion of the escaped horse thief. + +"I guess he's a purty slick one," they heard the deputy say. "Austin +said he had him dead to rights in his barn! That big bulldog of his had +him treed on a beam, but when we got there, just after dark, the darned +cuss was gone, an' the dog was trapped up in a box-stall. By thunder, it +showed how desperate the feller is. He evidently come down from that +beam an' jest naturally picked that turrible bulldog up by the neck an' +throwed him over into the stall." + +"Have you got a revolver?" asked Higgins loudly. + +"Sure! You don't s'pose I'd go up against that kind of a man without a +gun, do you?" + +"Oh, goodness!" some one whispered in Crosby's ear. + +"But he ain't armed," argued Higgins. "If he'd had a gun don't you +s'pose he'd shot that dog an' got away long before he did?" + +"That shows how much you know about these crooks, Higgins," said the +other loftily. "He had a mighty good reason for not shooting the dog." + +"What was the reason?" + +"I don't know jest what it was, but any darned fool ought to see that he +had a reason. Else why didn't he shoot? Course he had a reason. But the +funny part of the whole thing is what has become of the woman." + +"What woman?" + +"That widder," responded the other, and Crosby felt her arm harden. "I +never thought much o' that woman. You'd think she owned the whole town +of Dexter to see her paradin' around the streets, showin' off her city +clothes, an' all such stuff. They do say she led George Delancy a devil +of a life, an' it's no wonder he died." + +"The wretch!" came from the rear of the wagon. + +"Well, she's up and skipped out with the horse thief. Austin says she +tried to protect him, and I guess they had a regular family row over the +affair. She's gone an' the man's gone, an' it looks darned suspicious. +He was a good-lookin' feller, Austin says, an' she's dead crazy to git +another man, I've heard. Dang me, it's jest as I said to Davis: I +wouldn't put it above her to take up with this good-lookin' thief an' +skip off with him. Her husband's been dead more'n two year, an' she's +too darned purty to stay in strict mournin' longer'n she has to---" + +But just then something strong, firm, and resistless grasped his neck +from behind, and, even as he opened his mouth to gasp out his surprise +and alarm, a vise-like grip shut down on his thigh, and then, he was +jerked backward, lifted upward, tossed outward, falling downward. The +wagon clattered off in the night, and a tall man and a woman looked over +the side of the wagon-bed and waited for the next flash of lightning to +show them where the official gossiper had fallen. The long, blinding, +flash came, and Crosby saw the man as he picked himself from the ditch +at the roadside. + +"Whip up, Higgins, and we'll leave him so far behind he'll never catch +us," cried Crosby eagerly. The first drops of rain began to fall and +Mrs. Delancy hurriedly crawled beneath the tarpaulin, urging him to +follow at once. Another flash of lightning revealed the deputy, far back +in the road waving his hands frantically. + +"I'm glad his neck isn't broken. Hurry on, Mr. Higgins; it is now more +urgent than ever that you save your bacon." + +'"Tain't very comfortable ridin' for Mrs. Delancy," apologized Higgins, +his horses in a lope. + +"If the marshal asks you why you didn't stop and help his deputy, just +tell him that the desperado held a pistol at your head and commanded you +to drive like the devil. Holy mackerel, here comes the deluge!" + +An instant later he was under the tarpaulin, crouching beside his fellow +fugitive. Conversation was impossible, so great was the noise of the +rain-storm and the rattle of the wagon over the hard pike. He did his +best to protect her from the jars and bumps incident to the leaping and +jolting of the wagon, and both were filled with rejoicing when Higgins +shouted "Whoa!" to the horses and brought the wild ride to an end. + +"Where are we?" cried Crosby, sticking his head from beneath the +tarpaulin. + +"We're in the dump-shed of the grain elevator, just across the track +from the depot." + +"And the ride is over?" + +"Yep. Did you get bumped much?" + +"It was worse, a thousand times, than sitting on the beam," bemoaned a +sweet, tired voice, and a moment later the two refugees stood erect in +the wagon, neither quite sure that legs so tired and stiff could serve +as support. + +"It was awful; wasn't it?" Crosby said, stretching himself painfully. + +"Are you not drenched to the skin, Mr. Higgins?" cried Mrs. Delancy +anxiously. "How selfish of us not to have thought of you before!" + +"Oh, that's all right. This gum coat kept me purty dry." + +He and Crosby assisted her from the wagon, and, while the former gave +his attention to the wet and shivering horses, the latter took her arm +and walked up and down the dark shed with her. + +"I think you are regretting the impulse that urged you into this folly," +he was saying. + +"If you persist in accusing me of faintheartedness, Mr. Crosby, I'll +never speak to you again," she said. "I cast my lot with a desperado, as +the deputy insinuated, and I am sure you have not heard me bewail my +fate. Isn't it worth something to have one day and night of real +adventure? My gown must be a sight, and I know my hair is just +dreadful, but my heart is gayer and brighter to-night than it has been +in years." + +"And you don't regret anything that has happened?" he asked, pressing +her arm ever so slightly. + +"My only regret is that you heard what the deputy said about me. You +don't believe I am like that, do you?" There was sweet womanly concern +in her voice. + +"I wish it were light enough to see your face," he answered, his lips +close to her ear. "I know you are blushing, and you must be more +beautiful--Oh, no, of course I don't think you are at all as he painted +you," he concluded, suddenly checking himself and answering the +plaintive question he had almost ignored. + +"Thank you, kind sir," she said lightly, but he failed not to observe +the tinge of confusion in the laugh that followed. + +"If you'll watch the team, Mr. Crosby," the voice of Higgins broke in at +this timely juncture, "I'll run acrost to the depot an' ast about the +train." + +"Much obliged, old man; much obliged," returned Crosby affably. "Are you +afraid to be alone in the dark?" he asked, as Higgins rushed out into +the rain. The storm had abated by this time and there was but the +faintest suggestion of distant thunder and lightning, the after-fall of +rain being little more than a drizzle. + +"Awfully," she confessed, "but it's safer here than on the beam," she +added, and his heart grew very tender as he detected the fatigue in her +voice. "Anyhow, we have the papers safely signed." + +"Mrs. Delancy, I--I swear that you shall never regret this day and +night," he said, stopping in his walk and placing his hands on her +shoulders. She caught her breath quickly. "Do you know what I mean?" + +"I--I think--I'm not quite sure," she stammered. + +"You will know some day," he said huskily. + +When Mr. Higgins appeared at the end of the shed, carrying a lighted +lantern, he saw a tall young man and a tall young woman standing side by +side, awaiting his approach with the unconcern of persons who have no +interest in common. + +"Ah, a lantern," cried Crosby. "Now we can see what we look like +and--and who we are." + +Higgins informed them that an east-bound passenger train went through in +twenty minutes, stopping on the side track to allow west-bound No. 7 to +pass. This train also took water near the bridge which crossed the river +just west of the depot. The west-bound train was on time, the other +about five minutes late. He brought the welcome news that the rain was +over and that a few stars were peeping through the western sky. There +was unwelcome news, however, in the statement that the mud was ankle +deep from the elevator to the station platform and that the washing out +of a street culvert would prevent him from using the wagon. + +"I don't mind the mud," said Mrs. Delancy, very bravely indeed. + +"My dear Mrs. Delancy, I can and will carry you a mile or more rather +than have one atom of Lonesomeville mud bespatter those charming boots +of yours," said Crosby cheerfully, and her protestations were useless +against the argument of both men. + +The distance was not great from the sheds to the station and was soon +covered. Crosby was muddy to his knees, but his fair passenger was as +dry as toast when he lowered her to the platform. + +"You are every bit as strong as the hero in the modern novel," she said +gaily. "After this, I'll believe every word the author says about his +stalwart, indomitable hero." + +To say that Higgins was glad to be homeward bound would be putting it +too mildly. The sigh of relief that came from him as he drove out of +town a few minutes later was so audible that he heard it himself and +smiled contentedly. If he expected to meet the unlamented Harry Brown on +the home trip, he was to be agreeably disappointed. Mr. Brown was not on +the roadway. He was, instead, on the depot platform at Lonesomeville, +and when the westbound express train whistled for the station he was +standing grimly in front of two dumbfounded young people who sat +sleepily and unwarily on a baggage truck. + +The feeble-eyed lantern sat on the platform near Crosby's swinging feet, +and the picture that it looked upon was one suggestive of the cheap, +sensational, and bloodcurdling border drama. A mud-covered man stood +before the trapped fugitives, a huge revolver in his hand, the muzzle of +which, even though it wobbled painfully, was uncomfortably close to Mr. +Crosby's nose. + +"Throw up your hands!" said Brown, his hoarse voice shaking perceptibly. +Crosby's hands went up instantly, for he was a man and a diplomat. + +"Point it the other way!" cried the lady, with true feminine tact. "How +dare you!--Oh, will it go off? Please, please put it away! We won't try +to escape!" + +"I'm takin' no chances on this feller," said Brown grimly. "It won't go +off, ma'am, unless he makes a move to git away." + +"What do you want?" demanded Crosby indignantly. "My money? Take it, if +you like, but don't be long about it." + +"I'm no robber, darn you." + +"Well, what in thunder do you mean then by holding me up at the point of +a revolver?" + +"I'm an officer of the law an' I arrest you. That's what I'm here for," +said Brown. + +"Arrest me?" exclaimed Crosby in great amazement. "What have I done?" + +"No back talk now, young feller. You're the man we're after, an' it +won't do you any good to chew the rag about it." + +"If you don't turn that horrid pistol away, I'll faint," cried +femininity in collapse. Crosby's arm went about her waist and she hid +her terror-stricken eyes on his shoulder. + +"Keep that hand up!" cried Brown threateningly. + +"Don't be mean about it, old man. Can't you see that my arm is not at +all dangerous?" + +"I've got to search you." + +"Search me? Well, I guess not. Where is your authority?" + +"I'm a deputy marshal from Dexter." + +"Have you been sworn in, sir?" + +"Aw, that's all right now. No more rag chewin' out of you. That'll do +YOU! Keep your hands up!" + +"What am I charged with?" + +"Attempted horse stealin', an' you know it." + +"Have you a warrant? What is my name?" + +"That'll do you now; that'll do you." + +"See here, my fine friend, you've made a sad mistake. I'm not the man +you want. I'm ready to go to jail, if you insist, but it cost you every +dollar you have in the world. I'll make you pay dearly for calling an +honest man a thief, sir." Crosby's indignation was beautifully assumed +and it took effect. + +"Mr. Austin is the man who ordered your arrest," he explained. "I know +Mrs. Delancy here all right, an' she left Austin's with you." + +"What are you talking about, man? She is my cousin and drove over here +this evening to see me between trains. I think you'd better lower your +gun, my friend. This will go mighty hard with you." + +"But---" + +"He has you confused with that horse thief who said his name was Crosby, +Tom," said she, pinching his arm delightedly. "He was the worst-looking +brute I ever saw. I thought Mr. Austin had him so secure with the +bulldog as guardian. Did he escape?" + +"Yes, an' you went with him," exclaimed Brown, making a final stand. +"An' I know all about how you come over here in Scott Higgins's wagon +too." + +"The man is crazy!" exclaimed Mrs. Delancy. + +"He may have escaped from the asylum up north of here," whispered +Crosby, loud enough for the deputy to hear. + +"Here comes the train," cried she. "Now we can ask the train men to +disarm him and send him back to the asylum. Isn't it awful that such +dangerous people can be at large?" + +Brown lowered his pistol as the engine thundered past. The pilot was +almost in the long bridge at the end of the depot when the train stopped +to wait for the eastbound express to pass. The instant that Brown's +revolver arm was lowered and his head turned with uncertainty to look at +the train, Crosby's hand went to his coat pocket, and when the deputy +turned toward him again he found himself looking into the shiny, +glittering barrel of a pistol. + +"Throw that gun away, my friend," said Crosby in a low tone, "or I'll +blow your brains out." + +"Great Scott!" gasped Brown. + +"Throw it away!" + +"Don't kill him," pleaded Mrs. Delancy. Brown's knees were shaking like +leaves and his teeth chattered. His revolver sailed through the air and +clattered on the brick pavement beyond the end of the platform. "Don't +shoot," he pleaded, ready to drop to his knees. + +"I won't if you are good and kind and obliging," said Crosby sternly. +"Turn around--face the engine. That's right. Now listen to me. I've got +this pistol jammed squarely against your back, and if you make a false +move--well, you won't have time to regret it. Answer my questions too. +How long is that bridge?" + +"I--I do--don't kno--ow." + +"It's rather long, isn't it?" + +"With the fill and trestle it's nearly half a mile." + +"What is the next stop west of here for this train?" + +"Hopville, forty mile west." + +"Where does the east-bound train stop next after leaving here?" + +"It don't stop till it gits over in Indiana, thirty mile or more." + +"I'm much obliged to you. Now walk straight ahead until you come to the +blind end of the mail car." + +At the front end of the mail car Crosby and his prisoner halted. Every +one knows that the head end of the coach just back of the engine tender +is "blind." That is, there is no door leading to the interior, and one +must stand outside on the narrow platform if, perchance, he is there +when the train starts. As the east-bound train pulled in from the +bridge, coming to a stop on the track beyond the west-bound train, +Crosby commanded his erstwhile captor to climb aboard the blind end of +the mail coach. + +"Geewhillikers, don't make me do that," groaned the unhappy Brown. + +"Get aboard and don't argue. You can come back to-morrow, you know, and +you're perfectly safe if you stay awake and don't roll off. Hurry up! If +you try to jump off before you reach the bridge I'll shoot." + +A moment later the train pulled into the bridge and Crosby hurried back +to his anxious companion. Brown was on his way to a station forty miles +west, and he did not dare risk jumping off. By the time the train +reached the far end of the bridge it was running forty miles an hour. + +"Where is he?" she cried in alarm as he rushed with her across the +intervening space to the coveted "east-bound." + +"I'll tell you all about it when we get inside this train," he answered. +"I think Brown is where he can't telegraph to head us off any place +along the line, and if we once get into Indiana we are comparatively +safe. Up you go!" and he lifted her up the car steps. + +"Safe," she sighed, as they dropped into a seat in a coach. + +"I'm ashamed to mention it, my dear accomplice, but are you quite sure +you have your purse with you? With the usual luck of a common thief, I +am penniless." + +"Penniless because you gave your fortune to the cause of freedom," she +supplemented, fumbling in her chatelaine bag for her purse. "Here it is. +The contents are yours until the end of our romance." + +The conductor took fare from him to Lafayette and informed the +mud-covered gentleman that he could get a train from that city to +Chicago at 2:30 in the morning. + +"We're all right now," said Crosby after the conductor had passed on. +"You are tired, little woman. Lie back and go to sleep. The rough part +of the adventure is almost over." He secured a pillow for her, and she +was soon resting as comfortably as it was possible in the day coach of a +passenger train. + +For many minutes he sat beside her, his eyes resting on the beautiful +tired face with its closed eyes, long lashes, pensive mouth, and its +frame of dark hair, disarranged and wild. + +"It's strange," he thought, almost aloud, "how suddenly it comes to a +fellow. Twelve hours ago I was as free as a bird in the air, and now--" + +[Illustration: "THEY GO TO THE THEATRE"] + +[Illustration: '"GOOD HEAVENS!" "WHAT IS IT?" HE CRIED. "YOU ARE NOT +MARRIED, ARE YOU?'"] + +Just then her eyes opened widely with a start, as if she had suddenly +come from a rather terrifying dream. They looked squarely into his, and +he felt so abashed that he was about to turn away when, with a little +catch in her voice, she exclaimed: + +"Good heavens!" + +"What is it?" he cried. + +"You are not married, are you?" + +"NO!!!" + +Like a culprit caught she blushed furiously, and her eyes wavered as the +lids fell, shutting from his eager, surprised gaze the prettiest +confusion in the world. + +"I--It just occurred to me to ask," she murmured. + +Crosby's exhilaration was so great that, after a long, hungry look at +the peaceful face, he jumped up and went out into the vestibule, where +he whistled with all the ardor of a school-boy. When he returned to his +seat beside her she was awake, and the little look of distress left her +face when he appeared, a happy smile succeeding. + +"I thought you had deserted me," she said. + +"Perish the thought." + +"Mr. Crosby, if you had a pistol all the time we were in the barn, why +did you not shoot the dog and free us hours before you did?" she asked +sternly. + +"I had no pistol," he grinned. From his pocket he drew a nickel-plated +menthol inhaler and calmly leveled it at her head. "It looked very much +like a pistol in the darkness," he said, "and it deserves a place among +the cherished relics descending from our romance." + +The next night two happy, contented persons sat in a brilliant Chicago +theatre, and there was nothing in their appearance to indicate that the +day and night before had been the most strenuous in their lives. + +"This is more comfortable than a cross beam in a barn," she smiled. + +"But it is more public," he responded. + +Three months later--but Crosby won both suits. + +[Illustration: CROSBY WON BOTH SUITS.] + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Day of the Dog, by George Barr McCutcheon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAY OF THE DOG *** + +***** This file should be named 5759.txt or 5759.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/7/5/5759/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Day of the Dog + +Author: George Barr McCutcheon + +Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5759] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 28, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAY OF THE DOG *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +THE DAY OF THE DOG + +by + +GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON +Author of "Grauslark" +"The Sherrods etc" + +With Illustrations by +Harrison Fisher +and decorations by +Margaret & Helen Maitland Armstrong + +New York +1904 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +SWALLOW (in color) Frontispiece +CROSBY DRIVES TO THE STATION +THE HANDS HAD GONE TO THEIR DINNER +THE BIG RED BARN +THE TWO BOYS +MRS. DELANCY AND MRS. AUSTIN +MR. AUSTIN +MRS. DELANCY PLEADS WITH SWALLOW +THEY EXAMINE THE DOCUMENTS +"SHE DELIBERATELY SPREAD OUT THE PAPERS ON THE BEAM" (in color) +SWALLOW +SHE WATCHES HIM DESCEND INTO DANGER +MR. CROSBY SHOWS SWALLOW A NEW TRICK +"SWALLOW'S CHUBBY BODY SHOT SQUARELY THROUGH THE OPENING" (in color) +THE MAN WITH THE LANTERN +MR. HIGGINS +"HE WAS SPLASHING THROUGH THE SHALLOW BROOK" (in color) +HE CARRIES HER OVER THE BROOK +MRS. HIGGINS +THEY ENJOY MRS. HIGGINS'S GOOD SUPPER +LONESOMEVILLE +THE DEPUTY SHERIFF +CROSBY AND THE DEPUTY +MRS. DELANCY FALLS ASLEEP +THEY GO TO THE THEATRE +"'GOOD HEAVENS!' 'WHAT IS IT?' HE CRIED. 'YOU ARE NOT MARRIED, ARE +YOU?'" +(in color) +"CROSBY WON BOTH SUITS" + + + + +THE DAY OF THE DOG + +PART I + + +"I'll catch the first train back this evening, Graves. Wouldn't go down +there if it were not absolutely necessary; but I have just heard that +Mrs. Delancy is to leave for New York to-night, and if I don't see her +to-day there will be a pack of troublesome complications. Tell Mrs. +Graves she can count me in on the box party to-night." + +"We'll need you, Crosby. Don't miss the train." + +[Illustration: Crosby Drives to the Station] + +"I'll be at the station an hour before the train leaves. Confound it, +it's a mean trip down there--three hours through the rankest kind of +scenery and three hours back. She's visiting in the country, too, but I +can drive out and back in an hour." + +"On your life, old man, don't fail me." + +"Don't worry, Graves; all Christendom couldn't keep me in Dexter after +four o'clock this afternoon. Good-by." And Crosby climbed into the +hansom and was driven away at breakneck speed toward the station. + +Crosby was the junior member of the law firm of Rolfe & Crosby, and his +trip to the country was on business connected with the settlement of a +big estate. Mrs. Delancy, widow of a son of the decedent, was one of the +legatees, and she was visiting her sister-in-law, Mrs. Robert Austin, in +central Illinois. Mr. Austin owned extensive farming interests near +Dexter, and his handsome home was less than two miles from the heart of +the town. Crosby anticipated no trouble in driving to the house and back +in time to catch the afternoon train for Chicago. It was necessary for +Mrs. Delancy to sign certain papers, and he was confident the +transaction could not occupy more than half an hour's time. + +At 11:30 Crosby stepped from the coach to the station platform in +Dexter, looked inquiringly about, and then asked a perspiring man with a +star on his suspender-strap where he could hire a horse and buggy. The +officer directed him to a "feed-yard and stable," but observed that +there was a "funeral in town an' he'd be lucky if he got a rig, as all +of Smith's horses were out." Application at the stable brought the first +frown to Crosby's brow. He could not rent a "rig" until after the +funeral, and that would make it too late for him to catch the four +o'clock train for Chicago. To make the story short, twelve o'clock saw +him trudging along the dusty road covering the two miles between town +and Austin's place, and he was walking with the rapidity of one who has +no love for the beautiful. + +The early spring air was invigorating, and it did not take him long to +reduce the distance. Austin's house stood on a hill, far back from the +highway, and overlooking the entire country-side. + +The big red barn stood in from the road a hundred yards or more, and he +saw that the same driveway led to the house on the hill. There was no +time for speculation, so he hastily made his way up the lane. Crosby had +never seen his client, their business having been conducted by mail or +through Mr. Rolfe. There was not a person in sight, and he slowed his +progress considerably as he drew nearer the big house. At the barn-yard +gate he came to a full stop and debated within himself the wisdom of +inquiring at the stables for Mr. Austin. + +He flung open the gate and strode quickly to the door. This he opened +boldly and stepped inside, finding himself in a lofty carriage room. +Several handsome vehicles stood at the far end, but the wide space near +the door was clear. The floor was as "clean as a pin," except along the +west side. No one was in sight, and the only sound was that produced by +the horses as they munched their hay and stamped their hoofs in +impatient remonstrance with the flies. + +"Where the deuce are the people?" he muttered as he crossed to the +mangers. "Devilish queer," glancing about in considerable doubt. "The +hands must be at dinner or taking a nap." He passed by a row of mangers +and was calmly inspected by brown-eyed horses. At the end of the long +row of stalls he found a little gate opening into another section of the +barn. He was on the point of opening this gate to pass in among the +horses when a low growl attracted his attention. In some alarm he took a +precautionary look ahead. On the opposite side of the gate stood a huge +and vicious looking bulldog, unchained and waiting for him with an eager +ferocity that could not be mistaken. Mr. Crosby did not open the gate. +Instead he inspected it to see that it was securely fastened, and then +drew his hand across his brow. + +"What an escape!" he gasped, after a long breath. "Lucky for me you +growled, old boy. My name is Crosby, my dear sir, and I'm not here to +steal anything. I'm only a lawyer. Anybody else at home but you?" + +An ominous growl was the answer, and there was lurid disappointment in +the face of the squat figure beyond the gate. + +"Come, now, old chap, don't be nasty. I won't hurt you. There was +nothing farther from my mind than a desire to disturb you. And say, +please do something besides growl. Bark, and oblige me. You may attract +the attention of some one." + +By this time the ugly brute was trying to get at the man, growling, and +snarling savagely. Crosby complacently looked on from his place of +safety for a moment, and was on the point of turning away when his +attention was caught by a new move on the part of the dog. The animal +ceased his violent efforts to get through the gate, turned about +deliberately, and raced from view behind the horse stalls. Crosby +brought himself up with a jerk. + +"Thunder," he ejaculated; "the brute knows a way to get at me, and he +won't be long about it, either. What the dickens shall I--by George, +this looks serious! He'll head me off at the door if I try to get out +and--Ah, the fire-escape! We'll fool you, you brute! What a cursed idiot +I was not to go to the house instead of coming--" He was shinning up a +ladder with little regard for grace as he mumbled this self-condemnatory +remark. There was little dignity in his manner of flight, and there was +certainly no glory in the position in which he found himself a moment +later. But there was a vast amount of satisfaction. + +The ladder rested against a beam that crossed the carriage shed near the +middle. The beam was a large one, hewn from a monster tree, and was free +on all sides. The ladder had evidently been left there by men who had +used it recently and had neglected to return it to the hooks on which it +properly hung. + +When the dog rushed violently through the door and into the carriage +room, he found a vast and inexplicable solitude. He was, to all +appearances, alone with the vehicles under which he was permitted to +trot when his master felt inclined to grant the privilege. + +Crosby, seated on the beam, fifteen feet above the floor, grinned +securely but somewhat dubiously as he watched the mystified dog below. +At last he laughed aloud. He could not help it. The enemy glanced upward +and blinked his red eyes in surprise; then he stared in deep chagrin, +then glared with rage. For a few minutes Crosby watched his frantic +efforts to leap through fifteen feet of altitudinal space, confidently +hoping that some one would come to drive the brute away and liberate +him. Finally he began to lose the good humor his strategy in fooling the +dog had inspired, and a hurt, indignant stare was directed toward the +open door through which he had entered. + +"What's the matter with the idiots?" he growled impatiently. "Are they +going to let this poor dog snarl his lungs out? He's a faithful chap, +too, and a willing worker. Gad, I never saw anything more earnest than +the way he tries to climb up that ladder." Adjusting himself in a +comfortable position, his elbows on his knees, his hands to his chin, he +allowed his feet to swing lazily, tantalizingly, below the beam. "I'm +putting a good deal of faith in this beam," he went on resignedly. The +timber was at least fifteen inches square. + +"Ah, by George! That was a bully jump--the best you've made. You didn't +miss me more than ten feet that time. I don't like to be disrespectful, +you know, but you are an exceedingly rough looking dog. Don't get huffy +about it, old fellow, but you have the ugliest mouth I ever saw. Yes, +you miserable cur, politeness at last ceases to be a virtue with me. If +I had you up here I'd punch your face for you, too. Why don't you come +up, you coward? You're bow-legged, too, and you haven't any more figure +than a crab. Anybody that would take an insult like that is beneath me +(thank heaven!) and would steal sheep. Great Scott! Where are all these +people? Shut up, you brute, you! I'm getting a headache. But it doesn't +do any good to reason with you, I can see that plainly. The thing I +ought to do is to go down there and punish you severely. But I'll-- +Hello! Hey, boy! Call off this--confounded dog." + +Two small Lord Fauntleroy boys were standing in the door, gazing up at +him with wide open mouths and bulging eyes. + +"Call him off, I say, or I'll come down there and kick a hole clear +through him." The boys stared all the harder. "Is your name Austin?" he +demanded, addressing neither in particular. + +"Yes, sir," answered the larger boy, with an effort. + +"Well, where's your father? Shut up, you brute! Can't you see I'm +talking? Go tell your father I want to see him, boy." + +"Dad's up at the house." + +"That sounds encouraging. Can't you call off this dog?" + +"I--I guess I'd better not. That's what dad keeps him for." + +"Oh, he does, eh? And what is it that he keeps him for?" + +"To watch tramps." + +"To watch--to watch tramps? Say, boy, I'm a lawyer and I'm here on +business." He was black in the face with indignation. + +"You better come up to the house and see dad, then. He don't live in the +barn," said the boy keenly. + +"I can't fly to the house, boy. Say, if you don't call off this dog I'll +put a bullet through him." + +"You'd have to be a purty good shot, mister. Nearly everybody in the +county has tried to do it." Both boys were grinning diabolically and the +dog took on energy through inspiration. Crosby longed for a stick of +dynamite. + +"I'll give you a dollar if you get him away from here." + +"Let's see your dollar." Crosby drew a silver dollar from his trousers +pocket, almost falling from his perch in the effort. + +"Here's the coin. Call him off," gasped the lawyer. + +"I'm afraid papa wouldn't like it," said the boy. The smaller lad nudged +his brother and urged him to "take the money anyhow." + +"I live in Chicago," Crosby began, hoping to impress the boys at least. + +"So do we when we're at home," said the smaller boy. "We live in Chicago +in the winter time." + +"Is Mrs. Delancy your aunt?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I'll give you this dollar if you'll tell your father I'm here and want +to see him at once." + +"Throw down your dollar." The coin fell at their feet but rolled +deliberately through a crack in the floor and was lost forever. Crosby +muttered something unintelligible, but resignedly threw a second coin +after the first. + +"He'll be out when he gets through dinner," said the older boy, just +before the fight. Two minutes later he was streaking across the barn lot +with the coin in his pocket, the smaller boy wailing under the woe of a +bloody nose. For half an hour Crosby heaped insult after insult upon the +glowering dog at the bottom of the ladder and was in the midst of a +rabid denunciation of Austin when the city-bred farmer entered the barn. + +"Am I addressing Mr. Robert Austin?" called Crosby, suddenly amiable. +The dog subsided and ran to his master's side. Austin, a black- +moustached, sallow-faced man of forty, stopped near the door and looked +aloft, squinting. + +"Where are you?" he asked somewhat sharply. + +"I am very much up in the air," replied Crosby. "Look a little sou' by +sou'east. Ah, now you have me. Can you manage the dog? If so, I'll come +down." + +"One moment, please. Who are you?" + +"My name is Crosby, of Rolfe & Crosby, Chicago. I am here to see Mrs. +Delancy, your sister-in-law, on business before she leaves for New +York." + +"What is your business with her, may I ask?" + +"Private," said Crosby laconically. "Hold the dog." + +"I insist in knowing the nature of your business," said Austin firmly. + +"I'd rather come down there and talk, if you don't mind." + +"I don't but the dog may," said the other grimly. + +"Well, this is a nice way to treat a gentleman," cried Crosby +wrathfully. + +"A gentleman would scarcely have expected to find a lady in the barn, +much less on a cross-beam. This is where my horses and dogs live." + +"Oh, that's all right now; this isn't a joke, you know." + +"I quite agree with you. What is your business with Mrs. Delancy?" + +"We represent her late husband's interests in settling up the estate of +his father. Your wife's interests are being looked after by Morton & +Rogers, I believe. I am here to have Mrs. Delancy go through the form of +signing papers authorizing us to bring suit against the estate in order +to establish certain rights of which you are fully aware. Your wife's +brother left his affairs slightly tangled, you remember." + +"Well, I can save you a good deal of trouble. Mrs. Delancy has decided +to let the matter rest as it is and to accept the compromise terms +offered by the other heirs. She will not care to see you, for she has +just written to your firm announcing her decision." + +"You--you don't mean it," exclaimed Crosby in dismay. He saw a +prodigious fee slipping through his fingers. "Gad, I must see her about +this," he went on, starting down the ladder, only to go back again +hastily. The growling dog leaped forward and stood ready to receive him. +Austin chuckled audibly. + +"She really can't see you, Mr. Crosby. Mrs. Delancy leaves at four +o'clock for Chicago, where she takes the Michigan Central for New York +to-night. You can gain nothing by seeing her." + +"But I insist, sir," exploded Crosby. + +"You may come down when you like," said Austin. "The dog will be here +until I return from the depot after driving her over. Come down when you +like." + +Crosby did not utter the threat that surged to his lips. With the wisdom +born of self-preservation, he temporized, reserving deep down in the +surging young breast a promise to amply recompense his pride for the +blows it was receiving at the hands of the detestable Mr. Austin. + +"You'll admit that I'm in a devil of a pickle, Mr. Austin," he said +jovially. "The dog is not at all friendly." + +"He is at least diverting. You won't be lonesome while I'm away. I'll +tell Mrs. Delancy that you called," said Austin ironically. + +He turned to leave the barn, and the sinister sneer on his face gave +Crosby a new and amazing inspiration. Like a flash there rushed into his +mind the belief that Austin had a deep laid design in not permitting him +to see the lady. With this belief also came the conviction that he was +hurrying her off to New York on some pretext simply to forestall any +action that might induce her to continue the contemplated suit against +the estate. Mrs. Delancy had undoubtedly been urged to drop the matter +under pressure of promises, and the Austins were getting her away from +the scene of action before she could reconsider or before her solicitors +could convince her of the mistake she was making. The thought of this +sent the fire of resentment racing through Crosby's brain, and he fairly +gasped with the longing to get at the bottom of the case. His only hope +now lay in sending a telegram to Mr. Rolfe, commanding him to meet Mrs. +Delancy when her train reached Chicago, and to lay the whole matter +before her. + +Before Austin could make his exit the voices of women were heard outside +the door and an instant later two ladies entered. The farmer attempted +to turn them back, but the younger, taller, and slighter of the +newcomers cried: + +"I just couldn't go without another look at the horses, Bob." + +Crosby, on the beam, did not fail to observe the rich, tender tone of +the voice, and it would have required almost total darkness to obscure +the beauty of her face. Her companion was older and coarser, and he +found delight in the belief that she was the better half of the +disagreeable Mr. Austin. + +"Good-afternoon, Mrs. Delancy!" came a fine masculine voice from +nowhere. The ladies started in amazement, Mr. Austin ground his teeth, +the dog took another tired leap upward; Mr. Crosby took off his hat +gallantly, and waited patiently for the lady to discover his +whereabouts. + +"Who is it, Bob?" cried the tall one, and Crosby patted his bump of +shrewdness happily. "Who have you in hiding here?" + +"I'm not in hiding, Mrs. Delancy. I'm a prisoner, that's all. I'm right +near the top of the ladder directly in front of you. You know me only +through the mails, but my partner, Mr. Rolfe, is known to you +personally. My name is Crosby." + +"How very strange," she cried in wonder. "Why don't you come down, Mr. +Crosby?" + +"I hate to admit it, but I'm afraid. There's the dog, you know. Have you +any influence over him?" + +"None whatever. He hates me. Perhaps Mr. Austin can manage him. Oh, +isn't it ludicrous?" and she burst into hearty laughter. It was a very +musical laugh, but Crosby considered it a disagreeable croak. + +"But Mr. Austin declines to interfere. I came to see you on private +business and am not permitted to do so." + +"We don't know this fellow, Louise, and I can't allow you to talk to +him," said Austin brusquely. "I found him where he is and there he stays +until the marshal comes out from town. His actions have been very +suspicious and must be investigated. I can't take chances on letting a +horse thief escape. Swallow will watch him until I can secure +assistance." + +"I implore you, Mrs. Delancy, to give me a moment or two in which to +explain," cried Crosby. "He knows I'm not here to steal his horses, and +he knows I intend to punch his head the minute I get the chance." Mrs. +Austin's little shriek of dismay and her husband's fierce glare did not +check the flow of language from the beam. "I AM Crosby of Rolfe & +Crosby, your counsel. I have the papers here for you to sign and--" + +"Louise, I insist that you come away from here. This fellow is a fraud-- +" + +"He's refreshing, at any rate," said Mrs. Delancy gaily. "There can be +no harm in hearing what he has to say, Bob." + +"You are very kind, and I won't detain you long." + +"I've a mind to kick you out of this barn," cried Austin angrily. + +"I don't believe you're tall enough, my good fellow." Mr. Crosby was +more than amiable. He was positively genial. Mrs. Delancy's pretty face +was the picture of eager, excited mirth, and he saw that she was +determined to see the comedy to the end. + +"Louise!" exclaimed Mrs. Austin, speaking for the first time. "You are +not fool enough to credit this fellow's story, I'm sure. Come to the +house at once. I will not stay here." Mrs. Austin's voice was hard and +biting, and Crosby also caught the quick glance that passed between +husband and wife. + +"I am sure Mrs. Delancy will not be so unkind as to leave me after I've +had so much trouble in getting an audience. Here is my card, Mrs. +Delancy." Crosby tossed a card from his perch, but Swallow gobbled it up +instantly. Mrs. Delancy gave a little cry of disappointment, and Crosby +promptly apologized for the dog's greediness. "Mr. Austin knows I'm +Crosby," he concluded. + +"I know nothing of the sort, sir, and I forbid Mrs. Delancy holding +further conversation with you. This is an outrageous imposition, Louise. +You must hurry, by the way, or we'll miss the train," said Austin, +biting his lip impatiently. + +"That reminds me, I also take the four o'clock train for Chicago, Mrs. +Delancy. If you prefer, we can talk over our affairs on the train +instead of here. I'll confess this isn't a very dignified manner in +which to hold a consultation," said Crosby apologetically. + +"Will you be kind enough to state the nature of your business, Mr. +Crosby?" said the young woman, ignoring Mr. Austin. + +"Then you believe I'm Crosby?" cried that gentleman triumphantly. + +"Louise!" cried Mrs. Austin in despair. + +"In spite of your present occupation, I believe you are Crosby," said +Mrs. Delancy merrily. + +"But, good gracious, I can't talk business with you from this confounded +beam," he cried lugubriously. + +"Mr. Austin will call the dog away," she said confidently, turning to +the man in the door. Austin's sallow face lighted with a sudden +malicious grin, and there was positive joy in his voice. + +"You may be satisfied, but I am not. If you desire to transact business +with this impertinent stranger, Mrs. Delancy, you'll have to do so under +existing conditions. I do not approve of him or his methods, and my dog +doesn't either. You can trust a dog for knowing a man for what he is. +Mrs. Austin and I are going to the house. You may remain, of course; I +have no right to command you to follow. When you are ready to drive to +the station, please come to the house. I'll be ready. Your Mr. Crosby +may leave when he likes--IF HE CAN. Come, Elizabeth." With this defiant +thrust, Mr. Austin stalked from the barn, followed by his wife. Mrs. +Delancy started to follow but checked herself immediately, a flush of +anger mounting to her brow. After a long pause she spoke. + +"I don't understand how you came to be where you are, Mr. Crosby," she +said slowly. He related his experiences rapidly and laughed with her +simply because she had a way with her. + +"You'll pardon me for laughing," she giggled. + +"With all my heart," he replied gallantly. "It must be very funny. +However, this is not business. You are in a hurry to get away from here +and--I'm not, it seems. Briefly, Mrs. Delancy, I have the papers you are +to sign before we begin your action against the Fairwater estate. You +know what they are through Mr. Rolfe." + +"Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Crosby, to say to you that I have decided to +abandon the matter. A satisfactory compromise is under way." + +"So I've been told. But are you sure you understand yourself?" + +"Perfectly, thank you." + +"This is a very unsatisfactory place from which to argue my case, Mrs. +Delancy. Can't you dispose of the dog?" + +"Only God disposes." + +"Well, do you mind telling me what the compromise provides?" She stared +at him for a moment haughtily, but his smile won the point for him. She +told him everything and then looked very much displeased when he swore +distinctly. + +"Pardon me, but you are getting very much the worst of it in this deal. +It is the most contemptible scheme to rob that I ever heard of. By this +arrangement you are to get farming lands and building lots in rural +towns worth in all about $100,000, I'd say. Don't you know that you are +entitled to nearly half a million?" + +"Oh, dear, no. By right, my share is less than $75,000," she cried +triumphantly. + +"Who told you so?" he demanded, and she saw a very heavy frown on his +erstwhile merry face. + +"Why--why, Mr. Austin and another brother-in-law, Mr. Gray, both of whom +are very kind to me in the matter, I'm sure." + +"Mrs. Delancy, you are being robbed by these fellows. Can't you see that +these brothers-in-law and their wives will profit immensely if they +succeed in keeping the wool over your eyes long enough? Let ME show you +some figures." He excitedly drew a packet of papers from his pocket and +in five minutes' time had her gasping with the knowledge that she was +legally entitled to more than half a million of dollars. + +"Are you sure?" she cried, unable to believe her ears. + +"Absolutely. Here is the inventory and here are the figures to +corroborate everything I say." + +"But THEY had figures, too," she cried in perplexity. + +"Certainly. Figures are wonderful things. I only ask you to defer this +plan to compromise until we are able to thoroughly convince you that I +am not misrepresenting the facts to you." + +"Oh, if I could only believe you!" + +"I'd toss the documents down to you if I were not afraid they'd join my +card. That is a terribly ravenous beast. Surely you can coax him out of +the barn," he added eagerly. + +"I can try, but persuasion is difficult with a bulldog, you know," she +said doubtfully. "It is much easier to persuade a man," she smiled. + +"I trust you won't try to persuade me to come down," he said in alarm. + +"Mr. Austin is a brute to treat you in this manner," she cried +indignantly. + +"I wouldn't treat a dog as he is treating me." + +"Oh, I am sure you couldn't," she cried in perfect sincerity. "Swallow +doesn't like me, but I'll try to get him away. You can't stay up there +all night." + +"By Jove!" he exclaimed sharply. + +"What is it?" she asked quickly. + +"I had forgotten an engagement in Chicago for to-night. Box party at the +comic opera," he said, looking nervously at his watch. + +"It would be too bad if you missed it," she said sweetly. "You'd be much +more comfortable in a box." + +"You are consoling at least. Are you going to coax him off?" + +"In behalf of the box party, I'll try. Come, Swallow. There's a nice +doggie!" + +Crosby watched the proceedings with deepest interest and concern and not +a little admiration. But not only did Swallow refuse to abdicate but he +seemed to take decided exceptions to the feminine method of appeal. He +evidently did not like to be called "doggie," "pet," "dearie," and all +such. + +"He won't come," she cried plaintively. + +"I have it!" he exclaimed, his face brightening. "Will you hand me that +three-tined pitchfork over there? With that in my hands I'll make +Swallow see--Look out! For heaven's sake, don't go near him! He'll kill +you." She had taken two or three steps toward the dog, her hand extended +pleadingly, only to be met by an ominous growl, a fine display of teeth, +and a bristling back. As if paralyzed, she halted at the foot of the +ladder, terror suddenly taking possession of her. + +"Can you get the pitchfork?" + +"I am afraid to move," she moaned. "He is horrible--horrible!" + +"I'll come down, Mrs. Delancy, and hang the consequences," Crosby cried, +and was suiting the action to the word when she cried out in +remonstrance. + +"Don't come down--don't! He'll kill you. I forbid you to come down, Mr. +Crosby. Look at him! Oh, he's coming toward me! Don't come down!" she +shrieked. "I'll come up!" + +Grasping her skirts with one hand she started frantically up the ladder, +her terrified eyes looking into the face of the man above. There was a +vicious snarl from the dog, a savage lunge, and then something closed +over her arm like a vice. She felt herself being jerked upward and a +second later she was on the beam beside the flushed young man whose +strong hand and not the dog's jaws had reached her first. He was obliged +to support her for a few minutes with one of his emphatic arms, so near +was she to fainting. + +"Oh," she gasped at last, looking into his eyes questioningly. "Did he +bite me? I was not sure, you know. He gave such an awful leap for me. +How did you do it?" + +"A simple twist of the wrist, as the prestidigitators say. You had a +close call, my dear Mrs. Delancy." He was a-quiver with new sensations +that were sending his spirits sky high. After all it was not turning out +so badly. + +"He would have dragged me down had it not been for you. And I might have +been torn to pieces," she shuddered, glancing down at the now infuriated +dog. + +"It would have been appalling," he agreed, discreetly allowing her to +imagine the worst. + +"How can I ever thank you?" cried she impulsively. He made a very +creditable show of embarrassment in the effort to convince her that he +had accomplished only what any man would have attempted under similar +circumstances. She was thoroughly convinced that no other man could have +succeeded. + +"Well, we're in a pretty position, are we not?" he asked in the end. + +"I think I can stick on without being held, Mr. Crosby," she said, and +his arm slowly and regretfully came to parade rest. + +"Are you sure you won't get dizzy?" he demanded in deep solicitude. + +"I'll not look down," she said, smiling into his eyes. He lost the power +of speech for a moment. "May I look at those figures now?" + +For the next ten minutes she studiously followed him as he explained the +contents of the various papers. She held the sheets and they sat very +close to each other on the big beam. The dog looked on in sour disgust. + +"They cannot be wrong," she cried at last. Her eyes were sparkling. "You +are as good as an angel." + +"I only regret that I can't complete the illusion by unfolding a strong +and convenient pair of wings," he said dolorously. "How are we to catch +that train for Chicago?" + +"I'm afraid we can't," she said demurely. "You'll miss the box party." + +"That's a pleasure easily sacrificed." + +"Besides, you are seeing me on business. Pleasure should never interfere +with business, you know." + +"It doesn't seem to," he said, and the dog saw them smile tranquilly +into each other's eyes. + +"Oh, isn't this too funny for words?" He looked very grateful. + +"I wonder when Austin will condescend to release us." + +"I have come to a decision, Mr. Crosby," she said irrelevantly. + +"Indeed?" + +"I shall never speak to Robert Austin again, and I'll never enter his +house as long as I live," she announced determinedly. + +"Good! But you forget your personal effects. They are in his house." He +was overflowing with happiness. + +"They have all gone to the depot and I have the baggage checks. My +ticket and my money are in this purse. You see, we are quite on the same +footing." + +"I don't feel sure of my footing," he commented ruefully. "By the way, I +have a fountain pen. Would you mind signing these papers? We'll be quite +sure of our standing at least." + +She deliberately spread out the papers on the beam, and, while he +obligingly kept her from falling, signed seven documents in a full, +decisive hand: "Louise Hampton Delancy." + +"There! That means that you are to begin suit," she said finally, +handing the pen to him. + +[Illustration: "SHE DELIBERATELY SPREAD OUT THE PAPERS ON THE BEAM."] + +"I'll not waste an instant," he said meaningly. "In fact, the suit is +already under way." + +"I don't understand you," she said, but she flushed. + +"That's what a lawyer says when he goes to court," he explained. + +"Oh," she said, thoroughly convinced. + +At the end of another hour the two on the beam were looking at each +other with troubled eyes. When he glanced at his watch at six o'clock, +his face was extremely sober. There was a tired, wistful expression in +her eyes. + +"Do you think they'll keep us here all night?" she asked plaintively. + +"Heaven knows what that scoundrel will do." + +"We have the papers signed, at any rate." She sighed, trying to revive +the dying spark of humor. + +"And we won't be lonesome," he added, glaring at the dog. + +"Did you ever dream that a man could be so despicable?" + +"Ah, here comes some one at last," he cried, brightening up. + +The figure of Robert Austin appeared in the doorway. + +"Oho, you're both up there now, are you?" he snapped. "That's why you +didn't go to the depot, is it? Well, how has the business progressed?" + +"She has signed all the papers, if that's what you want to know," said +Crosby tantalizingly. + +"That's all the good it will do her. We'll beat you in court, Mr. +Crosby, and we won't leave a dollar for you, my dear sister-in-law," +snarled Austin, his face white with rage. + +"And now that we've settled our business, and missed our train, perhaps +you'll call off your confounded dog," said Crosby. Austin's face broke +into a wide grin, and he chuckled aloud. Then he leaned against the +door-post and held his sides. + +"What's the joke?" demanded the irate Crosby. Mrs. Delancy clasped his +arm and looked down upon Austin as if he had suddenly gone mad. + +"You want to come down, eh?" cackled Austin. "Why don't you come down? I +know you'll pardon my laughter, but I have just remembered that you may +be a horse thief and that I was not going to let you escape. Mrs. +Delancy refuses to speak to me, so I decline to ask her to come down." + +"Do you mean to say you'll keep this lady up here for--" began Crosby +fiercely. Her hand on his arm prevented him from leaping to the floor. + +"She may come down when she desires, and so may you, sir," roared Austin +stormily. + +"But some one will release us, curse you, and then I'll make you sorry +you ever lived," hissed Crosby. "You are a black-hearted cur, a cowardly +dog--" + +"Don't--don't!" whispered the timid woman beside him. + +"You are helping your cause beautifully," sneered Austin. "My men have +instructions to stay away from the barn until the marshal comes. I, +myself, expect to feed and bed the horses." + +Deliberately he went about the task of feeding the horses. The two on +the beam looked on in helpless silence. Crosby had murder in his heart. +At last the master of the situation started for the door. + +"Good-night," he said sarcastically. "Pleasant dreams." + +"You brute," cried Crosby, hoarse with anger. A sob came from his tired +companion and Crosby turned to her, his heart full of tenderness and-- +shame, perhaps. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and her shoulders +drooped dejectedly. + +"What shall we do?" she moaned. Crosby could frame no answer. He gently +took her hand in his and held it tightly. She made no effort to withdraw +it. + +"I'm awfully sorry," he said softly. "Don't cry, little woman. It will +all end right, I know." + +Just then Austin reentered the barn. Without a word he strode over and +emptied a pan of raw meat on the floor in front of the dog. Then he +calmly departed, but Crosby could have sworn he heard him chuckle. The +captives looked at each other dumbly for a full minute, one with wet, +wide-open, hurt eyes, the other with consternation. Gradually the sober +light in their eyes faded away and feeble smiles developed into peals of +laughter. The irony of the situation bore down upon them irresistibly +and their genuine, healthy young minds saw the picture in all of its +ludicrous colorings. Not even the prospect of a night in mid-air could +conquer the wild desire to laugh. + +"Isn't it too funny for words?" she laughed bravely through her tears. + +Then, for some reason, both relapsed into dark, silent contemplation of +the dog who was so calmly enjoying his evening repast. + +"I am sorry to admit it, Mr. Crosby, but I am growing frightfully +hungry," she said wistfully. + +"It has just occurred to me that I haven't eaten a bite since seven +o'clock this morning," he said. + +"You poor man! I wish I could cook something for you." + +"You might learn." + +"You know what I mean," she explained, reddening a bit. "You must be +nearly famished." + +"I prefer to think of something more interesting," he said coolly. + +"It is horrid!" she sobbed. "See, it is getting dark. Night is coming. +Mr. Crosby, what is to become of us?" He was very much distressed by her +tears and a desperate resolve took root in his breast. She was so tired +and dispirited that she seemed glad when he drew her close to him and +pressed her head upon his shoulder. He heard the long sigh of relief and +relaxation and she peered curiously over her wet lace handkerchief when +he muttered tenderly: + +"Poor little chap!" + +Then she sighed again quite securely, and there was a long silence, +broken regularly and rhythmically by the faint little catches that once +were tearful sobs. + +"Oh, dear me! It is quite dark," she cried suddenly, and he felt a +shudder run through her body. + +"Where could you go to-night, Mrs. Delancy, if we were to succeed in +getting away from here?" he asked abruptly. She felt his figure +straighten and his arm grow tense as if a sudden determination had +charged through it. + +"Why--why, I hadn't thought about that," she confessed, confronted by a +new proposition. + +"There's a late night train for Chicago," he volunteered. + +"But how are we to catch it?" + +"If you are willing to walk to town I think you can catch it," he said, +a strange ring in his voice. + +"What do you mean?" she demanded, looking up at his face quickly. + +"Can you walk the two miles?" he persisted. "The train leaves Dexter at +eleven o'clock and it is now nearly eight." + +"Of course I can walk it," she said eagerly. "I could walk a hundred +miles to get away from this place." + +"You'll miss the New York train, of course." + +"I've changed my mind, Mr. Crosby. I shall remain in Chicago until we +have had our revenge on Austin and the others." + +"That's very good of you. May I ask where you stop in Chicago?" + +"My apartments are in the C--- Building. My mother lives with me." + +"Will you come to see me some time?" he asked, an odd smile on his lips. + +"Come to see you?" she cried in surprise. "The idea! What do you mean?" + +"I may not be able to call on you for some time, but you can be very +good to me by coming to see me. I'll be stopping at St. Luke's Hospital +for quite a while." + +"At St. Luke's Hospital? I don't understand," she cried perplexed. + +"You see, my dear Mrs. Delancy, I have come to a definite conclusion in +regard to our present position. You must not stay here all night. I'd be +a coward and a cur to subject you to such a thing. Well, I'm going down +to tackle that dog." + +"To--tackle--the--dog," she gasped. + +"And while I'm keeping him busy you are to cut and run for the road down +there. Then you'll have easy sailing for town." + +"Mr. Crosby," she said firmly, clasping his arm; "you are not to leave +this beam. Do you think I'll permit you to go down there and be torn to +pieces by that beast, just for the sake of letting me cut and run, as +you call it? I'd be a bigger brute than the dog and--and--" + +"Mrs. Delancy, my mind is made up. I'm going down!" + +"That settles it! I'm coming too," she proclaimed emphatically. + +"To be sure. That's the plan. You'll escape while I hold Swallow." + +"I'll do nothing of the sort. You shall not sacrifice yourself for my +sake. I'd stay up here with you all the rest of my life before I'd +permit you to do that." + +"I'll remind you of that offer later on, my dear Mrs. Delancy, when we +are not so pressed for time. Just now you must be practical, however. We +can't stay up here all night." + +"Please, Mr. Crosby, for my sake, don't go down there. To please me, +don't be disfigured. I know you are awfully brave and strong, but he is +such a huge, vicious dog. Won't you please stay here?" + +"Ten minutes from now it will be too dark to see the dog and he'll have +an advantage over me. Listen: I'll meet you at the depot in an hour and +a half. This is final, Mrs. Delancy. Will you do as I tell you? Run for +the road and then to town. I'll promise to join you there." + +"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" she moaned, as he drew away from her and swung one +foot to the ladder. "I shall die if you go down there." + +"I am going just the same. Don't be afraid, little woman. My pocket +knife is open and it is a trusty blade. Now, be brave and be quick. +Follow me down the ladder and cut for it." + +"Please, please, please!" she implored, wringing her hands. + +But he was already half-way down the ladder and refused to stop. + +Suddenly Crosby paused as if checked in his progress by some +insurmountable obstacle. The dog was at the foot of the ladder, snarling +with joy over the prospective end of his long vigil. Above, Mrs. Delancy +was moaning and imploring him to come back to her side, even threatening +to spring from the beam to the floor before he could reach the bottom. + +"By George!" he exclaimed, and then climbed up three or four rounds of +the ladder, greatly to the annoyance of the dog. + +"What is it?" cried Mrs. Delancy, recovering her balance on the beam. + +"Let me think for a minute," he answered, deliberately resting his elbow +on an upper round. + +"It is about time you were doing a little thinking," she said, relief +and asperity in her voice. "In another second I should have jumped into +that dog's jaws." + +"I believe it can be done," he went on, excited enthusiasm growing in +his voice. "That's what bulldogs are famous for, isn't it?" + +"I don't know what you are talking about, but I do know that whenever +they take hold of anything they have to be treated for lockjaw before +they will let go. If you don't come up here beside me I'll have a fit, +Mr. Crosby." + +"That's it--that's what I mean," he cried eagerly. "If they close those +jaws upon anything they won't let go until death them doth part. Gad, I +believe I see a way out of this pickle." + +"I don't see how that can help us. The dog's jaws are the one and only +obstacle, and it is usually the other fellow's death that parts them. +Oh," she went on, plaintively, "if we could only pull his teeth. Good +heaven, Mr. Crosby," sitting up very abruptly, "you are not thinking of +undertaking it, are you?" + +"No, but I've got a scheme that will make Swallow ashamed of himself to +the end of his days. I can't help laughing over it." He leaned back and +laughed heartily. "Hold my coat, please." He removed his coat quickly +and passed it up to her. + +"I insist on knowing what you intend doing," she exclaimed. + +"Just wait and see me show Mr. Swallow a new trick or two." He had +already taken his watch and chain, his fountain pen, and other effects +from his vest, jamming them into his trousers pockets. Mrs. Delancy, in +the growing darkness, looked on, puzzled and anxious. + +"You might tell me," she argued resentfully. "Are you going to try to +swim out?" + +Folding the vest lengthwise, he took a firm grip on the collar, and +cautiously descended the ladder. + +"I'll not come to the hospital," she cried warningly. "Don't! he'll bite +your leg off!" + +"I'm merely teasing him, Mrs. Delancy. He sha'n't harm my legs, don't +fear. Now watch for developments." Pausing just beyond reach of the +dog's mightiest leaps, he took a firm hold on the ladder and swung down +with the vest until it almost slapped the head of the angry animal. It +was like casting a fly directly at the head of a hungry pickerel. +Swallow's eager jaws closed down upon the cloth and the teeth met like a +vice. The heavy body of the brute almost jerked Crosby's arm from the +socket, but he braced himself, recovered his poise, and clung gaily to +the ladder, with the growling, squirming dog dangling free of the floor. +Mrs. Delancy gave a little shriek of terror. + +"Are you--going to bring him up here?" she gasped. + +"Heaven knows where he'll end." + +"But he will ruin your vest." + +"I'll charge it up to your account. Item: one vest, fifteen dollars." + +By this time he was swinging Swallow slowly back and forth, and he +afterwards said that it required no little straining of his muscles. + +"You extravagant thing!" she cried, but did not tell whether she meant +his profligacy in purchasing or his wantonness in destroying. "And now, +pray enlighten me. Are you swinging him just for fun or are you crazy?" + +"Everything depends on his jaws and my strong right arm," he said, and +he was beginning to pant from the exertion. Swallow was swinging higher +and higher. + +"Well, it is the most aimless proceeding I ever saw." + +"I hope not. On second thought, everything depends on my aim." + +"And what is your aim, Mr. Hercules?" + +"See that opening above the box-stall over there?" + +"Dimly." + +"That's my aim. Heavens, he's a heavy brute." + +"Oh, I see!" she cried ecstatically, clapping her hands. "Delicious! +Lovely! Oh, Mr. Crosby, you are so clever." + +"Don't fall off that beam, please," he panted. "It might rattle me." + +"I can't help being excited. It is the grandest thing I ever heard of. +He can't get out of there, can he? Dear me, the sides of that stall are +more than eight feet high." + +"He can't--get--out--of it if--I get him--in," gasped Crosby. + +Not ten feet away to the left and some four feet above the floor level +there was a wide opening into a box-stall, the home of Mr. Austin's +prize stallion. As the big horse was inside munching his hay, Crosby was +reasonably sure that the stall with its tall sides was securely closed +and bolted. + +[Illustration: "SWALLOW'S CHUBBY BODY SHOT SQUARELY THROUGH THE +OPENING"] + +Suddenly there was a mighty creak of the ladder, the swish of a heavy +body through the air, an interrupted growl, and then a ripping thud. +Swallow's chubby body shot squarely through the opening, accompanied by +a trusty though somewhat sadly stretched vest, and the deed was done. A +cry of delight came from the beam, a shout of pride and relief from the +ladder, and sounds of a terrific scramble from the stall. First there +was a sickening grunt, then a surprised howl, then the banging of horse- +hoofs, and at last a combination of growls and howls that proved +Swallow's invasion of a hornet's nest. + +"Thunderation!" came in sharp, agonized tones from the ladder. + +"What is the matter?" she cried, detecting disaster in the exclamation. + +"I am a--a--blooming idiot," he groaned. "I forgot to remove a roll of +bills from an upper pocket in that vest!" + +"Oh, is that all?" she cried, in great relief, starting down the ladder. + +"All? There was at least fifty dollars in that roll," he said, from the +floor, not forgetting to assist her gallantly to the bottom. + +"You can add it to my bill, you know," she said sweetly. + +"But it leaves me dead broke." + +"You forget that I have money, Mr. Crosby. What is mine to-night is also +yours. I think we should shake hands and congratulate one another." +Crosby's sunny nature lost its cloud in an instant, and the two clasped +hands at the bottom of the ladder. + +"I think it is time to cut and run," he said. "It's getting so beastly +dark we won't be able to find the road." + +"And there is no moon until midnight. But come; we are free. Let us fly +the hated spot, as they say in the real novels. How good the air feels!" + +She was soon leading the way swiftly toward the gate. Night had fallen +so quickly that they were in utter darkness. There were lights in the +windows of the house on the hill, and the escaped prisoners, with one +impulse, shook their clenched hands toward them. + +"I am awfully sorry, Mr. Crosby, that you have endured so much hardship +in coming to see me," she went on. "I hope you haven't many such clients +as I." + +"One is enough, I assure you," he responded, and somehow she took it as +a compliment. + +"I suppose our next step is to get to the railway station," she said. + +"Unless you will condescend to lead me through this assortment of plows, +wood-piles, and farm-wagons, I'm inclined to think my next step will be +my last. Was ever night so dark?" Her warm, strong fingers clutched his +arm and then dropped to his hand. In this fashion she led him swiftly +through the night, down a short embankment, and into the gravel highway. +"The way looks dark and grewsome ahead of us, Mrs. Delancy. As your +lawyer, I'd advise you to turn back and find safe lodging with the +enemy. It is going to storm, I'm sure." + +"That's your advice as a lawyer, Mr. Crosby. Will you give me your +advice as a friend?" she said lightly. Although the time had passed when +her guiding hand was necessary, he still held the member in his own. + +"I couldn't be so selfish," he protested, and without another word they +started off down the road toward town. + +"Do you suppose they are delaying the opera in Chicago until you come?" +she asked. + +"Poor Graves! he said he'd kill me if I didn't come," said Crosby, +laughing. + +"How dreadful!" + +"But I'm not regretting the opera. Quive does not sing until to-morrow +night." + +"I adore Quive." + +"You can't possibly have an engagement for to-morrow night either," he +said reflectively. + +"I don't see how I could. I expected to be on a Pullman sleeper." + +"I'll come for you at 8:15 then." + +"You are very good, Mr. Crosby, but I have another plan." + +"I beg your pardon for presuming to--" he began, and a hot flush mounted +to his brow. + +"You are to come at seven for dinner," she supplemented delightedly. + +"What a nice place the seventh heaven is!" he cried warmly. + +"Sh!" she whispered suddenly, and both stopped stock-still. "There is a +man with a lantern at the lower gate. See? Over yonder." + +"They're after me, Mrs. Delancy," he whispered. A moment later they were +off the road and in the dense shadow of the hedge. + +"Is he still in the barn, Mr. Austin?" demanded the man in the buggy. + +"I am positive he is. No human being could get away from that dog of +mine." Crosby chuckled audibly, and Mrs. Delancy with difficulty +suppressed a proud giggle. + +"Well, we might as well go up and get him then. Do you think he's a +desperate character?" + +"I don't know anything about him, Davis. He says he is a lawyer, but his +actions were so strange that I thought you'd best look into his case. A +night in the jail won't hurt him, and if he can prove that he is what he +says he is, let him go to-morrow. On the other hand, he may turn out to +be a very important capture." + +"Oh, this is rich!" whispered Crosby excitedly. "Austin is certainly +doing the job up brown. But wait till he consults Swallow, the +infallible; he won't be so positive." For a few minutes the party of men +at the gate conversed in low tones, the listeners being able to catch +but few of the words uttered. + +"Please let go of my arm, Mrs. Delancy," said Crosby suddenly. + +"Where are you going?" + +"I am going to tell Austin what I think of him. You don't expect me to +stand by and allow a pack of jays to hunt me down as if I were Jesse +James or some other desperado, do you?" + +"Do you suppose they would credit your story? They will throw you into +jail and there you'd stay until some one came down from Chicago to +identify you." + +"But a word from you would clear me," he said in surprise. + +"If they pinned me down to the truth, I could only say I had never seen +you until this afternoon." + +"Great Scott! You know I am Crosby, don't you?" + +"I am positive you are, but what would you, as a lawyer, say to me if +you were cross-examining me on the witness stand? You'd ask some very +embarrassing questions, and I could only say in the end that the +suspected horse thief told me his name and I was goose enough to believe +him. No, my dear friend, I think the safest plan is to take advantage of +the few minutes' start we have and escape the law." + +"You mean that I must run from these fellows as if I were really a +thief?" + +"Only a suspected thief, you know." + +"I'd rather be arrested a dozen times than to desert you at this time." + +"Oh, but I'm going with you," she said positively. + +"Like a thief, too? I could not permit that, you know. Just stop and +think how awkward for you it would be if we were caught flying +together." + +"Birds of a feather. It might have been worse if you had not disposed of +Swallow." + +"I must tell you what a genuine brick you are. If they overtake us it +will give me the greatest delight in the world to fight the whole posse +for your sake." + +"After that, do you wonder I want to go with you?" she whispered, and +Crosby would have fought a hundred men for her. + +The marshal and his men were now following Mr. Austin and the lantern +toward the barn, and the road was quite deserted. Mrs. Delancy and +Crosby started off rapidly in the direction of the town. The low rumble +of distant thunder came to their ears, and ever and anon the western +blackness was faintly illumined by flashes of lightning. Neither of the +fugitives uttered a word until they were far past the gate. + +"By George, Mrs. Delancy, we are forgetting one important thing," said +Crosby. They were striding along swiftly arm in arm. "They'll discover +our flight, and the railway station will be just where they'll expect to +find us." + +"Oh, confusion! We can't go to the station, can we?" + +"We can, but we'll be captured with humiliating ease." + +"I know what we can do. Scott Higgins is the tenant on my farm, and he +lives half a mile farther from town than Austin. We can turn back to his +place, but we will have to cut across one of Mr. Austin's fields." + +"Charming. We can have the satisfaction of trampling on some of Mr. +Austin's early wheat crop. Right about, face! But, incidentally, what +are we to do after we get to Mr. Higgins's?" They were now scurrying +back over the ground they had just traversed. + +"Oh, dear me, why should we think about troubles until we come to them?" + +"I wasn't thinking about troubles. I'm thinking about something to eat." + +"You are intensely unromantic. But Mrs. Higgins is awfully good. She +will give us eggs and cakes and milk and coffee and--everything. Won't +it be jolly?" + +Five minutes later they were plunging through a field of partly grown +wheat, in what she averred to be the direction of the Higgins home. It +was not good walking, but they were young and strong and very much +interested in one another and the adventure. + +"Hello, what's this? A river?" he cried, as the swish of running waters +came to his ears. + +"Oh; isn't it dreadful? I forgot this creek was here, and there is no +bridge nearer than a mile. What shall we do? See there is a light in +Higgins's house over there. Isn't it disgusting? I could sit down and +cry," she wailed. In the distance a dog was heard barking fiercely, but +they did not recognize the voice of Swallow. A new trouble confronted +them. + +[Illustration: "HE WAS SPLASHING THROUGH THE SHALLOW BROOK"] + +"Don't do that," he said resignedly. "Remember how Eliza crossed the ice +with the bloodhounds in full trail. Do you know how deep and wide the +creek is?" + +"It's a tiny bit of a thing, but it's wet," she said ruefully. + +"I'll carry you over." And a moment later he was splashing through the +shallow brook, holding the lithe, warm figure of his client high above +the water. As he set her down upon the opposite bank she gave a pretty +sigh of satisfaction, and naively told him that he was very strong for a +man in the last stages of starvation. + +Two or three noisy dogs gave them the first welcome, and Crosby sagely +looked aloft for refuge. His companion quieted the dogs, however, and +the advance on the squat farmhouse was made without resistance. The +visitors were not long in acquainting the good-natured and astonished +young farmer with the situation. Mrs. Higgins was called from her bed +and in a jiffy was bustling about the kitchen, from which soon floated +odors so tantalizing that the refugees could scarcely suppress the +desire to rush forth and storm the good cook in her castle. + +"It's mighty lucky you got here when you did, Mrs. Delancy," said +Higgins, peering from the window. "Looks 's if it might rain before +long. We ain't got much of a place here, but, if you'll put up with it, +I guess we can take keer of you over night." + +"Oh, but we couldn't think of it," she protested. "After we have had +something to eat we must hurry off to the station." + +"What station?" asked Crosby sententiously. + +"I don't know, but it wouldn't be a bit nice to spoil the adventure by +stopping now." + +"But we can't walk all over the State of Illinois," he cried. + +"For shame! You are ready to give up the instant something to eat comes +in sight. Mr. Higgins may be able to suggest something. What is the +nearest----" + +"I have it," interrupted Crosby. "The Wabash road runs through this +neighborhood, doesn't it? Well, where is its nearest station?" + +"Lonesomeville--about four miles south," said Higgins. + +"Do the night trains stop there?" + +"I guess you can flag 'em." + +"There's an east-bound train from St. Louis about midnight, I'm quite +sure." + +While the fugitives were enjoying Mrs. Higgins's hastily but adorably +prepared meal, the details of the second stage of the flight were +perfected. Mr. Higgins gladly consented to hitch up his high-boarded +farm wagon and drive them to the station on the Wabash line, and half an +hour later Higgins's wagon clattered away in the night. To all +appearances he was the only passenger. But seated on a soft pile of +grain sacks in the rear of the wagon, completely hidden from view by the +tall "side-beds," were the refugees. Mrs. Delancy insisted upon this +mode of travel as a precaution against the prying eyes of persistent +marshal's men. Hidden in the wagon-bed they might reasonably escape +detection, she argued, and Crosby humored her for more reasons than one. +Higgins threw a huge grain tarpaulin over the wagon-bed, and they were +sure to be dry in case the rainstorm came as expected. It was so dark +that neither could see the face of the other. He had a longing desire to +take her hand into his, but there was something in the atmosphere that +warned him against such a delightful but unnecessary proceeding. +Naturally, they were sitting quite close to each other; even the severe +jolting of the springless wagon could not disturb the feeling of happy +contentment. + +[Illustration: THEY ENJOY MRS HIGGIN'S GOOD SUPPER] + +"I hope it won't storm," she said nervously, as a little shudder ran +through her body. The wind was now blowing quite fiercely and those +long-distant rolls of thunder were taking on the sinister sound of near- +by crashes. "I don't mind thunder when I'm in the house." + +"And under the bed, I suppose," he laughed. + +"Well, you know, lightning COULD strike this wagon," she persisted. "Oh, +goodness, that was awfully close!" she cried, as a particularly loud +crash came to their ears. + +The wagon came to an abrupt stop, and Crosby was about to crawl forth to +demand the reason when the sound of a man's voice came through the +rushing wind. + +"What is it?" whispered Mrs. Delancy, clutching his arm. + +"Sh!" he replied. "We're held up by highwaymen, I think!" + +"Oh, how lovely!" she whispered rapturously. + +"How far are you goin'?" came the strange voice from the night. + +"Oh, 's far ag'in as half," responded Higgins warily. + +"That you, Scott?" demanded the other. + +"Yep." + +"Say, Scott, gimme a ride, will you? Goin' as far as Lonesomeville?" + +"What you doin' out this time o' night?" demanded Higgins. + +"Lookin' for a feller that tried to steal Mr. Austin's horses. We +thought we had him cornered up to the place, but he got away somehow. +But we'll get him. Davis has got fifty men scouring the country, I bet. +I been sent on to Lonesomeville to head him off if he tries to take a +train. He's a purty desperate character, they say, too, Scott. Say, +gimme a lift as far as you're agoin', won't you?" + +"I--I--well, I reckon so," floundered the helpless Higgins. + +"Really, this is getting a bit serious," whispered Crosby to his +breathless companion. + +The deputy was now on the seat with Higgins, and the latter, bewildered +and dismayed beyond expression, was urging his horses into their fastest +trot. + +"How far is it to Lonesomeville?" asked the deputy. + +"'Bout two mile." + +"It'll rain before we get there," said the other significantly. + +"I'm not afeared of rain," said Higgins. + +"What are you goin' over there this time o' night for?" asked the other. +"You ain't got much of a load." + +"I'm--I'm takin' some meat over to Mr. Talbert." + +"Hams?" + +"No; jest bacon," answered Scott, and his two hearers in the wagon-bed +laughed silently. + +"Not many people out a night like this," volunteered the deputy. + +"Nope." + +"That a tarpaulin you got in the back of the bed? Jest saw it by the +lightnin'." + +"Got the bacon kivered to keep it from gittin' wet 'n case it rains," +hastily interposed Scott. He was discussing within himself the +advisability of knocking the deputy from the seat and whipping the team +into a gallop, leaving him behind. + +"You don't mind my crawlin' under the tarpaulin if it rains, do you, +Scott?" + +"There ain't no--no room under it, Harry, an' I won't allow that bacon +to git wet under no consideration." + +A generous though nerve-racking crash of thunder changed the current of +conversation. It drifted from the weather immediately, however, to a +one-sided discussion of the escaped horse thief. + +"I guess he's a purty slick one," they heard the deputy say. "Austin +said he had him dead to rights in his barn! That big bulldog of his had +him treed on a beam, but when we got there, just after dark, the darned +cuss was gone, an' the dog was trapped up in a box-stall. By thunder, it +showed how desperate the feller is. He evidently come down from that +beam an' jest naturally picked that turrible bulldog up by the neck an' +throwed him over into the stall." + +"Have you got a revolver?" asked Higgins loudly. + +"Sure! You don't s'pose I'd go up against that kind of a man without a +gun, do you?" + +"Oh, goodness!" some one whispered in Crosby's ear. + +"But he ain't armed," argued Higgins. "If he'd had a gun don't you +s'pose he'd shot that dog an' got away long before he did?" + +"That shows how much you know about these crooks, Higgins," said the +other loftily. "He had a mighty good reason for not shooting the dog." + +"What was the reason?" + +"I don't know jest what it was, but any darned fool ought to see that he +had a reason. Else why didn't he shoot? Course he had a reason. But the +funny part of the whole thing is what has become of the woman." + +"What woman?" + +"That widder," responded the other, and Crosby felt her arm harden. "I +never thought much o' that woman. You'd think she owned the whole town +of Dexter to see her paradin' around the streets, showin' off her city +clothes, an' all such stuff. They do say she led George Delancy a devil +of a life, an' it's no wonder he died." + +"The wretch!" came from the rear of the wagon. + +"Well, she's up and skipped out with the horse thief. Austin says she +tried to protect him, and I guess they had a regular family row over the +affair. She's gone an' the man's gone, an' it looks darned suspicious. +He was a good-lookin' feller, Austin says, an' she's dead crazy to git +another man, I've heard. Dang me, it's jest as I said to Davis: I +wouldn't put it above her to take up with this good-lookin' thief an' +skip off with him. Her husband's been dead more'n two year, an' she's +too darned purty to stay in strict mournin' longer'n she has to---" + +But just then something strong, firm, and resistless grasped his neck +from behind, and, even as he opened his mouth to gasp out his surprise +and alarm, a vise-like grip shut down on his thigh, and then, he was +jerked backward, lifted upward, tossed outward, falling downward. The +wagon clattered off in the night, and a tall man and a woman looked over +the side of the wagon-bed and waited for the next flash of lightning to +show them where the official gossiper had fallen. The long, blinding, +flash came, and Crosby saw the man as he picked himself from the ditch +at the roadside. + +"Whip up, Higgins, and we'll leave him so far behind he'll never catch +us," cried Crosby eagerly. The first drops of rain began to fall and +Mrs. Delancy hurriedly crawled beneath the tarpaulin, urging him to +follow at once. Another flash of lightning revealed the deputy, far back +in the road waving his hands frantically. + +"I'm glad his neck isn't broken. Hurry on, Mr. Higgins; it is now more +urgent than ever that you save your bacon." + +'"Tain't very comfortable ridin' for Mrs. Delancy," apologized Higgins, +his horses in a lope. + +"If the marshal asks you why you didn't stop and help his deputy, just +tell him that the desperado held a pistol at your head and commanded you +to drive like the devil. Holy mackerel, here comes the deluge!" + +An instant later he was under the tarpaulin, crouching beside his fellow +fugitive. Conversation was impossible, so great was the noise of the +rain-storm and the rattle of the wagon over the hard pike. He did his +best to protect her from the jars and bumps incident to the leaping and +jolting of the wagon, and both were filled with rejoicing when Higgins +shouted "Whoa!" to the horses and brought the wild ride to an end. + +"Where are we?" cried Crosby, sticking his head from beneath the +tarpaulin. + +"We're in the dump-shed of the grain elevator, just across the track +from the depot." + +"And the ride is over?" + +"Yep. Did you get bumped much?" + +"It was worse, a thousand times, than sitting on the beam," bemoaned a +sweet, tired voice, and a moment later the two refugees stood erect in +the wagon, neither quite sure that legs so tired and stiff could serve +as support. + +"It was awful; wasn't it?" Crosby said, stretching himself painfully. + +"Are you not drenched to the skin, Mr. Higgins?" cried Mrs. Delancy +anxiously. "How selfish of us not to have thought of you before!" + +"Oh, that's all right. This gum coat kept me purty dry." + +He and Crosby assisted her from the wagon, and, while the former gave +his attention to the wet and shivering horses, the latter took her arm +and walked up and down the dark shed with her. + +"I think you are regretting the impulse that urged you into this folly," +he was saying. + +"If you persist in accusing me of faintheartedness, Mr. Crosby, I'll +never speak to you again," she said. "I cast my lot with a desperado, as +the deputy insinuated, and I am sure you have not heard me bewail my +fate. Isn't it worth something to have one day and night of real +adventure? My gown must be a sight, and I know my hair is just +dreadful, but my heart is gayer and brighter to-night than it has been +in years." + +"And you don't regret anything that has happened?" he asked, pressing +her arm ever so slightly. + +"My only regret is that you heard what the deputy said about me. You +don't believe I am like that, do you?" There was sweet womanly concern +in her voice. + +"I wish it were light enough to see your face," he answered, his lips +close to her ear. "I know you are blushing, and you must be more +beautiful--Oh, no, of course I don't think you are at all as he painted +you," he concluded, suddenly checking himself and answering the +plaintive question he had almost ignored. + +"Thank you, kind sir," she said lightly, but he failed not to observe +the tinge of confusion in the laugh that followed. + +"If you'll watch the team, Mr. Crosby," the voice of Higgins broke in at +this timely juncture, "I'll run acrost to the depot an' ast about the +train." + +"Much obliged, old man; much obliged," returned Crosby affably. "Are you +afraid to be alone in the dark?" he asked, as Higgins rushed out into +the rain. The storm had abated by this time and there was but the +faintest suggestion of distant thunder and lightning, the after-fall of +rain being little more than a drizzle. + +"Awfully," she confessed, "but it's safer here than on the beam," she +added, and his heart grew very tender as he detected the fatigue in her +voice. "Anyhow, we have the papers safely signed." + +"Mrs. Delancy, I--I swear that you shall never regret this day and +night," he said, stopping in his walk and placing his hands on her +shoulders. She caught her breath quickly. "Do you know what I mean?" + +"I--I think--I'm not quite sure," she stammered. + +"You will know some day," he said huskily. + +When Mr. Higgins appeared at the end of the shed, carrying a lighted +lantern, he saw a tall young man and a tall young woman standing side by +side, awaiting his approach with the unconcern of persons who have no +interest in common. + +"Ah, a lantern," cried Crosby. "Now we can see what we look like and-- +and who we are." + +Higgins informed them that an east-bound passenger train went through in +twenty minutes, stopping on the side track to allow west-bound No. 7 to +pass. This train also took water near the bridge which crossed the river +just west of the depot. The west-bound train was on time, the other +about five minutes late. He brought the welcome news that the rain was +over and that a few stars were peeping through the western sky. There +was unwelcome news, however, in the statement that the mud was ankle +deep from the elevator to the station platform and that the washing out +of a street culvert would prevent him from using the wagon. + +"I don't mind the mud," said Mrs. Delancy, very bravely indeed. + +"My dear Mrs. Delancy, I can and will carry you a mile or more rather +than have one atom of Lonesomeville mud bespatter those charming boots +of yours," said Crosby cheerfully, and her protestations were useless +against the argument of both men. + +The distance was not great from the sheds to the station and was soon +covered. Crosby was muddy to his knees, but his fair passenger was as +dry as toast when he lowered her to the platform. + +"You are every bit as strong as the hero in the modern novel," she said +gaily. "After this, I'll believe every word the author says about his +stalwart, indomitable hero." + +To say that Higgins was glad to be homeward bound would be putting it +too mildly. The sigh of relief that came from him as he drove out of +town a few minutes later was so audible that he heard it himself and +smiled contentedly. If he expected to meet the unlamented Harry Brown on +the home trip, he was to be agreeably disappointed. Mr. Brown was not on +the roadway. He was, instead, on the depot platform at Lonesomeville, +and when the westbound express train whistled for the station he was +standing grimly in front of two dumbfounded young people who sat +sleepily and unwarily on a baggage truck. + +The feeble-eyed lantern sat on the platform near Crosby's swinging feet, +and the picture that it looked upon was one suggestive of the cheap, +sensational, and bloodcurdling border drama. A mud-covered man stood +before the trapped fugitives, a huge revolver in his hand, the muzzle of +which, even though it wobbled painfully, was uncomfortably close to Mr. +Crosby's nose. + +"Throw up your hands!" said Brown, his hoarse voice shaking perceptibly. +Crosby's hands went up instantly, for he was a man and a diplomat. + +"Point it the other way!" cried the lady, with true feminine tact. "How +dare you!--Oh, will it go off? Please, please put it away! We won't try +to escape!" + +"I'm takin' no chances on this feller," said Brown grimly. "It won't go +off, ma'am, unless he makes a move to git away." + +"What do you want?" demanded Crosby indignantly. "My money? Take it, if +you like, but don't be long about it." + +"I'm no robber, darn you." + +"Well, what in thunder do you mean then by holding me up at the point of +a revolver?" + +"I'm an officer of the law an' I arrest you. That's what I'm here for," +said Brown. + +"Arrest me?" exclaimed Crosby in great amazement. "What have I done?" + +"No back talk now, young feller. You're the man we're after, an' it +won't do you any good to chew the rag about it." + +"If you don't turn that horrid pistol away, I'll faint," cried +femininity in collapse. Crosby's arm went about her waist and she hid +her terror-stricken eyes on his shoulder. + +"Keep that hand up!" cried Brown threateningly. + +"Don't be mean about it, old man. Can't you see that my arm is not at +all dangerous?" + +"I've got to search you." + +"Search me? Well, I guess not. Where is your authority?" + +"I'm a deputy marshal from Dexter." + +"Have you been sworn in, sir?" + +"Aw, that's all right now. No more rag chewin' out of you. That'll do +YOU! Keep your hands up!" + +"What am I charged with?" + +"Attempted horse stealin', an' you know it." + +"Have you a warrant? What is my name?" + +"That'll do you now; that'll do you." + +"See here, my fine friend, you've made a sad mistake. I'm not the man +you want. I'm ready to go to jail, if you insist, but it cost you every +dollar you have in the world. I'll make you pay dearly for calling an +honest man a thief, sir." Crosby's indignation was beautifully assumed +and it took effect. + +"Mr. Austin is the man who ordered your arrest," he explained. "I know +Mrs. Delancy here all right, an' she left Austin's with you." + +"What are you talking about, man? She is my cousin and drove over here +this evening to see me between trains. I think you'd better lower your +gun, my friend. This will go mighty hard with you." + +"But---" + +"He has you confused with that horse thief who said his name was Crosby, +Tom," said she, pinching his arm delightedly. "He was the worst-looking +brute I ever saw. I thought Mr. Austin had him so secure with the +bulldog as guardian. Did he escape?" + +"Yes, an' you went with him," exclaimed Brown, making a final stand. +"An' I know all about how you come over here in Scott Higgins's wagon +too." + +"The man is crazy!" exclaimed Mrs. Delancy. + +"He may have escaped from the asylum up north of here," whispered +Crosby, loud enough for the deputy to hear. + +"Here comes the train," cried she. "Now we can ask the train men to +disarm him and send him back to the asylum. Isn't it awful that such +dangerous people can be at large?" + +Brown lowered his pistol as the engine thundered past. The pilot was +almost in the long bridge at the end of the depot when the train stopped +to wait for the eastbound express to pass. The instant that Brown's +revolver arm was lowered and his head turned with uncertainty to look at +the train, Crosby's hand went to his coat pocket, and when the deputy +turned toward him again he found himself looking into the shiny, +glittering barrel of a pistol. + +"Throw that gun away, my friend," said Crosby in a low tone, "or I'll +blow your brains out." + +"Great Scott!" gasped Brown. + +"Throw it away!" + +"Don't kill him," pleaded Mrs. Delancy. Brown's knees were shaking like +leaves and his teeth chattered. His revolver sailed through the air and +clattered on the brick pavement beyond the end of the platform. "Don't +shoot," he pleaded, ready to drop to his knees. + +"I won't if you are good and kind and obliging," said Crosby sternly. +"Turn around--face the engine. That's right. Now listen to me. I've got +this pistol jammed squarely against your back, and if you make a false +move--well, you won't have time to regret it. Answer my questions too. +How long is that bridge?" + +"I--I do--don't kno--ow." + +"It's rather long, isn't it?" + +"With the fill and trestle it's nearly half a mile." + +"What is the next stop west of here for this train?" + +"Hopville, forty mile west." + +"Where does the east-bound train stop next after leaving here?" + +"It don't stop till it gits over in Indiana, thirty mile or more." + +"I'm much obliged to you. Now walk straight ahead until you come to the +blind end of the mail car." + +At the front end of the mail car Crosby and his prisoner halted. Every +one knows that the head end of the coach just back of the engine tender +is "blind." That is, there is no door leading to the interior, and one +must stand outside on the narrow platform if, perchance, he is there +when the train starts. As the east-bound train pulled in from the +bridge, coming to a stop on the track beyond the west-bound train, +Crosby commanded his erstwhile captor to climb aboard the blind end of +the mail coach. + +"Geewhillikers, don't make me do that," groaned the unhappy Brown. + +"Get aboard and don't argue. You can come back to-morrow, you know, and +you're perfectly safe if you stay awake and don't roll off. Hurry up! If +you try to jump off before you reach the bridge I'll shoot." + +A moment later the train pulled into the bridge and Crosby hurried back +to his anxious companion. Brown was on his way to a station forty miles +west, and he did not dare risk jumping off. By the time the train +reached the far end of the bridge it was running forty miles an hour. + +"Where is he?" she cried in alarm as he rushed with her across the +intervening space to the coveted "east-bound." + +"I'll tell you all about it when we get inside this train," he answered. +"I think Brown is where he can't telegraph to head us off any place +along the line, and if we once get into Indiana we are comparatively +safe. Up you go!" and he lifted her up the car steps. + +"Safe," she sighed, as they dropped into a seat in a coach. + +"I'm ashamed to mention it, my dear accomplice, but are you quite sure +you have your purse with you? With the usual luck of a common thief, I +am penniless." + +"Penniless because you gave your fortune to the cause of freedom," she +supplemented, fumbling in her chatelaine bag for her purse. "Here it is. +The contents are yours until the end of our romance." + +The conductor took fare from him to Lafayette and informed the mud- +covered gentleman that he could get a train from that city to Chicago at +2:30 in the morning. + +"We're all right now," said Crosby after the conductor had passed on. +"You are tired, little woman. Lie back and go to sleep. The rough part +of the adventure is almost over." He secured a pillow for her, and she +was soon resting as comfortably as it was possible in the day coach of a +passenger train. + +For many minutes he sat beside her, his eyes resting on the beautiful +tired face with its closed eyes, long lashes, pensive mouth, and its +frame of dark hair, disarranged and wild. + +"It's strange," he thought, almost aloud, "how suddenly it comes to a +fellow. Twelve hours ago I was as free as a bird in the air, and now--" + +[Illustration: "THEY GO TO THE THEATRE"] + +[Illustration: '"GOOD HEAVENS!" "WHAT IS IT?" HE CRIED. "YOU ARE NOT +MARRIED, ARE YOU?'"] + +Just then her eyes opened widely with a start, as if she had suddenly +come from a rather terrifying dream. They looked squarely into his, and +he felt so abashed that he was about to turn away when, with a little +catch in her voice, she exclaimed: + +"Good heavens!" + +"What is it?" he cried. + +"You are not married, are you?" + +"NO!!!" + +Like a culprit caught she blushed furiously, and her eyes wavered as the +lids fell, shutting from his eager, surprised gaze the prettiest +confusion in the world. + +"I--It just occurred to me to ask," she murmured. + +Crosby's exhilaration was so great that, after a long, hungry look at +the peaceful face, he jumped up and went out into the vestibule, where +he whistled with all the ardor of a school-boy. When he returned to his +seat beside her she was awake, and the little look of distress left her +face when he appeared, a happy smile succeeding. + +"I thought you had deserted me," she said. + +"Perish the thought." + +"Mr. Crosby, if you had a pistol all the time we were in the barn, why +did you not shoot the dog and free us hours before you did?" she asked +sternly. + +"I had no pistol," he grinned. From his pocket he drew a nickel-plated +menthol inhaler and calmly leveled it at her head. "It looked very much +like a pistol in the darkness," he said, "and it deserves a place among +the cherished relics descending from our romance." + +The next night two happy, contented persons sat in a brilliant Chicago +theatre, and there was nothing in their appearance to indicate that the +day and night before had been the most strenuous in their lives. + +"This is more comfortable than a cross beam in a barn," she smiled. + +"But it is more public," he responded. + +Three months later--but Crosby won both suits. + +[Illustration: CROSBY WON BOTH SUITS.] + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Day of the Dog, by George Barr McCutcheon + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAY OF THE DOG *** + +This file should be named dftdg10.txt or dftdg10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, dftdg11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, dftdg10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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