|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 69
Fortunately, the two bitches were disposed to be friendly from the
outset, and of the three huskies, two were intently engaged upon bones
at the time of Jan's entrance. The third husky attacked him, blindly,
without stopping to exchange so much as glances. This little incident
was soon ended. In ten seconds Jan had bowled clean over on his back the
too temerarious Gutty--to give this particular husky the name under
which Mr. Beeching had bought him--and was shaking him by the throat as
a terrier shakes a rat. But Jan was far from being really angry, or
Gutty had paid with his life for the impudence of his attack; and when
the husky chokingly whined for mercy he was allowed to spring to his
feet and slink away into a dark corner, with nothing worse than a little
skin-wound to worry over.
The case of the other two huskies was more serious, however; for in the
half-light Jan chanced to brush against one of them as he gnawed his
bone; and in the next moment they both were leaping at him with clashing
fangs, convinced that he aimed at plunder. While Jan, in warding off
their attacks, tried to explain, good-humoredly, that he meant them no
ill, Jinny and Poll made off with their bones. But of this the two
huskies knew nothing, being fully occupied by their joint attack upon
the great dog who, had they but known it, was destined for some time to
be their master, in the traces and out of them.
It was a rather troublesome fight, involving considerable bloodshed; for
Fish and Pad, the two huskies, were quite notable battlers, and Jan, for
his part, was genuinely anxious to avoid any killing. He was quite
shrewd enough to know that he had now joined a new team, and, while it
was very necessary that his prowess should be recognized and respected,
he desired peace, and perfectly understood that, if he began by killing,
the results might be serious for the team and for himself.
In the end, having made some sacrifices, he had to inflict a severe gash
on the side of Pad's face, and to come near to throttling the life out
of Fish, before he could reduce the pair of them to a state of
comparatively decent, if still snarling, submission. After that there
was peace; Fish and Pad were too busy in dressing their wounds to notice
the loss of their bones; and Jan was free to introduce himself to the
others of the pack, which he did in friendly fashion enough, despite his
still raised hackles and rather noticeably stiff gait.
There was quite a gathering assembled next morning to see the last of
Jan's new masters. But though he eyed the crowd closely to find them,
Jan saw nothing of Jake or Jean, nor any of his old team-mates. Beeching
and Harry--the latter a gentleman who, having apparently no faith in his
own luck, believed in attaching himself firmly to any more fortunate
person who would tolerate his society--were, to all seeming, not really
unpopular. The thoroughly unpopular man is rarely guyed, with roars of
open laughter and back-slapping merriment, by men who wink and nod at
one another while joining forces in the matter of ragging their butt.
That was how Beeching was treated by the crowd of acquaintances who came
to give him his start on the southward, seaward trail. Harry was, for
the most part, merely ignored. It was understood that now, as in the
past, he was supposed to make himself "useful" by way of paying his
shot; and as he had never been known to be any other thing than useless,
it was evidence rather of the easy good nature than the perspicacity of
his associates that he never had actually lacked food and shelter in
that place. But that was as much, men thought, as "Tame Cat Harry" could
possibly expect. One of the last fond messages flung at Beeching, as his
overloaded sled swung out on the trail, was:
"Don't you be letting Harry loose, mind you, or he'll surely hark back
on the trail; an' then we'll shoot him on sight."
"Well, say," yelled another man, "if you do loose him any, be sure you
put a muzzle on him, so's to keep our grub-boxes safe."
After which crude gibe at Harry's sponging proclivities, Homeric
laughter set a period upon the town's farewell to Jan's new masters. And
that laughter stirred to fresh activity the uneasy want of confidence,
the rather cheerless sense of foreboding, which, for close upon
twenty-four hours now, had been growing in the breast of the team's
leader. Jan should, perhaps, have felt drawn toward Beeching and Harry,
since both were compatriots of his and hailed from southern England. But
England has sent a good many of her most confirmed wastrels oversea,
along with the very cream of her manhood; and whether or no, Jan had no
more confidence in his masters than he had in Gutty, the husky he had
thrashed overnight, and far less than he had in Fish and Pad, the two
opponents he had found so much more difficult to trounce.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|