Frank of Freedom Hill

Arthur Derieux Samuel

Description

The baggageman slid open the side door of the car. With a rattle of his chain Dan sprang to his feet. A big red Irish setter was Dan, of his breed sixth, and most superb, his colour wavy-bronze, his head erect and noble, his eyes eloquent with that upward-looking appeal of hunting dog to hunting man.

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 23 octobre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819905042
• Langue: English

Extrait

I
THE DESTINY OF DAN VI
The baggageman slid open the side door of the car.With a rattle of his chain Dan sprang to his feet. A big red Irishsetter was Dan, of his breed sixth, and most superb, his colourwavy-bronze, his head erect and noble, his eyes eloquent with thatupward-looking appeal of hunting dog to hunting man.
Cold, pine-laden air deluged the heated car andchilled his quivering nose and swelled his heaving chest. Beyondthe baggageman he saw through the open door, as on a moving-picturescreen, sunlit fields and sunlit woods whirling past. He began tobark at them eagerly, his eyes hungry, his tail beating against thetaut chain an excited tattoo. The baggageman turned with a grin."Birds?" he said.
At the word the dog reared straight up like amaddened horse. Full-throated angry barks, interspersed with sharp,querulous yaps, filled his roaring, swaying prison. How long sincehe had got so much as a whiff of untainted air, or a glimpse ofwild fields and woods! Out there oceans of such air filled all thespace between the gliding earth and the sky. Out there miles onmiles of freedom were rushing forever out of his life. He began torage, to froth at the mouth. The baggageman closed the door. "Hard,old scout!" The baggageman shook his head.
Resignedly the dog sank on his belly, his long bodythrobbing, his nose between his paws. A deep sigh puffed a littlecloud of dust from the slatted floor.
Three years before he had opened his amazed puppyeyes on this man (and woman) ruled planet. An agreeable place ofabode he had found it as long as he was owned by a man. The Jerseykennels of George Devant had bred him; Devant had himselfoverlooked his first season's training, had hunted him a few times.At Devant's untimely death, Mrs. Devant had sold the place, thekennels, the mounts. But when, followed by a group of purchasingsportsmen, the widow came to the kennel where he waited at the endof his chain, she had clasped her hands together and cried out: "Iwon't sell this one!"
Lancaster, bachelor friend of the late Devant, spokeup: "Why, I had my eyes on him." "You won't get him," shelaughed. "He'll live with me – won't you, beauty?" "He's not a lapdog," Lancaster had reminded her. "Don't you suppose I understand him?" she demanded.
Understand him? What did the woman know of a birddog's soul? The most intolerable of burdens is kindness where nounderstanding is. To Mrs. Devant it never occurred, even remotely,that her Riverside Drive apartment was a prison. She never dreamedwhy it was that on their afternoon walks the dog, straining at hisleash, kept his hungry eyes fastened always on the cliffs acrossthe Hudson. When they returned, as she pulled off her wraps, shewould look down at him. "I know," she would say; "you are trying totell me you love me!"
Courteously he would wag his tail. Futilely, out ofupraised, gently brave eyes he would plead for freedom – from awoman who did not know, and could not understand.
Then Lancaster, a frequent caller at the apartmentof Mrs. Devant, had borrowed him. That morning Lancaster himselfhad put him aboard this train. "The trip," Lancaster had said,"will be easier if we don't crate him." All day he had known he wasbeing hurled away. Was another grimy wilderness of brick hisdestination? Had the baggageman closed the door forever on all heloved in the world?
The train slowed up, stopped. The baggageman openedthe door and dropped to the ground. They were in the country andthe sun had set. Through the door the dog looked across a duskyfield to a black horizon of forest. Above this forest flamed ascarlet glow. Something far in its depths called him, and heplunged against the chain.
He was jerked back, choking, the glow out yonderreflected in his desperate eyes. He backed against the wall, took arunning start, and plunged again. The breaking of his collar hurledhim against a trunk on the other side of the car, dazed andconfused.
A sharp approaching whistle, an ever-loudening roarin that brooding silence out there aroused him to a sense of hissurroundings. A telegraph pole that had stood black athwart theglow began to move backward. The silhouette of the baggageman rosein the doorway. The dog gathered himself together and leaped. Helanded on shining rails, in front of a blinding headlight; thepilot just missed him as he sprang out of the way. A northboundpassenger train roared past. From the other train two sharpwhistles, the screeching of brakes, and a shout. For a moment hestood on the slight embankment, his ears thrown defiantly back.Then he turned, and with great lung-filling leaps bounded towardthe glow in the west.
It was dark in the woods when he stopped and lappedloud and long of icy running water. An alarmed owl went floppingheavily away under the low-growing branches. Underneath thisembodied spirit of night galloped the dog, filling the woods withbarks, leaping high into the air, his teeth snapping and clickinglike castanets. In the edge of a straw field looked down upon bystars he rushed a covey on the roost. One struck against a tree andcame chirping down. Dan leaped upon him. His hunger satisfied, hetramped a pile of leaves into a bed, and slept.
At sunrise he chased an early rabbit into animpenetrable, frost-incrusted brier patch. He rushed another covey,that flew away like the wind. He sat down on his haunches and withears erect watched the distant, whirling specks scatter into thewoods. He was helpless in the daylight without man and gun. Heremembered a white-tiled butcher shop on upper Broadway, and lickedhis chops at the recollection.
At midday, a hungry tramp, he approached afarmhouse. A big shepherd dog met him. When the fierce mix-up wasover, and the shepherd had retreated, Dan carried in his shoulder along, deep cut. Impelled by the gnawing in his stomach, he limpedtoward a log cabin. A troop of black children ran screaming atsight of him, and a black man burst out of the cabin door with agun. As he turned and bounded away, a shot stung his rump, andothers hummed around him. He made for the woods, a pack of yelpingcurs on his trail.
From this time he avoided the habitations andhighways of man, keeping to the woods and streams, turningreluctantly aside at the smell of a human being. Now and then hepicked up a stray chicken; twice he fought inquisitive hounds;always his nose pointed like a compass toward the place where thesun set. He no longer resembled the dog that had graced the canineparade on Riverside Drive. He was gaunt, torn, caked with mud. Hisproud tail followed the curve of his haunches; he carried his headlow to the ground; in his eyes gleamed hunger and outlawry. Freedomhad exacted its price.
Near the close of the third day there was borne onthe slight wind the smell of a man. Toward it he cautiously slunk,in his heart a desperate, gnawing loneliness. A masterless dog islike a godless man: there is no motivation sufficient for hisstruggles and achievements. If the dog had been full of meat, if amate had trotted beside him, still he would have hungered for thecountenance and voice of a master.
Suddenly he sank to the ground and looked keenlyahead. A young human three feet high, bare and frowsy of head,stood alone in the woods. His body was shaken by dry sobs, as ifthe tear supply had long since been exhausted. Now and then helooked fearfully around at the darkening shadows. Plainly, he waslost; plainly, he needed protection. Therefore the big dog advancedwith ingratiating tail.
The man-child shrieked, turned, and ran, histerrified red face turned over his shoulder. He tripped, fellheadlong, scrambled to his feet, picked up a stick, and faced aboutlike a little cave man. The dog still advanced wagging his tail,throwing his ears far back, crawling contritely on his belly,begging in every way he could beg to be allowed to serve thisoffspring of a man.
The pantomime won. The boy dropped his stick. Thedog went to him and gazed longingly into the tear-reddened eyes.Humbly he licked the chubby hands, then the tear-soaked face. Theboy smiled with a dawn of trust, put his hand testingly on theshaggy head, then round his neck. The dog sank to his haunches, histail stirring the leaves. The boy gave a convulsive hug. Dan VIknew that his wanderings were over.
Far the child must have wandered from home, andsuffered much, for, terror removed, he curled up in the leaves andfell asleep, the dog's warm body curled up beside. Suddenly Dansprang up. From the sunset came the ringing of a bell. Perhaps thisbell called this lost boy. Dan sat on his haunches, elevated hisnose like an aircraft gun, and began to bay.
For an hour he answered the bell. Then there camethrough the woods the crash of running footsteps, and a young manburst into view, his clean-shaven face drawn and anxious. Hestooped, picked the boy up, felt his arms and legs, laughed outloud. He lifted the boy to a broad shoulder and started for thebell. "Come along," he said to the dog.
The bell was still ringing when they came in sightof a big house set on a high hill, with oak trees in the yard andbarns behind. The man shouted; the bell ceased; a slender youngwoman came running toward them, followed by a fat old black womanwho waddled as she ran. The young woman snatched the boy from theman's shoulder, and Dan knew from the crooning noises she made thatshe was his mother. Not until they were within a spaciousfire-ruddied room did she notice the dog. She set the boywonderingly down. "Where did he come from?" she gasped.
The man laughed. "From Mars, I guess. He guided meto Tommy." "Oh – you beauty! You wonder!" She stooped suddenly andcaught the big head between her hands. Her eyes were bright andsoft. "You noble, noble dog!"
Dan drew back. Why all this feminine fuss?Self-consciously he dropped his tail, imploringly he looked up atthe man. The man understood. He poked the dog with his foot, andDan started back with a mock snarl. Embarrassment vanished,equilibrium was establ