Jim: The Story of a Backwoods Police Dog

II

As summer wore on into autumn the dry weather turned to a veritable drought, and all the streams ran lower and lower. Word came early that the mills at Harner’s Bend, over in the next valley, had been compelled to shut down for lack of logs. But Brine’s Rip exulted unkindly. The Ottanoonsis, fed by a group of cold spring lakes, maintained a steady flow; there were plenty of logs, and the mills had every prospect of working full time all through the autumn. Presently they began to gather in big orders which would have gone otherwise to Harner’s Bend. Brine’s Rip not only exulted, but took into itself merit. It felt that it must, on general principles, have deserved well of Providence, for Providence so obviously to take sides with it.

As August drew to a dusty, choking end, Mary Farrell began to collect her accounts. Her tact and sympathy made this easy for her, and women paid up civilly enough who had never been known to do such a thing before, unless at the point of a summons. Mary said she was going to the States, perhaps as far as New York itself, to renew her stock and study up the latest fashions.

Every one was much interested. Woolly Billy’s eyes brimmed over at the prospect of her absence, but he was consoled by the promise of her speedy return with an air-gun and also a toy steam-engine that would really go. As for Jim, his feathery black tail drooped in premonition of a loss, but he could not gather exactly what was afoot. He was further troubled by an unusual depression on the part of Tug Blackstock. The Deputy Sheriff seemed to have lost his zest in tracking down evil-doers.

It was nearing ten o’clock on a hot and starless night. Tug Blackstock, too restless to sleep, wandered down to the silent mill with Jim at his heels. As he approached, Jim suddenly went bounding on ahead with a yelp of greeting. He fawned upon a small, shadowy figure which was seated on a pile of deals close to the water’s edge. Tug Blackstock hurried up.

“You here, Mary, all alone, at this time o’ night!” he exclaimed.

“I come here often,” answered Mary, making room for him to sit beside her.

“I wish I’d known it sooner,” muttered the Deputy.

“I like to listen to the rapids, and catch glimpses of the water slipping away blindly in the dark,” said Mary. “It helps one not to think,” she added with a faint catch in her voice.

“Why should you not want to think, Mary?” protested Blackstock.

“How dreadfully dry everything is,” replied Mary irrelevantly, as if heading Blackstock off. “What if there should be a fire at the mill? Wouldn’t the whole village go, like a box of matches? People might get caught asleep in their beds. Oughtn’t there to be more than one night watchman in such dry weather as this? I’ve so often heard of mills catching fire – though I don’t see why they should, any more than houses.”

“Mills most generally git set afire,” answered the Deputy grimly. “Think what it would mean to Harner’s Bend if these mills should git burnt down now! It would mean thousands and thousands to them. But you’re dead right, Mary, about the danger to the village. Only it depends on the wind. This time o’ year, an’ as long as it keeps dry, what wind there is blows mostly away from the houses, so sparks and brands would just be carried out over the river. But if the wind should shift to the south’ard, or thereabouts, yes, there’d be more watchmen needed. I s’pose you’re thinkin’ about your shop while ye’re away?”

“I was thinking about Woolly Billy,” said Mary gravely. “What do I care about the old shop? It’s insured, anyway.”

“I’ll look out for Woolly Billy,” answered Blackstock. “And I’ll look out for the shop, whether you care about it or not. It’s yours, and your name’s on the door, and anything of yours, anything you’ve touched, an’ wherever you’ve put your little foot, that’s something for me to care about. I ain’t no hand at making pretty speeches, Mary, or paying compliments, but I tell you these here old sawdust roads are just wonderful to me now, because your little feet have walked on ’em. Ef only I could think that you could care – that I had anything, was anything, Mary, worth offering you – ”

He had taken her hand, and she had yielded it to him. He had put his great arm around her shoulders and drawn her to him, – and for a moment, with a little shiver, she had leant against him, almost cowered against him, with the air of a frightened child craving protection. But as he spoke on, in his quiet, strong voice, she suddenly tore herself away, sprang off to the other end of the pile of deals, and began to sob violently.

He followed her at once. But she thrust out both hands.

“Go away. Please don’t come near me,” she appealed, somewhat wildly. “You don’t understand — anything.”

Tug Blackstock looked puzzled. He seated himself at a distance of several inches, and clasped his hands resolutely in his lap.

“Of course, I won’t tech you, Mary,” said he, “if you don’t want me to. I don’t want to do anything you don’t want me to — never, Mary. But I sure don’t understand what you’re crying for. Please don’t. I’m so sorry I teched you, dear. But if you knew how I love you, how I would give my life for you, I think you’d forgive me, Mary.”

Mary gave a bitter little laugh, and choked her sobs.

“It isn’t that, oh no, it isn’t that!” she said. “I – I liked it. There!” she panted. Then she sprang to her feet and faced him. And in the gloom he could see her eyes flaming with some intense excitement, from a face ghost-white.

“But – I won’t let you make me love you, Tug Blackstock. I won’t! – I won’t! I won’t let you change all my plans, all my ambitions. I won’t give up all I’ve worked for and schemed for and sold my very soul for, just because at last I’ve met a real man. Oh, I’d soon spoil your life, no matter how much you love me. You’d soon find how cruel, and hard, and selfish I am. An’ I’d ruin my own life, too. Do you think I could settle down to spend my life in the backwoods? Do you think I have no dreams beyond the spruce woods of Nipsiwaska County? Do you think you could imprison me in Brine’s Rip? I’d either kill your brave, clean soul, Tug Blackstock, or I’d kill myself!”

Utterly bewildered at this incomprehensible outburst, Blackstock could only stammer lamely:

“But – I thought – ye kind o’ liked Brine’s Rip.”

“Like it!” The uttermost of scorn was in her voice. “I hate, hate, hate it! I just live to get out into the great world, where I feel that I belong. But I must have money first. And I’m going to study, and I’m going to make myself somebody. I wasn’t born for this.” And she waved her hand with a sweep that took in all the backwoods world. “I’m getting out of it. It would drive me mad. Oh, I sometimes think it has already driven me half mad.”

Her tense voice trailed off wearily, and she sat down again – this time further away.

Blackstock sat quite still for a time. At last he said gently:

“I do understand ye now, Mary.”

“You don’t,” interrupted Mary.

“I felt, all along, I was somehow not good enough for you.”

“You’re a million miles too good for me,” she interrupted again, energetically.

“But,” he went on without heeding the protest, “I hoped, somehow, that I might be able to make you happy. An’ that’s what I want, more’n anything else in the world. All I have is at your feet, Mary, an’ I could make it more in time. But I’m not a big enough man for you. I’m all yours – an’ always will be – but I can’t make myself no more than I am.”

“Yes, you could, Tug Blackstock,” she cried. “Real men are scarce, in the great world and everywhere. You could make yourself a master anywhere – if only you would tear yourself loose from here.”

He sprang up, and his arms went out as if to seize her. But, with an effort, he checked himself, and dropped them stiffly to his side.

“I’m too old to change my spots, Mary,” said he. “I’m stamped for good an’ all. I am some good here. I’d be no good there. An’ I won’t never resk bein’ a drag on yer plans.”

“You could – you could!” urged Mary almost desperately.

But he turned away, with his lips set hard, not daring to look at her.

“Ef ever ye git tired of it all out there, an’ yer own kind calls ye back – as it will, bein’ in yer blood – I’ll be waitin’ for ye, Mary, whatever happens.”

He strode off quickly up the shore. The girl stared after him till he was quite out of sight, then buried her face in the fur of Jim, who had willingly obeyed a sign from his master and remained at her side.

“Oh, my dear, if only you could have dared,” she murmured. At last she jumped up, with an air of resolve, and wandered off, apparently aimlessly, into the recesses of the mill, with one hand resting firmly on Jim’s collar.

III

Two days later Mary Farrell left Brine’s Rip. She hugged and kissed Woolly Billy very hard before she left, and cried a little with him, pretending to laugh, and she took her three big trunks with her, in the long-bodied express waggon which carried the mails, although she said she would not be gone more than a month at the outside.

Tug Blackstock eyed those three trunks with a sinking heart. His only comfort was that he had in his pocket the key of Mary’s little shop, which she had sent to him by Woolly Billy. When the express waggon had rattled and bumped away out of sight there was a general feeling in Brine’s Rip that the whole place had gone flat, like stale beer, and the saws did not seem to make as cheerful a shrieking as before, and Black Saunders, expert runner of logs as he was, fell in because he forgot to look where he was going, and knocked his head heavily in falling, and was almost drowned before they could fish him out.

“There’s goin’ to be some bad luck comin’ to Brine’s Rip afore long,” remarked Long Jackson in a voice of deepest pessimism.

“It’s come, Long,” said the Deputy.

That same day the wind changed, and blew steadily from the mills right across the village. But it brought no change in the weather, except a few light showers that did no more than lay the surface dust. About a week later it shifted back again, and blew steadily away from the village and straight across the river. And once more a single night-watchman was regarded as sufficient safeguard against fire.

A little before daybreak on the second night following this change of wind, the watchman was startled by a shrill scream and a heavy splash from the upper end of the great pool where the logs were gathered before being fed up in the saws. It sounded like a woman’s voice. As fast as he could stumble over the intervening deals and rubbish he made his way to the spot, waving his lantern and calling anxiously. There was no sign of any one in the water. As he searched he became conscious of a ruddy light at one corner of the mill.

He turned and dashed back, yelling “Fire! Fire!” at the top of his lungs. A similar ruddy light was spreading upward in two other corners of the mill. Frantically he turned on the nearest chemical extinguisher, yelling madly all the while. But he was already too late. The flames were licking up the dry wood with furious appetite.

In almost as little time as it takes to tell of it the whole great structure was ablaze, with all Brine’s Rip, in every varying stage of déshabille, out gaping at it. The little hand-fire-engine worked heroically, squirting a futile stream upon the flames for a while, and then turning its attention to the nearest houses in order to keep them drenched.

“Thank God the wind’s in the right direction,” muttered Zeb Smith, the storekeeper and magistrate. And the pious ejaculation was echoed fervently through the crowd.

In the meantime, Tug Blackstock, seeing that there was nothing to do in the way of fighting the fire – the mill being already devoured – was interviewing the distracted watchman.

“Sure,” he agreed, “it was a trick to git you away long enough for the fires to git a start. Somebody yelled, an’ chucked in a big stick, that’s all. An’, o’ course, you run to help. You couldn’t naturally do nothin’ else.”

The watchman heaved a huge sigh of relief. If Blackstock exonerated him from the charge of negligence, other people would. And his heart had been very heavy at being so fatally fooled.

“It’s Harner’s Bend all right, that’s what it is!” he muttered.

“Ef only we could prove it,” said Blackstock, searching the damp ground about the edges of the pool, which was lighted now as by day. Presently he saw Jim sniffing excitedly at some tracks. He hurried over to examine them. Jim looked up at him and wagged his tail, as much as to say, “So you’ve found them, too! Interesting, ain’t they?”

“What d’ye make o’ that?” demanded Blackstock of the watchman.

“Boy’s tracks, sure,” said the latter at once.

The footprints were small and neat. They were of a double-soled larrigan, with a low heel of a single welt.

“None of our boys,” said Blackstock, “wear a larrigan like that, especially this time o’ year. One could run light in that larrigan, an’ the sole’s thick enough to save the foot. An’ it’s good for a canoe, too.”

He rubbed his chin, thinking hard.

“Yesterday,” said the watchman, “I mind seem’ a young half-breed, he looked like a slip of a lad, very dark complected, crossin’ the road half-a-mile up yonder. He was out o’ sight in a second, like a shadder, but I mind noticin’ he had on larrigans – an’ a brown slouch hat down over his eyes, an’ a dark red handkerchief roun’ his neck. He was a stranger in these parts.”

“That would account for the voice, like a woman’s,” said Blackstock, following the tracks till they plunged through a tangle of tall bush. “An’ here’s the handkerchief,” he added triumphantly, grabbing up a dark red thing that fluttered from a branch. “Harner’s Bend knows somethin’ about that boy, I’m thinkin’. Now, Bill, you go along back, an’ don’t say nothin’ about this, mind! Me an’ Jim, we’ll look into it. Tell old Mrs. Amos and Woolly Billy not to fret. We’ll be back soon.”

He slipped the leash into Jim’s collar, gave him the red handkerchief to smell, and said, “Seek him, Jim.” And Jim set off eagerly, tugging at the leash, because the trail was so fresh and plain to him, and he hated to be held back.

The trail led around behind the village, and back to the river bank about a mile below. There it followed straight down the shore. It was evident to Blackstock that his quarry would have a canoe in hiding some distance further down. There was no time to be lost. It was now almost full daybreak, and he could follow the trail by himself. After all, it was only a boy he had to deal with. He could trust Jim to delay him, to hold him at bay. He loosed the leash, and Jim bounded forward at top speed. He himself followed at a leisurely loping stride.

As he trotted on, thinking of many things, he took out the red handkerchief and examined it again. He smelt it curiously. His nose was keen, like a wild animal’s. As he sniffed, a pang went through him, clutching at his heart. He sniffed again. His long stride shortened. He dropped into a walk. He thought over, word by word, his conversation with Mary that night beside the mill. His face went grey. After a brief struggle he shouted to Jim, trying to call him back. But the eager dog was already far beyond hearing. Then Blackstock broke into a desperate run, shouting from time to time. He thought of Jim’s ferocity when on the trail.

Meanwhile, the figure of a slim boy, very light of foot, was speeding far down the river bank, clutching a brown slouch hat in one hand as he ran. He had an astonishing crop of hair, wound in tight coils about his head. He was panting heavily, and seemed nearly spent. At last he halted, drew a deep sigh of relief, pressed his hands to his heart, and plunged into a clump of bushes. In the depth of the bushes lay a small birch-bark canoe, carefully concealed. He tugged at it, but for the moment he was too weary to lift it. He flung himself down beside it to take breath.

In the silence, his ears caught the sound of light feet padding down the shore. He jumped up, and peered through the bushes. A big black dog was galloping on his trail. He drew a long knife, and his mouth set itself so hard that the lips went white. The dog reached the edge of the bushes. The youth slipped behind the canoe.

“Jim,” said he softly. The dog whined, wagged his tail, and plunged in through the bushes. The youth’s stern lips relaxed. He slipped the knife back into its sheath, and fondled the dog, which was fawning upon him eagerly.

“You’d never go back on me, would you, Jim, no matter what I’d done?” said he, in a gentle voice. Then, with an expert twist of his lithe young body, he shouldered the canoe and bore it down to the water’s edge. One of his swarthy hands had suddenly grown much whiter, where Jim had been licking it.

Before stepping into the canoe, this peculiar youth took a scrap of paper from his shirt pocket, and an envelope. He scribbled something, sealed it up, addressed the envelope, marked it “private,” and gave it to Jim, who took it in his mouth.

“Give that to Tug Blackstock,” ordered the youth clearly. Then he kissed the top of Jim’s black head, pushed off, and paddled away swiftly down river. Jim, proud of his commission, set off up the shore at a gallop to meet his master.

Half-a-mile back he met him. Blackstock snatched the letter from Jim’s mouth, praising Heaven that the dog had for once failed in his duty. He tore open the letter. It said:

Yes, I did it. I had to do it. But you could have saved me, if you’d dared– for I do love you, Tug Blackstock. – Mary.

A month later, a parcel came from New York for Woolly Billy, containing an air-gun, and a toy steam-engine that would really go. But it contained no address. And Brine’s Rip said that Tug Blackstock had been bested for once, because he never succeeded in finding out who burnt down the mills.

VI. THE MAN WITH THE DANCING BEAR

I

One day there arrived at Brine’s Rip Mills, driving in a smart trap which looked peculiarly unsuited to the rough backwoods roads, an imposing gentleman who wore a dark green Homburg hat, heavy, tan, gauntleted gloves, immaculate linen, shining boots, and a well-fitting morning suit of dark pepper-and-salt, protected from the contaminations of travel by a long, fawn-coloured dust-coat. He also wore a monocle so securely screwed into his left eye that it looked as if it had been born there.

His red and black wheels labouring noiselessly through the sawdust of the village road, he drove up to the front door of the barn-like wooden structure, which staggered under the name, in huge letters, of the CONTINENTAL HOTEL. There was no one in sight to hold the horse, so he sat in the trap and waited, with severe impatience, for some one to come out to him.

In a few moments the landlord strolled forth in his shirt-sleeves, chewing tobacco, and inquired casually what he could do for his visitor.

“I’m looking for Mr. Blackstock – Mr. J. T. Blackstock,” said the stranger with lofty politeness. “Will you be so good as to direct me to him?”

The landlord spat thoughtfully into the sawdust, to show that he was not unduly impressed by the stranger’s appearance.

“You’ll find him down to the furder end of the cross street yonder,” he answered, pointing with his thumb. “Last house towards the river. Lives with old Mrs. Amos – him an’ Woolly Billy.”

The stranger found it without difficulty, and halted his trap in front of the door. Before he could alight, a tall, rather gaunt woodsman, with kind but piercing eyes and brows knitted in an habitual concentration, appeared in the doorway and gave him courteous greeting.

“Mr. Blackstock, I presume? The Deputy Sheriff, I should say,” returned the stranger with extreme affability, descending from the trap.

“The same,” assented Blackstock, stepping forward to hitch the horse to a fence post. A big black dog came from the house and, ignoring the resplendent stranger, went up to Blackstock’s side to superintend the hitching. A slender little boy, with big china-blue eyes and a shock of pale, flaxen curls, followed the dog from the house and stopped to stare at the visitor.

The latter swept the child with a glance of scrutiny, swift and intent, then turned to his host.

“I am extraordinarily glad to meet you, Mr. Blackstock,” he said, holding out his hand. “If, as I surmise, the name of this little boy here is Master George Harold Manners Watson, then I owe you a debt of gratitude which nothing can repay. I hear that you not only saved his life, but have been as a father to him, ever since the death of his own unhappy father.”

Blackstock’s heart contracted. He accepted the stranger’s hand cordially enough, but was in no hurry to reply. At last he said slowly:

“Yes, Stranger, you’ve got Woolly Billy’s reel name all O. K. But why should you thank me? Whatever I’ve done, it’s been for Woolly Billy’s own sake – ain’t it, Billy?”

For answer, Woolly Billy snuggled up against his side and clutched his great brown hand adoringly, while still keeping dubious eyes upon the stranger.

The latter took off his gloves, laughing amiably.

“Well, you see, Mr. Blackstock, I’m only his uncle, and his only uncle at that. So I have a right to thank you, and I see by the way the child clings to you how good you’ve been to him. My name is J. Heathington Johnson, of Heathington Hall, Cramley, Blankshire. I’m his mother’s brother. And I fear I shall have to tear him away from you in a great hurry, too.”

“Come inside, Mr. Johnson,” said Blackstock, “an’ sit down. We must talk this over a bit. It is kind o’ sudden, you see.”

“I don’t want to seem unsympathetic,” said the visitor kindly, “and I know my little nephew is going to resent my carrying him off.” (At these words Woolly Billy began to realize what was in the air, and clung to Blackstock with a storm of frightened tears.) “But you will understand that I have to catch the next boat from New York – and I have a thirty-mile drive before me now to the nearest railway station. You know what the roads are! So I’m sure you won’t think me unreasonable if I ask you to get my nephew ready as soon as possible.”

Blackstock devoted a few precious moments to quieting the child’s sobs before replying. He remembered having found out in some way, from some papers in the drowned Englishman’s pockets or somewhere, that the name of Woolly Billy’s mother, before her marriage, was not Johnson, but O’Neil. Of course that discrepancy, he realized, might be easily explained, but his quick suspicions, sharpened by his devotion to the child, were aroused.

“We are not a rich family, by any means, Mr. Blackstock,” continued the stranger, after a pause. “But we have enough to be able to reward handsomely those who have befriended us. All possible expense that my nephew may have been to you, I want to reimburse you for at once. And I wish also to make you a present as an expression of my gratitude – not, I assure you, as a payment,” he added, noticing that Blackstock’s face had hardened ominously. He took out a thick bill-book, well stuffed with bank-notes.

“Put away your money, Mr. Johnson,” said Blackstock coldly. “I ain’t taking any, thank you, for what I may have done for Woolly Billy. But what I want to know is, what authority have you to demand the child?”

“I’m his uncle, his mother’s brother,” answered the stranger sharply, drawing himself up.

“That may be, an’ then again, it mayn’t,” said Blackstock. “Do you think I’m goin’ to hand over the child to a perfect stranger, just because he comes and says he’s the child’s uncle? What proofs have you?”

The visitor glared angrily, but restrained himself and handed Blackstock his card.

Blackstock read it carefully.

“What does that prove?” he demanded sarcastically. “It might not be your card! An’ even if you are ‘Mr. Johnson’ all right, that’s not proving that Mr. Johnson is the little feller’s uncle! I want legal proof, that would hold in a court of law.”

“You insolent blockhead!” exclaimed the visitor. “How dare you interfere between my nephew and me? If you don’t hand him over at once, I will make you smart for it. Come, child, get your cap and coat, and come with me immediately. I have no more time to waste with this foolery, my man.” And he stepped forward as if to lay hands on Woolly Billy.