The child learned, on the first day of his visit, that it would be well-nigh as safe to play with a handful of dynamite as with Lad"s gold-and-white mate, Lady. Lady did not care for liberties from anyone.
And she took no pains to mask her snappish first-sight aversion to the lanky Cyril. Her fiery little son, Wolf, was scarce less formidable than she, when it came to being teased by an outsider. But gallant old Lad was safe game.
He was safe game for Cyril, because Lad"s mighty heart and soul were miles above the possibility of resenting anything from so pitifully weak and defenseless a creature as this child. He seemed to realize, at a glance, that Cyril was an invalid and helpless and at a physical disadvantage. And, as ever toward the feeble, his big nature went out in friendly protection to this gangling wisp of impishness.
Which was all the good it did him.
In fact, it laid the huge collie open to an endless succession of torment. For the dog"s size and patience seemed to awaken every atom of bullying cruelty in the small visitor"s nature.
Cyril, from the hour of his arrival, found acute bliss in making Lad"s life a horror. His initial step was to respond effusively to the collie"s welcoming advances; so long as the Mistress and the Master chanced to be in the room. As they pa.s.sed out, the Mistress chanced to look back.
She saw Cyril pull a bit of cake from his pocket and, with his left hand, proffer it to Lad. The tawny dog stepped courteously forward to accept the gift. As his teeth were about to close daintily on the cake, Cyril whipped it back out of reach; and with his other hand rapped Lad smartly across the nose.
Had any grown man ventured a humiliating and painful trick of that sort on Lad, the collie would have been at the tormentor"s throat, on the instant. But it was not in the great dog"s nature to attack a child.
Shrinking back, in amaze, his abnormally sensitive feelings jarred, the collie retreated majestically to his beloved "cave" under the music-room piano.
To the Mistress"s remonstrance, Cyril denied most earnestly that he had done the thing. Nor was his vehemently tearful denial shaken by her a.s.sertion that she had seen it all.
Lad soon forgave the affront. And he forgave a dozen other and worse mal-treatments which followed. But, at last, the dog took to shunning the neighborhood of the pest. That availed him nothing; except to make Cyril seek him out in whatsoever refuge the dog had chosen.
Lad, trotting hungrily to his dinner dish, would find his food thick-strewn with cayenne pepper or else soaked in reeking gasoline.
Lad, seeking peace and solitude in his piano cave, would discover his rug, there, cleverly scattered with carpet tacks, points upward.
Lad, starting up from a snooze at the Mistress"s call, would be deftly tripped as he started to bound down the veranda steps, and would risk bruises and fractures by an ugly fall to the driveway below.
Wherever Lad went, whatever Lad did, there was a cruel trick awaiting him. And, in time, the dog"s dark eyes took on an expression of puzzled unhappiness that went straight to the hearts of the two humans who loved him.
All his life, Lad had been a privileged character on the Place. Never had he known nor needed whip or chain. Never had he,--or any of the Place"s other dogs,--been wantonly teased by any human. He had known, and had given, only love and square treatment and stanch friendliness.
He had ruled as benevolent monarch of the Place"s Little People; had given loyal service to his two deities, the Mistress and the Master; and had stood courteously aloof from the rest of mankind. And he had been very, very happy.
Now, in a breath, all this was changed. Ever at his heels, ever waiting to find some new way to pester him, was a human too small and too weak to attack;--a human who was forever setting the collie"s high-strung nerves on edge or else actively hurting him. Lad could not understand it. And as the child gained in health and strength, Lad"s lot grew increasingly miserable.
The Mistress and the Master were keenly aware of conditions. And they did their best,--a useless best,--to mitigate them for the dog. They labored over Cyril, to make him leave Lad alone. They pointed out to him the mean cowardice of his course of torture. They even threatened to send him to nearer relatives until his parents" return. All in vain.
Faced with the most undeniable proofs, the child invariably would lie.
He denied that he had ever ill-used Lad in any way; and would weep, in righteous indignation, at the charges. What was to be done?
"I thought it would brighten up the house so, to have a child in it again!" sighed the Mistress as she and her husband discussed the matter, uselessly, for the fiftieth time, after one of these scenes. "I looked forward so much to his coming here! But he"s--oh, he isn"t like any child I ever heard of before!"
"If I could devote five busy minutes a day to him," grunted the Master, "with an axe-handle or perhaps a bale-stick--"
"You wouldn"t do it!" denied his wife. "You wouldn"t harm him; any more than Lad does. That"s the trouble. If Cyril belonged to us, we could punish him. Not with a--a balestick, of course. But he needs a good wholesome spanking, more than anyone else I can think of. That or some other kind of punishment that would make an impression on him. But what can we do? He isn"t ours--"
"Thank G.o.d!" interpolated the Master, piously.
"And we can"t punish other people"s child," she finished. "I don"t know what we CAN do. I wouldn"t mind half so much about the other sneaky things he does; if it wasn"t for the way he treats Laddie. I--"
"Suppose we send Lad to the boarding kennels, at Ridgewood, till the brat is gone?" suggested the Master. "I hate to do it. And the good old chap will be blue with homesickness there. But at least he"ll get kind treatment. When he comes over to me and looks up into my eyes in that terribly appealing way, after Cyril has done some rotten thing to him,--well, I feel like a cur, not to be able to justify his faith that I can make things all right for him. Yes, I think I"ll send him to the boarding kennels. And, if it weren"t for leaving you alone to face things here, I"d be tempted to hire a stall at the kennels for myself, till the pest is gone."
The next day, came a ray of light in the bothered gloom. And the question of the boarding kennels was dropped. The Mistress received a letter from Cyril"s mother. The European trip had been cut short, for business reasons; and the two travelers expected to land in New York on the following Friday.
"Who dares say Friday is an unlucky day?" chortled the Master in glee, as his wife reached this stage of the letter.
"And," the Mistress read on, "we will come out to the Place, on the noon train; and take darling Cyril away with us. I wish we could stay longer with you; but Henry must be in Chicago on Sat.u.r.day night. So we must catch a late afternoon train back to town, and take the night train West. Now, I--"
"Most letters are a bore," interpolated the Master. "Or else they"re a bother. But this one is a pure rapture. Read it more slowly, won"t, you, dear? I want to wallow in every blessed word of hope it contains.
Go ahead. I"m sorry I interrupted. Read on. You"ll never have such another enthusiastic audience."
"And now," the Mistress continued her reading, "I am going to ask both of you not to say a single word to precious Cyril about our coming home so soon. We want to surprise him. Oh, to think what his lovely face will be like, when he sees us walking in!"
"And to think what MY lovely face will be like, when I see him walking out!" exulted the Master. "Laddie, come over here. We"ve got the gorgeousest news ever! Come over and be glad!"
Lad, at the summons, came trotting out of his cave, and across the room. Like every good dog who has been much talked to, he was as adept as any dead-beat in reading the varying shades of the human voice. The voices and faces alike of his two adored deities told him something wonderful had happened. And, as ever, he rejoiced in their gladness.
Lifting his magnificent head, he broke into a salvo of trumpeting barks; the oddly triumphant form of racket he reserved for great moments.
"What"s Laddie doing?" asked Cyril, from the threshold. "He sounds as if he was going mad or something."
"He"s happy," answered the Mistress.
"Why"s he happy?" queried the child.
"Because his Master and I are happy," patiently returned the Mistress.
"Why are YOU happy?" insisted Cyril.
"Because today is Thursday," put in the Master. "And that means tomorrow will be Friday."
"And on Friday," added the Mistress, "there"s going to be a beautiful surprise for you, Cyril. We can"t tell you what it is, but--"
"Why can"t you tell me?" urged the child. "Aw, go ahead and tell me! I think you might."
The Master had gone over to the nearest window; and was staring out into the gray-black dusk. Mid-winter gripped the dead world; and the twilight air was deathly chill. The tall naked treetops stood gaunt and wraithlike against a leaden sky.
To the north, the darkness was deepest. Evil little puffs of gale stirred the powdery snow into myriads of tiny dancing white devils. It had been a fearful winter, thus far; colder than for a score of years; so cold that many a wild woodland creature, which usually kept far back in the mountains, had ventured down nearer to civilization for forage and warmth.
Deer tracks a-plenty had been seen, close up to the gates of the Place.
And, two days ago, in the forest, half a mile away, the Master had come upon the half-human footprints of a young bear. Starvation stalked abroad, yonder in the white hills. And need for provender had begun to wax stronger among the folk of the wilderness than their inborn dread of humans.
"There"s a big snowstorm coming up," ruminated the Master, as he scanned the grim weather-signs. "A blizzard, perhaps. I--I hope it won"t delay any incoming steamers. I hope at least one of them will dock on schedule. It--"
He turned back from his musings, aware for the first time that a right sprightly dialogue was going on. Cyril was demanding for the eighth time:
"WHY won"t you tell me? Aw, I think you might! What"s going to happen that"s so nice, Friday?"
"Wait till Friday and see," laughed the Mistress.
"Shucks!" he snorted. "You might tell me, now. I don"t want to wait and get s"prised. I want to know, NOW. Tell me!"
Under her tolerant smile, the youngster"s voice scaled to an impatient whine. He was beginning to grow red.