The Frenchman raised his hat again. "I do not vant to make a trouble,"
he began, "but zere is leetle mistake. My word of honour, sare, I see my own poodle in your garden. Ven I appeal to zis gentilman to restore "im he reffer me to you."
"You must allow me to know my own dog, sir," said the colonel. "Why, I"ve had him from a pup. Bingo, old boy, you know your name, don"t you?"
But the brute ignored him altogether, and began to leap wildly at the hedge in frantic efforts to join the Frenchman. It needed no Solomon to decide _his_ ownership!
"I tell you, you "ave got ze wrong poodle--it is my own dog, my Azor! He remember me well, you see? I lose him, it is three, four days... . I see a nottice zat he is found, and ven I go to ze address zey tell me, "Oh, he is reclaim, he is gone viz a strangaire who has advertise." Zey show me ze placard; I follow "ere, and ven I arrive I see my poodle in ze garden before me!"
"But look here," said the colonel, impatiently; "it"s all very well to say that, but how can you prove it? I give you _my_ word that the dog belongs to _me_! You must prove your claim, eh, Travers?"
"Yes," said Travers, judicially; "mere a.s.sertion is no proof; it"s oath against oath at present."
"Attend an instant; your poodle, was he "ighly train, had he some talents--a dog viz tricks, eh?"
"No, he"s not," said the colonel; "I don"t like to see dogs taught to play the fool; there"s none of that nonsense about _him_, sir!"
"Ah, remark him well, then. _Azor, mon chou, danse donc un peu_!"
And, on the foreigner"s whistling a lively air, that infernal poodle rose on his hind legs and danced solemnly about half-way round the garden! We inside followed his movements with dismay.
"Why, dash it all!" cried the disgusted colonel, "he"s dancing along like a d--d mountebank! But it"s my Bingo, for all that!"
"You are not convince? You shall see more. Azor, ici! Pour Beesmarck, Azor!" (the poodle barked ferociously.) "Pour Gambetta!" (He wagged his tail and began to leap with joy.) "Meurs pour la patrie!" And the too accomplished animal rolled over as if killed in battle!
"Where could Bingo have picked up so much French?" cried Lilian, incredulously.
"Or so much French history?" added that serpent, Travers.
"Shall I command "im to jump, or reverse "imself?" inquired the obliging Frenchman.
"We"ve seen that, thank you," said the colonel, gloomily. "Upon my word, I don"t know what to think. It can"t be that that"s not my Bingo after all--I"ll never believe it!"
I tried a last desperate stroke. "Will you come round to the front?" I said to the Frenchman. "I"ll let you in, and we can discuss the matter quietly." Then, as we walked back together, I asked him eagerly what he would take to abandon his claims and let the colonel think the poodle was his after all.
He was furious--he considered himself insulted; with great emotion he informed me that the dog was the pride of his life (it seems to be the mission of black poodles to serve as domestic comforts of this priceless kind!), that he would not part with him for twice his weight in gold.
"Figure," he began, as we joined the others, "zat zis gentilman "ere "as offer me money for ze dog! He agrees zat it is to me, you see? Ver"
well, zen, zere is no more to be said!"
"Why, Weatherhead, have _you_ lost faith too, then?" said the colonel.
I saw it was no good; all I wanted now was to get out of it creditably and get rid of the Frenchman. "I"m sorry to say," I replied, "that I"m afraid I"ve been deceived by the extraordinary likeness. I don"t think, on reflection, that that _is_ Bingo!"
"What do you think, Travers?" asked the colonel.
"Well, since you ask me," said Travers, with quite unnecessary dryness, "I never did think so."
"Nor I," said the colonel; "I thought from the first that was never my Bingo. Why, Bingo would make two of that beast!"
And Lilian and her aunt both protested that they had had their doubts from the first.
"Zen you pairmeet zat I remove "im?" said the Frenchman.
"Certainly," said the colonel; and, after some apologies on our part for the mistake, he went off in triumph, with the detestable poodle frisking after him.
When he had gone the colonel laid his hand kindly on my shoulder. "Don"t look so cut up about it, my boy," he said; "you did your best--there was a sort of likeness to any one who didn"t know Bingo as we did."
Just then the Frenchman again appeared at the hedge. "A thousand pardons," he said, "but I find zis upon my dog; it is not to me. Suffer me to restore it viz many compliments."
It was Bingo"s collar. Travers took it from his hand and brought it to us.
"This was on the dog when you stopped that fellow, didn"t you say?" he asked me.
One more lie--and I was so weary of falsehood! "Y-yes," I said, reluctantly; "that was so."
"Very extraordinary," said Travers; "that"s the wrong poodle beyond a doubt, but when he"s found he"s wearing the right dog"s collar! Now how do you account for that?"
"My good fellow," I said, impatiently, "I"m not in the witness-box. I _can"t_ account for it. It-it"s a mere coincidence!"
"But look here, my _dear_ Weatherhead," argued Travers (whether in good faith or not I never could quite make out), "don"t you see what a tremendously important link it is? Here"s a dog who (as I understand the facts) had a silver collar, with his name engraved on it, round his neck at the time he was lost. Here"s that identical collar turning up soon afterward round the neck of a totally different dog! We must follow this up; we must get at the bottom of it somehow! With a clue like this, we"re sure to find out either the dog himself, or what"s become of him!
Just try to recollect exactly what happened, there"s a good fellow. This is just the sort of thing I like!"
It was the sort of thing I did not enjoy at all. "You must excuse me to-night, Travers," I said, uncomfortably; "you see, just now it"s rather a sore subject for me, and I"m not feeling very well!" I was grateful just then for a rea.s.suring glance of pity and confidence from Lilian"s sweet eyes, which revived my drooping spirits for the moment.
"Yes, we"ll go into it to-morrow, Travers," said the colonel; "and then--hullo, why, there"s that confounded Frenchman _again_!"
It was indeed; he came prancing back delicately, with a malicious enjoyment on his wrinkled face. "Once more I return to apologise," he said. "My poodle "as permit "imself ze grave indiscretion to make a very big "ole at ze bottom of ze garden!"
I a.s.sured him that it was of no consequence. "Perhaps," he replied, looking steadily at me through his keen, half-shut eyes, "you vill not say zat ven you regard ze "ole. And you others, I spik to you: sometimes von loses a somzing vich is qvite near all ze time. It is ver" droll, eh? my vord, ha, ha, ha!" And he ambled off, with an aggressively fiendish laugh that chilled my blood.
"What the deuce did he mean by that, eh?" said the colonel, blankly.
"Don"t know," said Travers; "suppose we go and inspect the hole?"
But before that I had contrived to draw near it myself, in deadly fear lest the Frenchman"s last words had contained some innuendo which I had not understood.
It was light enough still for me to see something, at the unexpected horror of which I very nearly fainted.
That thrice accursed poodle which I had been insane enough to attempt to foist upon the colonel must, it seems, have buried his supper the night before very near the spot in which I had laid Bingo, and in his attempts to exhume his bone had brought the remains of my victim to the surface!
There the corpse lay, on the very top of the excavations. Time had not, of course, improved its appearance, which was ghastly in the extreme, but still plainly recognisable by the eye of affection.
"It"s a very ordinary hole," I gasped, putting myself before it and trying to turn them back. "Nothing in it--nothing at all!"
"Except one Algernon Weatherhead, Esq., eh?" whispered Travers, jocosely, in my ear.
"No; but," persisted the colonel, advancing, "look here! Has the dog damaged any of your shrubs?"
"No, no!" I cried, piteously; "quite the reverse. Let"s all go indoors now; it"s getting so cold!"