DAN.

“And now,” said I, “I’ll tell you of Dan’s great fight. It was fought before he came into my possession; that is, before my friend H——, going away to study in Germany, handed him over to me. It was just a few weeks before H——’s departure, and we were setting out for a farewell trip to the wilderness together.

“As for Dan, he was not much to look at certainly; and I was prejudiced against him by the fact that he took up room in the canoe. To carry a great bulldog in a birch canoe was contrary to all my notions of the fitness of things. But H—— had protested so vehemently against the idea of leaving him behind, and the dog had behaved with such sobriety and good sense when I took him out to try him in a choppy sea, that I yielded a reluctant consent.

“Our proposed route was through the chain of the Chiputneticook Lakes, down stream all the way, with no difficult water to contend against, and no bad rapids to shoot. We had two canoes,—that which bore H—— and myself, and that in which our Indian carried the baggage; so that really it was not impossible to make room for the addition to our party, and Dan was formally enrolled a member.

“He took his place in the forward mid-section of my canoe, immediately behind his master, where he coiled himself up into a compact bundle. There he calmly ignored the wildest vagaries to which the lake waves could impel our little craft. This good seamanship of his, with his dignified manner toward myself and his adoring devotion to his master, gradually won my respect; and before we had been many days out we were on terms of mutual consideration. I ended with a cordial enjoyment of his company.

“I think I began by declaring that Dan was not much to look at. This was my first and biassed impression. But it must be modified by the acknowledgment that his splendid proportions and great strength were apparent to the most casual observer. In fact, he was a perfect specimen of his breed.

“But the expression of his small eye and mighty jaw, which certainly belied his true character, was bloodthirsty to the last degree; and his white coat was disfigured with a tangle of long scars which looked as if the business of his life were brawls. As I afterwards learned, those scars were the ornament of a hero, no less to be honored than if his great heart had throbbed in a human body.

“It was one night in camp at the head of the Big Chiputneticook that I heard how those scars were achieved. Tent was pitched on a bit of dry interval which fringed the base of a high rock, a well-known landmark to trappers, and distinguished by the name of ‘The Devil’s Pulpit.’ The rock towered over us, naked and perpendicular, for a distance of two hundred feet, then shelved, and rose again some hundreds of feet farther to a beetling cap of mingled rock and forest.

“Our camp was flanked on each side by a thicket of cherry and vines and young water-ash, and the light of our fire filled the space between with the comfort of its cheerful radiance. In the midst of this we lay basking, each waiting for the other to begin a yarn; but no one seemed prepared.

“We had been out ten days in the wilderness; and night after night our occupation had been this one of ‘swapping’ experiences, till I had found myself compelled to fall back on my inventive faculty, and our Indian, Steve, who was communicative beyond the custom of his people, had begun to repeat himself in his stories.

“As for H——, he never spun a yarn save under some strong compulsion, yet we knew more or less vaguely that many a strange experience had fallen to his lot. We had had some stirring adventures together, he and I, since first I had initiated him into the mysteries of woodcraft. But it was rare for him to recall them in conversation, and hence I judged that there was much in his experience of which I had never heard.

“On the present occasion the long silence was becoming almost drowsy. For me the flame from our logs was beginning to change mistily into the glow from a heaped-up grate, and to play over two small curly heads and a long-eared pup on a hearth-rug, when suddenly from far up in the moonlit rocks of the summit came the wail of the northern panther.

“I was startled wide-awake; and the little vision faded instantly into a consciousness of the open heaven, the white lake, and that lonely, haunted summit.

“But it was not altogether the panther that had startled me. It was Dan, who had sprung almost over my head toward the hillside, and now stood trembling with wrath.

“At the command of his master he stalked back and sat down again; but he faced the hillside, and never withdrew his fierce gaze from the spot whence the sound had seemed to come.

“‘Never mind him, old dog,’ said H—— soothingly; ‘you can’t get at him, you know.’

“‘What makes Dan so excited?’ I asked. ‘I never saw him so much worked up before. See, he’s fairly quivering!’

“‘Oh,’ replied H——, ‘there’s no love lost between Dan and the Indian devils. That yelling stirs up some lively reminiscences in his old pate. He thinks that Indian devil is coming right down here to tackle me. See how he keeps me in his eye! And see him turn his muzzle round now and then to lick those scars of his. I’ll venture to say he feels them smart now, when he remembers the night he got them at the head of the Little Tobique.’

“‘Let’s have it, old man,’ I urged. ‘You’ve never told me about that scrape. I’ve been taking those scars as a certificate of Dan’s fighting propensities.’

“‘Do you suppose any dog,’ said H—— in a tone of disdain, ‘could carve Dan up in that style? Not by a good deal! It was a big Indian devil that undertook the contract. He accomplished the frescoing in a very elaborate fashion, as you see. But he didn’t survive the job.’

“H—— compressed his lips, and added, ‘I can tell you, my dear boy, that was something like an Indian devil, that fellow, and came mighty near settling my claims for me. He measured six feet from tip of nose to tip of tail, and you know what a poor sort of thing they all have for a tail. It was Dan saved my life that night.’

“Pete and I settled ourselves more comfortably against our log cushions. Dan, having heard no more yells from the hilltop, and having perceived that the conversation concerned himself, curled himself up with a gratified air, and thrust his great head into his master’s lap.

“‘You remember,’ resumed H——, ‘last year I went to the Tobique all by myself, except for Dan’s company. I was gone six weeks and more. When I got back to Fredericton you were off up Quebec way, and so I never happened to tell you about the trip.

“‘Well, I had the best fishing you can conceive of. It was far better than any we’ve ever had together in those streams. But as for the panthers, I never heard anything like them. They used to howl round the woods at night in a frightful way.

“‘Dan used to keep awake all night, watching for them. But they never ventured near the camp. They didn’t disturb me; but if I had not had Dan with me I might have felt a little shaky, perhaps, at night. I had rather a contempt for the brutes at that time, but they were not much help to a fellow when he was feeling lonely.

“‘You know that pretty cove on the right shore of the Little Tobique, about a hundred yards from where the brook flows in? On that patch of open just on top of the bank I pitched my tent. By the time the camp was fixed, and the fish fried for supper, it was getting pretty well past sundown. It was a gorgeous moonlight night, as bright as day. There wasn’t a mosquito about. I tell you I felt pretty nice as I lifted the pink flakes of fried trout onto my plate, and fixed a dish for Dan.

“‘I was getting out the hardtack, when I saw a whopping big trout jump, just by the mouth of the brook. It was bigger than any I had caught so far, and I could not bear to lose the chance of taking him while he was feeding.

“‘I set down my plate, telling Dan to watch it, seized my rod, tied on a cast of white and gray millers, and struck hurriedly through the bushes toward the other side of the cove, where I thought I could get a fair cast.

“‘You know what sort of a place that shore is,—all banks and bowlders, and thickets and little gullies; and some of those gullies are hidden by fallen trees, or grown over with weeds and vines. You have to keep your eyes open, or you are liable to tumble into these pitfalls. I was in a hurry, and plunged right ahead. I wanted to catch that trout and get back to my supper.

“‘At last, about sixty or seventy yards from the camp, I dodged round a thick fir-bush, and saw right in front of me something that brought me up mighty short, I can tell you.

“‘Not ten feet away, crouched along the top of a white bowlder, lay a huge Indian devil just ready to spring.

“‘I felt queer right down to my boots, but kept my eyes fixed on those of the brute, which gleamed like two emeralds in the moonlight. My right hand reached for my belt, and I stealthily drew my old sheath-knife. At the same time I whistled sharply for Dan.

“‘The brute was on the very point of springing when I whistled; but the shrill sound startled him, and deterred him for a moment. He glanced uneasily from side to side, half rising. Then he drew himself together again for his spring.

“‘Before he could launch himself forth, I hurled the butt of my fishing-rod full in his face, and sprang aside. I saw the long body flash toward me, and at the same instant I crashed through a tangle of underbrush, and sank into one of those gullies.

“‘Instinctively I threw out my left arm to save myself. My grasp caught a tree-root on the edge of the hole. The next instant I felt the panther’s teeth sink into my arm. I didn’t know how deep that hole was, but I wanted to be at the bottom of it right away.

“‘At the risk of stabbing myself, I slashed desperately above my head with my free right hand. It was not a breath too soon; for at that very instant the brute had reached down with the amiable intention of clawing my head. The knife went through his paw, which he snatched back, snarling fiercely. But he kept his grip on my arm.

“‘Then I heard Dan come tearing through the brush. I lunged again, blindly of course; and this time the blade went through the panther’s jaw and into my own flesh. The brute let go; and I rolled to the foot of the gully, a distance of some five or six feet. Even as I fell I heard Dan’s vindictive cough as he sank his teeth into his adversary’s throat. There was a mad snarl from the big cat, a struggle—and the two rolled down on top of me.

“‘I got out of the way in a great hurry. At first it was too dark down there to distinguish the combatants. In a moment, however, my eyes got used to the gloom. The two animals were almost inextricably mixed up. Dan’s grip was right under the panther’s jaw, so that he could not make any use of his teeth. The wary old dog had drawn himself up into a tight ball, so as to expose as little of himself as possible to the attack of his enemy’s claws. But his back and haunches were getting terribly mangled.

“‘Dan fought in silence; but the Indian devil made noise enough for both, and the yelling down in that little hole was fiendish. I felt my left arm, and found it was not broken. Then I sprang on the Indian devil, seized him by the tail, and tried to jerk his hind legs clear of Dan.

“‘His back was bowed up into a half-circle, and there was no unbending that arch of steel.

“‘I dug the knife twice into his side, and he paid no attention to it, so absorbed was he in the life-and-death struggle with Dan. If left to themselves I saw that the fight would end with the death of both. Dan was inexorably working through the throat of his foe, but was in a fair way to be torn to pieces before he could get this accomplished.