FURTHER ADVENTURES OF LAD
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FURTHER
ADVENTURES OF LAD
by ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF LAD
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CHAPTER I. The Coming Of Lad
In the mile-away village of Hampton, there had been a veritable
epidemic of burglaries--ranging from the theft of a brand-new ash-can
from the steps of the Methodist chapel to the ravaging of Mrs. Blauvelt's
whole lineful of clothes, on a washday dusk.
Up the Valley and down it, from Tuxedo to Ridgewood, there had been
a half-score robberies of a very different order--depredations wrought,
manifestly, by professionals; thieves whose motor cars served the
twentieth century purpose of such historic steeds as Dick Turpin's Black
Bess and Jack Shepard's Ranter. These thefts were in the line of jewelry
and the like; and were as daringly wrought as were the modest local
operators' raids on ash-can and laundry.
It is the easiest thing in the world to stir humankind's ever- tense
burglar-nerves into hysterical jangling. In house after house, for miles of
the peaceful North Jersey region, old pistols were cleaned and loaded;
window fastenings and doorlocks were inspected and new hiding-places
found for portable family treasures.
Across the lake from the village, and down the Valley from a dozen
country homes, seeped the tide of precautions. And it swirled at last
around the Place,--a thirty-acre homestead, isolated and sweet, whose
grounds ran from highway to lake; and whose wistaria-clad gray house
drowsed among big oaks midway between road and water; a furlong or
more distant from either.
The Place's family dog,--a pointer,--had died, rich in years and honor.
And the new peril of burglary made it highly needful to choose a
successor for him.
The Master talked of buying a whalebone-and-steel-and-snow bull
terrier, or a more formidable if more greedy Great Dane. But the Mistress
wanted a collie. So they compromised by getting the collie.
He reached the Place in a crampy and smelly crate; preceded by a long
envelope containing an intricate and imposing pedigree. The burglary-
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preventing problem seemed solved.
But when the crate was opened and its occupant stepped gravely forth,
on the Place's veranda, the problem was revived.
All the Master and the Mistress had known about the newcomer,--apart
from his price and lofty lineage,--was that his breeder had named him
"Lad."
From these meager facts they had somehow built up a picture of a
huge and grimly ferocious animal that should be a terror to all intruders
and that might in time be induced to make friends with the Place's
vouched-for occupants. In view of this, they had had a stout kennel made
and to it they had affixed with double staples a chain strong enough to
restrain a bull.
(It may as well be said here that never in all the sixteen years of his
beautiful life did Lad occupy that or any other kennel nor wear that or any
other chain.)
Even the crate which brought the new dog to the Place failed somehow
to destroy the illusion of size and fierceness. But, the moment the crate
door was opened the delusion was wrecked by Lad himself.
Out on to the porch he walked. The ramshackle crate behind him had a
ridiculous air of a chrysalis from which some bright thing had departed.
For a shaft of sunlight was shimmering athwart the veranda floor. And into
the middle of the warm bar of radiance Laddie stepped,--and stood.
His fluffy puppy-coat of wavy mahogany-and-white caught a million
sunbeams, reflecting them back in tawny-orange glints and in a dazzle as
of snow. His forepaws were absurdly small, even for a puppy's. Above
them the ridging of the stocky leg-bones gave as clear promise of mighty
size and strength as did the amazingly deep little chest and square
shoulders.
Here one day would stand a giant among dogs, powerful as a timber-
wolf, lithe as a cat, as dangerous to foes as an angry tiger; a dog without
fear or treachery; a dog of uncanny brain and great lovingly loyal heart
and, withal, a dancing sense of fun. A dog with a soul.
All this, any canine physiologist might have read from the compact
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frame, the proud head-carriage, the smolder in the deep-set sorrowful dark
eyes. To the casual observer, he was but a beautiful and appealing and
wonderfully cuddleable bunch of puppyhood.
Lad's dark eyes swept the porch, the soft swelling green of the lawn,
the flash of fire-blue lake among the trees below. Then, he deigned to look
at the group of humans at one side of him. Gravely, impersonally, he
surveyed them; not at all cowed or strange in his new surroundings;
courteously inquisitive as to the twist of luck that had set him down here
and as to the people who, presumably, were to be his future companions.
Perhaps the stout little heart quivered just a bit, if memory went back
to his home kennel and to the rowdy throng of brothers and sisters and
most of all, to the soft furry mother against whose side he had nestled
every night since he was born. But if so, Lad was too valiant to show
homesickness by so much as a whimper. And, assuredly, this House of
Peace was infinitely better than the miserable crate wherein he had spent
twenty horrible and jouncing and smelly and noisy hours.
From one to another of the group strayed the level sorrowful gaze.
After the swift inspection, Laddie's eyes rested again on the Mistress. For
an instant, he stood, looking at her, in that mildly polite curiosity which
held no hint of personal interest.
Then, all at once, his plumy tail began to wave. Into his sad eyes
sprang a flicker of warm friendliness. Unbidden--oblivious of everyone
else he trotted across to where the Mistress sat. He put one tiny white paw
in her lap; and stood thus, looking up lovingly into her face, tail awag,
eyes shining.
"There's no question whose dog he's going to be," laughed the Master.
"He's elected you,--by acclamation."
The Mistress caught up into her arms the halfgrown youngster, petting
his silken head, running her white fingers through his shining mahogany
coat; making crooning little friendly noises to him.
Lad forgot he was a dignified and stately pocket-edition of a collie.
Under this spell, he changed in a second to an excessively loving and
nestling and adoring puppy.
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"Just the same," interposed the Master, "we've been stung. I wanted a
dog to guard the Place and to be a menace to burglars and all that sort of
thing. And they've sent us a Teddy-Bear. I think I'll ship him back and get
a grown one. What sort of use is--?"
"He is going to be all those things," eagerly prophesied the Mistress.
"And a hundred more. See how he loves to have me pet him! And, look--
he's learned, already, to shake hands; and--"
"Fine!" applauded the Master. "So when it comes our turn to be visited
by this motor-Raffles, the puppy will shake hands with him, and register
love of petting; and the burly marauder will be so touched by Lad's
friendliness that he'll not only spare our house but lead an upright life ever
after. I--"
"Don't send him back!" she pleaded. "He'll grow up, soon, and--"
"And if only the courteous burglars will wait till he's a couple of years
old," suggested the Master, "he--"
Set gently on the floor by the Mistress, Laddie had crossed to where
the Master stood. The man, glancing down, met the puppy's gaze. For an
instant he scowled at the miniature watchdog, so ludicrously different
from the ferocious brute he had expected. Then,--for some queer reason,--
he stooped and ran his hand roughly over the tawny coat, letting it rest at
last on the shapely head that did not flinch or wriggle at his touch.
"All right," be decreed. "Let him stay. He'll be an amusing pet for you,
anyhow. And his eye has the true thoroughbred expression,--'the look of
eagles.' He may amount to something after all. Let him stay. We'll take a
chance on burglars."
So it was that Lad came to the Place. So it was that he demanded and
received due welcome which was ever Lad's way. The Master had been
right about the pup's proving "an amusing pet," for the Mistress. From that
first hour, Lad was never willingly out of her sight. He had adopted her.
The Master, too,--in only a little lesser wholeheartedness,--he adopted.
Toward the rest of the world, from the first, he was friendly but more or
less indifferent.
Almost at once, his owners noted an odd trait in the dog's nature. He
