“It’s just a coincidence—an accidental happening so to speak. Dogs can’t possibly know when a person is going to die—that is unless they are right with them, and perhaps a dog who has been associated with his master many years may then, in some strange way, sense when the end comes.”
“But don’t you think Ruddy knew about this broken bridge?” asked Rick.
Mr. Campbell was silent for a moment as he alighted from the auto, followed by Rick, Chot and Ruddy.
“Well,” came the answer at last, “I won’t say that he actually knew about it, in the way that we would have known had some one told us. But he must have sensed it, just as Ruddy may often have known, Rick, the moment you came in the house when he was asleep, though you may have entered so quietly as to make no noise.”
“Yes, I’ve had that happen,” admitted Rick.
“Well, perhaps in the same strange, mysterious way Ruddy may have sensed that there was something wrong with this bridge and he howled—the only way he had of warning us. And he certainly did warn us.”
“In time, too,” added Chot. “If you’d gone a few feet farther—”
He did not finish the sentence, but they all knew what he meant. In silence they walked to the edge of the broken bridge, and in the glare of the car headlights, which gleamed sufficiently when the lightning was not flashing more brightly, they saw what had happened.
The bridge was old and rotten—perhaps it would not have held up the weight of the auto—and the two main supporting beams had broken close to the end nearest the travelers. The bridge had fallen into the ravine, the farther end supported on the other side like a hinge. And as more lightning flashes came they revealed the sharp and jagged rocks below—rocks on which they would have been impaled and smashed but for Ruddy’s timely warning.
They talked it all over again—waiting there for the storm to break. They wondered how Ruddy could have known—they even wondered if he really did know. Was it not all just a coincidence? Was not Ruddy merely howling because he didn’t like lightning? And did not Mr. Campbell stop instinctively, as, perhaps, you have stopped suddenly, and for no reason when about to step into danger?