He urged the strange dog to his feet. The beast tottered, and would have lain down again. Roger, the tender-hearted, said:
“Oh! he’s so hungry. Bet he hasn’t had a thing to eat for days. Maybe we’ll have to carry him.”
“No. He’s too dirty to carry,” Joe said, looking at the mud caked upon the long hair of the poor creature and the dust upon him. “We’ll get him to the stable and feed him; then we’ll hose him off.”
Pulling at the rope he urged the dog on. The animal staggered at first, but finally grew firmer on his legs. But he did not use the injured fore paw. He favored that as he hopped along to the White stables. Neither the coachman nor the chauffeur were about. There was nobody to observe the dog or advise the boys about the beast. Roger ran to the kitchen door to beg some scraps for their new possession. The cook would always give Roger what he asked for. When he came back Joe got a pan of water for the dog; but the creature backed away from it and whined—the first sound he had made.
“Say! isn’t that funny?” Joe demanded. “See! he won’t drink. You’d think he’d be thirsty.”
“Try him with this meat,” Roger said. “Maybe he’s too hungry to drink at first.”
The dog was undoubtedly starving. Yet he turned his head away from the broken pieces of food Roger put down before his nose.
Joe had tied the rope to a ring on the side of the stable. The boys stepped back to see if the dog would eat or drink if they were not so close to him. Then it was that the creature flew into an awful spasm. He rose up, his eyes rolling, trembling in every limb, and trying to break the rope that fastened him to the barn. Froth flew from his clashing jaws. His teeth were terrible fangs. He fell, rolling over, snapping at the water-dish. The boys, even Joe, ran screaming from the spot.
At the moment Dorothy, Tavia and Jennie came walking down the path toward the stables. They heard the boys scream and all three started to run. Ned and Nat, nearer the house, saw the girls running and they likewise bounded down the sloping lawn.
Around the corner of the stables came Joe and Roger, the former almost dragging the smaller boy by the hand. And, almost at the same instant, appeared the dog, the broken rope trailing, bounding, snapping, rolling over, acting as insanely as ever a dog acted.