The kitchen was in an ell of the house, and, by hitching his chair around, he could command a view from the side window of a slice of the garden in front, and also of a narrow strip of the road before the house. He would watch this strip, and if a passer-by appeared, would hail him or her, and beg to have a new pair of crutches ordered from the town.
It was while he was sitting in the gathering gloom watching this bit of highway, that the marvellous thing happened. Just by the corner of the house was a black patch on the snow,—the hind legs and tail of the poor deceased Poacher. The fore part of the body was beyond his vision. Dillson had no particular dislike for the spectacle. A dead dog was a more pleasant sight than a living one to him, and he was just wondering whom he would get to remove the animal, when he imagined that he saw the tail move.
No, it was only his imperfect vision, and he rubbed his eyes and moistened his glasses. Now the tail was no longer there—the hind legs were no longer there. Had some one come up the front walk and drawn the creature away?
He pressed his face close against the window-pane. No—there was the dog himself on his feet and walking about—first in a staggering fashion, then more correctly.
The old man eagerly raised the window. If the girl lived, and was going about saying that he had killed her dog, here was proof positive that he had not; and smacking his lips, and making a clicking sound with his tongue, he tried to attract the resuscitated Poacher's attention. He must capture the animal and keep him.
It was years since he had called a dog—not since he was a young man and had gone hunting on the marshes below the town.
"Here, dog, dog!" he said, impatiently; "good dog!"
Poacher gravely advanced to the window and stood below him.
"Good dog," repeated the old man. "Hi—jump in," and he held the window higher.
The dog would not jump while the enemy was there. He would not have jumped at all, if he had been at the back door, for he would have smelled his mistress's tracks and gone after her. Now he suspected that she was in the house.