Well, he thought as he started away through the darkness, that was all to the good. Dogs shivered all the time, didn’t they? And the hide offered some protection.
It seemed to take him an age to reach the vicinity of the trailer. Once he stubbed his toe badly, and once he cut his foot on a sharp rock. Confound that Kitty! He needed his shoes. Still, shoes did smell pretty strong sometimes. He grinned in spite of himself.
A hundred yards from the trailer he got down on hands and knees, started to crawl forward, then stopped with a jerk.
Dogs usually didn’t take kindly to strangers of their own kind! How many times had he seen them set upon an outsider and send him yipping for his life. Maybe the foreigner had come looking for a fight, though! He, Sandy, would be the friendliest doggy in seven states! He did his best to imitate the low whimpering that Mrs. Gonzales had used as he crept forward. If Ralph could get away with this, there was no reason why Sandy Carson Steele couldn’t!
He was only a few feet from the trailer when three big brutes, who had been sleeping under its wheels, rose and advanced toward him, stiff-legged. This was it!
Desperately, Sandy tried to project the idea through his soft whining that he was hungry, and cold, and wet with dew, and only wanted a quiet place where he could spend the night under the protection of those splendid humans, Cavanaugh and Pepper March.
For a moment, he thought he had got the idea across. The dogs hesitated. They seemed to confer among themselves. But they were not quite satisfied. The lead animal bared his long white teeth and barked a tentative challenge. The others followed his example as they sidled toward this strange creature who certainly smelled like a dog but who looked—well, looked somewhat queer, to say the least.
A quotation his father once had repeated flashed through Sandy’s mind: The minds of dogs do not benefit by being treated as though they were the minds of men. As the barking grew louder, he gathered himself and prepared to go away from that place as fast as his bare feet could carry him.
The trailer door banged open. A shaft of light illuminated the yard but mercifully did not reach to the spot where Sandy crouched.
“Shut up, you idiotic mutts!” Cavanaugh yelled. Then to Pepper, who appeared in the doorway behind him, “Can’t you make those confounded dogs keep quiet? They’re driving me insane.”