“Answer me, sir—please!” begged Sid. “When—oh, when, Father?—and where?”
“The big problem is how to give them a bit of training,” grinned the Colonel, imperturbably. “None of the states around here allow deer running with hounds——”
“Scats cats!—That means the West, anyhow!” whooped Sid, triumphantly. “How about it, Scotty, eh?”
“’Fraid it lets me out,” remarked the sandy-haired boy, quietly. “I’ve got to be looking for a job these days.”
Sid looked his sympathy and put his arm about Scotty’s shoulders. “We’ll manage it, somehow, old bunkie—never fear!” he said, consolingly. “It may be your last,—but we just got to have this one together!”
The Colonel smiled enigmatically. “Sure you’re going, Lester—job and all!” he assured him. “And how about training these pups, boys?”
Scotty couldn’t see it, but at least he would be glad to help train the dogs, anyhow, he reflected. It would give him some precious days in the mountains under tent cloth. How such vacations were to be treasured—now!
The Colonel took three pedigree certificates out of his desk drawer. “Pepper, Bourbon and Lee,” he read, naming the pups, “the markings will tell which is which.” Then he looked toward the house door of the Den like a guilty boy. “Boys—how will we—how dare we lead ’em in?” he whispered. “Your mother, Sid, knows nothing of this—and you know how she hates dogs!”
The boy chuckled. The Colonel was in a worse fix than he ever had been facing Apache Geronimo! “Looks like they would have to live right here, sir!” laughed Sid, looking up from making friends with the first puppy. “Couldn’t wish for better den mates, I’ll say!”
The Colonel knew more than either of the boys about the trouble he was getting into. That haunting, houndy look in the pups’ eyes, as their long, silken ears drooped from high, pointed crowns, told him of a diabolical persistence and a wild, ineradicable thievishness that would play havoc with Mrs. Colvin’s domestic arrangements! You could feed them with a shovel and still there would be room for more. And, as to the neighbors’ cats and chickens—he shuddered at the thought.