The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-03-16


When Pickle had anything of impor-
lance to communicate, her intelligence
was rewarded with choice bone; but
when she had been spending the day
with other dogs, and listening to them
instead of to their owners, her converse
ton was not interesting to her master,
and she forfeited the dainty hOnorari-
un.
One evening she had been out all day,
and returned long after her usual time,
looking very muddy about the feet aud
very tunbled and dirty about the coat
Her tail, usually defiantly poised in the
air, was curled tightly between her legs,
and she crawled rather than walked into
the library, where her master was wait
ing for her.
The door was closed and the curtains
drawn, and then Pickle, looking the pict-
ure of downcast doggedness, was lifted
on to the table and Won Glabenized.
"You bad dog" exclaimed her master
sharply, "what makes you so late
You've been playing with those low dogs
by the canal Look at your coat -
"No; haven't been playing by the
canal, and don't know any low dogs"
WHtIt nave you Dtcii, tutu
"Only next door"
"Then, you wicked dog, why didn't
you come in before ?"
Because-well, because / didn't
want the Police Inspector to see me"
"What had you done, then 2"
"Don't be cross, and I'll tell you all
about it. You know little Tommy
Bowles, who lives next door?"
"The boy that comes after my apple
tree?"
Eyes and you said you'd cut his head
off if you caught him again. Well, some
body has cat his head of. for his father
found him lying just against the garden
wall without it, and | saw him picked up,
and so thought I'd listen and present
| ly heard them say they believed you'd
done it, and they sent for the Inspector
from the police station up the street and
l hid under the table, and when he came,
he said there was no doubt you'd done it,
but the difficulty would be to prove it"
But l never cut Tommy Bowles' head
off
eyes, you did"
"What do you mean dog? Are you
mad 2"
"You know you flung a broken plate
over the wall this morning didn't you?
Well! Z"
"Well, just as you threw it Tommy
Bowles was climbing up the wall to get
at your apple-tree, and it caught his neck,
and caa his head right off,"
The young man sprang to his feet in an
instant. A cold perspiration burst from
every pore. He had taken human life,
and his victim lay headless next door.
He turned hurriedly to Pickle for further
information, but the dog had left the
table, and was stretched quietly on the
hearthrug, gnawing bone. The concen-
tration of his masters will had been dis
turbed, the conditions under which the
phenomena were possible had been
destroyed.
For fully an hour he endeavored vainly
to bring himself into fit state to control
the animals will. At last, by mighty
effort, he succeeded.
pickle, go on tell me all you
heard"
The influence was evidently weak, for
Pickle, instead of answering, cast a wist-
full glance at the half-gnawed bone on the
hearthrug.
You shan't have that bone again at all,
if You don't answer" cried her master,
angrily.
For a moment the dog cooked her head
on one side, and appeared to be thinking;
then she resumed her narrative, but III a
hesitating, timorous manner, not usual
with her when talking.
"Did any one see the-ah-accident,
Pickle"
"No: but Tommy Bowles' father and
neighbor who dropped in said they'd
heard You threaten TO do it over and over
again. Then one of them said, 'Ah if
that dog of his could speak, it would tell
us all about it, l warrant ;; and then
"Go on, go on
=" Hush Perhaps somebody's listen
ing"
"Well, then the Inspector jumped up
and said, By Jove it wouldn't be the
first dog who'd hanged man |! and then
sad presently, If that dog saw it done
and ten to one she did-I'll have it out
of her, see if don't"
"What did he mean, Pickle ?"
"Why, he's found out you Won
Glabenize me, and make me talk and
he'll do the same if ne catches me- When
| heard this, master, / sneaked out of
the room and ran for my life and l
went, oh such a long way round, and
waited till it was quite dark, for fear he
should see me come in and that's what
made me so late. l may finish that
bone now, mayn't ?"
Freeing the dog from control, the
young man flung himself heavily into
chair. His position was desperate. The
little harmless dog, gnawing away at its
bone as though nothing had happened,
had his life upon its tongue. Why, in
the hands of "A man like the Inspector
a man who evidently knew the secret he
fancied he himself alone possessed-the
dogs evidence would hang him twenty
times over. He felt his collar tighten
around his neck as he thought of it.
Who would believe it was only an acct
dent? His threat to cut off Tommy
Bowles head had been heard all over
the neighborhood. He had flung the
fatal plate the dog had seen him do it;
the dog could be made to speak, and the
Inspector knew how to make it.
Suddenly the thought struck him,
Pickle is the only witness who could
II q II