Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-09-15
THE STORY OF A DOG.
WHY A SOLITARY WAYslpE GRAVE ,e
MARKED PHANTOM

the Father to a Coyotes Den
The tourist who visits the region of
Lower Plaza, N. NJ, viii see. among
o'ner I'M ngs, as he drives along the trail
from the railroad a grave with q tb;cl-
headooard on which is painted the ono
word, Phantom
lts only a dogs grave" the guide
VIII explain, ''but reckon he'd mora
sense than some men"
Phantom was the property of Bernard
"lsner cowboy living near the Datil
mountain some years ago. but he was
buried near the home of Daniel Chan
man, whose wife was the sister of Wis
ner. Mrs. Chapman. when her brother.
ilrsI got the dog, had hearty dislike for
II. IL was big mongrel, with hound
blood discriminating, and. like all mon.
Srel hounds, 1t had an enormous anne
ute That was never so well satisfied as
"lthIood stolen from somebody's Kitchen
For many offenses of this kind Mrs
Chapman had good reason to compIain
ana she would have taken the winches-
Ter ana shot the hateful brute on more
IMAM one occasion but for two reasons.
III was very good hunting dog. and it
would now and then play with the babv
when she wanted to do housework-come
over from her brothers house A mile
away as Ii for the express purpose of hay-
ing romp with the little tot of 3.
however, the dogs manner kept grow
ing worse, and one day when she saw it
come sneaking around the corral she
started for the gun, but stopped half wav
| because she was reminded by the sight of
the dog that the little one had not been
/ about the house for an hour or two, per
haps more, so far as she could remem
Der. so she ran ont of the house quickly
without the gun and called aloud:
! Baby! Baby"
! Then she listened and grew faint. for
she heard no reply, and fainter still
when she remembered that her husband
mad toId her of seeing panther's
! tracks down in the hollow near by.
To think of this was to send her fving
! toward the hollow. but no baby or
| trace Of it was to be found. although
! she looked behind every one Of the scat
tered pines and cedars growing there.
! Then she came running back to the
house, ringing her hands and calling
| Baby distractedly. She found the
| dog standing right beside the door. but
she would not have noticed him. she
was so near wild about the baby. only
for the fact that he stood looking in
tently at her instead of taking to his
heels with his tail between his legs, as
he always done when she came toward
him.
Even as 1t was she paid little attention
to the dog, but ran hither and yon about
the house and corral and horse shed,
crying and calling the child, until at
last she saw the dog come square before
her, and after a grave look into her face
start running around the house with his
nose to the ground. She remembered
afterward that he circled around the
house two or three times and then dis
| appeared, but by that time her fears had
so overcome her that she fell headlong
on the floor in ii faint, and there she lay
nobody knows now long
| When she came to her senses, the dog
was licking her face, and at once began
to Caper about and bark i'll extraordinary
fashion when she opened her eyes and
sat up. Then he ran out the door and
stopped and looked back, and directly
came back and grabbed the skirt of her
dress, which he pulled so hard that he
tore it. Then she picked up club and
drove the dog out the house, and when
her burst of anger was over tainted
again at the thought of the lost baby.
When she revived this time, she was too
weak to get up, but she saw that the dog
was still acting in the same unusual
fashion she had noticed before. A little
later the sound of horses hoofs gladden.
ed her ears, and with last effort she
got up, staggered out the door, saw her
husband as he jumped from his horse,
and, gasping ont the words that Baby
is lost, tainted for the third time.
Chapman carried the woman to the
bed, took one look around the room in
order to assure himself that he had
rightly understood what she had said.
and then grabbing the winchester said
to the dog:
Hi, Phantoml where's Baby"
Wow" replied the dog, and started
away. on lope that kept Dan humping
| himself to equal. The trail ZlgZagged
about for nearly half a mile, then crossed
a broken lava bed and ran off down a
draw to the creek valley. Had any other
| dog than Phantom been on the trail Dan
would have not believed the child could
! have gone that way, but he banked on
Phantom and kept trotting along until
at last Il thicket was reached Just two
miles and half from home. Into the
thicket the dog plunged by what was
really sort of tunnel through the brush,
and Chapman had to get down on his
hands and knees to follow. Two rods in
he came to an opening, and there on the
dry sod lay the baby fast asleep. 1t was
apparently in the den of some wild ami
NAL.
AS Dan picked up the child the growl
Of the dog made him look around.
| Phantom was standing over the dead
L.