Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-03-04
CHAPTER XIX.

CHAPTER XIX.
 H S the judge continued his walk A down Main street he wished ~ profoundly that the butterfly. A \ which exhibited no annoyance, had been of greater bulk and more ap- proachable, and 1t was the evil fortune of Joe's mongrel to encounter him in the sinister humor of such wish un- fulfilled.
 Responsibility dwelt at Beaver Beach under the care of MT. Sheehan until his master should return, and Sheehan was kind, but the small dog found the world lonely and time long without Joe. He had grown more and more restless, and at last, this hot morning, having managed to evade the eye of all concerned in his keeping, made off unobtrusively. partly by swimming, and, reaching the road, cantered into town, his ears erect with anxiety. Bent upon reaching the familiar office, he passed the grocery, from the doorway of which the pimply checked clerk had thrown a bad potato at him a month before. The same clerk had just laid down the Tocsin as Responsibility went by. and, inspired to great deeds in behalf of justice and his native city, he rushed to the door. lavishly seized this time a perfectly good potato and hurled it with result which ecsta- sized him, for it took the mongrel fair ly aside the head, which it matched In size.
 The luckless Respectability's purpose to reach Joe's stairway had been en- tirely definite, but upon this violence he forgot it momentarily. It is not easy to keep things In mind when one is violently smitten on mouth. nose, cheek, eye and ear by missile large enough to strike them simultaneously. Yelping and half blinded, he defected to cross Main street. Judge Pike had elected to cross in the opposite dlrec- tion. and the two met in the middle of the street.
 l The encounter was miraculously flt- |, ted to the judges need. Here was no butterfly, but solid body, light with al, a wet. muddy and dusty yellow dog eminently k.ckable. The man was heavily built about the legs. and the vigor of what he did may have been additionally inspired by his recogni- ton of the mongrel as Joe Louden's. The impact of his toe upon the little runners side was momentous. and the latter rose into the air. The judge hopped, as one hops who, mshod in the night. discovers an unexpected chair. Let us be reconciled to his pain and not reproach the gods with it, for two of his unintending adversary's ribs were cracked.
 The dog, thus again defected. retrac- ed his tracks, shrieking distractedly and, by one of those ironical twists which Karma reserves for the tails of the fated. dived for blind safety into the store commanded by the ecstatic and inimical clerk. There were shouts; the sleepy square beginning to wake up; the bench loafers strolled to the street; the aged men stirred and rose from their chairs: faces appeared h the open windows of offices: sales ladies and gentlemen came to the door ways of the trading places. so that when Responsibility emerged from the grocery he had notable audience for the scene he enacted with brass din ner bell tied tc bis tail.
 Another potato. flung by the pimp!ed uproarious, prodigai clerk. added to the impetus of his flight. A shower of pebbles from the hands of exhilarated boys dentei the soft asphalt about him. The hideous claInor of the pur- suing bell increased as he turned the next corner. running distractedlv. The dead town hsd come 10 life. and its inhabitants gladly risked the danger ous heat in the interest of sport. where by it was a merry chase the little dog jed around the block. Tor thus some destructive instinct drove him. He could not stop with the unappeasable terror changing at his heels and the increasing crowd yelling in pursuit, but he turned to the left at each corner and thus came back to pass Jce's stair way again. unable to pause there or anywhere. unable 10 10 anything ex- cept to continue his hapless flight. poor meteor.
 Round the block Ee vent once more and still TO chance at that empty stair [ way. where perhaps. he thought. there might he succor and safety Blood was upon his side where Martin Pike's boot had crashed. foam and blood hung upon his jaws and IoIling tongue. He ran desperately. keeping to the mid dIe of the street. and. not bowling. set himself despairingiy to Outstrip the terror. The nsob. disiaining the sun superEly. pursued as closely as it could. throwing bricks and rocks at him. striking at him with clubs and sticks Happy Fear. Tlaying '-tic-tae-.Oe.- right hand against left. in his cell. heard the uproar. made out something of vyhat vas happening and. though nnavfr