The Baltimore County union, the Towson news., 1909-12-18
Jim, Coyote Dog.
adapted from Munsey's Magazine.)

and he selected Patterson.
He shadowed Patterson; skunk
along after him with nose to the
ground SO completely absorbed in the
trail that occasionally he collided
with Patterson's legs, andwas prompt
ly launched through the air by Pat
terson's boot. He would dodge
around pile of rock or derrick, or
building, and come blithely and un-
expectedly out in front of Patterson,
capering little and watching Patter-
sons feet while making his timid ap-
proaches. Whenever Patterson look
ed at him, he would tumble and roll
over whenever Patterson swore at
him, he would sit down on his stump
of tail and howl; and whenever
Patterson threw rock at him, he
would bound after it ioyfully and
bring it back.
The foreman's hatred for dogs
amounted to mania. 1t was griev-
Gus enough to bear with those pedi-
greed CANNES vouched for by the Ken
mel Club and as for this long, lank,
heavy-fanged, muscular mongrel, half,
Manuelto and half coyote, the very
sight of him set Patterson's nerves on
edge.
The dog came from nowhere in par
ticular, drifting into camp out of the
wilds of the Harquahallas. At first
he was not thought worthy of name;
later he was casually referred to as
Jim"
Forbearance finally ceased to be
virtue Patterson borrowed revolver
and strolled up ravine, tagged, as
usual, by the persistent Jim. Six
distinct reports were waited back to
camp, and it was generally conceded
that if coyote dog had as many lives
as the proverbial cat, all but three OF
Jim's had gone glimmering. To those
three Jim clung tenaciously, for he
was back at the mine ahead of Patter-
son, peering reproachfully at him
around a corner of the shaft-house.
One ear was cropped and one leg
broken. Patterson was at a loss to
account fer the other four shots.
The camp arose to pursue and
stone the outcast, wishing to absolve
him from further misery; but Jim's
three legs were equal to the task of
saving what was left Of him, and he
vanished into his primal haunts.
Patterson congratulated himself that
he was rid of his bugbear.
One morning few days later, the
foreman found on his doorstep the
remains of woodchuck which had
been slain by Ham Blake week be-
fore. The woodchuck was first de-
tected by an overpowering odor that
threw the finer sensibilities of the en-
tire camp into panic. Blake had
thrown the remains into an open cut
on the hillside Patterson now had
them carried up the ravine, a mile
from camp, and remarked caustically
that if the affair was joke it was a
Joke of doubtful taste. For the pres
ent Jim was not suspected, the work
having been surreptitiuously per-
formed.
Another dawn found the wood
chuck back on Patterson's doorstep.
The foreman waxed wroth, and had
the carcass buried. Even this failed
to retire it permanently, for it was
dug up and again conveyed to his
domicile.
Blake averred that Jim was the
guilty party. With Patterson's con-
sent, he added, he would attend to
the dog in such way that his part
nership with the woodchuck would be
forever dissolved. Patterson grasped
at the straw of hope, and Blake
trimmed piece of fuse, thrust it into
cap, and wrapped both up neatly
with stick of giant powder.
The camp took note of these pro-
ceedings with much interest, and was
on the qui vive from the moment
when Blake removed the woodchuck
beyond the mine buildings and went
on night watch with his internal ma
chine.
At the hour of five, 10, there came
Jim, worrying the woodchuck back to
Patterson's. He had but three feet
now, having amputated the useless
member with his teeth, as is the GUS
tom of coyote dogs. Blake, watched
by a dozen curious ones from various
points of concealment-among them
Patterson, at his window-struck fire
to the fuse and hurled the spluttering
death at Jim.
Jim, discovered though he was, felt
that here was an invitation to fetch
and carry which was evidence OF an
amicable chance in the sentiment oi
of the camp. He released the wood
chuck, ,caughtupth the internal machine
and laid it tenderly at Patterson
door.
What might have happened il
mathematical. What really did hap
pen left on the watchers a vivid i'm
preston of the celebrity with which
man can move when his house il
menaced. Patterson got to the doc
with bucket of water just in time t.
drench the bomb-and the astoundec
Jim. The coyote dog took umbrag'
at this treatment and again retiret
into the hills. The woodchuck wa
consigned to the depths of a six-hun
dred-foot shaft, long since abandoned
and the incident was closed.
Although he must have been dis
couraged, Jim continued to carry ou
his policy of Cancellation. All sort
ofthings were smuggled to Patterson
door-bones, baling-wire. old bits o
harness also half-dead rattlesnake
which showed enough life to strike a