Lower coast gazette., 1913-09-20
The Forbidden
North.
BY Honore Willsie.

One hot morning, a year or so ago,
an Uncle Toms. Cabin Company ar
rived in a small Arizona town. On the
platform of the blistered station the
members of the company learned that
the hall in which they were to play
had just burned to the ground. That
was the last straw for the company.
They were without money; they stood,
disconsolately staring at the train,
which waited for half an hour while
the tourists ate breakfast in the lunch-
room of the station.
The stage-manager held in leash
three dogs-the dogs that the bill
posters displayed as ferocious blood
hounds, pursuing Eliza across the ice.
AS a matter Of fact, Coburg and Hilda
were two well-bred. well-trained Great
Danes. The third dog, SAKE Gotha,
a puppy of ten months, a their son.
A well dressed tourist eyed the dogs
%intently; finally, he came up and felt
them over with the hand of the dog
fancier.
"Give me fifty dollars for the three
of them!" said the manager, suddenly.
The stranger stared at the manager
suspiciously. Fifty dollars was a low
price for such dogs. The stranger did
not believe that so poor a company
could have come by them honestly.
However, he shrugged his shoulders!
and drew a roll of bills from his
pocket.
"All right" he said. "Only | don't
want the pup. He's bad with distem-
per. I haven't time to fuss with him."
The manager in turn shrugged his
shoulders, took the fifty dollars, and
while the new owner led Coburg and
Hilda toward the baggage-car of the
train, the Uncle Toms Cabin Company
boarded the day coach.
Thus it happened that a thorough
bred Great Dane puppy, whose father
and mother had been born in the soft
green dusk of a German forest--a
young boarhound-was left to fight for
his sick life on the parching sands Of
an alien desert.
There had been no need to tie
SAKE Gotha. When the puppy had
started down the platform after his
father and mother, the manager had
given him a hasty kick and a Get
back, you!" SAKE Gotha sat down on
his launches, painting in the burning
sun, and stared after the receding
train with the tragic look of under
standing common to his kind. Yet IN
his eyes there was less regret than
fear. The Dane is a 'one-man dog"
-
II he is given freedom of choice, he
chooses for master a man to whom he
gives his heart. Other men may own
him; no other man except this choice
of his heart wins his love. SAKE GOtha
had yet to find this man.
The station-master started toward
the dog, but SAKE Gotha did not heed
him. He o and trotted toward the
north, through the little town, quite
as if he had business in that direction.
The pup was not handsome at this
period of his life. He was marked Ike
a tiger with tawny and gray stripes.
His feet and his head looked too large
for him, and his long back seemed to
!, sag with the weight OF his stomach.
. But even to the most ignorant observ-
er, he gave promise of distinction, Of
superb strength, and intelligence.
At the edge of the little town, Sake
t Gotha buried his feyerish head in the
wateringtrough at the Wrenn rancho,
drank till his sides swelled visfbly,
) then started IN along the trail with his
: bu~sinesslike puppy trot. When he
! got ont into the open desert, which
stretched thirty miles wide from the
: river range to the Hualpai, and one
t hundred miles long from the railway
to the Colorado River, he found thu
northern trail with no apparent diff