Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1915-06-10
THE WILD DOG OF cAUcoMdoMoc.
7 cate on dull day in November, old
AGordon Low stumbled on the lonely

lines ran over the Caucomgomoc country;
he found the man at the point of death,
and cared for him all that long, dark
night.
Outside the door, from sunset TO SUM-
rise, crouched the dying mans great,
gaunt bloodhound. With the first light
of morning, the creature wtined, scratch
ed the boards of the door, and skunk into
the room. The dog thrust his cold nose
into the old trapper's fevered hand; he
put his two paws OH the side OF the bunk,
and raised himself so that he could look
into the unseeing human eyes. For a
long time he stared in dumb-brute agony
of grief, understanding what it all meant
as well as if he were human-and Gordon
Low turned to the window, with some
thing akin to mist blurring his vision.
After a long silence the gnarled, old,
white bearded man in the bunk rose on
his trembling elbow, and flung long
arm around the dogs neck, drew the
beasts face close to his own, and held
him full minute with the failing strength
OF great love.
Afterward, Low tried TO feed the dog.
He sought to win the animals confidence,
but the bloodhound was afraid OF him.
With barred teeth he crouched before
Gordon's extended hand, and growled
deep in his throat. He stood by the door,
and whined. When Low crossed the
cabin to open the door, The bloodhound
sank on his launches in the corner, ready
to fight to the last gasp. When he found
that the man did not attack him, he dart
ed into the open, turned for one brief
glance at the dark windows, and leaving
behind him the silent cabin with its dead,
swung into long lope that carried him
swiftly over the birch-clad hill until he
became mere moving Speck in the leaf
less forest. Thus the masterless dog
passed into the wilderness.
Two days later they carried the trap
per's body up the hill, above the banks
Of Caucomgomoc Stream, and buried it,
with prayer and verse from the Scrip
tures. Human mourners were few there
were the minister from the distant viii
lage, three men! from the lumber camp,
who came in the name OF brief friend
ship, and old Gordon Low; but silent
shadow, slipping tfroughthe silver birches
and the spruceS, watched tall, with dark,
deep eyes. When the preacher was
starting down the trail to the village in the
cleaning, ne looked back at the solitary
grave, and saw tall, lank hound stand
ing in mute and sonowful guardianship
over The new turned earth.
Time and again in the winter that fol-
lowed, men from the towns or the log
ging camps caught sight OF the hound in
underbrush or distant thicket, usually 81
lent and far away. They held him in the
same awe in which they had held his
master; for there was something sombre
and threatening in the creatures attitude
when, with dropping lips, and great head
hung forward, and staring eyes deep as
night, he gazed down from the high hills
at some passer-by on the long, snow
covered roads below. Once three men
travelling on foot heard behind them in
the forest that ever-tobe-forgotten
voice, resonant, vibrant, like great bell
booming up from the valley, voice that
drew nearer and ever nearer. The men
knew that the dog OF Caucomgomoc was
on their track. They ran from him as If
a fiend were at their heels; but always
that voice traled them over the ridges
through the valleys, until looking back,
they saw the lean bloodhound. with his
nose to the ground, rapidly drawing near
er. When the men, who had no weap-
ons, began searching frantically under the
dead leaves for clubs, a deathly silence
came over the woods. But the dog did
not attack them. The men, looking up
at the hill above them, saw him standing
there, fixing them with malevolent gaze
they fled again, in strange fear.
No one knew a reason for fearing the
dog. So far as was known, he never had
attacked human being. Perhaps it was
his expfession-his fearless, challenging
stare-that frightened men. Perhaps it
was the mystery that attaches itself TO
| the name of bloodhound. They had fear
ed the rangy, bell-throated beast from the
day when first he came to Caucomgomoc,
but when his master died they feared him
more; he had gone wild, he was menace
to the entire countryside, they Said-all
except Gordon Low.
AT midnight, men in the distant camps
heard the creatures hunting cry, and,
turning restessly in their blankets, told
one another that the hound OF Caucom-
gomoc was out that night. Sometimes,
at high noon, scattered choppers in the
mountains shuddered and drew closer to-
gether, when, from over waste stretches
of land, rang the hollow baying OF the
bloodhound, faint, and small, and far
away. Some said he was hunting with
the spirit of his lost master; some, that
he was devil icnarnate. Gray-haired
Amos Nicben, the Indian, tapping his
forehead with unmistakable meaning,
quoted an ancient tale of the Abnaki,
about hound of supernatural powers, in
days long past, that had tracked a man
forsworn across the wilderness to the
very gates OF Quebec.
While the winter passed. and spring
came in with the rush of white water in
rips, the fame of the lost hound spread,
and he became known from the Abol TO
the AIlagash as the wild dog OF Caucom-
gomoc.
Al H.