Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-11
ByR: G: KWk:
Illustrated BY Pad Berdanier.

Mugger grew. q bulldog viii, more UNI
upsettable every day. Also the loose skin at his
dew-lapped throat grew into better and better
protection for the life streams beneath. And
most discouraging of all, as battle followed bat
tie, The Shadow found his foeman coming in
for more with fercer, stronger rushes, no mat
ter how the combat went. Slowly it daWned
upon The Shadow that how the fight is going
does not make one bit of difference to bull
dog.
And so at each succeeding time they fought
. streak Of saffron started creeping, just q
little earlier. up The Shadows backbone. And
he'd quit little sooner each time, sneering as
he danced away, jeering at The Mugger rs he
plugged hopelessly, ridiculously after him till
he was out Of sight. Each time The Mugger's
victory grew less Pyrrhic.
RUT just the same, when he came hmpng
from our porch into the library, wagging
the whole back end of him in triumph, after
his sixth encounter with The Shadow he was
largely mincemeat.
''Uh-huhl" said to him. "YOur old friend
eha Why don't you get some sense in that
thick head?'
But Mugger only wriggled joyOusly
more doggone fun!' he snufied. Come on
now Let's get this disinfecting nonsense over!"
And he led the familiar way up to the bath
room.
And as he lay there on the nOor and took
his cleaning up without q whimper, felt the
would get his enemy cHl de sac.
When was halfway finished with my job,
the phone rang.
"Lie still there. Mugs" said.
It was DR.. Philbin next door, on the wire.
"You Griff?" he asked
said, eyes"
your dog all right?"
There was something In his voice
"Doctorl" cried. mot Midnight Dan this
tme!' '..'-.- - .-.e
yep" said Dr. PhiIbin. Sure tough on INV
kids"
He was speaking shortly. Something in his
voice. was right. It was telling me that this
thing wasn't only tough on his three kids.
Your old Mugs" said Phbin. "Just wanted
to be sure he was o. K. Went to the rescue,
he did Got there ahead of me-. But he was
too late too. had gun. But I couldn't let
him have it. The Mugger was right on him
all the time, and when he ran, took after him
too close. Called up a vet and bid him bring
dog out, so we could do a blood translation,
but Dan checked out before he got here"
Midnight Dan. He was wonderful English
sheep dog puppy, all woolly-woolly
went upstairs again There on the tiles
lay the Mugger, patiently waiting for the bal
of his disinfection. And as finished it
I thought about that sheep dog puppy-and
more than once Of what q beautiful language
French Is Cul de sac. In a closet with the
Mugger, and the door locked; through slashing
Mugger, and no place to run Down dry well
WIFI the hduBBeE ESut best OF 'kuQ' Sak!'
In the bottom Of a bagl With Muggerl
But there came an evening, not two months
after Midnight Dan was murdered, when the
witch of a finger would have decided that
the Mugger never was to avenge the slaughters
of poor Philonel and Anthony and Cleopatra
and all the other helpless ones, and Dan;
to up. in the bottom of a bag that
cruel butchering he'd taken as little pup and
all the rest that followed
One night. coming home after a leisurely
drive we were surprised to see the light turned
on in our garage Hurrying up, we found The
Mugger. wagging his back end and looking with
expectant interest up into the muzzle of an
automatic which q policeman was sighting at
his head At one side was our neighbor, DR..
Philbin, kneeling by q still form the floor.
STEVE was the quicker both in wit and
action. went for the officer. But Steve
Stephanie, my wife-got to the dog before
reached the man A swift wise move, with
risk ignored. My rushing at the oflcer would
not have stopped his trigger finger-would not
have knocked his hand aside in time. But ne
did not dare shoot at the dog with her so
swiftly running to The Mugger
Steve snatched the heavy bulldog up into her
arms.
'what happenedY,'. cried, then, ~Great
sscottI ~ IT'S oi Epn Ioppey Stevel Philbiiii
: How BAD Is Ae?s WHO ola thissssi alo9d5ein snl
= For nov r saw that the hOSr of 61r Ege9S
was splashed with dark, glistening spots 9and II
~ Fs1sSl