Part 3 (1/2)

Immediately a couple of s.h.a.ggy dogs bounded in and began barking furiously as they jumped up at their master, showing all the symptoms of great joy.

”Sho, one'd think they hadn't seen me for a whole month, instead of only a few hours,” laughed Trapper Jim, as he fondled the dogs.

Then the five boys in turn were introduced, as gravely as though Ajax and Don might be human beings.

”They're quick to catch on,” remarked Trapper Jim. ”They know now you're all friends of mine, and you can depend on 'em to stand by you through thick and thin.”

”What are they good for?” asked Bandy-legs.

”This smaller one is reckoned the best 'c.o.o.n dog in the woods,” replied the other, patting the head of Don. ”If there's a striped-tail in the district and I set him to working, he'll get him up a tree sooner or later. And when the animal is knocked to the ground Don knows just how to get the right grip on his throat.”

”But his ears are all slit, and his head looks like it had been scratched and gouged a whole lot,” remarked Steve.

”Well, old 'c.o.o.ns, they've got pretty sharp claws sometimes, ain't they, Don?” continued the old trapper. ”And in the excitement a dog can't always just defend himself, eh, old fellow! They will get a dig in once in a while, spite of us.”

Don barked three times, just as if he understood every single word his master was saying.

”And how about Ajax?” Bandy-legs continued.

”He's a general all-around dog, and ain't afraid of anything that walks.

Why, boys, I've known him to tackle and kill the biggest lynx ever seen in these parts, and that's something few dogs could do.”

”What's a lynx?” asked Bandy-legs.

”A species of wildcat that sometimes strays down this way across the Canada border,” replied the trapper. ”Generally speaking, he's bigger'n the other and fierce as all get out. Fact is, I believe I'd sooner have a panther tackle me than a full-grown, ugly tempered lynx. Some people call it the 'woods devil,' and they hit it pretty near right, too.”

”Hasn't a lynx got some sort of mark about him that makes him look different from the ordinary bobcat?” asked Owen.

”Why, yes,” replied Trapper Jim, ”there's some difference in the beasts; but I reckon the little ta.s.sels that kinder adorn the ears of the lynx mark him most of all.”

”Looks like a full house, now,” remarked Max, who had not hesitated to make up with both the dogs, being very fond of their kind.

”Oh, while I have company Ajax and Don'll have to sleep in the shed or lean-to outside,” remarked the master of the dogs. ”Of course, when I'm here all by myself they stay indoors with me. And I tell you, lads, they make a fellow feel less lonely in the long winter days and nights. Dogs are men's best friends--that is, the right kind of dogs. They become greatly attached to you, too.”

Toby just then seemed to become greatly excited. Finding it difficult to express himself as he wanted, he pointed straight at Steve, and was heard to say:

”A-a-attached to you! S-s-sure they do; S-s-steve knows! Saw one attached to h-h-him once. Wouldn't h-h-hardly let go.”

At that there were loud shouts, and even Steve himself could hardly keep from grinning at the recollection of the picture Toby's words recalled.

”'Spose you fellers never _will_ get over that affair,” he remarked, as he put his hand behind him, just as if after all these months he still felt a pain where the dog had bitten him. ”Cost me a good pair of trousers, too, in the bargain. It was a bulldog,” he added, turning toward Trapper Jim, ”and he was so much attached to me that he followed me halfway 'over a seven-foot fence. Would have gone the whole thing only the cloth gave way and he lost his grip.”

”Well, that showed a warm, generous nature,” remarked Trapper Jim; ”some dogs are marked that way.”

”This one was,” declared Steve. ”But I got even with the critter.”

”How was that?” asked the other, looking a little serious; for, himself a lover of dogs, he never liked to hear of one being abused.

”I got me one of those little liquid pistols, you know, and laid for my old enemy,” Steve continued; ”he saw me pa.s.sing by and came bouncing out to try my other leg. But he changed his mind in a big hurry. And, say, you just ought to 'a' heard him yelp when he turned around and faced the other way.”