Volume I Part 7 (1/2)
Albatross commenced to growl.
”Dear me, this is very awkward!” cried Podgers, poking at the animal in a vigorous and irritated way.
”Time's up, sir,” shouted the guard, essaying to close the door.
”Hold hard, sir! I can't get my dog out!” cried Podgers.
”I'll get him out,” volunteered the guard; and, seizing upon the whip which the smart driver of the smart trap held in inviting proximity, he proceeded to thrust and buffet beneath the seat where Albatross lay concealed. The dog uttered no sound, gave no sign.
”There ain't no dog there at all,” panted the guard, whose exertions rendered him nearly apoplectic, proceeding to explore the recesses of the carriage--”there ain't no dog here.”
A shout of terror, and the guard flung himself out of the carriage, the dog hanging on not only to his coat-tails, but to a portion of the garment which their drapery concealed. ”Take off your dog--take off your dog. I'll be destroyed. Police! police! I'll have the law of you!”
he yelled, in an extremity of the utmost terror.
Podgers, who was now nearly driven to his wits' end, caught Albatross by the neck, and, bestowing a series of well-directed kicks upon the devoted animal, sent him howling off the platform, but right under the train.
The cry of ”The dog will be killed!” was raised by a chorus of voices both from the carriages and the platform. Happily, however, the now wary Albatross lay flat upon the ground, and the train went puffing on its way; not, however, until the guard had taken Podgers' name and address, with a view to future proceedings through the medium of the law.
”I had no idea that the O'Rooneys were such swells,” observed my companion as we entered, through the ma.s.sive and gilded gates, to the avenue which sweeps up to Ballybawn House. ”Somehow or other, I wish I hadn't fetched Albatross, or that you hadn't spoken about him;” and Podgers threw a gloomy glance in the direction of the pointer, who lay at our feet in the bottom of the trap, looking as if he had been on the rampage for the previous month, or had just emerged from the asylum for the dest.i.tute of his species.
”He won't do us much credit as regards his appearance,” I said; ”but if he is all that you say as a sporting dog--of which I have my doubts--it will make amends for anything.”
Podgers muttered something unintelligible, and I saw dismal forebodings written in every line of his countenance.
Mr O'Rooney received us at the hall-door. Beside him crouched two magnificent setters, with coats as glossy as mirrors, and a bearing as aristocratic as that of Bethgellart.
”Where's the dog?” asked our host, after a warm greeting. ”I hope that you have brought him.”
I must confess that I would have paid a considerable sum of money to have been enabled to reply in the negative. I muttered that we had indeed fetched him, but that owing to his having met with some accidents _en voyage_, his personal appearance was considerably diminished; but that we were not to judge books by their covers.
As if to worry, vex, and mortify us, Albatross declined to stir from the bottom of the trap, from whence he was subsequently rooted out in a most undignified and anti-sporting way.
The expression upon Mr O'Rooney's face, when at length the animal, badger-like, was drawn, was that of an intense astonishment, combined with a mirth convulsively compressed. The servants commenced to t.i.tter, and the smart little gentleman who tooled us over actually laughed outright.
Albatross was partly covered with mud and offal. His eyes were watery, and the lids were of a dull pink, imparting a sort of maudlin idiotcy to their expression. His right ear stood up defiantly, whilst his left lay flat upon his jowl, and his tail seemed to have disappeared altogether, so tightly had he, under the combined influence of fear and dejection, secured it between his legs.
”He's not very handsome,” observed our host laughingly, ”but I dare say he will take the s.h.i.+ne out of York and Lancaster, by-and-by,” pointing to the two setters as he spoke.
This hint was enough for Albatross, as no sooner had the words escaped the lips of O'Rooney than, with a yowl which sent the rooks whirling from their nests, he darted from the trap, and, making a charge at York, sent that aristocratic animal flying up the avenue in a paroxysm of terror and despair; whilst Lancaster, paralysed by the suddenness of the onslaught, allowed himself to be seized by the neck, and worried, as a cat worries a mouse, without as much as moving a muscle in self-defence.
This was too much. I had borne with this hideous animal too long. My patience was utterly exhausted, and all the bad temper in my composition began to boil up. I had placed myself under an obligation to a comparative stranger for the purpose of beholding his magnificent and valuable dogs scared and worried by a worthless cur. Seizing upon a garden-rake that lay against the wall, I dealt at Albatross what ought to have proved a crus.h.i.+ng blow, which he artfully eluded. It only grazed him, and fell, with almost its full swing and strength, upon the pa.s.sive setter, who set up a series of unearthly shrieks, almost human in their painful shrillness.
”Chain up that dog at once!” shouted O'Rooney in fierce and angry tones, ”and look to Lancaster. I fear that his ribs are broken. This is very unfortunate,” he added, addressing himself to me.
”I don't know what's come over the animal!” exclaimed Podgers. ”I wish to heaven I had never seen him. I'll part with him to-morrow, if I have to give him to the Zoological Gardens for the bears.”
Luckily, it turned out, upon examination, that Lancaster was not in any way seriously injured. This put us into somewhat better spirits, so that by the time breakfast was concluded we were on good terms with each other, and even with the wretched Albatross, in whom we still maintained a sort of sickly confidence. Later on we started for the turnips, Mr O'Rooney and Podgers in front--the latter hauling Albatross along as if he was a sack of wheat; whilst I brought up the rear with a gamekeeper and York.