Part 4 (1/2)

Their arrival was heralded by an unearthly clatter and rattling that puzzled Sue until they entered the clearing. Then she saw that they were two men in a car, a marvelous vehicle held together with hay wire and composed of so many different parts of so many different cars that even an expert would have had difficulty determining the original make. The car quivered to a halt and one of the two men bellowed at the dark house,

”Rafe! Hey, Rafe! Whar the blazes be ya, Rafe?”

There was a short silence. The second man broke it with a plaintive,

”Kin ya tie that? First night in two years c.o.o.ns raid our ducks, Rafe an' that hound of his gotta be chasin'!”

”He would,” the first man growled.

The second's roving eye lighted on the kennel and then noticed Sue.

”Thar's another hound.”

”Ya don't know,” the first said, ”that it'll hunt c.o.o.ns.”

The second declared, ”If it's Rafe's, it'll hunt c.o.o.ns. I'm goin' to git it.”

”Keerful,” the first man warned. ”That Major hound'll take the arm off anybody 'cept Rafe what tries to touch it.”

”Le's see what this'n does.”

The second man left the hybrid car and approached Sue, who waited with appeasing eyes and gently wagging tail. When the man laid his hand on her head, Sue licked his fingers.

”Tame's a kitten,” the man declared jubilantly. ”I'll fetch her.”

He untied the rope, and the instant she was free, Sue slipped aside and raced toward the woods. Not in the least affected by the anguished, ”Here, doggie! Come on back, doggie!” that rose behind her, she entered the forest at exactly the same point she'd left it to meet Rafe Bradley's hound.

The cries faded and only the whisper of the wind kept her company as Sue traveled on. Suddenly there was a great need that had not existed before to put distance between herself and Rafe Bradley's clearing. Sue traveled until near morning, then crawled gratefully beneath the thick branches of a wind-toppled pine. She turned around and around to smooth a bed.

The sun was just rising when her pup was born.

Almost five months after she left it, Precious Sue came once again into her own land. Where she had once been gaunt, she was now little more than a skeleton. But the pup that frisked beside her, and was marked exactly like her, was fat and healthy enough. There just hadn't been enough food for two.

Precious Sue fell, and the pup came prancing to leap upon her, seize her ear, and pull backwards while it voiced playful growls. Sue got up. Head low, staggering, she labored over a fallen sapling that the pup leaped easily. She reached the top of the hill she was trying to climb.

From the summit, she saw Willow Brook sparkling like a silver ribbon in the suns.h.i.+ne. Just beyond were the buildings of the Mundee farm. Sue sighed happily, almost ecstatically, and lay down a second time.

She did not get up.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

HARKY GOES FIs.h.i.+NG

When Mun sent him out to hoe corn, Harky knew better than to protest or evade. An outright refusal would instantly bring the flat of Mun's hand against the nearest part of Harky's anatomy that happened to be in reach. Evasion would rouse Mun's suspicions, and like as not bring a surveillance so close that Harky would find escape impossible.

Campaigns must be planned. When Mun said, ”You go hoe the corn,” Harky answered meekly, ”Yes, Pa,” and he did his best to seem enthusiastic as he shouldered the hoe and strode off toward the cornfield.