“Now just suppose you’re policemen, or detectives,” Daughtry told the first and third officers, “an’ suppose I’m guilty of some horrible crime. An’ suppose Killeny is the only clue, an’ you’ve got Killeny. When he recognizes his master—me, of course—you’ve got your man. You go down the deck with him, leadin’ by the rope. Then you come back this way with him, makin’ believe this is the street, an’ when he recognizes me you arrest me. But if he don’t realize me, you can’t arrest me. See?”
The two officers led Michael away, and after several minutes returned along the deck, Michael stretched out ahead on the taut3 rope seeking Steward4.
“What’ll you take for the dog?” Daughtry demanded, as they drew near—this the cue he had trained Michael to know.
And Michael, straining at the rope, went by, without so much as a wag of tail to Steward or a glance of eye. The officers stopped before Daughtry and drew Michael back into the group.
“He’s a lost dog,” said the first officer.
“We’re trying to find his owner,” supplemented the third.
“Some dog that—what’ll you take for ’m?” Daughtry asked, studying Michael with critical eyes of interest. “What kind of a temper’s he got?”
“Try him,” was the answer.
The steward put out his hand to pat him on the head, but withdrew it hastily as Michael, with bristle5 and growl6, viciously bared his teeth.
“Go on, go on, he won’t hurt you,” the delighted passengers urged.
This time the steward’s hand was barely missed by a snap, and he leaped back as Michael ferociously7 sprang the length of the rope at him.
“Take ’m away!” Dag Daughtry roared angrily. “The treacherous8 beast! I wouldn’t take ’m for gift!”
And as they obeyed, Michael strained backward in a paroxysm of rage, making fierce short jumps to the end of the tether as he snarled9 and growled10 with utmost fierceness at the steward.
“Eh? Who’d say he ever seen me in his life?” Daughtry demanded triumphantly11. “It’s a trick I never seen played myself, but I’ve heard tell about it. The old-time poachers in England used to do it with their lurcher dogs. If they did get the dog of a strange poacher, no gamekeeper or constable12 could identify ’m by the dog—mum was the word.”
“Tell you what, he knows things, that Killeny. He knows English. Right now, in my room, with the door open, an’ so as he can find ’m, is shoes, slippers13, cap, towel, hair-brush, an’ tobacco pouch15. What’ll it be? Name it an’ he’ll fetch it.”
So immediately and variously did the passengers respond that every article was called for.
“Just one of you choose,” the steward advised. “The rest of you pick ’m out.”
“One or both?” Daughtry asked.
“Both.”
“Come here, Killeny,” Daughtry began, bending toward him but leaping back from the snap of jaws16 that clipped together close to his nose.
“My mistake,” he apologized. “I ain’t told him the other game was over. Now just listen an, watch. ’n’ see if you can catch on to the tip I’m goin’ to give ’m.”
No one saw anything, heard anything, yet Michael, with a whine17 of eagerness and joy, with laughing mouth and wriggling18 body, was upon the steward, licking his hands madly, squirming and twisting in the embrace of the loved hands he had so recently threatened, making attempts at short upward leaps as he flashed his tongue upward toward his lord’s face. For hard it was on Michael, a nerve and mental strain of the severest for him so to control himself as to play-act anger and threat of hurt to his beloved Steward.
“Takes him a little time to get over a thing like that,” Daughtry explained, as he soothed19 Michael down.
“Now, Killeny! Go fetch ’m slipper! Wait! Fetch ’m one slipper. Fetch ’m two slipper.”
Michael looked up with pricked20 ears, and with eyes filled with query21 as all his intelligent consciousness suffused22 them.
“Two slipper! Fetch ’m quick!”
He was off and away in a scurry23 of speed that seemed to flatten24 him close to the deck, and that, as he turned the corner of the deck-house to the stairs, made his hind25 feet slip and slide across the smooth planks26.
Almost in a trice he was back, both slippers in his mouth, which he deposited at the steward’s feet.
“The more I know dogs the more amazin’ marvellous they are to me,” Dag Daughtry, after he had compassed his fourth bottle, confided27 in monologue28 to the Shortlands planter that night just before bedtime. “Take Killeny Boy. He don’t do things for me mechanically, just because he’s learned to do ’m. There’s more to it. He does ’m because he likes me. I can’t give you the hang of it, but I feel it, I know it.
“Maybe, this is what I’m drivin’ at. Killeny can’t talk, as you ’n’ me talk, I mean; so he can’t tell me how he loves me, an’ he’s all love, every last hair of ’m. An’ actions speakin’ louder ’n’ words, he tells me how he loves me by doin’ these things for me. Tricks? Sure. But they make human speeches of eloquence29 cheaper ’n dirt. Sure it’s speech. Dog-talk that’s tongue-tied. Don’t I know? Sure as I’m a livin’ man born to trouble as the sparks fly upward, just as sure am I that it makes ’m happy to do tricks for me . . . just as it makes a man happy to lend a hand to a pal30 in a ticklish31 place, or a lover happy to put his coat around the girl he loves to keep her warm. I tell you . . . ”
Here, Dag Daughtry broke down from inability to express the concepts fluttering in his beer-excited, beer-sodden brain, and, with a stutter or two, made a fresh start.
“You know, it’s all in the matter of talkin’, an’ Killeny can’t talk. He’s got thoughts inside that head of his—you can see ’m shinin’ in his lovely brown eyes—but he can’t get ’em across to me. Why, I see ’m tryin’ to tell me sometimes so hard that he almost busts32. There’s a big hole between him an’ me, an’ language is about the only bridge, and he can’t get over the hole, though he’s got all kinds of ideas an’ feelings just like mine.
“But, say! The time we get closest together is when I play the harmonica an’ he yow-yows. Music comes closest to makin’ the bridge. It’s a regular song without words. And . . . I can’t explain how . . . but just the same, when we’ve finished our song, I know we’ve passed a lot over to each other that don’t need words for the passin’.”
“Why, d’ye know, when I’m playin’ an’ he’s singin’, it’s a regular duet of what the sky-pilots ’d call religion an’ knowin’ God. Sure, when we sing together I’m absorbin’ religion an’ gettin’ pretty close up to God. An’ it’s big, I tell you. Big as the earth an’ ocean an’ sky an’ all the stars. I just seem to get hold of a sense that we’re all the same stuff after all—you, me, Killeny Boy, mountains, sand, salt water, worms, mosquitoes, suns, an’ shootin’ stars an’ blazin comets . . . ”
Day Daughtry left his flight as beyond his own grasp of speech, and concluded, his half embarrassment33 masked by braggadocio34 over Michael:
“Oh, believe me, they don’t make dogs like him every day in the week. Sure, I stole ’m. He looked good to me. An’ if I had it over, knowin’ as I do known ’m now, I’d steal ’m again if I lost a leg doin’ it. That’s the kind of a dog he is.”
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1
impel
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| v.推动；激励，迫使 | |
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2
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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3
taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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5
bristle
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| v.（毛发）直立，气势汹汹，发怒；n.硬毛发 | |
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6
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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7
ferociously
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| 野蛮地，残忍地 | |
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8
treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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9
snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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10
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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11
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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12
constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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13
slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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14
slipper
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| n.拖鞋 | |
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15
pouch
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| n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件 | |
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16
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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17
whine
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| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
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18
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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19
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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20
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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21
query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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22
suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
scurry
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| vi.急匆匆地走；使急赶；催促；n.快步急跑，疾走；仓皇奔跑声；骤雨，骤雪；短距离赛马 | |
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24
flatten
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| v.把．．．弄平，使倒伏；使(漆等)失去光泽 | |
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25
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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26
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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27
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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28
monologue
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| n.长篇大论，（戏剧等中的）独白 | |
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29
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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30
pal
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| n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友 | |
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31
ticklish
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| adj.怕痒的；问题棘手的；adv.怕痒地；n.怕痒，小心处理 | |
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32
busts
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| 半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕 | |
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33
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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34
braggadocio
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| n.吹牛大王 | |
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