CHAPTER XI
ADVENTURES OF A BULL PUP
Trevor smuggled the puppy into his room undetected, against Dick’sadvice.
“If Faculty finds it out you’ll not only lose the animal, but get intotrouble. And they’re bound to learn of it before long. Why, the ‘goody’will see the thing when she makes the beds.”
“No, she won’t; I’ll find a way to fix that,” answered Trevorconfidently.
“But how’ll you keep him alive?” asked Dick. “The poor little thing hasgot to eat.”
“Oh, I can bring him something from dining-hall.”
Dick shrugged his shoulders and gave up the argument. And havingrelieved his conscience by his protest, joined his roommate in teachingthe puppy to sit on his hind legs and hold a piece of cracker onhis nose: a feat which the animal could not for a long time see thephilosophy of. When, however, he discovered that obedience invariablygave him possession of the fragment of biscuit to crumble to hisheart’s content over the hearth-rug, he began to understand the game,and to even show a certain pleasure in it. After the work in thegymnasium that afternoon Trevor and Dick walked to the village and theformer purchased--I regret to say on credit, thereby infringing one ofthe rules--a red leather collar and a steel chain. When Trevor leftthe dining-hall after supper his coat pockets bulged suspiciously, andlater the puppy feasted regally on cold roast beef and graham bread,while the two boys watched every mouthful with delight. When bedtimecame Trevor arranged a pair of old tennis trousers by the hearth, andplacing the puppy thereon, assured him sternly that he was expected toremain there quietly until morning.
Perhaps Trevor’s commands were not altogether clear. That as may be,he had no sooner put out the light and snuggled himself into bedthan there arose a sound of grief and dismay in the study, followedpresently by tiny footfalls on the bedroom floor.
“Lie down!” commanded Trevor sternly.
The whining ceased for a minute, and a tail thumped the floordelightedly. And then, as no further recognition seemed forthcoming,the whining began again in increased volume and with added pathos.
“Puppy, go lie down,” whispered Trevor, more mildly this time. Dick waslaughing silently beyond in the darkness. The puppy again thumped thefloor with his tail.
“Perhaps he’s cold,” suggested Dick.
“The poor little fellow wants to get up on the bed, I fancy,” answeredTrevor. “I’ll spread my dressing-gown for him at the foot.” This wasdone, and the disturbing element was hauled to the bed by the napeof his neck. But stay on the dressing-gown he would not, and Trevorfinally fell asleep with the small, warm bundle of dog lying againsthis breast, and a tiny, bullet-shaped head resting peacefully on hisneck.
The real troubles began next morning. When the two boys started forbreakfast they locked the door carefully, and had reached the stairs,when, faint but unmistakable as to character, came a long howl ofgrief. Fearfully, Trevor hurried back. The puppy was sitting erectand tragic just inside the door. His delight at Trevor’s return was,however, short-lived, for he was ignominiously shut in the closet, andTrevor, with the key in his pocket, again set forth. But he could findlittle enjoyment in breakfast, for all the while he was haunted by thefear that the “goody” would get into the room before he could return,hear the dog’s howls, and report the matter to Professor Tomkins,the resident instructor. He hurried back to Masters with his mealbut half eaten, and breathed a sigh of relief when he found the bedsstill unmade and the room still untidied. From the closet came eager,questioning sniffs and whines of impatience. Trevor opened the door,tossed in a mutton chop, and quickly secured it again. And then thestudy door opened and the “goody” entered.
“Good-morning, Mr. Nesbitt.”
“Good-morning, Mrs. Pratt.”
Trevor seized a Latin book, subsided into a chair by the closetand tried to read. From behind the locked door came sounds of busygnawings; once a diminutive growl was audible. But the “goody” wasin the other room and so all was safe. Trevor discovered that he washolding the book upside down; he corrected the mistake and wondered whyit was that the beds took so long to make this morning of all others.They were finally completed, however, and the crucial moment arrived.Armed with dust-cloth, the woman came out and slowly began to moveabout the study. Suddenly from behind the locked door came two distincttaps; it was only the puppy worrying the mutton bone, but the “goody”didn’t know that, and looked in alarm toward the closet.
“What was that?” she asked.
“What was what?” asked Trevor.
“That sound; them sounds--in there?”
“Pshaw, you’re dreaming; there--there’s no one in----”
Something bumped softly against the door; the woman glanced suspiciouslyfrom Trevor to the closet. Trevor looked carelessly out the window andbegan to whistle. A low whine issued from the prison. Trevor heard it,but apparently the “goody” didn’t; he whistled louder. The whiningincreased. Trevor began to sing.
Then began a most appalling series of bumps, growls, knocks, whines,jars, gnawings, and similar disturbing noises from the closet. Withloudly thumping heart Trevor sang on, rapidly, loudly, unceasingly. Thewoman turned and viewed him in astonishment not unmixed with alarm.Trevor’s singing was more creditable from the point of vigor andwhole-souledness than on the score of harmony or rhythm. His notes werenearly all flats, which, with the fact that he never for an instantvaried the time, made even the most joyous of ballads lugubrious whenperformed by him. He had finished In the Gloaming, Way down uponthe Suwanee River, and Rule, Britannia, and was now breathlessly,heroically thundering forth Hilltonians in tones that could be, andprobably were, heard in the next dormitory:
“Hilltonians, Hilltonians, your crimson banner fling” (Bang! Bump! Gr-r-r-r!) “Unto the breeze, and ’neath its folds your anthem loudly sing!” (Whack! Bang! Bump!) “Hilltonians, Hilltonians, our loyalty we’ll prove Beneath the flag, the crimson flag, the bonny flag we love!” (Gr-r-r-r! Ao-o-oow! Ao-o-o-ow! Bang!)
And then, with her hands over her ears and her dust-cloth trailing indefeat, the “goody” fled from the room, and the day was won! Trevorsank back exhausted. From the closet the strange sounds continued toissue. He sat up and stared fearfully at the closed door. What, heasked himself with sinking heart, what could they mean? He drew forththe key, crossed the room, unlocked the door, threw it open, and--
Out tumbled the puppy and--and--could it be? It could; it was!--one ofDick’s immaculate patent-leather pumps, torn and chewed into as sorry alooking object as he had ever seen!
At sight of Trevor the puppy dropped his prize, put his small head onone side, wagged his tail proudly, and gazed up at his master as thoughasking “How’s that for a good job well done?”
Trevor peered into the closet and groaned. The floor was a mass of_débris_; shoes and garments from the hooks were writhed togethermadly; and everywhere was set the puppy’s mark of approval. Trevorgathered up the garments and returned them to their hooks. A cold,blunt nose thrust itself into the way. Trevor’s hand rose and fellsmartly twice, and with a yelp the puppy retreated to the hearth-rug,where he turned and barked defiance.
Trevor observed him wrathfully for an instant, but his attitudeof insulted dignity and his ferocious challenge to combat were soludicrous that the boy subsided amid the wreckage and laughed untilthe tears came. And the puppy, bounding joyfully upon him, instantlyforgiving, gurgled his pleasure and licked his hands, shoes, and facewith whole-souled impartiality.
And upon this scene entered Dick!
Let us draw the curtain.
That night, long after Dick had dropped off to slumber, he was awakenedby Trevor’s urgent voice.
“Dick! Dick! Wake up!”
“Wha-what’s the matter?” cried Dick, starting suddenly from sleep, andsitting up in bed with confused visions of fire and flood.
“I’ve found a name for him,” answered Trevor triumphantly.
“Name? What
name? Who’s name?”
“The puppy’s. I’m going to call him Muggins!”
Dick snorted wrathfully and went back to sleep.
Trevor fondled the slumberous puppy. “Isn’t he an unfeeling brute,Muggins?” he whispered. And Muggins thumped his tail affirmatively,sleepily.
The following night, when all was silent in the dormitory, a formbundled against the weather in a greatcoat, and followed by a secondform, vastly smaller in outline and wearing only the coat that naturehad provided him with, might have been seen--but were not--tiptoeingfrom study No. 16 and descending the creaking stairs. The door waslocked, but the key was there, and in a moment the two forms hadvanished into outer darkness and the portal had closed again.
As the discerning reader has no doubt already surmised, the mysteriousforms were those of Trevor and Muggins.
Trevor had concluded that Muggins’s health demanded more exercisethan his puppyship was getting, and so on the preceding night andagain to-night Muggins, at the end of the steel chain, had beensurreptitiously conveyed from the building for a stroll about the yard.It was bitterly cold and Trevor shivered as he ambled slowly towardthe gymnasium followed by the dog; but since Muggins’s health demandedexercise Muggins should have it, though the thermometer stood at milesbelow zero, which luckily it didn’t to-night. Around the gymnasiumplodded Trevor, slipping, sliding on the icy walks; around trottedMuggins, sniffing, shivering in the nipping wind. Then down the path byBradley to Turner, around the corner of Turner, and----
Alas, tragedy was in the air that night!
Trevor paused, listening. Footsteps sounded loudly, frostily at alittle distance, and in the darkness a dim form loomed up from thedirection of the gate. It was but the work of an instant to slink intothe recess of the building made by the protruding entrance, and to pullMuggins after him. The footsteps drew nearer. One of the professorsreturning late from the village, Trevor told himself. The form cameabreast of him, a scant two yards distant, and was almost past hishiding-place when Muggins awoke to the demands of the occasion.
Muggins, despite his tender age, was valor to the tip of his waggingtail. He heard strange footsteps; he saw a strange form; he fearedan attack on his master. But, what ho! was not he, Muggins, there?Certainly! And--
Away went the chain from Trevor’s numbed fingers; away went Muggins,dashing to the fray like a knight of old!
“_Bow! Bow-wow!_” challenged Muggins.
Trevor heard an ejaculation of alarmed surprise, saw the form of thetall professor jump back, and then--then there was a crash, and Trevor,seizing the opportunity, was off like the wind, and had gained thedoorway of Masters Hall ere the astonished professor had regained hisfeet. For Muggins in his excess of valor had got his small body betweenhis adversary’s legs, and great and sudden was the fall. Trevor waitedlong at the entrance of Masters Hall, standing with door ajar andpeering anxiously into the darkness; once even venturing upon a subduedwhistle and a yearning “Muggins, Muggins!” But his appeals were vain,and after a while he crept dejectedly upstairs and back into his coldand Muggins-less bed, wondering, sorrowful, fearful of the morrow.