Page:A La California.djvu/194

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
156
TAMALPAJS.

an education must such a dog have had? let me ask in all seriousness. The Doctor could stand it no longer, but drew a bead and let drive a bullet full at his head. The bullet went just wide enough of the mark to accomplish the desired result. Dropping the quail with a savage growl he darted off on a run, howling and yelping with the full power of his lungs at every jump. To corral that quail, our first trophy, was the work of a moment. It is safe to say that we lost no time in wringing his neck after our hands were on him.

Then a change came over the spirit of our dream. Our firing and the subsequent howling of the base, ungrateful cur, had attracted the attention of his baser owner, and he put in an appearance very suddenly and unexpectedly. Flourishing a hayfork threateningly, he demanded to know which thief had been trying to kill his valuable and intelligent "animal."

Lloyd, who had just concluded the operation of washing his face in a spring, thereby apparently repeating the miracle of Cana, feeling that this was adding insult to injury, volunteered in clear and forcible language to "put a head on him," then and there, in three seconds, if he "would just lay down that pitchfork." "If the head you would put on me would resemble the one you carry around, I would sooner be shot down dead on the spot, and be out of misery at once, than take it! You look as if you were in the murder line, anyhow, and perhaps you might as well go right on with your infamous work as it is!" was the delicate and gentlemanly