Latest / Classic Dog Stories / Bill, by Roy Norton

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Bill, by Roy Norton · Classic Dog Stories

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Speaker 1: Section nine of Best Dog Stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit libriyvox dot org. Section
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Speaker 1: nine Bill by Roy Norton. There were three of us,
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Speaker 1: Tom Lee, and Bill. Bill was the dog and the
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Speaker 1: last to join. The place of our coming together was
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Speaker 1: in Alaska, away off up there, where even nowadays there
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Speaker 1: are but few white men, and where at that time
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Speaker 1: all was covered over with the glamor of mystery and
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Speaker 1: the splendid terror of the unknown. We never knew where
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Speaker 1: Bill came from, but anyway, that was nobody's business, and
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Speaker 1: in Alaska at that time there were lots of questions
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Speaker 1: which no man ever asked another. Maybe Bill had done
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Speaker 1: something for which, if there had been necessity, he would
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Speaker 1: have changed his name, but we never thought so. As
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Speaker 1: far as we ever knew, he was a thoroughbred gentleman
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Speaker 1: with all that the title implies, by birth and instinct.
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Speaker 1: Certainly he was always on the square with us, and
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Speaker 1: we went through some pretty hard times together. Tradition said
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Speaker 1: that Bill first landed in Alaska swimming with an unknown
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Speaker 1: white man, probably his partner, and valiantly trying to assist
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Speaker 1: him to the shore. The Indians at Katmai picked them
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Speaker 1: from the smother of foam, where the breakers sweep over
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Speaker 1: shoals on one side and hammer themselves to spray against
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Speaker 1: a tall cliff on the other. The man lost his life,
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Speaker 1: but Bill pulled through and was finally dragged away, overpowered
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Speaker 1: and resisting, into the interior to become the property of
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Speaker 1: the tai Yun, or chief of Kolokok. That's where we
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Speaker 1: first met him. Tom and I had a hard time
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Speaker 1: getting into Kolokok had been out of grub for a
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Speaker 1: day or two when we first sighted the village, then
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Speaker 1: unknown to white men, away over across an arm of
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Speaker 1: the sea. This arm was frozen and covered with snow
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Speaker 1: as we looked down upon it from a high bleak embankment.
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Speaker 1: At best, salt ice is pretty treacherous, but we were
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Speaker 1: too desperate to wait to travel round the rim of
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Speaker 1: this basin, so we unhooked the sledge rope and turned
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Speaker 1: it loose down it went, smashing, bumping and bounding out
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Speaker 1: upon the border ice. We followed with the dogs, slipping,
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Speaker 1: sliding and scrambling until we too landed. Then we hooked
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Speaker 1: them in again and started on this cold white flat
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Speaker 1: toward the peeping roofs of the igloos, where the smoke
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Speaker 1: rose up, as though anxious to get freed from it.
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Speaker 1: All away out on the ice, a full mile from
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Speaker 1: the village and alone in stately solitude and filled with
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Speaker 1: disgust for Alaska, sat Bill. We yelled at him, wondering
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Speaker 1: who he was and why he was out there by himself,
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Speaker 1: And then to our surprise, he arose to his feet
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Speaker 1: and came to a fine point, stood with head and
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Speaker 1: tail stretched rigidly out and his right fore leg lifted
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Speaker 1: for a moment as if he were posing for a statue.
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Speaker 1: He was only waiting for another sound to make sure
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Speaker 1: that we were white men. We called again, using our
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Speaker 1: hands to yell through, and that ended Bill's hesitancy or
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Speaker 1: wait for introduction. The wind with a handicap couldn't have
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Speaker 1: caught him as he came to us. He stopped out
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Speaker 1: in front, heedless of the snarling team and wanting to
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Speaker 1: make quite sure that we were his sword. Then he
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Speaker 1: lunged all over us. He was so glad to see
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Speaker 1: his own kind of folk again. Well, what do you
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Speaker 1: think of that? It's a white man's dog, said Tom.
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Speaker 1: Bill looked at him and understood. And right there as
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Speaker 1: we three met, we knew that we understood him. God
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Speaker 1: fixes things so that sometimes it's possible for men and
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Speaker 1: dogs to communicate with each other, and this was one
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Speaker 1: of those times. I've had a devil of a time
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Speaker 1: here in this strong smelling Indian village, Bill said, by
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Speaker 1: way of conversation, and I'm mighty glad you came along.
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Speaker 1: I'm hungry to talk to and be with my own
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Speaker 1: people again. It was there we named him Bill, first
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Speaker 1: because that's a gentleman's name, and second because he looked
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Speaker 1: like a partner we once had down Arizona Way. Then
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Speaker 1: we drove hard toward the Igloos, thinking that after all
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Speaker 1: these months, we were going to meet one human being
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Speaker 1: that we could feel sure of. But it was a disappointment.
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Speaker 1: There wasn't any white man there, and most of the
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Speaker 1: Indians had never seen one. They crowded around us in sullen,
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Speaker 1: suspicious curiosity. We weren't popular. The only reason we got
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Speaker 1: into the Cassima that's a sort of a clubhouse, was
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Speaker 1: because they thought we must be some kind of traders.
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Speaker 1: And all the time. While we stood outside, Bill stayed
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Speaker 1: with us, showing his teeth to the village dogs and
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Speaker 1: occasionally trying to snap an Indian that came too near.
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Speaker 1: How he did hate the whole lot. We'd been in
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Speaker 1: some pretty rank Indian villages, but this one beat them all.
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Speaker 1: The natives were very poor, very unfriendly, and worst of all,
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Speaker 1: very dirty. We crawled through the usual tunnel, fighting our
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Speaker 1: way with any dogs we met in the darkness, and
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Speaker 1: up into an underground burrow. Bill started after us, but
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Speaker 1: the tai Yun raised such a yell that we didn't
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Speaker 1: take Bill's part because we didn't want to make the
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Speaker 1: chief too hostile. So Bill went back and crawled on
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Speaker 1: our sledge, being anxious to stay with something civilized outside.
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Speaker 1: The night came down a wind raged and tore loose
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Speaker 1: chunks of ice and floating snow from the silent whiteness,
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Speaker 1: and we were mighty glad to be sheltered, even in
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Speaker 1: such a hole as this. It was a big place,
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Speaker 1: lighted only by the flare of the fire from the
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Speaker 1: pit in the center of the dirt floor, with no
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Speaker 1: opening except the door to the tunnel, and a little
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Speaker 1: hole in the roof covered over with sown bladders. In
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Speaker 1: this stifling nest were crowded about fifty box squaws and papooses,
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Speaker 1: and to add to the general bad odor, ladders of
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Speaker 1: seal oil, strings of dried fish, and chunks of rancid
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Speaker 1: blubber jostled one another from the ridge poles and fought
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Speaker 1: to see which could smell the loudest. They weren't a
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Speaker 1: pretty lot, these Indians, in the silence and the darkness,
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Speaker 1: with the flash of light occasionally shining up against their straight,
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Speaker 1: matted hair and ugly cheek bones. To make any sort
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Speaker 1: of peace, we had to pass around a little tea,
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Speaker 1: which they took readily and in return gave grudging toleration.
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Speaker 1: They knew we hated them, and we knew they hated us.
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Speaker 1: From the jump off, Tom and I drew cuts to
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Speaker 1: see which one should sleep next to the wall, and
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Speaker 1: Tom won. He always was a lucky cuss. The tyune
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Speaker 1: took the place of honor next to me or else
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Speaker 1: got there because he hoped to steal something before the
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Speaker 1: night was over. He was a squat, villainous looking old buck,
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Speaker 1: wrinkled around the eyes and adorned with sparse whiskers which
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Speaker 1: looked as if they might have been stolen from some
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Speaker 1: careless porcupine. They just added to his general shagginess. Along
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Speaker 1: in the night, I woke up with something blowing noisily
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Speaker 1: and warmly against the back of my neck. The fire
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Speaker 1: in the pit had died down to coals, so it
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Speaker 1: was dark. I reached out and took a feel at
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Speaker 1: this thing. It was the tyoun's face, where he had
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Speaker 1: worked himself under my robe. The air having cooled off
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Speaker 1: a bit, I carefully raised my foot till it was
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Speaker 1: firmly planted in his paunch, and with a good brace
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Speaker 1: against Tom, kicked. He landed about ten feet out. There
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Speaker 1: were wails and shrieks and shouts, and above all savage
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Speaker 1: growls and barks. Bill was there and had got pretty busy.
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Speaker 1: Just as a buck threw a pitch knot on the
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Speaker 1: coals in the pit and the flames began hurrying upward.
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Speaker 1: Tom and I got to our feet. Down on the
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Speaker 1: ground was the tai Yun, with Bill trying to knock
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Speaker 1: a hole in him. We yelled at the dog and
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Speaker 1: he backed off with a jump and landed between Tom
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Speaker 1: and me. By this time we were with our backs against
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Speaker 1: the wall and pistols in hand, wondering what was going
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Speaker 1: to hit first. It wasn't a very comforting picture that
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Speaker 1: came when the light grew strong. There we stood Tom,
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Speaker 1: Bill and me, Bill snarling and with every hair on
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Speaker 1: his silky back at a stand, and a bunch of
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Speaker 1: mad savages drawn around us in a semisir. The fire,
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Speaker 1: in its flickering showed just how sore they were and
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Speaker 1: made pretty prominent the spears they held. They didn't need
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Speaker 1: paint to go to war. Right then, they were all ready.
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Speaker 1: The tai Yun blamed it all on Bill in a
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Speaker 1: gentle patois composed of Russian chinook and siwash. He explained
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Speaker 1: that Bill always had been a devil, and before his
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Speaker 1: voice broke off in a grunt, promised to eat Bill's heart.
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Speaker 1: I guess he would have prepared him for that expiatory
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Speaker 1: ceremony right then, if we had backed ground between growls.
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Speaker 1: Bill heard him and actually looked up at me and
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Speaker 1: grinned with joy. A kind of unholy got him that time. Look,
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Speaker 1: it cost us ten minutes pow wow, which was cheap,
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Speaker 1: and a pound of tobacco, which was expensive to get
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Speaker 1: peace in the family, And then we had time to
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Speaker 1: look around. Bill had been so hungry to associate with
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Speaker 1: white men that he had dug a tunnel and eaten
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Speaker 1: clean through a wood door to enjoy our society. But
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Speaker 1: when the casima grew quiet again, you may be sure
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Speaker 1: Bill went to sleep between Tom's feet and mine. Neither
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Speaker 1: Tom nor I wanted to take a chance, because Bill
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Speaker 1: gave us to understand that the tai Yun would murder
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Speaker 1: him if we didn't stand pat So we stood, and
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Speaker 1: that's about the pleasant sort of time we had for
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Speaker 1: the next couple of days till the storm let up,
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Speaker 1: and we hired a guide and got ready to tackle
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Speaker 1: the pass beyond the village. Naturally, we had many quiet
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Speaker 1: talks together Tom and me and Bill. Bill said, as
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Speaker 1: plain as could be, you fellows aren't going to leave
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Speaker 1: a thoroughbread like me here in this hole, are you.
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Speaker 1: And we had come to an agreement we wouldn't well.
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Speaker 1: We offered the tai Yun everything from a jew's harp
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Speaker 1: to a dog for Bill, but he just wouldn't let go.
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Speaker 1: For three hours. We tried to kabu sac that means trade,
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Speaker 1: but it was no use. So we decided to run
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Speaker 1: a block and slid out of the igloos and over
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Speaker 1: the snow toward the mountains. We never got a chance
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Speaker 1: to run it, though, before we had gone a mile,
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Speaker 1: and that too, with bills and treaties and pleadings ringing
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Speaker 1: out in the cold air all the time, we heard
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Speaker 1: a commotion back of us. There came Bill, and he
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Speaker 1: was coming too. Don't mistake. He had chewed the thongs
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Speaker 1: with which the tai Yun, after blanketing his head with
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Speaker 1: a pelt, had bound him, and was running so hard
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Speaker 1: that his belly wasn't more than six inches from the
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Speaker 1: snow crest. Bill wasn't saying anything but about the whole village,
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Speaker 1: led by the tay Yun. Was pretty soon the Tayoun
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Speaker 1: dragged out one of those old Hudson Bay blunderbusses and
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Speaker 1: turned loose a couple of shots at him. No more, though,
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Speaker 1: because those slugs which the benevolent hb used to trade,
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Speaker 1: cost a nickel each, and that makes gunning expensive. I
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Speaker 1: forgot to say that Tom and me had the finest
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Speaker 1: dog team that was ever brought together in the Arctic. Anyhow,
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Speaker 1: I think So had them trained so that with a
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Speaker 1: yip yip they would break into a dead run. When
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Speaker 1: we saw that mob coming after Bill. We made a
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Speaker 1: jump for the sled, did the tallest yip yipping we
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Speaker 1: had ever done, and were off in a cloud of
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Speaker 1: snow dust. The guide had stopped, and when we caught
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Speaker 1: up to him, didn't want to join the party, but
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Speaker 1: we needed his advice, so stopped long enough to take
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Speaker 1: him on about as he would take a sack of salt.
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Speaker 1: We looked back. The Taijoun, being a little over fed
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Speaker 1: and out of practice, had dropped behind. But there was
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Speaker 1: one big buck halting along that looked fit to run
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Speaker 1: a week without a lead up. Evidently the whole village
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Speaker 1: had their bets on him, but Bill was distancing him
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Speaker 1: at every jump. We went at least three miles this
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Speaker 1: way before an accident happened to Bill. The long loose
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Speaker 1: ends of the thong caught round a snag sticking through
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Speaker 1: the snow. He did a great somersault in the air
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Speaker 1: and found himself a prisoner. Lord how he did yell
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Speaker 1: at us, can't you see I'm tangled? He called over
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Speaker 1: and over again. That's the only time I ever heard
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Speaker 1: him cry, as if in hopelessness. We halted the sled
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Speaker 1: and I went back, resolved to stop the runner with
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Speaker 1: a gun if necessary. Just as I got Bill loose
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Speaker 1: and was accepting his thanks, I heard a noise on
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Speaker 1: the sled ahead, and Tom and the guide were having it.
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Speaker 1: The guide wasn't inclined to guide wanted to go back
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Speaker 1: to a zigloo and howled all sorts of gibberish. Because
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Speaker 1: we wanted to take Bill along. Tom expostulated with him
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Speaker 1: using his fist. Tom's no slouch. I too had business.
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Speaker 1: I dropped on my knee to get good aim and
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Speaker 1: took a wing shot at the runner. He was out
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Speaker 1: of range, but there came a little spurt of snow
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Speaker 1: about ten feet ahead of him that discouraged him. I
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Speaker 1: didn't have to shoot again, although Bill wanted me to.
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Speaker 1: The natives stopped real quick, shook his fists and made
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Speaker 1: medicine to the gods to do all sorts of things
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Speaker 1: to us, and started back to his family. That was
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Speaker 1: the first time so far as I know that Tom
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Speaker 1: or I ever stole anything, and we never have been sorry.
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Speaker 1: But after that night and day we had to watch
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Speaker 1: that guide talk about Chilcoot Pass, made famous by the
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Speaker 1: struggles of Boston Blue and shoe clerks to get to klondike.
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Speaker 1: It's nothing but a summer outing for the amalgamated Ladies
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Speaker 1: and Gentlemen's Heroic mountain climbing and geographical Society. Compared with
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Speaker 1: the one we went over. It's a kind of funnel
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Speaker 1: shaped thing about twenty miles long, and if you're fool
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Speaker 1: enough to tackle it, you wait outside till there are
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Speaker 1: no snow whirls around the peaks and the day is still.
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Speaker 1: Then you dash madly into this funnel and hope you
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Speaker 1: are going to get through the spout end before the
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Speaker 1: wind comes up. If old Boreus comes up, you try
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Speaker 1: to back out. Failing in this you die. Then you
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Speaker 1: quit trying. Now there's a place in this pass where,
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Speaker 1: after you've crawled up and up and up along a
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Speaker 1: steep slope, you swing around a mountain's edge and find
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Speaker 1: yourself with nothing but a narrow ledge to work over
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Speaker 1: for five or six hundred feet fierce place that just
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Speaker 1: a little sloping shelf, and if you happen inadvertently to
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Speaker 1: drop off, there won't be anything to distract your attention.
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Speaker 1: For quite a while, the guide's feet slipped, and for
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Speaker 1: about a minute he wallowed around on his ugly face
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Speaker 1: and tried to scratch holes in the ice with his
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Speaker 1: fingers and toes. If he'd been given ice picks, he
15:54
Speaker 1: might have done better. I didn't have time to watch
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Speaker 1: him drop, although it would have been interesting. I was
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Speaker 1: too busy. The dogs backed up. The sled lost way,
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Speaker 1: and then commenced to sheer off to follow the guide.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't anything for me to do but try to
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Speaker 1: hold it with my body. I threw myself flat down
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Speaker 1: on the crust. I stopped the sled all right, but
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Speaker 1: it began to look as though I too would go
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Speaker 1: over when all of a sudden something grabbed me from
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Speaker 1: the up hill side. It was a scratching of claws
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Speaker 1: gripping into the ice, and Bill was dragging me back
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Speaker 1: for all he was worth. You know how just a
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Speaker 1: little help sometimes makes things easy. Well that's what Bill
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Speaker 1: did for me. He hadn't been very particular, not having
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Speaker 1: much time to choose holds, and had set his teeth
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Speaker 1: pretty well into my hip. He was glad and at
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Speaker 1: the same time apologetic, until I just sat down with
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Speaker 1: my back to the wall, gathered his head up against
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Speaker 1: my breast and thanked him for the good turn. And
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Speaker 1: all that time, Tom who had come back from away
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Speaker 1: up ahead, stood there saying over and over, well I'll
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Speaker 1: be Then we went ahead, and, being pretty well through
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Speaker 1: the pass, didn't miss the guide much. I rather think
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Speaker 1: Bill was glad he went overboard. In the wild places
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Speaker 1: where a man's free, there are trips and trips, but
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Speaker 1: this was a bad one, with villages far between, hundreds
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Speaker 1: of miles and many of them starving. The caribou having
17:25
Speaker 1: run north that winter. It was always on and on,
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Speaker 1: the snow soft at times, so you wore your heart
17:32
Speaker 1: out tugging at your sledge ropes and swore at the
17:34
Speaker 1: balls that clogged the web when your shoes settled deeply.
17:38
Speaker 1: Then would come the cold days when traveling was good,
17:41
Speaker 1: but you suffered in other ways. Back of the sled
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Speaker 1: were bloody prints on the snow. Where Bill walked, a
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Speaker 1: blanket kept the chill from cutting through his silky hide.
17:52
Speaker 1: But nature hadn't made his feet for the north. The
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Speaker 1: wolves and dogs and other wild things up there, even
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Speaker 1: to the rabbits have bigsplay feet covered with hair around
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Speaker 1: the pads, kind of a natural snowshoe. Those dogs know
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Speaker 1: how to care for themselves, but it was hard on Bill.
18:09
Speaker 1: It was a new game to him. Used to come
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Speaker 1: limping to me, holding up a paw, and say, get
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Speaker 1: a little of the ice out of there, won't you pow?
18:18
Speaker 1: It hurts some. We made moccasins for him, but they
18:21
Speaker 1: didn't do much good, so we took to hauling him
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Speaker 1: on the sled, although he protested and let me know
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Speaker 1: that he felt himself something of a nuisance. But he
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Speaker 1: never lost heart nor complained, And on nights when timber
18:35
Speaker 1: wolves prowled round and round the camp trying to bring
18:38
Speaker 1: down a dog would have willingly taken a chance and
18:42
Speaker 1: ended his life in one splendid fight, fang to fang
18:45
Speaker 1: and sinew to sinew. He never fought with the team.
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Speaker 1: He was too dignified and merely tolerated the other dogs
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Speaker 1: as beasts of burden, and they seemed to realize that
18:56
Speaker 1: in his way, he was a king. Intelligence is always commanded,
19:01
Speaker 1: have rations for the dogs, and our grub gone moldy
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Speaker 1: dogfish for ourselves, and quarter rations for the dogs. Then
19:08
Speaker 1: no rations at all, hunger shrieking in the wild, and
19:13
Speaker 1: the weakened team down until it could barely drag the
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Speaker 1: almost empty sled, the tent and stove abandoned and an
19:20
Speaker 1: unknown trail ahead. That's what we came to in a
19:25
Speaker 1: starving camp, surrounded by staggering footsore skeleton dogs. One night
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Speaker 1: we came to the last resort and resolved to begin
19:33
Speaker 1: the following day by the sacrifice of a dog, and
19:36
Speaker 1: so on each day until we could reach somewhere out
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Speaker 1: over the whiteness and find food. But it didn't come
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Speaker 1: to that, because on that very night, Bill, with his
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Speaker 1: finally trained nose again saved the situation. Out back of
19:51
Speaker 1: the camp fire, he unearthed from beneath the snow an
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Speaker 1: abandoned cash of fish, years old, but better than starvation,
20:00
Speaker 1: and he called to us to come, as the famished
20:02
Speaker 1: pack hurled itself upon him. Heaven how we fought, we
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Speaker 1: men and dogs, And when they were beaten back, Tom
20:10
Speaker 1: had his legs torn to the mussels. I had my share,
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Speaker 1: and from under the lot we took out staunch old Bill,
20:17
Speaker 1: still silent and uncomplaining and victorious. The find saved our lives,
20:24
Speaker 1: but always after that Bill was a cripple in the battle.
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Speaker 1: Some of the pack had ripped the shoulder tendons of
20:31
Speaker 1: one of his legs and sent him limping through life.
20:36
Speaker 1: He was in better shape when we reached a village
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Speaker 1: the most prosperous on the coast, and made ready to
20:42
Speaker 1: take the next and hardest jump. At this place we
20:45
Speaker 1: found a half breed missionary, a fine old chap doing
20:49
Speaker 1: all the good he could for his people and living
20:52
Speaker 1: their year in and year out, patiently earning his way
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Speaker 1: to a white man's heaven. He was a good man,
20:58
Speaker 1: I know, because Bill forgave that half strain of Indian
21:02
Speaker 1: blood and took to him. The way ahead was so
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Speaker 1: hard and unknown that we decided to leave Bill there
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Speaker 1: with the missionary to recuperate till spring, when we could
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Speaker 1: send round the coast and have him brought to us.
21:16
Speaker 1: But it was a mighty hard thing to do, and
21:18
Speaker 1: I'm not ashamed to say that Tom and I were
21:20
Speaker 1: all broken up. I told Bill, but for once he
21:24
Speaker 1: didn't seem to understand or else took it as a joke.
21:27
Speaker 1: I shan'n't forget my last day with him. There were
21:30
Speaker 1: a few ptarmigan around there, and Bill and I played
21:34
Speaker 1: truant like a pair of boys together and went hunting.
21:38
Speaker 1: Bill was happier than I had ever seen him before,
21:41
Speaker 1: and he knew more at the game than I did.
21:44
Speaker 1: He worked very hard, though, and was tired. The next morning,
21:48
Speaker 1: when we put the rested pack into the hardness and
21:50
Speaker 1: prepared to go, Bill limped up to the sled, and
21:54
Speaker 1: I never saw any one so badly hurt as he was.
21:57
Speaker 1: When I said, Bill, you aren't going any farther this trip.
22:02
Speaker 1: You're going to stay here where you can rest and
22:04
Speaker 1: get strong until spring. I couldn't look into his eyes
22:08
Speaker 1: because he said, what have I done? Haven't I always
22:11
Speaker 1: tried to do the square thing? Aren't we partners? Did
22:15
Speaker 1: I ever show the white feather? It had to be done, though,
22:19
Speaker 1: So I took him into a log hut, hugged him
22:22
Speaker 1: and told him goodbye, and we pulled out. From behind
22:26
Speaker 1: us came the long wails of one cruelly deserted and
22:30
Speaker 1: mourning a farewell. There isn't much more to this story.
22:35
Speaker 1: All our lonesomeness, in the separation, and the weariness and
22:39
Speaker 1: suffering of the trip which nearly ended our lives, doesn't count.
22:44
Speaker 1: We did well that early spring, and when the ice
22:47
Speaker 1: was gone, Tom worked the little claim alone while I
22:50
Speaker 1: went back in a little coaster to bring Bill. But
22:53
Speaker 1: he's there yet. After we left him behind, he grew
22:58
Speaker 1: moody and always yearned for us. He passed his days
23:02
Speaker 1: in running to the tops of the little hills and watching,
23:06
Speaker 1: always watching for someone who never came. He retained his
23:10
Speaker 1: dignity and gently, but without reciprocating, accepted any courtesies shown
23:15
Speaker 1: him by the missionary, who loved and understood and pitied him.
23:20
Speaker 1: Dog and half breed, both were gentlemen. There came a
23:25
Speaker 1: night when the ice had gone out, and some fishermen
23:27
Speaker 1: came in. A smack came in. While the night was cruel,
23:31
Speaker 1: the waves ripping across the shoals, and the skies wildly
23:34
Speaker 1: heavy with the tearing storm. The Indians huddled on the
23:38
Speaker 1: beach in powerlessness. When the smack went down, and the
23:42
Speaker 1: dogs of the village, blindly aware of the tragedy of
23:45
Speaker 1: the sea before them, stretched hairy throats heavenward and wailed
23:49
Speaker 1: the malamute song of the dying. All the dogs but Bill,
23:54
Speaker 1: in silent sorrow. He limped backward and forward, until out
23:58
Speaker 1: from the half darkness came a call in the speech
24:01
Speaker 1: he knew, help, Help for God's sake. Help in the
24:06
Speaker 1: ghastly flare of the night, from where he stood he
24:09
Speaker 1: saw a man, a white man clinging to a piece
24:12
Speaker 1: of drift and lifted on the crest of the waves.
24:15
Speaker 1: It was one of his own people, and he knew it.
24:18
Speaker 1: I can fancy brave old Bill in splendid valor saying
24:22
Speaker 1: to himself, I'm deserted by my friends and not much good.
24:27
Speaker 1: I don't like the water, and I'm a cripple. But anyway,
24:30
Speaker 1: I'll make a try. That was the end. When the
24:35
Speaker 1: sea beat the bank sullenly. On the next gloomy morning,
24:38
Speaker 1: it chucked with savage derision two things on the beach,
24:42
Speaker 1: the body of a man with widely staring eyes and
24:46
Speaker 1: clenched fingers, and that of a crippled pointer dog, whose
24:50
Speaker 1: teeth had been so firmly set in the man's flannel
24:53
Speaker 1: shirt that natives had to tear the garments of the
24:56
Speaker 1: dead to bring separation. Once so, a British told me
25:01
Speaker 1: there was a man named Byron who wrote an epitaph
25:04
Speaker 1: for a dog and put up a monument. I'm sure
25:07
Speaker 1: our monument is bigger. It stands out there over that
25:10
Speaker 1: bleak point, when the snows are everywhere, or in summer time,
25:14
Speaker 1: looks accusingly at the sea. It says not to a
25:18
Speaker 1: dog but to our partner Bill end of Section nine