LESSON 21 ROLF'S LEAP

ROLF'S LEAP

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AT length I got out of patience with the creature. I couldn't imagine what he meant. So long as I took no further steps to remove my clothes he remained quite still; but the instant I began undressing myself he was at me once more, pulling me this way and that, hanging on to my arms, and howling with his mouth up in the air. At last I lost my temper. I snatched up my gun, and struck him with the butt-end ［1］ of it.

He was quieter after I had struck him, said Uncle Dick, after a little pause. "For a few moments he lay quite still at my feet, and I had begun to think that he was going to give me no more trouble, when, all at once, just as I had got ready to jump into the water, the creature sprang to his feet, and flung himself upon me again. He threw himself with all his might upon my breast, and drove me backward.

I imagined the poor beast was trying,for some reason of his own, to have his own way. I thought it was my business to teach him that he was not to have his own way, but that I was to have mine. So I struck him three or four times with the end of my gun, till at last I freed myself from him. He gave a cry when he fell back. I call it a cry, for it was more like something human than a dog's howl—something so full of sorrow that, angry as I was, it startled me. I think if I had taken time enough I might have made a good attempt to understand what the creature meant.

I was standing a few feet back from the water; and as soon as I had shaken him off he went to the edge of the little cliff, and stood there for a moment till I came up to him. Then—just as in another second I should have jumped into the sea—my brave dog, my noble dog, gave one last whine, one look into my face, and took the leap before me. And then, boys, in another instant I knew what he had meant. He had scarcely touched the water when I saw a crocodile slip like lightning from a sunny edge of the cliff, and seize him by the hind legs.

You know that I had my gun close at hand, and in the whole course of my life I never was so glad to have my gun beside me. It was loaded, too. I caught it up, and fired three times into the water. One shot missed the brute; and the first that struck him seemed not to harm him much. But the third hit him in some tender place, for the hideous ［2］ jaws opened wide.

Then I shouted with all my might, ‘Rolf! Rolf!’ I couldn't leave my post ［3］ , for the crocodile, though he had let Rolf go and had dived for a moment, might make another spring, and I didn't dare to take my eyes off the spot where he had gone down. I called to my wounded friend with all my might, and when he had struggled through the water, and gained a moment's hold of the rock, I jumped down and caught him, and half-carried, half-dragged him up the little bit of steep ascent till we were safe on the dry land again. And then I forgot for a moment or two that I was a man, and burst out crying like a child.

He licked the tears off my cheeks, poor old fellow; I remember that. We looked a strange pair, I dare say, as we lay on the ground with our heads side by side. When I had come to my senses a little, I had to try to get my poor Rolf moved. We were a long way from any house, and the creature couldn't walk a step. I tore up my shirt, and bound his wounds as well as I could. Then I put on my clothes, called to my horse, and, as gently as I could, I got him and myself together upon the horse's back, and we began our ride.

There was a village about four or five miles off, and I made for that. It was a long, hard jolt for a poor fellow with both his hind legs broken, but he bore it patiently. Panting as he was, he licked my hand, and looked lovingly up into my face. I got him to a resting-place at last, after a weary ride, and then I had his wounds dressed. But it was weeks before he could stand upon his feet again, and when at last he began to walk he limped, and he has gone on limping ever since.

It's all an old story now, you know, said Uncle Dick; "but it's one of those things that a man doesn't forget, and that it would be a shame to him if he ever could forget as long as he lived."

Uncle Dick stooped down again as he ceased to speak, and Rolf, disturbed ［4］ by the silence, raised his head to look about him. As his master had said, it was a grand old head still, though the eyes were growing dim with age. Uncle Dick laid his hand upon it, and the bushy tail began to wag. It had wagged at the touch of that hand for many a long day.

We've been together for fifteen years. He's getting old now, said Uncle Dick.

—G. M. CRAIK

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［1 ］ butt-end: The end held against one's shoulder.

［2 ］ hideous: Horrible, frightful.

［3 ］ post: Position, place.

［4 ］ disturbed: Aroused, made anxious.