THE DAY OF THE DOG ***
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE DAY OF THE DOG
by
GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON Author of "Grauslark" "The Sherrods etc"
With Illustrations by Harrison Fisher and decorations by Margaret & Helen Maitland Armstrong
New York 1904
ILLUSTRATIONS
SWALLOW (in color) Frontispiece CROSBY DRIVES TO THE STATION THE HANDS HAD GONE TO THEIR DINNER THE BIG RED BARN THE TWO BOYS MRS. DELANCY AND MRS. AUSTIN MR. AUSTIN MRS. DELANCY PLEADS WITH SWALLOW THEY EXAMINE THE DOCUMENTS "SHE DELIBERATELY SPREAD OUT THE PAPERS ON THE BEAM" (in color) SWALLOW SHE WATCHES HIM DESCEND INTO DANGER MR. CROSBY SHOWS SWALLOW A NEW TRICK "SWALLOW'S CHUBBY BODY SHOT SQUARELY THROUGH THE OPENING" (in color) THE MAN WITH THE LANTERN MR. HIGGINS "HE WAS SPLASHING THROUGH THE SHALLOW BROOK" (in color) HE CARRIES HER OVER THE BROOK MRS. HIGGINS THEY ENJOY MRS. HIGGINS'S GOOD SUPPER LONESOMEVILLE THE DEPUTY SHERIFF CROSBY AND THE DEPUTY MRS. DELANCY FALLS ASLEEP THEY GO TO THE THEATRE "'GOOD HEAVENS!' 'WHAT IS IT?' HE CRIED. 'YOU ARE NOT MARRIED, ARE YOU?'" (in color) "CROSBY WON BOTH SUITS"
THE DAY OF THE DOG
PART I
"I'll catch the first train back this evening, Graves. Wouldn't go down there if it were not absolutely necessary; but I have just heard that Mrs. Delancy is to leave for New York to-night, and if I don't see her to-day there will be a pack of troublesome complications. Tell Mrs. Graves she can count me in on the box party to-night."
"We'll need you, Crosby. Don't miss the train."
[Illustration: Crosby Drives to the Station]
"I'll be at the station an hour before the train leaves. Confound it, it's a mean trip down there--three hours through the rankest kind of scenery and three hours back. She's visiting in the country, too, but I can drive out and back in an hour."
"On your life, old man, don't fail me."
"Don't worry, Graves; all Christendom couldn't keep me in Dexter after four o'clock this afternoon. Good-by." And Crosby climbed into the hansom and was driven away at breakneck speed toward the station.
Crosby was the junior member of the law firm of Rolfe & Crosby, and his trip to the country was on business connected with the settlement of a big estate. Mrs. Delancy, widow of a son of the decedent, was one of the legatees, and she was visiting her sister-in-law, Mrs. Robert Austin, in central Illinois. Mr. Austin owned extensive farming interests near Dexter, and his handsome home was less than two miles from the heart of the town. Crosby anticipated no trouble in driving to the house and back in time to catch the afternoon train for Chicago. It was necessary for Mrs. Delancy to sign certain papers, and he was confident the transaction could not occupy more than half an hour's time.
At 11:30 Crosby stepped from the coach to the station platform in Dexter, looked inquiringly about, and then asked a perspiring man with a star on his suspender-strap where he could hire a horse and buggy. The officer directed him to a "feed-yard and stable," but observed that there was a "funeral in town an' he'd be lucky if he got a rig, as all of Smith's horses were out." Application at the stable brought the first frown to Crosby's brow. He could not rent a "rig" until after the funeral, and that would make it too late for him to catch the four o'clock train for Chicago. To make the story short, twelve o'clock saw him trudging along the dusty road covering the two miles between town and Austin's place, and he was walking with the rapidity of one who has no love for the beautiful.
