THE story of Silversheene's fidelity to Richard in the battle with the wolves gained at once for him a place in the affections of the Henderson family. Even Dick's mother looked on him with favor. No further mishap befell the party and in two days they were back on the Oregon ranch, very happy to be home again.
Dick's sister Eleanor welcomed them with open arms. She had been spending her vacation with a school chum and had not seen them for several weeks. So there was a general rejoicing in the Henderson family.
Eleanor at once took Silversheene to her heart and this was a great comfort to him. To tell the truth he had been very lonesome for Hilda, although he worshipped Dick. And Eleanor was just about Hilda's size and her voice reminded the homesick dog of his lost mistress. So she fitted into the sore spot in his dog heart and they became the best of friends.
The only other dogs on the place were a Pomeranian named Snap, and a cocker spaniel called Jerry. The Pomeranian Silversheene would not even deign to look at. He evidently considered him a disgrace to the dog family, but he and Jerry became very good friends, and had many a good romp together.
The week after their return Richard went away to college and Silversheene missed him greatly. But Eleanor was only away for the day so they had the nights and mornings together.
Mr. Henderson finally taught Silversheene to go with him in the automobile and he always left him in the car while he was doing errands. He boasted to his friends that he did not worry much about having his car stolen, or anything taken from it while Silversheene was on guard. When Dick came home at Christmas time Silversheene was overjoyed and they had a blissful two weeks together.
Silversheene got on very well with every one except Pedro Garcia, one of the gardeners. This Mexican disliked dogs thoroughly, and he had undertaken to drive Silversheene off from a garden bench on which he was lying.
This incensed the dog who thought that he was doing no harm. Pedro made the mistake of attacking a gentleman with a garden rake, instead of politely asking him to get down.
Silversheene resented this and a pitched battle ensued. The dog was wounded badly in the face, but Pedro had to take refuge in a peach tree and even so narrowly escaped being eaten alive.
Mr. Henderson took the dog's part and told the Mexican that he ought not to have struck at him.
Pedro said little, but with the vengeful nature of his people secretly vowed that he would get even with the savage brute. He would pay him off in a coin that would make the score even with something in his favor.
The following summer Richard went into the mountains with the shepherds who tended their ten thousand sheep. He had boasted that he could make a good sheep dog of Silversheene, and this was to carry out his boast.
Day after day he labored patiently with the dog, first instifling into his head by many object lessons the fact that the sheep were property and that they belonged to him; that they were creatures who had to be guarded and tended and driven hither and thither. He perfected him in driving and penning, and in all the intricacies of a good sheep dog. Finally in September he was convinced that his work was well done. He felt that the sheep were as safe under Silversheene's protection, as under that of any of their trained collies. Richard wanted to stay until the sheep were driven out of the mountains into the broader valleys nearer civilization for the winter months. But his father had decided that he ought to go into his office to help him with the business and on the fruit orchards, which were also a feature of the work on the great ranch. So Richard reluctantly left Silversheene with the shepherds to help them drive in the sheep when the time should come while he went back home.
All went well with Silversheene and the sheep until early in November when they started to round the sheep up and to drive them down into the warm valleys. Then the weather played them a bad trick. Before they had any idea that it was coming the first snow was upon them with a fall of a foot. The snow had fallen in the night and when the day dawned it was still snowing hard. The shepherds knew that the more snow they had the harder time they would have in getting the sheep out, so they kept on driving them in a blinding snowstorm. It was Silversheene's task to follow on the left flank of one of the large flocks and keep the stragglers from getting away. In that section of the flock was an old black-faced buck who was the leader, and he gave Silversheene a great deal of trouble. He seemed to dislike the dog and would stamp and lower his head at him whenever he came near. Again and again this obdurate buck broke away and took a score or more of sheep with him, and the dog had to go after them. Finally towards night the old buck made another attempt and got behind Silversheene in spite of him, as he was having trouble with another bunch of sheep who were also stragglers. This time the old buck got a good start and Silversheene was unable to head him off. An evil spirit seemed to possess the old buck and he led his little band further and further away from the flock down a deep gulch beside a small stream. It was so narrow that Silversheene could not get around in front of them to head them off.
All he could do was to tag along behind, hoping all the time that they would get sick of it and turn back. But the old leader had no mind to turn back. He seemed to think that better feed was ahead.
So hour after hour he led them further and further from the large flock, until finally they were hopelessly separated from the rest of the sheep. Then it was that the shepherds discovered that Silversheene was missing. The following day they saw that the old buck was also gone, and they imagined some sheep as well. Well, they would have to look out for themselves, as they had their hands full with the main flock. So it happened that two days later poor Silversheene found himself hopelessly lost in the mountains. He and his little flock were marooned in a small valley between high mountains. The snow that had continued to fall had obliterated all signs of their tracks, so no one could find them.
When the shepherds finally reported the event to Mr. Henderson he whistled and looked very grave.
"That will be a great blow to Dick," he said. "He had trained him very carefully and thought he was a safe dog with the sheep. I guess he won't go hungry himself, so long as he has plenty of mutton at hand. But it is a rather sorry plight for the sheep."
When Richard was finally told of the loss he wanted to go in search of them at once, but business was pressing and his father told him to wait. But Dick said that he would bet on old Silversheene and he knew that he would do all he could to protect the sheep. He would starve before he would kill one. "I know it."
The rest of the family were rather skeptical, but Dick's faith did not waver.
It was a happy day for Richard when the work in the warehouses and the office let up enough so that Mr. Henderson said he could go and look for Silversheene if he wanted to.
The young man set off without delay, feeling quite sure he would find that the dog had been faithful to his trust, although he could not understand what had become of him and the little flock of sheep.
He went as far as the foothills in an automobile. Arriving there, Richard left the car with a small farmer who corralled and fed his father's sheep in the winter months, and farmed on a small scale for the rest of the year. When Richard told him his errand, the man who was well versed in the ways of sheep shook his head.
"I am afraid you will find the flock sadly diminished, if you find it at all," he said. "You could not blame the dog. He could not be expected to starve."
"But I trained him very carefully. He understands that they are my property as well as I do," explained Dick.
"I know," said the farmer, "but even man will break all the moral laws when it comes to a case of slow starvation."
"Silversheene could hunt enough to keep himself alive," countered Dick.
"Not and watch the sheep and keep off bears and perhaps mountain lions. I guess he has had a sorry time guarding that flock all right."
Richard was much impressed with the farmer's logic, although his faith in Silversheene did not waver. But as the farmer said, if it was a case of slow starvation he could not blame the dog.
Most of the mountain intervals and gulches Dick knew, although it was a rather wild country. He planned to stay several days if necessary, so he took three days provision and a heavy blanket, and also: a Winchester rifle. He did not intend to get caught again as he had with the wolves, so he had his revolver as well.
His plan was to go along the sides of the valleys, high enough up so that he could see all of the country below with his field glass. In that way he could search more rapidly. There was very little snow in the deep valleys, although in the woods along the slopes there was still considerable.
Dick walked rapidly and covered large sweeps of the country at a time, but even so it was slow work and very much like looking for a needle in a hay mow.
The first day he followed the most likely valley for ten miles back into the mountains, and then crossed over the ridge and worked back along another valley to this starting place in the foothills. He saw plenty of deer tracks, and rabbit tracks, and several bevies of mountain quail, but not a sign of sheep. The second day was a repetition of the first.
A long twenty-mile tramp, many deer signs, but no sheep tracks. He had now covered the four most likely intervals and was getting discouraged, but he did not give up. He was not that sort.
The third day bade fair to be a repetition of the other two. Richard tramped and tramped, starting as soon as daylight and never stopping to rest. By noon he was tired and rather discouraged. His father and the farmer had been right. Looking for the sheep in these endless mountains was a hopeless task. He would probably have to go back and leave poor Silversheene to his fate.
In this frame of mind he sat down upon a rock to rest and to scan with his glass a little valley half a mile beneath. It looked like a very cosy and warm valley and the grass was still green in places. There was no snow in the sheltered vale.
He was just raising the glass to his eyes when a faint and far-away bark floated up to his ears. At first he thought he must be mistaken, so he listened intently and soon it was repeated. It sounded very much like Silversheene's bark. He was a rather silent dog, as are the Eskimo dogs, but he would occasionally bark when driving sheep.
Dick scanned the interval carefully with the glass and was about to put it up and go down and see what he could discover when a wonderful sight met his eyes. A small flock of sheep came out from another interval which led from the first, and started slowly along the valley; and close behind them was a silver gray dog. There was no mistaking him even at that distance. It was faithful old Silversheene.
Richard's first impulse was to shout at the top of his voice and so attract the dog's attention, but something cautioned him to wait and watch. So he held the glass upon them and waited. Slowly and patiently the dog drove them for fifty rods up the valley and then some of them stopped and bunched together and seemed to be feeding.
Then for the first time Richard noted that a small stream threaded its way through the valley. The sheep were drinking at a quiet little pool. The lines of that old shepherd's ong came to his lips. "He leadeth me beside the still waters." That was what Silversheene was doing. It was noon and he was watering his sheep. For half an hour the flock lingered about the pool and then the dog drove them slowly away and they disappeared in the gulch which had first hidden them from sight.
Dick waited no longer, but as fast as his long legs could carry him he made his way down to the valley and soon discovered the interval where the flock had disappeared. There in a sheltered warm spot he discovered the flock feeding, and beside them, watching and waiting patiently, a tired disconsolate-looking dog. Dick had come upon them so quietly that Silversheene did not at first see him. His head was down, and he looked very tired and even at that distance Richard could see that he looked haggard and old.
Then he sprang forward with a glad shout and the dog sprang up with an angry snarl and was immediately on guard. But when he discovered who the intruder was he flung himself joyously on his young master, while Dick hugged the brave dog as he would have a brother. Then he noticed that Silversheene was very gaunt.
He did not look as though he had eaten for weeks. When Dick finally set him down he staggered and nearly fell, and a
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wild look came into his eyes. "My heavens, old pal, you are starving!" cried Richard. "We will remedy that at once."
He unstrapped his knapsack and took out the remains of his lunch. The dog gulped the food down so rapidly that he choked and then whined pitifully for more. So Dick broke it up in small pieces and fed it to him gradually.
He had shot a rabbit a mile back and hung it in a tree, so he and Silversheene made all haste to the spot; and soon the famished dog was tearing the rabbit to pieces like a hungry wolf. On the way back they shot another; and Silversheene had his fill for the first time in three weeks. When Dick went over the ground where the dog and the sheep had spent the three weeks, he found that they had cropped the grass clean in many places and had come often to the only sizable pool in the stream to drink. Silversheene's thoughtfulness in caring for them was evinced by the fact that Dick found a trampled place in a sheltered thicket where they had slept at night. That evening at sunset he waited and watched to see what Silversheene would do.
He first drove the sheep out to the pool and watered them just as he had at noon and then drove them into the thicket for the night.
"Good enough, old pal!" cried the man, when the jubilant dog had returned to his master after seeing the sheep safe for the night. "We will stay here for the night and to-morrow you and I will drive them out."