134 THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 



my brief absence from home was sojourning with 

 the adoring - children .of whom I have spoken, took 

 it into her head one early dawn that I had returned, 

 and forsaking her puppies came back to the ranch 

 literally through bush and briar — Betsinda who nev- 

 er walked abroad ! — to whine softly at my door, be- 

 hind which I actually was. How did she know that 

 a night train had brought me home ? Cortes was an 

 infallible prophet of evil ; his actions warned us of 

 certain conditions in the household which no human 

 power could foretell, and he was never mistaken. 

 When he deviated from his customary habits and 

 pursued an altered course, we learned in time to 

 accept his warning. Both he and Monte, however, 

 were subject to panics for which no cause, so far as 

 we could discover, existed. Flinging themselves 

 upon their human protectors they clung trembling 

 with beating hearts, and distended eyes glaring at 

 some object invisible to our mere human vision, their 

 long toes curving about our arms like the hands of 

 agonized children. On one occasion Monte's panic 

 lasted so long that a visiting physician administered 

 an opiate, declaring that otherwise the little fellow 

 would die of terror of the Unknown ! I make no at- 

 tempt to explain these phenomena. 



"There must be something almost as good as hu- 

 manity in some dogs" opines a sage newspaper man, 

 "that women — and men too — often weep when they 



"What's a dog, anyway!" exclaims the typical 

 Far Westerner. A dog, my dear sir, or madam, has 

 not uncommonly as much intelligence as you have, 



