POBGERS' POINTER 91 



unfastened, in order to prevent the not very re- 

 mote contingency of strangulation. Finding himself 

 at liberty, he bounded joyously away, and, resisting 

 all wiles and blandishments on the part of his 

 master, continued to bound, gambol, frisk, bark, and 

 yowl in a most reckless and idiotic way. It w^ould 

 not be acting fairly towards Podgers were I to 

 chronicle his language during this festive outbreak. 

 If the dog was in a frolicsome mood, Podgers was 

 not, and his feelings got considerably the better of 

 him when the bell rang to announce the departure 

 of the train within three minutes of that warning. 



Finding that all hopes of securing the animal in 

 the ordinary way were thin as air, Podgers offered 

 a reward of half-a-crown to any of the grinning by- 

 standers who would bring him the dog dead or alive. 

 This stimulus to exertion sent twenty corduroyed 

 porters and as many amateurs in full pursuit of 

 Albatross, who ducked and dived, and twisted and 

 twined, and eluded detention with the agility of a 

 greased sow ; and it was only when one very cor- 

 pulent railway official fell upon him in a squashing 

 way, and during a masterly struggle to emerge from 

 beneath the overwhelming weight, that he was sur- 

 rounded and led in triumph, by as many of his 

 pursuers as could obtain a handful of his hair, up to 

 his irate and wrathful master. Each of the captors 



