74 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
Something had to be done, and quickly. As anyone can clearly 
see this had developed into a situation from which ordinary 
animal instinct would not deliver him. So, slackening his pace 
until the pack were upon his very heels, he feigned a stumble, 
permitting every hound to run over him. This proved a master 
stroke. The dogs had not expected it, while he had planned it 
with utmost care, and executed it with superb skill. Before the 
dogs could come to a standstill and to a full realization of 
exactly what had happened, he had disappeared in a great 
cloud of dust, back into the open plains, leaving dogs and men 
thoroughly chagrined. 
During boyhood days we had the pleasure of birdhunting 
with a pointer whose intelligence was so keen that it was not 
only refreshing, it was downright uncanny. Hunting in such 
broad sweeps he frequently encountered quail when entirely 
beyond the range of vision of the hunti'ng party. He would 
leave the birds undisturbed and go bounding back over the 
hills in search of the hunters. When he came up with his 
master he would run squarely into him. On such occasions he 
would not invite punishment by loitering, but would retrace 
his course back to the birds at full speed. It did not require a 
particularly bright hunter to understand that such behavior 
on the part of the dog was intended to convey some urgent 
message to his master. Following the lead of the dog he 
would invariably find him lying down near the covey of quail 
awaiting the arrival of the hunting party. 
On another occasion we succeeded in bagging four quail on 
the first rise. The dog was unquestionably the best I ever saw 
in action, retrieving, combining smell with vision and sense of 
direction. He watched every bird that fell and when the shoot¬ 
ing was over would go to the very spot upon which each bird 
had fallen. We counted four birds as they fell, and were quite 
sure that the count was correct. The dog had also counted 
them, and must have been equally sure of his count. When he 
had recovered three he continued hunting diligently for the 
fourth bird, but without success. Due to his vigilance, we were 
convinced that he knew, too, that there was some mistake, but 
finally he was called away from the spot that we might seek 
