Dick and Brownie

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Dick and Brownie

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Dick and Brownie, by Mabel
Quiller-Couch
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Title: Dick and Brownie
Author: Mabel Quiller-Couch

Release Date: October 30, 2005 [eBook #16969]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DICK AND
BROWNIE***
E-text prepared by Lionel Sear

DICK AND BROWNIE.
by
Mabel Quiller-Couch

CONTENTS.
Chapter.
I. THE ESCAPE.
II. A NIGHT SCARE.
III. WHAT THE MORNING BROUGHT.
IV. MISS ROSE.
V. SURPRISES.
VI. HULDAH GOES SHOPPING.
VII. A MEETING AND AN ALARM.
VIII. TRACKED DOWN.
IX. TO THE RESCUE.
X. ONE SUMMER'S AFTERNOON.
XI. HULDAH'S NEW HOME.
XII. HAPPY HOURS.
CHAPTER I.
THE ESCAPE.

The summer sun blazed down scorchingly on the white road, on the
wide stretch of moorland in the distance, and on the little coppice
which grew not far from the road.
The only shady spot for miles, it seemed, was that one under the trees
in the little coppice, where the caravan stood; but even there the heat
was stifling, and the smell of hot blistering varnish mingled with the
faint scent of honeysuckle and dog-roses.
Not a sound broke the stillness, for even the birds had been driven to
shelter and to silence, and except for the rabbits very few other live
things lived about there, to make any sounds. That afternoon there were
four other live things in the coppice, but they too were silent, for they
were wrapped in deep sleep. The four were a man and a woman, a
horse and a dog, and of all the things in that stretch of country they
were the most unlovely. The man and the woman were dirty, untidy,
red-faced and coarse. Even in their sleep their faces looked cruel and
sullen. The old horse standing patiently by, with drooping head and
hopeless, patient eyes, looked starved and weak. His poor body was so
thin that the bones seemed ready to push through the skin, on which
showed the marks of the blows he had received that morning. The
fourth creature there was a dog, as thin as the horse, but younger, a lank,
yellow, ugly, big-bodied dog, with a clever head, bright, speaking
brown eyes, and as keen a nose for scent as any dog ever born
possessed.
The brown eyes had been closed for a while in slumber, but presently
they opened alertly; a fly had bitten his nose, and the owner of the nose
got up to catch the fly. This done, he looked around him. He looked
with drooped ears and tail at the sleeping man and woman, with ears a
little raised at the old horse, and then with both ears and tail alertly
cocked he looked about him eagerly, even anxiously. A second later he
was leaping up the steps and into the caravan; but in less than a minute
he was out again, leaping over the steps at the other end, and out to the
edge of the coppice. What he was in search of was not in the van, or
under it, or anywhere near it.
The dog did not whine, or make a sound. He knew better than that. A

whine would have brought a heavy boot flying through the air at him,
or a stick across his back, or a kick in the ribs, if he were foolish
enough to go within reach of a foot. With his long nose to the ground
he stepped delicately to the edge of the coppice, then stood still looking
about him, his brown eyes full of wistful anxiety.
He looked to the right, he looked to the left, he listened eagerly, then he
stepped back to the van again. This time he found something. It was
only a clue, but it sent his spirits up again, and with his nose to the
ground he came quickly back to the edge of the little wood and beyond
it; then, evidently satisfied, he took to his heels and raced away with a
joy which almost forced a yelp of triumph from his throat.
The old horse raised his head and looked after the dog wistfully. "If
only I were as young and fleet, and able to get away as quietly!" he
thought longingly, and sighed a sigh which made his thin sides heave
painfully. Then his head drooped again, even more sadly than before,
and he closed his eyes patiently once more. He loved the lank yellow
dog. Next to little