"
The pompously booming voice, with its stilted diction, ceased.
All eyes were upon Link Ferris. The mountaineer, stung to life by
the silence and the multiple gaze, came out of his trance of
shock.
"Then--then," he stuttered, forcing the words from a throat
sanded by sudden dread, "then Chum rightly b'longs to this man?"
"Quite so!" assented Marden, in some relief. "I am glad you grasp
the point so readily. Mr. Gault has talked the matter over with
me, and he is taking a remarkably broad and generous view of the
case if I may say so. He is not only willing that you should keep
the cup and the cash prize which you have won to-day, but he is
also ready to pay to you the seventy-five dollar reward he
offered for the return of Glenmuir Cavalier. I repeat, this
strikes me as most gener--"
"NO!" yelled Link, a spasm of foreseen loneliness sweeping over
him. "NO! ! He can't have him! Nobody can! Why Chum's my dawg!
I've learned him to fetch cows an' shake hands an'--an'
everything! An' he drug me out'n the lake, when I was
a-drowndin'! An' he done a heap more'n that fer me! He's drug me
up to my feet, out'n wuthlessness, too; an' he's learned me that
livin' is wuth while! He's my--my--he's my dawg!" he finished
lamely, his scared eyes sweeping the circle of faces in panic
appeal.
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