Three days they spent in New York, searching for Dawn. The paper that
had wrapped Dan’s book they took to the post-office first, and by
careful inquiry were able to discover in what quarter of the city the
package was mailed, though, of course, this was very slight information,
as she might have been far from her living place when she mailed it.
They also discovered the store where the books were bought, for Charles
had had the forethought to send Daniel back for them before they
started. The clerk who had sold them to her remembered her, and
described her as beautiful, with black curls inside a white bonnet, and
a dark silk frock. He said she had sad eyes, and looked thin and pale.
This troubled Charles more than he was willing to admit to Dan.
Having narrowed their clue to this most indefinite point, they held a
consultation and decided that the only thing to do was to walk around
that quarter of the city and see if they could get sight of her. Or
possibly Rags would get on a scent of her footsteps in some spot less
travelled than others. It was almost a hopeless search, yet they
started bravely on the hunt, and talked to Rags in a way that would have
made an ordinary dog beside himself.
Charles had with him the gloves that Dawn had dropped on the floor
beside the bed when she fled from his home. He always carried them with
him in his breast-pocket. He took them out and let Rags smell of them.
Then Dan said:
"Rags, go find Teacher. Teacher! Rags! Go find Teacher!"
Rags sniffed and looked wistfully in their faces, then barked and
started on a sniffing tour all about them, his homely yellow-brown face
wearing a look of dog anxiety. He thought he comprehended what they
wanted, but was not sure. He had felt a great loss since the teacher
went away. Was it possible they expected him to find her?
During the three days, they haunted the streets of the city, both day
and evening, and Rags was quite worn out with sniffing. Once or twice
he thought he had found a trail, but it came to nothing, and he scurried
dejectedly on ahead, hoping his followers had not noticed him bark. On
the morning of the fourth day they turned into a narrow street which was
almost like a lane compared to other streets. There were only tiny,
gloomy houses, and noisy, foreign-looking people stood in the doorways
or conversed across the street. It seemed a most unlikely neighborhood
for their search, and Charles was half of a mind to turn back and take
another street, but almost at the entrance to the street Rags had gone
quite wild and nosed his way rapidly down the uneven pavement until he
stopped beside a humble doorstep and went nosing about and yelping in
great delight. The door was closed, but he tried the steps, and even
sniffed under the crack, and then came bounding back to his companions.
"What have you found, Rags, boy?" said Charles half-heartedly. He did
not believe they would find any trace of Dawn here.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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