+-------------------------------------------------+ |Transcriber’s note: | | | |Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | | | +-------------------------------------------------+ Treve BOOKS BY ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE Lad: A Dog Further Adventures of Lad Lad of Sunnybank Bruce Buff: A Collie The Critter A Dog Named Chips The Faith of a Collie Gray Dawn His Dog Lochinvar Luck My Friend the Dog Treve The Way of a Dog Wolf A Highland Collie Collie to the Rescue Best Loved Dog Stories [Illustration] ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE Treve Grosset & Dunlap PUBLISHERS NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1924, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA My book is dedicated to ELLEN COMLY _Treve’s friend and mine_ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. The Coming of Treve 11 II. Thirst! 39 III. Marooned 70 IV. The Killer 104 V. A Secret Adventure 133 VI. Deserted 155 VII. Theft and Untheft 179 VIII. In the Hands of the Enemy 205 IX. His Mate 225 X. The Rustlers 247 XI. The Parting of the Ways 267 XII. Afterword 290 Treve CHAPTER I: THE COMING OF TREVE The rickety and rackety train was droning along over the desert miles--miles split and sprinkled by cheerless semi-arid foothills. At dusk it had shrieked and groaned its way over a divide and slid clatteringly down the far side amid a screech of brakes. Out into the desert-like plain with the scatter of less dead foothills it had emerged in early evening. Now, as midnight drew on, the desert ground--with its strewing of exquisite wild flowers here and there among the sick sage brush and crippled Joshua trees--took a less desolate aspect; though it was too dark a night for the few waking passengers to note this. The Dos Hermanos River lay a few miles ahead--many more miles on the hither side of the Dos Hermanos mountain range. The half-fertile land of the river valley was merging with the encroach of the desert. Fraser Colt got to his feet in the rank-atmosphered smoking section of the way-train’s one Pullman; hooked a fat finger at the porter to find if his berth had been made up; then loafed through to the baggage car for a last inspection of his collie pup, before turning in. Now it is a creditable thing for a man to assure himself of his dog’s comfort for the night. Often it bespeaks more or less heart. But, in the case of Fraser Colt it did nothing of the sort; nor was it creditable to anything but his interest in his dog’s money value.