He was as fond of dead horse as any of his wild kindred. That very
night, with Wright's own dog Curley, he visited the carcass. It seemed
as though Bing had busied himself chiefly keeping off the wolves, but
Curley feasted immoderately. The tracks in the snow told the story of
the banquet; the interruption as the poison began to work, and of
the dreadful spasms of pain during the erratic course back home where
Curley, falling in convulsions at Gordon's feet, died in the greatest
agony.
'Love me, love my dog,' No explanations or apology were acceptable;
it was useless to urge that it was accidental; the long-standing feud
between Bingo and Oliver was now remembered as an important sidelight.
The wood-contract was thrown up, all friendly relations ceased, and to
this day there is no county big enough to hold the rival factions which
were called at once into existence and to arms by Curley's dying yell.
It was months before Bingo really recovered from the poison. We believed
indeed that he never again would be the sturdy old-time Bingo. But when
the spring came he began to gain strength, and bettering as the grass
grew, he was within a few weeks once more in full health and vigor to be
a pride to his friends and a nuisance to his neighbors.
VII
Changes took me far away from Manitoba, and on my return in 1886 Bingo
was still a member of Wright's household. I thought he would have
forgotten me after two years' absence, but not so. One day early in the
winter, after having been lost for forty-eight hours, he crawled home to
Wright's with a wolf-trap and a heavy log fast to one foot, and the foot
frozen to stony hardness. No one had been able to approach to help him,
he was so savage, when I, the stranger now, stooped down and laid hold
of the trap with one hand and his leg with the other. Instantly he
seized my wrist in his teeth.
Without stirring I said, "Bing, don't you know me?"
He had not broken the skin and at once released his hold and offered no
further resistance, although he whined a good deal during the removal of
the trap. He still acknowledged me his master in spite of his change
of residence and my long absence, and notwithstanding my surrender of
ownership I still felt that he was my dog.
Bing was carried into the house much against his will and his frozen
foot thawed out. During the rest of the winter he went lame and two of
his toes eventually dropped off. But before the return of warm weather
his health and strength were fully restored, and to a casual glance he
bore no mark of his dreadful experience in the steel trap.
VIII
During that same winter I caught many wolves and foxes who did not have
Bingo's good luck in escaping the traps, which I kept out right into the
spring, for bounties are good even when fur is not.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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