Paradise Garden | Page 9

the dogs, and, knife in hand, had got my feet an the lower
branches, when a heavy weight shot by me and fell to the ground.
Thank God, not the boy!
"Jerry!" I cried again, clambering upward.
"A-all r-right, Mr. Canby," I heard. "You're safe, not hurt?"
"I'm all right, I think. Just--just scratched."
By this time I had reached him. He was braced in the crotch of a limb,
leaning against the tree trunk still holding his hunting knife. His coat
was wet and I guessed at rather than saw the pallor of his face Below
were the sounds of the dogs worrying at the animal.
"I--I guess they've finished him," said Jerry coolly sheathing his knife.
"It's lucky he didn't finish you," I muttered. "You're sure you're not

hurt?"
"Oh, no."
"Can you get down alone?"
"Yes, of course."
But I helped him down, nevertheless, and he reached the ground in
safety, where I saw that his face at least had escaped damage. But the
sleeve of his coat was torn to ribbons, and the blood was dripping from
his finger ends.
"Come," I said, taking his arm, "we'll have to get you attended to." And
then severely: "You disobeyed me, Jerry. Why didn't you come down?"
He hesitated a moment, smiling, and then: "I had no idea a lynx was so
large."
"It's a miracle," I said in wonder at his escape. "How did you hang on?"
"I saw him spring and braced myself in time," he said simply, "and
putting my elbow over my head, struck with my knife when he was on
me--two, three, many times--until he let go. But I was glad, very glad
when he fell."
I drove the dogs away, lifted the dead beast over my shoulder and led
the way to the dog cart, which we had left in the road half a mile off,
reaching the Manor house very bloody but happy. But the happiest of
the lot of us, even including Skookums, the bull pup, was Jerry himself
at the sight under the lamplight of the formidable size of his dead
enemy. But I led Jerry at once upstairs, where I stripped him and took
account of his injuries.
His left arm was bitten twice and his neck and shoulder badly torn, but
he had not whimpered, nor did he now when I bathed and cauterized
his wounds. Whatever pain he felt, he made no sign, and I knew that by
inference my night-talks by the campfire had borne fruit. Old

Christopher, the butler, to whom the Great Experiment was a mystery,
hovered in the background with towels and lotions, timidly reproachful,
until Jerry laughed at him and sent him to bed, muttering something
about the queer goings on at Horsham Manor.
This incident is related to show that Jerry had more courage than most
boys of his years. Part of it was inherent, of course, but most of it was
born of the habit, learned early, to be sure of himself in any emergency.
There was little doubt in my mind that there was some of the stuff in
Jerry of which heroes are made. I thought so then, for I was proud of
my handiwork. I did not know, alas! to what tests my philosophy and
John Benham's were to be subjected. All of which goes to show that in
running counter to human nature the wisest plans, the greatest sagacity,
are as chaff before the winds of destiny. But to continue:
The following summer Jerry gave further proofs of his presence of
mind in an accident of which I was the victim. For while trudging with
Jerry along a rocky hillside I stepped straight into the death trap of a
rattlesnake. He struck me below the knee, and we were a long way
from help. But the boy was equal to the emergency. Quite coolly he
killed the snake with a club. I fortunately kept my head and directed
him, though he knew just what to do. With his hunting knife he cut my
trouser leg away and double gashed my leg where the fangs had entered,
then sucked the wound and spat out the poison until the blood had
ceased to flow. Then he quickly made a tourniquet of his handkerchief
and fastened it just above the wound, and, making me comfortable, he
ran the whole distance to the house, bringing a motor car and help in
less than an hour. There isn't the slightest doubt that Jerry saved my life
on this occasion just as the following winter I saved him from death at
the horns of a mad buck deer.
You will not wonder therefore that the bond of affection and reliance
was strong between us. I gave Jerry of the best that was in