Rob at first shared a stateroom with a quiet, taciturn individual who apparently disliked Rob’s company, because the second day out this man was transferred to another cabin and a new room-mate named Harvey Richmond, a broad shouldered, genial chap, moved into the room to occupy berth ‘B’.
Almost from the start, Trenton found himself drawn to Richmond, and Richmond, in turn, seemed keenly interested in everything Rob had to say – about his European trip, particularly.
“How does it happen you’re not sharing a room with Ostrander?” Richmond asked.
“Ostrander,” Rob explained, “picked up a last-minute cancellation.”
“I see. Still, those things can be arranged. A certain shuffling around, you know.”
“I’m still under the weather,” Rob admitted. “I can’t seem to get any strength back. Ostrander is one of those athletic chaps who seems to get everything out of life as he goes along. I don’t think he’s interested in being tied up with an invalid.”
Richmond threw back his head and laughed. “Invalid, my eye! You’re a tough, wiry individual, and you can’t help it if you had food poisoning. After all, anyone can run into an experience like that. It must have been quite a jolt.”
“It was,” Rob said. “Worst experience I’ve ever had and I can’t seem to get back on my feet.”
Richmond deftly turned the conversation to Ostrander. “You say he’s interested in sketching?”
“Sketching and cowbells.”
“What about the cowbells?”
“It’s something that you might not notice unless your attention happened to be drawn to it,” Rob explained. “The Swiss cowbells are a distinctive bit of local colour. Their sound is exceedingly musical. Ostrander has a nice collection.”
“I didn’t know that,” Richmond replied. “Now you just stretch out there and take life easy. Here, let me cover you with this blanket. Keep good and warm. Here’s a book you might like to read. The main thing you have to do is get your strength back. You say that he brought a collection of cowbells with him?”
“That’s right, some distinctive bells with different tones.”
“Where are they now?”
“In his baggage, I suppose. He may have them in his stateroom.”
“I’m interested,” Richmond said, “but I don’t want him to think I’m too inquisitive, particularly if he’s intending to use them as a prop in a series of lectures. By the way, Trenton, you don’t remember the name of this inn where you were staying, do you?”
“No, I don’t. It was above Interlaken and that’s …”
“Yes, yes, I understand. You told me about the general location. I was wondering if you remembered the name.”
“No, I can’t remember it.”
“You say there had been a tragedy?”
“That’s right. The woman who ran the place had died from eating toadstools.”
“You didn’t by any chance hear anyone describe the symptoms of her illness, did you?”
Trenton made a little grimace and said, “No, but I can imagine how she must have felt. I don’t think I care to listen to any symptoms of acute food poisoning right at the moment.”
“I dare say you don’t,” Richmond said, and having seen that Rob’s blanket was properly tucked in around his feet, he left the room.
He returned in about an hour, bringing with him a small-boned, well-knit man whose piercing black eyes regarded Rob Trenton with penetrating appraisal.
“How are you feeling now?” Richmond asked.
Trenton smiled and said, “Much better. Just weak and wobbly.”
“This is Dr Herbert Dixon,” Harvey Richmond said. “He’s having a little problem. I thought you might be able to help him.”
“You’re a doctor?” Trenton asked, shaking hands.
“I have an MD degree,” Dr Dixon said, “but I specialise in an odd branch of the practice. I have a problem with a dog. I understand you’re interested in dog training. I thought you might be able to help me.”
Rob Trenton’s eyes lit up. “What’s the problem?”
“This German Shepherd,” Dr Dixon said, glancing swiftly at Richmond, “is one that I purchased from an English chap who seemed to be very much attached to him. The dog seemed perfectly disciplined from all I was able to gather, and the Englishman, who had been living or the continent but who had to return for financial reasons in connection with a new exchange rate, confided to me he simply couldn’t afford to keep him in Great Britain. He wanted the dog to have a good home. To be frank, the animal interested me …”
“Where is he now?” Rob Trenton asked.
“Up in the kennels … and I confess he’s become something of a problem.”
“In what way?”
“He barely seems to tolerate me, growls and shows his teeth and is developing a positively vicious streak. He snaps at people when they speak to him or try to pet him. If I hadn’t jerked back hard on the leash he’d have had me in a couple of suits for damages by this time.”
“How much of a period of transition was there in ownership?” Rob asked.
“What do you mean?”
“How long did you give the dog to become accustomed to you?”
“Oh, that,” Dr Dixon said. “The owner thought that it would be better if they didn’t drag the parting out. He told the dog to go with me, saw that the dog was willing to follow his instructions and took the plane for England that afternoon.”
Trenton threw off the covers, started groping for his shoes. “I’d like to take a look at him,” he said.
“I’d certainly like to have you, but, of course, I must warn you that he’s vicious with strangers. I don’t even dare to take him out for exercise on shipboard, and the more he’s confined the worse he gets.”
“That is only natural,” Rob said. “What’s his name?”
“Lobo.”
“You have a leash?”
“Oh, yes.”
Trenton said, “Bring him down to the deck aft of the swimming pool. Tie a rope on the end of the leash so that you have a good long leash and do exactly as I tell you.”
“But I don’t dare put him on a long leash. He’d certainly bite…”
“You just have the rope on the end of the leash. You don’t use the rope until I tell you to. Hold the leash rather short. Meet me there at the back of the swimming pool.”
Rob Trenton made his way to the deck, finding that he was even weaker than he had supposed. He seemed to be having great difficulty in shaking off the effects of his illness. However, the thought of being able to work with the dog buoyed him up.
It had been rough during the morning and the swimming pool had been drained. The deck at the back of the pool held no deckchairs and now that there was no swimming it was deserted. The sky was overcast and while the wind had died down there was a long, following swell which caused the ship to roll.
Rob Trenton waited until he saw Harvey Richmond and Dr Dixon approaching; Richmond at a safe distance and, to one side Dr Dixon holding the dog on a taut leash.
Rob Trenton seated himself on the deck, making certain there was plenty of room all around him.
“Now hold the leash rather tight,” he said, “and walk past me. Keep the dog on the side that’s away from me.”
Dr Dixon, leading the dog, walked slowly by.
“Just keep circling around,” Trenton instructed.
The dog, seeing Rob Trenton sitting there, sensing the crisp note in Rob’s instructions, bared his fangs, growled and pulled on the leash.
“He seems to want to avoid me,” Trenton said.
“That’s because he’s on this side,” Dr Dixon pointed out, “but you let me put the dog on the side towards you and walk past, and he’ll snap …”
“No, no,” Trenton interrupted hurriedly. “Don’t do that. I don’t want him to snap at me.”
Dr Dixon’s smile indicated that he felt one who was afraid of a dog would never do much towards training him.
“I’m not afraid of him,” Trenton hurried to explain. “I don’t want him to snap at me – not yet. Now keep walking past me, back and forth, don’t circle so much, just walk straight on one side and then on the other, gradually increasing the length of the leash.”
Dr Dixon followed instructions. The dog kept pulling away towards the extreme end of the leash.
Trenton studied the animal, a big deep-chested German Shepherd, with a worried pucker around the forehead over the centre of the eyes, a heavy coat which was sufficiently lacking in gloss to show that the financial difficulties of his former master had resulted in a curtailed diet, deficient in proper vitamins.
Rob Trenton waited for the propitious moment, then suddenly said to Dr Dixon, “All right, give me the end of the rope on the leash, then walk entirely away.”
“You mean that you want …”
“The end of the rope, please,” Trenton said firmly.
“But, good Lord, man, he’ll come after you and …”
“Please, quickly,” Trenton said, “the end of the rope.”
Dr Dixon tossed him the end of the rope.
“Now get away,” Trenton said.
The dog, suddenly finding himself leashed to the stranger who was sitting calmly in the middle of the deck, drew sharply back on the leash, stretching the rope taut.
“What’s the matter, Lobo?” Rob asked.
The dog growled, bared his teeth.
Trenton merely laughed and said, “You’re going to have to get accustomed to me, fellow,” then turning away from the dog, addressed a remark to Harvey Richmond who was some distance away, an interested spectator.
“You can see the trouble with the animal,” Trenton said, in a conversational tone. “The dog misses his master. He’s probably never sailed on a ship, but he realises he is on a ship and that there’s no chance of swimming back to rejoin his former master. Naturally he’s nervous and irritable and he needs reassurance and a certain amount of affection.”
Rob turned suddenly to the dog and said, “Don’t you, Lobo, old man?”
The dog continued to pull back.
“Come, Lobo,” Trenton said.
The dog bared his fangs.
“I said come,” Trenton repeated firmly.
The dog stood growling.
“Come!” Trenton said.
Abruptly, Trenton started hauling in on the rope, pulling the dog across the deck towards him. “I said come. Come, Lobo … Come!”
The animal continued to pull back against the rope. The growling became more ominous.
“Good Lord,” Dr Dixon said, starting forward. “He’ll …”
“Keep out of this,” Trenton ordered. “Lobo, come.”
He kept pulling on the leash, the dog holding back, and continuing to growl. The animals’ claws scraped the deck for an inch or two, then he grudgingly yielded ground and advanced, pulled by the leash, one reluctant step after another. Rob Trenton reached out, hooked his left hand in the animal’s collar, flung his right hand around the shoulders and said, “Down, boy,” at the same time pressing down on the shoulders. “Down, Lobo.”
The dog hesitated a moment, growling ominously, then lay down, his head within an inch or two of Rob’s leg, fangs still bared.
Rob held his left hand on the collar, his right hand over the animal’s shoulder. He looked up to Dr Dixon and Harvey Richmond and said, “Now please don’t make any exclamations of surprise, or act as though there’s anything out of order, just carry on, please, with an ordinary conversation.”
Dr Dixon looked as if he might protest, but thought better of it and said, “I understand.”
Richmond said, “It’s hard to act natural about a thing like that. I certainly thought you were going to have your throat torn out.”
Trenton kept his eyes on the two men, but the fingers of his right hand slowly began to twist in the hair along the dog’s shoulder, moving over more to the animal’s shoulder muscles and his throat. “Poor devil,” Trenton said, “he’s completely perplexed. He doesn’t know whether his master left him with Dr Dixon and the doctor is stealing him, or whether he’s been abandoned, or what has happened. In any event, he’s all at sea … and I don’t mean that as a pun.”
His hand moved around until he was stroking the animal’s throat with a steady, easy gesture of caressing fingers that moved with calm assurance. Now, for the first time, he turned to the dog. “Too bad, boy,” he said sympathetically. “You need a little reassurance, and you need a lot of affection.”
The animal looked up at Trenton. He had ceased growling now. He moved his head a couple of inches so that his muzzle rested on Trenton’s leg.
“Good dog,” Trenton said.
Abruptly he heard a spatter of applause and looked up.
From the boat deck a dozen or so curious passengers had been watching the little drama which was being enacted on the lower deck. Now they expressed their appreciation and admiration spontaneously.
Trenton noticed only that Linda Carroll, her eyes wide, was standing close to the rail, looking down at them, and that beside her Merton Ostrander stood, completely fascinated. Linda’s hands were moving rapidly in enthusiastic applause. Merton Ostrander clapped a half dozen times, then put his hands on the rail. His face held a puzzled frown. Quite evidently he was in deep thought.
Trenton turned his attention to the dog, caressing him now, soothing the taut muscles with the tips of understanding fingers, his voice conveying reassurance and affection.
After some ten minutes, Trenton stood up. “I think I’ll take him to the kennel now, if you don’t mind,” he said to Dr Dixon. “You may walk alongside of me.”
They walked up the stairs to the dog’s kennel. The passengers who had been interested spectators started to crowd around, but Trenton waved them back. “Please,” he said. “The dog’s nervous. Please, everyone keep away.”
They walked up to the kennel. Dr Dixon opened the door and Rob Trenton said, “All right, Lobo, in you go,” and unfastened the leash as the dog entered the kennel.
Dr Dixon dropped the door shut.
Suddenly Rob Trenton felt his muscles begin to tremble convulsively. He realised that he had used more nerve energy, more vitality in the test than he had anticipated.
“I think, if you don’t mind,” he said, “I’ll go back to bed. I didn’t realise how weak I was.”
Linda Carroll came pushing forward. “Rob,” she said, “it was wonderful! You were simply marvellous!”
Her hand rested on his arm. Her eyes grew quick with alarm. “Why, Rob, you’re … trem …”
His eyes pleaded with her for silence.
She caught herself in mid-sentence. “You’re simply marvellous,” she ended lamely.
“I’m still pretty much under the weather,” Rob muttered. He felt as though he might be walking in his sleep as he moved along the ship’s corridor, down the stairs, back to his stateroom, where he collapsed on the bed.
A few seconds later, Harvey Richmond and Dr Dixon were in the doorway.
“You all right?” Richmond asked.
Rob nodded.
“You shouldn’t have undertaken anything like that while you’re as weak as you are,” Dr Dixon said. “It was wonderful. I never saw anything like it. How did you know he wasn’t going to bite you?”
“I didn’t,” Rob admitted weakly. “He could have, but the dog needed someone to make him obey. He needed companionship, he needed to be given a sense of reassurance. You may have noticed I ordered you around rather sharply. I’m sorry, but that was part of the training. When the dog heard you taking orders from me, it gave me a certain advantage. Good Lord, I didn’t realise how weak I was!”
Dr Dixon stepped forward, felt Rob’s wrist, placed a hand on Rob’s shoulder. Now that Rob was lying down the fit of trembling with which he had been seized became even more enhanced.
“I think,” Dr Dixon said, “I’m going to get in touch with the ship’s doctor, and make a suggestion … if you don’t mind.”
“Thank you,” Rob said gratefully.
He felt Harvey Richmond covering him with a blanket, then the trembling seemed to get completely out of control. Rob shook as though with a chill. He heard the door open. The ship’s doctor bared Rob’s right arm. There was the odour of alcohol, then the sting of a needle.
A few seconds later, a delicious warmth flowed through his veins. The relaxed muscles ceased trembling. Drowsiness wrapped him in a warm, soft blanket of growing oblivion. He heard whispers as Dr Dixon and the ship’s doctor tiptoed out of the room. He sighed, and became unconscious in the middle of the sigh.
And, while he slept, Harvey Richmond deliberately and thoroughly searched every nook and corner of the stateroom, every article in Rob Trenton’s hastily packed and utterly inadequate baggage.