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Of the arrangements he could know nothing, being a dog. Old Swygert, having cured him, could not meet the expenses of taking him to field trials. The girl had come to the old man's assistance, an assistance which he had accepted only under condition that the dog should be entered as hers, with himself as handler. "Are you ready, gentlemen?" the judges asked. "Ready," said Larsen and old Swygert.
Not far from Swygert's house is a small pond, and on one side the banks are perpendicular. Toward this pond the old man, with the gun under his arm and the dog following, went. Here in the silence of the woods, with just the two of them together, was to be a final test. On the shelving bank Swygert picked up a stick and tossed it into the middle of the pond with the command to "fetch."
The man he feared was running across the field yonder, in the direction taken by the judge. He was blowing his whistle as he ran. Through the crowd, his face terrible to see, his own master was coming. Both the old man and the girl had dismounted now, and were running toward him. "I heard," old Swygert was saying to her. "I heard it! I might 'a' known! I might 'a' known!"
We'll turn some of the other puppies over to Swygert if he wants them, but Comet must have the best. I'll write Larsen to-night. To-morrow, crate Comet and send him off." Just as no dog ever came into the world under more favourable auspices, so no dog ever had a bigger "send-off" than Comet.
Swygert pondered a long time. "When I was a kid," he said at last, "there came up a terrible thunderstorm. It was in South America. I was water boy for a railroad gang, and the storm drove us in a shack. While lightnin' was hittin' all around, one of the grown men told me it always picked out boys with red hair. My hair was red, an' I was little and ignorant.
Several days and nights passed this way, then, while he lay before the fire, old Swygert came in with a gun. At sight of it Comet sprang to his feet. He tried to rush out of the room, but the doors were closed. Finally, he crawled under the bed. Every night after that Swygert got out the gun, until he crawled under the bed no more.
Somewhere, in his life full of adventure and odd jobs, he had trained dogs and horses. His face was lined and seamed, his hair was white, his eyes piercing, blue and kind. Wade Swygert was his name. "There's been dirty work," he said, when he looked at the dog. "I'll take him if you're goin' to give him away." Give him away who had been Championship hope!
There may have been other Captains of this company, but no data at hand. John W. Watts became Captain of Company G after the promotion of Captain Todd to Major and Lieutenant Colonel. Captain Summer being killed at Fredericksburg, Lieutenant G.S. Swygert became Captain, was disabled and resigned, and D.A. Dickert became Captain and commanded to the end.
Then Peerless II found a covey, and Larsen flushed them and shot. And so for an hour it went. Then Comet disappeared, and old Swygert, riding hard and looking for him, went out of sight over a hill. But Comet had not gone far. As a matter of fact, he was near by, hidden in some high straw, pointing a covey of birds. One of the spectators spied him, and called the judges' attention to him.
Everybody, including Larsen, rode up to him, but still Swygert had not come back. They called him, but the old man was a little deaf. Some of the men rode to the top of the hill but could not see him. In his zeal he had got a considerable distance away. Meanwhile, here was his dog, pointed.
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