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He departed without a word, and, so far as I could see, without moving his legs. He flew through the air bodily, and I heard the whack of him as he flung himself at Stanley, knocking the little man clean over. They rolled on the ground together, shouting, and yelping, and hugging. I could not see which was dog and which was man |
This is from ‘Garm, a hostage‘, collected in Actions and Reactions. Private Stanley Ortheris is a smart professional soldier and a crack shot, but he gets depressed from time to time, and has a tendency to get drunk and disorderly. The narrator rescues him from a bad scrape one night, and Stanley insists on leaving his magnificent bull terrier with him, as a hostage for his future good behaviour. The bull terrier is intelligent and well-behaved, and proves to be a doughty fighter when the narrator’s little terrier is attacked by a pack of pariah dogs. The narrator christens him “Garm”, after the legendary Garm of the Bloody Breast. But both Garm and Stanley are desperately sad to be separated, pining and falling dangerously ill. Here they are re-united. |
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