Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/161

 have enabled him to increase in the face of conditions which have put a value on his pelt and a price on his head. Flash has that brain.”

“Yet in spite of that you don’t think he understands our words?”

“I know it. I’ll demonstrate the fact. He has heard me call you Betty a dozen times to-day yet the repetition has been insufficient to cause him to connect that sound with you any more than any other word which I use frequently in speaking to you. On the other hand he does associate the word Moran with me. I’ll show you.”

He spoke to the dog and Flash looked up at him. Moran spoke the girl’s name over and over again. Flash gazed at him, puzzled by this reiteration of the same sound. He inclined his head from side to side, his ears tipped forward alertly as he tried to understand. His attention was entirely centered on Moran and he never once looked at the girl.

“Now you try it,” Moran instructed.

She spoke to Flash and as she talked he accorded her the same close attention with which he had favored Moran. Then she spoke Moran’s name twice and Flash turned instantly and looked at him.