But the saloon-keeper let him alone, and in the morning four men entered and picked up the crate. More tormentors, Buck decided, for they were evil-looking creatures, ragged and unkempt; and he stormed and raged at them through the bars.
Four men gingerly carried the crate from the wagon into a small, high-walled back yard.
"Sure," the man replied, driving the hatchet into the crate for a pry.
" 'Answers to the name of Buck,' " the man soliloquized, quoting from the saloon-keeper's letter which had announced the consignment of the crate and contents.
The crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between layers of lead foil.
Next, the crate was carried out to an express wagon and loaded in along with a number of trunks.
"Huh!" said Del Mar a little later to Michael, having strolled down the platform to where the crate was piled on a truck with other baggage destined for the train.
The crate was not quite so long as Michael, so that he was compelled to stand with the end of his nose pressing against the end of the crate.
At the railroad station, the crate was handled, not with deliberate roughness, but with such carelessness that it half- slipped out of a baggage-man's hands, capsized sidewise, and was caught when it was past the man's knees but before it struck the cement floor.
Came the crate. Because Del Mar brought it into the baggage-room, Michael was suspicious of it.
The Crate and Barrel Holdings brand family includes CB2, Crate and Kids and now Hudson Grace, and is owned by the Otto Group, a global retail and services group based in Hamburg, Germany.
Don't expect to just stuff your pet in
the crate when it's time to leave and just hope for the best.
It may be a different take on
the crate concept, but the basic thinking is the same - something a bit different, small-scale, unusual and cheap.
If he can break
the crate before
the crate breaks him, his heroism will be displayed, and his reward earned.
WITH more and more of us opting for condo living in the urban areas, Crate and Barrel offers big statements for smaller spaces from its experts in
the Crate Design Studio.