H.E. Bates Companion

A tale with vivid action, depicting a fight between a sheep dog and an intruding hound, and the terror of the shepherd boy at having to report the death of of his master's dog. "It would not be easy to convince that brutal, violent-tempered man of the dog's death...How would he resist that inevitable passionate fury?...'He'll smash me. My God! He'll smash me, he'll rip me to pieces." The violence of the tale is similar to that in "The Black Boxer" but otherwise uncharacteristic of Bates's early work. In The Window (January 1930), The Black Boxer Tales (1932), The Bride Comes to Evensford and Other Tales (1949).