She said flatly，“Sam Van Arsdale，you can tell me，but don’t go telling anyone else.”Sam persuaded his wife to accompany them back to the woods，where Jimput on a flawless repeat performance.She shook her head in amazement—Sam’s crazy story was true！
Over the next few days，Sam couldn’t help telling his friends around town what his smart dog could do.They smiled at him indulgently and moved off pretty fast.
One man did listen，although of course he was skeptical.Sam，noticing that the man had parked his car on the street a few yards away，told Jim to show the man which car was his.Jim went straight to the car and put his front paw on it.
Then another man gave Sam the license plate number of his car.Sam wrote it down on a piece of paper and put the paper on the sidewalk.He told Jim to identify the car.Without hesitation，Jim walked to the car in question.
After incidents like these，Jim’s reputation spread like wildfire around the small town.Soon he was demonstrating his powers in the Ruff Hotel for amazed crowds of up to a hundred people at a time.There seemed to be no limit to what Jim could do.When people were in the lobby，he could determine what room numbers they occupied in the hotel，it could identify people according to the clothes they wore，the color of their hair—in spite of the fact that dogs are thought to be color-blind—their profession，and，in the case of the military，their rank.
Perhaps，the skeptics said，Sam was secretly signaling to Jim.Although none of Sam’s friends and associates questioned his integrity，knowing him to be a plainspeaking man who wouldn’t dream of deceiving others，one woman decided to test this theory.She had the clever idea to write an instruction for Jim in shorthand;which Sam did not understand.When Sam showed Jim the paper onwhich the instruction was written，and told him to do whatever it said，Jim went over to a certain man.The woman shouted，“He’s doing it！”Then she explained that the instruction was，“Show us the man with rolled socks.”