On the way, Svend repeats again and again the name of what they are going to look for. So, by the time they arrive, Rolf is ready to get to work. He circles, backtracks and circles again. This he continues until he picks up the faint scent of an object lying in a spot where it doesn' t belong.
One spring I went to Funen to make sure that Rolf' s detective work was not some kind of fairy story. Over coffee and cakes Svend and I talked and watched Rolf. The dog' s stare was mysterious. He seemed alert yet calm. The telephone rang, and then I heard Svend saying, "A wallet? I can' t promise, but we' ll do our best."
An hour later we were in a park, tramping among the trees with Axel Jensen, the man who had phoned. Jensen had lost his Wallet.
For half an hour Rolf roamed in wide, broken zigzags. Occasionally, Svend would call him back or tell him to keep looking. No wallet was found.
We drove to another part of the forest. Again Rolf roamed with his nose to the boggy earth. Svend encourage him from time to time. I don' t know at what moment we began to notice that Rolf was padding about in small circles. Svend was now standing at the edge of a ditch. He was tense, as if giving orders that only Rolf could hear.
Suddenly, Rolf began to paw the soft earth. He stopped, looked about and scratched again a few feet away. Then he changed his mind and began to dig further to the right. All at once he trotted out of the bog, head high. He was holding something dark in his mouth. It was the wallet!Jensen roared with surprise and joy.
"Tell me, Svend," I said later, "how on earth does a dog go about finding a wallet five by seven inches in a huge forest covered with undergrowth?"
Svend smiled as he replied, "I knew there was nothing in the first 75 acres because of Rolf' s lack of interest. But in the swamp I could tell from the way Rolf acted that he had picked up a trail. The scent had reached him through the air from the spot where the wallet was dropped ten days ago."
How did Svend come to own this dog with a detective' s nose? He picked Rolf from a litter of seven pups because Rolf had the biggest head and snuffled more eagerly along the ground.
When he was only five months old, Rolf found his first missing object. It was a neighbor' s watch. After a year' s careful training, Rolf became a professional, ready for work.
One time Svend had an unusual call. A visitor to a cattle show sneezed so hard that he lost a gold falling. Did Rolf find it? Of course!And the speck of gold lay several yards from the place of the sneeze, in ground that had been trampled by hundreds of feet.
Another time Rolf saved an 11-year-old girl from a stern scolding. She was playing with her grandmother' s fine watch when she lost it in a haystack. About 50 children were turned loose to look for it. No luck. Next day the police came with two dogs; both failed.
Nine days later, Rolf was sent for. Paying no attention to the haystack, Rolf began to nose about in a pit some distance away. He found the watch in a matter of minutes. Someone had dumped a forkful of hay from the stack into the pit.
Rolf does not always meet with success, but he tries very hard. Sometimes he tries too hard. Once when Svend scolded him sharply for failing to find a lost watch, Rolf crept away. He returned a little later in triumph with a watch in his mouth. Close behind him was an angry, half naked man. He shouted: "I was getting dressed when this dog poked his head in the door and lifed my watch from the table. He' s a thief!"
Nothing ever gets lost in the Andersen house. Rolf picks up coins, nails, buttons, all without being told. To show me this, Svend put a spoon on the floor and then called Rolf in from the next room. The dog was ordered to lie down. We went on talking. Rolf couldn' t stand it. In a few minutes he got up, seized the spoon in his mouth and brought it to his master.
Andersen and Rolf definitely are partners. Between them there is a deep understanding. When Rolf fails on a job, Svend lies awake that night. In his mind he goes over and over the ground they searched. Often he gets out of bed and drivers with Rolf to the scene of their failure. There they go hunting again by flashlight.
"The night is quiet," he says, "It' s a good time to hunt a thing that is lost." Often they find it. "When we find something," says Andersen, "there' s no feeling like it. I don' t know who is happier, Rolf or me. Then I can just relax—until the telephone rings again!"
在丹麦的富南岛上，每天都能看见一辆小巧的蓝色敞篷车沿着小路奔驰着。一条黑色的大狗坐在司机的旁边，仿佛在听司机的指令似的。无论何时，只要这辆敞篷车开过来，富南岛上的居民都会转过身盯着看，有一些好奇，也有一些羡慕。因为车上写着：“寻物狗罗尔夫”和一个电话号码。
是的，那辆蓝色敞篷车里的乘客就是罗尔夫，他是一只帮人们寻找失物的狗。7年间，罗尔夫和他的主人已经寻找到价值400 000美元的失物了，包括手表、珠宝、工具、钱、母牛、白鹅、猪和其他的狗。那么罗尔夫的秘密武器是什么呢？就是他那个灵敏的鼻子！
拥有这样鼻子的主人是一只10岁大的德国牧羊犬。这只德国牧羊犬的主人是斯文·安德森。他们每年都会接到六百到七百个这样的求援电话。他们平均5次中有4次能够顺利地按照失主的要求找到失物。
每当安德森家的电话一响，罗尔夫就立刻提高警惕，猛冲到车上，迫切地要出发去寻找失物。
一路上，斯文一遍又一遍地重复着他们即将寻找的失物的名字。因此，当他们到达事发地的时候，罗尔夫就可以马上进入工作状态。他围着事发地点打着转，又原路返回，再不停地转着。直到他在现场嗅出失物微弱的气味为止。
一年春天，我去了富南岛，打算去证实罗尔夫的侦探工作并不是某种神话。喝过咖啡，吃了些点心之后，斯文和我一边交谈一边注视着罗尔夫。那只狗看起来有些神秘，既机警又不失平静。电话铃响了，然后我就听到斯文说道：“一个钱包？我不能保证，但是我们会尽全力帮您的。”
一个小时之后我们到达了公园，与阿克塞尔·詹森一起在树下踱步。电话就是他打的，他的钱包丢了。
大约半个小时，罗尔夫一直在漫无目的地走着“之”字路。斯文偶尔会将他叫回来或是再告诉他一些事情让他继续寻找。钱包还是没有找到。
我们来到森林的另一处。罗尔夫再一次漫步在湿软的地上用鼻子嗅来嗅去。斯文一次又一次地鼓励他。不知道过了多长时间，我注意到罗尔夫绕的圈子在变小。斯文现在站在沟渠的边上，神情紧张，好像是在下达命令，而这只有罗尔夫能够听到。
突然，罗尔夫开始在松软的地上刨着。他停了下来，四处看看，又在几步远的地方刨起来。然后他又改变主意，向右边挖去。突然，他高昂着头跑出那片沼泽地。他的嘴里叼着一个黑色的东西。那是一个钱包！詹森惊奇而又快乐地大声叫着。
“告诉我吧，斯文，”过了一会儿，我说道，“一只狗是怎样在一个灌木丛生的大森林里，找到那个只有5英寸宽7英寸长的钱包呢？”
斯文笑着回答道：“我知道在最初的那75英亩地中什么也没有，因为罗尔夫对那里一点兴趣都没有。但是在沼泽地中我可以从罗尔夫的表现中看出他已经寻找到一些蛛丝马迹了。罗尔夫在10天前钱包丢失的地方的空气中嗅出了它的气味。”
斯文是怎样得到这样一只有着侦探般鼻子的狗呢？他是从一窝小狗中挑出罗尔夫的，因为罗尔夫的脑袋最大，而且急切地在地上嗅来嗅去。
当罗尔夫只有5个月大的时候，第一次找到了一件失物。那是邻居家的手表。经过一年的细心培训，罗尔夫成为了一只职业寻物狗，时刻准备工作。
有一次，斯文接到了一个不同寻常的电话。有人在一场家畜展览上打了一个很大的喷嚏，以至于掉了一个金币。罗尔夫能够找得到吗？当然可以了！那枚金币离他打喷嚏的地方只有几尺远。