Zip's Exciting News

"Why, Zip Elsworth! Where in the world have you been? You look all fagged out and you are spattered with mud from head to foot! The doctor has been whistling for you for half an hour, and I just heard him tell Martha to save you a good dinner for you would be mighty hungry when you came in, as you would have to come a good ten miles if you got left at the last place he called, for it was away over at Mapleville. He said he never noticed you were not in the buggy until he was nearly home, and then he thought you must be running on behind, as you sometimes do so you can chase chickens, dogs and cows that are in the road, just for the fun of it."

"Tabby, don't talk to me until I have had a drink. I don't want anything to eat. I am too excited to taste a morsel and it would stick in my throat if I tried to swallow it."

"Gracious, goodness, me! It must be something awful if it excites you this way, for you generally love excitement and it doesn't tire you a bit."

"Come with me until I get a drink and take a swim in the watering trough to get off this mud, and then I will tell you my news. And be prepared for a big surprise."

"Land sakes!" exclaimed Tabby. "Who has gone and hung himself to the rafters of his barn? Or has someone's house burned down with them in it?"

"No, it is neither of those things, and you might as well stop guessing and prepare to listen to what I tell you, for you will never know it otherwise, as I am the only one in the whole village who knows all the ins and outs of the thing."

While they were talking, Zip was running from one end of the watering trough to the other, trying to wash the mud off his white coat. Tabby thought he never would get clean, he stayed in so long, and she was nearly bursting with curiosity to hear what he had to tell.

At last he was through and, jumping out and giving himself a good shake, they sought a sunny spot in the back garden where they would not be disturbed, and Zip began his story.

"Oh, do tell me about it! I'm all excitement! I just love to hear about burglars! It is so exciting it makes me feel all creepy! Just like I make the mice feel when they smell me sitting outside their holes waiting for them to come out so I may pounce upon them. Begin and tell me all about it! Don't leave a thing out that you know. I want it all! How many were there? How did they get in? What did they take, and have they been caught?"

"Go slow, Tabby! One question at a time, if you please. And now if you will keep still, I'll tell you all I know from the very beginning. Do you remember my telling you about a tramp I bit the other day—the one whose bundle of clothes I dropped in the frog pond?"

"Oh, bother the tramp! Who wants to hear about him now? I only want to hear of the burglars," replied impatient Tabby.

"Well, I have to tell you about this tramp to tell you the story, and if you don't keep still and listen, I won't tell it at all."

And Tabby, knowing he would keep his word, curled her tail more tightly around her legs and sat up stiffly, prepared to listen.

"To begin at the beginning," said Zip, "when the doctor and I got up town this morning, he went into the drug store to get some medicines, and I followed. When we were inside we heard a lot of excited men talking about the burglars who had gotten in Judge Perkins' house and made off with the silver without being caught. The Judge was in the midst of them, telling all he knew, so I listened and got the news first-hand. And this is what he said.

"His wife awoke and thought she heard someone moving around downstairs. Then she wakened the Judge and they both listened. Yes, there surely was someone moving cautiously around under them, in the dining-room! Next they heard whoever it was move to the hall door and begin to mount the stairs. As the Judge had no fire-arms, he said he picked up a chair and tiptoed to the head of the stairs, intending to bring it down on the burglar's head when he came within hitting distance. The hall was as black as your hat and he could hear nothing now but his wife's frightened whispers, begging him to come back or the burglar would kill him. Then he heard the burglar's soft step on the stairs. He had reached the first landing, for the Judge could tell by the sound of his steps just where he must be. Then a loud howl rent the air. The burglar had stepped on their pet cat, who always sleeps on the stair landing!

"This surprised the burglar so that he stepped back, lost his balance and fell bumpety-bump to the bottom. The Judge rushed back into the bedroom, lit a candle and, holding it high over his head, hurried down the stairs. His wife followed behind with a big umbrella clasped in her hand, while the Judge was armed with a big, black briarwood cane with a silver knob on the end. And the Judge said that if he ever got a crack at that burglar with that cane it would split his head open. When they reached the dining-room, they heard the burglar stumbling down the cellar stairs. They followed him, but were too late, for as they reached the foot of the stairs the burglar was just climbing out of a window, the way he had gotten in, propping it open with an old cane that had a bundle of clothes tied on the end of it, all done up in a dirty, red handkerchief.

(Page Thirty-Four)

"The minute the Judge got to this part of his story, I left, for at the mention of the bundle done up in a dirty, red handkerchief on the end of a cane, I thought of the tramp I had bitten yesterday. I felt sure it was he that was the burglar. So I determined not to lose any time, but to go over there and nose around and see if I could not track him by the scent of his footsteps, even if I should not be fortunate enough to get a smell at the bundle he had left behind, for I should know the dirty smell of that man's shins and his old bundle anywhere."

"And is that where you have been, chasing that tramp? Did you find him?" asked Tabby.

"Tabby, will you keep still and stop asking questions? You throw me all off my story! If you will only keep quiet and let me stop long enough to get my breath, I'll tell you all. But mind, it is going to be in my own way!"

"Very well, then; I will keep still, but I am so excited, I feel I must ask a question now and then or blow up!"

So once again Tabby wrapped her tail tightly around her legs to keep from tapping the end of it in her nervousness. And Zip proceeded with his story.

"Well, when I got out of the drug store, I ran just as fast as I could to Judge Perkins' house across lots, through mud puddles and down lanes."

"And you looked it when you got here!" broke in Tabby.

To which remark Zip paid no attention, but went right on with his story.

"When I reached the Judge's, I made straight for the cellar window, hoping to find the cane with the bundle of clothes still on it propping up the window.

"Was it there? Was it there?" interrupted Tabby.

"Yes, it was there, and I went up and smelt of it and no mistaking the odor, it was the same dirty bundle I had dropped in the frog pond! I paid no more attention to it, but began to look for footprints and smell around on the ground by the window. Just as I thought, it was the same tramp! I started on his scent, which was easy to follow, as his feet were big and the scent strong. They led me down through the garden, past the barn and into a thick clump of trees by the stone wall at the end of the Judge's place. Here the fellow had stopped, dug a hole and buried the silver! He had done it hurriedly and with his hands, for I could see finger marks on the ground and the handle of one spoon sticking out. I waited for no more, but ran along the wall trying to find a place to get through, but I could not until I reached the gate. Then I crawled under and then ran back to where the tramp had climbed the wall and dropped down on the other side. Here I picked up his trail again and followed it to the railroad track where the freight trains stand on a siding. I lost it here, so I think he must have jumped on a freight and escaped that way. Now what do you think of that for a story?"

"I think you are a very clever dog. But isn't it too bad that they will never find their silver and there it will be all the time buried in their own back yard!"

"Of course they will find it!" exclaimed Zip.

"I would like to know how! For they won't be digging in that part of the garden."

"Well, they just will, for I am going to lead them to it!" Zip said.

"How are you going to do that when you can't talk, I should like to know?"

"No, I can't talk, but I can bark and make such a fuss that they will follow me to the place and then I will scratch around and reveal the silver."

"My, but I should like to be there and see their faces when the first spoon comes flying out of the earth when you scratch!"

"You can be. I will tell you when I am going and you may go ahead and be sitting on the fence when I bring them to the spot."

"You are a dear, Zip! And I'll give you all the meat they give me for dinner for three days!"

"All right; it's a bargain."

"When are you going?"

"Right away, for I want to be there when the Judge gets home. Come ahead and let's start!"

And five minutes later you could have seen a little, spotted dog and a big, yellow cat running side by side across lots and down lanes in the direction of Judge Perkins' home.