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.
[Illustration]
"In the first place, have you heard the doctor or anyone else talking
about the burglars that got in Judge Perkins' house last night, and stole
all the silver knives, forks, spoons and other things they could lay their
hands on, besides eating up the pies and the cold chicken that were on the
pantry shelf?"
"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.
[Illustration: THERE, SURE ENOUGH, WERE FIVE OR SIX LITTLE BOYS AND GIRLS
HAVING A PICNIC
(_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.
[Illustration]
"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.