Rick and Ruddy Part 17

With a queer look on his face, the dog would then go back to the porch, growling and glancing up at the tree where the crow was perched. Ruddy knew he had been fooled. But, no matter how often this happened, he would always jump up and run out whenever Haw-Haw whistled. Ruddy could not tell the difference between the notes of the crow and the call of Rick. As I told you a dog depends on his scent, or by smelling with his nose, to tell his master and friends, and not on his ears or eyesight, though a dog's hearing is better than his vision.

"I guess I'll have to stop whistling for Ruddy when I come home from school," said Rick to his mother one day, when he had come in with his books, and had been told that Haw-Haw had played the trick three times on the setter that afternoon. "It's too bad to plague him that way. I won't whistle any more when I come along."

"I guess it would be just as well not to," agreed Mrs. Dalton. "Haw-Haw is too smart for Ruddy. And he has another trick, too, Rick."

"You mean Haw-Haw has?"

"Yes, he took some spoons off the kitchen table to-day and dropped them in the hollow of a tree in front of the house. I saw him, or I wouldn't have known about it. It's quite a deep hollow and I could hardly reach down in and get the spoons. And what else do you think I found down in there?"

"I don't know. Was it my roller skate key that I lost?"

"No, but it was the new tea strainer I lost. That disappeared last week.

Haw-Haw must have carried it off. I have heard that crows like to pick up s.h.i.+ny things and hide them, but this is the first time our crow had done such a trick."

"Say, he's a regular trick crow; isn't he?" exclaimed Rick.

"Too much so!" laughed Mrs. Dalton. "I must watch him."

"And I must try to teach him some more words to say," went on Rick. "He can almost say 'I want my supper' now."

"Well, I'm glad you think it sounds like something," said Rick's mother.

"To me your crow's talk only resembles a lot of screeching and jabbering."

"Oh, he'll learn to talk all right," declared Rick. "I'm going to teach him now."

And when Chot came over, a little later, the two boys took turns at educating the black crow. They seemed to be satisfied with what Haw-Haw learned, though when the crow was brought in the house, perched on Rick's shoulder, and asked to repeat his latest lesson, he only flapped his one good wing and whistled shrilly.

"Oh, say! You're a tease!" cried Rick, and Mazie laughed at the two boys.

But Rick gave up whistling to Ruddy on coming home from school, and the crow soon learned that he could no longer fool the dog. Ruddy was growing wiser and Haw-Haw gradually stopped that trick, though he did not forget how to whistle.

However, though Rick gave up sounding his signal call to his dog on coming from school, Ruddy seemed to know about the time to expect his boy master. He would be on the watch and waiting, and, when the hands of the clock pointed to a little after three, Rick would race out to the gate and wait for his chum; for that is what Rick and Ruddy were now--chums.

One afternoon Rick came running in the gate, swinging his books like the pendulum of a clock that was running on double time.

"Where's Ruddy? Where's my football?" cried the boy. "We're going to have some fun--all the boys over in the big field! Where's Ruddy?

Where's my football?"

"Why, your football must be just where you left it," Mrs. Dalton answered. "As for Ruddy, didn't he come to meet you?"

"Come to meet me? No. Was he here a while ago?"

"Just a little while ago, yes. He was asleep on the porch. I heard a whistle, and saw him rush out."

"But, Mother, I didn't whistle for him! I don't call him that way any more since Haw-Haw played that trick. I didn't call Ruddy!"

"You didn't?"

"No!" was the answer. Rick was beginning to be alarmed.

"Someone whistled and he ran out," went on Mrs. Dalton.

"I wonder if it was Haw-Haw?" spoke the boy.

Just then the crow fluttered out from the kitchen, where he sometimes went to sleep behind the stove.

"It couldn't have been him," declared Rick.

"It was someone," said Mrs. Dalton. "I saw Ruddy run out as he always does when he goes to meet you, and----"

Rick did not stop to hear what else his mother had to say. He rushed for the front gate and looked up and down the street. No Ruddy was in sight, and a great fear came into the boy's heart.

Ruddy was gone.

CHAPTER XIII

ON THE SEARCH

Never, since the red-brown setter had come up out of the ocean to be Rick's dog, had Ruddy not been on hand to greet his master when the boy came racing from school. During the hours when Rick had to be at his cla.s.ses, studying or reciting his lessons, Ruddy, when not chained in his kennel, would roam about the woods and fields, not too far away from the house. Once he had even followed Rick and Mazie to school, and Rick had been excused, and allowed to bring his pet back home.

And now, for the first time, Ruddy was not there to greet his master.

Rick looked up and down the street but no dog was in sight; only Sallie, the cat.

Rick gave a shrill whistle, the kind he always used to call his pet, but there was no joyous, answering bark. Sallie, the cat, gave a meaouw as if replying, but Rick did not understand cat language, or at least not very much of it, so he did not know what Sallie was saying. Perhaps the cat was telling Rick she knew where Ruddy had gone, but, being unable to speak boy-talk, the cat was of no use to Rick.

"Here, Ruddy! Ruddy! Here, Ruddy, boy!" called Rick. Then he whistled again, and Haw-Haw, being fully awake now, and hearing the shrill notes, imitated them.

"Oh, Mother!" exclaimed Rick, coming back to the side porch. "Where do you s'pose Ruddy can be?"

"Oh, I guess he just ran off, maybe to play with Peter," said Mrs.

Dalton.

"But he never did it before--not when I was coming home from school,"

remarked the boy.

Just then Haw-Haw whistled again.

"There!" exclaimed Mrs. Dalton. "I heard a whistle just like that a few minutes before you came. It wasn't the crow, for he was asleep behind the stove."

"And I didn't whistle!" declared Rick. "Oh, do you think it could be that sailor--the one who was asking Mr. Bailey about Ruddy? Maybe he's been around here, and he heard me whistle, or maybe he heard Haw-Haw, and he knows how we used to call Ruddy. And maybe he called my dog and took him away."

"Oh, I hardly think so," said Mrs. Dalton, though she was afraid this might have happened. "I guess Ruddy just ran off to play with Peter, or some other dog."

"But he never did it before!" exclaimed Rick. "He always knows when I'm coming from school and he waits for me."