They had about concluded to go to bed, when suddenly without the slightest warning and like a bolt from a clear sky, something happened that very nearly put an end to their careers for good and all.
Suddenly out of the darkness, apparently from nowhere at all, sprang a huge gray cat, eyes flaming and tail high in air, that leaped upon the terrified cubs, and seizing Jerry by the back of the neck, shook him as he often had shaken a rat.
Billy, the big coon-cat who was Jimmy-boy’s dear friend and playmate, had been down in the cellar for several days enjoying a protracted mouse hunt, and now, returning by devious ways best known to himself, had surprised the marauders at the very height of their evil doing.
He was too full of fresh game to care anything about eating these queer looking animals, besides which the flavor of Jerry’s neck was anything but appetizing. But the lust of killing was in his blood, and he shook him fiercely, wondering greatly at the toughness of the creature, who was so much harder to dispatch than a rat.
Oh, how Jerry screamed! Surely never before did Teddy bear raise such a fearful racket. Luckily for him, Mrs. Gray was awakened by the noise and now came running out of the bedroom, just in time to prevent Jerry’s complete undoing.
“Dear old Billy! You thought you were doing your duty,” she exclaimed, stroking the big fellow, who was purring and rubbing against her, very proud indeed of what he had done, but on the whole somewhat piqued that he had not been permitted to complete the good work.
As for Jerry, the chief damages that he had suffered seemed to be done to Sally’s blue hair-ribbon, that still adorned his neck.
Both he and Tom were extremely glad to be deposited in a place of safety high on the mantel shelf, there to remain until Jimmy-boy called for them in the morning.