CHAPTER VII
Zip, Peter-Kins and the Turkey Gobbler
Promptly at nine-thirty the next morning the doctor's carriage appeared in front of his patient's house opposite Miss Belinda's cottage.
Zip lay quietly on the seat until the doctor had disappeared in the house, and then he quickly jumped out of the buggy, tiptoed across the street and quietly slipped under the fence. Once under, he stood stock-still and listened, eyes up and ears alert to catch any sound or see any movement of his old enemies, the monkey and the parrot. All was quiet in the front yard, and not even Polly's cage was to be seen swinging on its accustomed hook beside the front door. Still Zip listened and looked in every tree and bush, to make sure the monkey was not hiding under the leaves, ready to pounce on him. He had just come to the conclusion that they had been shut in the house when he heard a terrible commotion and cackling going on in the chicken yard, and above it all Polly's voice screaming, "Help! Help! Naughty Peter-Kinks! (This was Polly's name for Peter-Kins.) Spank! Spank! Help! Help!"
Polly had heard Miss Belinda say this so many times that she had learned to imitate her perfectly.
"That monkey is up to some mischief," thought Zip. "I'll run and see what he's up to, and maybe I'll have a chance to get even with him for running his claws into my back when he was taking that ride!"
Soon Zip was at the fence that divided the chicken yard from the lawn, and looking through the pales, this is what he saw:
Peter-Kins ran down the trunk of a big elm tree that shaded part of the chicken yard, then he grabbed up a tiny little fluffy yellow chicken right from under the old hen's very bill, and made off with it up the tree. This made the old hen so angry and frightened that she cackled and carried on just like people do when terrified. Then just when all the rest of the chickens had quieted down a little and the old hen had gathered the rest of her brood under her wings, Peter-Kins threw the little peep at mother hen's head, which killed the little chicken instantly and upset all the rest of the fowls in the barnyard once more.
"I'll just keep hidden, and wait until he comes down," planned Zip, "and then I will pounce out and grab him by the back of his neck and shake him as if he were a rat."