"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.