A kicking figure was sprawled on the roof, clinging with both hands to the ridge of it.
“Suppose the dog does not remember us?” the older girl gasped in Agnes’ ear. “Maybe—maybe he’ll tear us to pieces. How savage he sounds!”
Agnes was frightened; but she had pluck, too. “Come on, Ruth!” she said. “He is only mad at the thief.”
“If it is a thief,” quavered Ruth. “I—I am afraid to go on, Aggie.”
At that moment the sound of little feet pattering behind them made both girls turn. There were Dot and Tess, both barefooted, and Dot with merely a doubled-up comforter snatched from her bed, wrapped over her night clothes.
“Mercy me, children!” gasped Ruth. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, we mustn’t let Tom Jonah bite that man,” Tess declared, and kept right on running toward the henhouse.
“If that dog bites——” screamed Ruth, and ran after her smaller sister.
There was the big dog leaping savagely toward the low eaves of the hennery. A kicking figure was sprawled on the roof, clinging with both hands to the ridge of it. The girls obtained a glimpse of a dark face, with flashing teeth, and big gold rings in the marauder’s ears.
“Tak’ dog away! Tak’ dog away!” the man said, in a strangled voice.