“Seems to be characteristic of the donkey tribe not to want to go,” observed Katherine. “That one over there is balking, too. Doesn’t the fellow that’s trying to drive him look like a pirate, though? I wouldn’t go for him either, if I were a donkey.”
“O look!” cried Sahwah in amazement, and they all stopped still.
A small boy was coming down the street blowing lustily on a wheezy horn, and as soon as the donkey heard it he wheeled around, facing the music, pricked up his ears, uttered a squeal of rapture and rose up on his hind legs, almost upsetting the queer little cart to which he was harnessed.
“Katherine! I do believe it is Sandhelo,” cried Sahwah, excitedly gripping Katherine’s arm.
The man sprang from the cart and seizing the donkey by the bit brought him down to earth with a rough pull that almost jerked his head off, shouting abuse at him in a foreign tongue. The little boy, frightened at the uproar, ran away, taking his music with him. The man got into the cart again and tried to drive away. The donkey refused to move. The man began to beat him unmercifully.
“Oh, girls, we must do something to stop him!” cried Hinpoha, hopping up and down in distress.
“Here, you, stop that!” shouted Katherine, running forward and waving her muff at him threateningly. “I’ll have the law on you!” The man either did not understand, or did not care, for he paid not the slightest heed to her words. “Stop it, stop it, I say!” she commanded, stamping her foot angrily and wildly wishing she were a man, that she might beat this bully even as he was beating the poor little beast.
The man looked at her and grinned derisively. “Who says so?” he growled.
“I say so!” said a voice behind Katherine, and she turned to see the Captain standing beside her. “You stop beating that donkey or I’ll punch your head.” He put his fingers to his lips and uttered a long shrill whistle which the girls recognized as the call of the Sandwiches, and the next minute the other boys came running up the side street, Bottomless Pitt, Monkey, Dan, Peter and Harry, with Slim trailing along in the rear, puffing violently in his efforts to keep up with the rest. They surrounded the cart threateningly and the man sulkily left off beating the donkey.
Sahwah went forward and stroked the little animal’s head and then she uttered a triumphant cry.