"You didn't?"
"No!" was the answer. Rick was beginning to be alarmed.
"Someone whistled and he ran out," went on Mrs. Dalton.
"I wonder if it was Haw-Haw?" spoke the boy.
Just then the crow fluttered out from the kitchen, where he sometimes went to sleep behind the stove.
"It couldn't have been him," declared Rick.
"It was someone," said Mrs. Dalton. "I saw Ruddy run out as he always does when he goes to meet you, and——"
Rick did not stop to hear what else his mother had to say. He rushed for the front gate and looked up and down the street. No Ruddy was in sight, and a great fear came into the boy's heart.