“You won’t forget to put in something to eat, will you, please?”
“Oh, no,” laughed Teddy’s mother. “I won’t forget that. I’ll put that in the car first of all. Now you stay at the Nixon farm until I get there.”
“Yes’m,” said Dick.
“Land sakes!” exclaimed Mrs. Nixon as Dick turned from the telephone. “What’s all this? You must excuse me,” she went on, “but I couldn’t help hearing what you were saying to Mrs. Benson. So it’s been a deer that’s been rampaging around in my garden, eh?”
“Has that deer been around here?” asked Dick eagerly.
“Some sort of a critter has,” stated the farmer’s wife. “Two or three nights ago it got into our melon patch and did a lot of damage. We didn’t exactly know what sort of an animal it was. But it must be the deer you’re talking about.”
“It got in Mrs. Traddle’s garden, too,” Dick said. He gave a short account of the animal, and Mrs. Nixon said:
“This must be the critter that cowboy fellow is after.”
“Was there a cowboy here after the deer?” asked Dick, now more excited than before.
“Yes, there was, a couple of days ago,” replied Mrs. Nixon. “At least, he said he was a cowboy and he was looking for a lost deer. That was before our melon patch was raided. And I didn’t think any more about it until now when I heard you talk to Mrs. Benson.”