“We’ll find out yet,” Nibble encouraged him. “You look out up here—you might catch him, red-toothed, any minute. I’m going to see what the little owls know about him.”
But he didn’t tell why he was sure they knew.
Now if Nibble had gone straight to Doctor Muskrat and asked, “Who has a hind footprint like a little coon’s and a front one like a dog’s?” the wise old doctor would have told him in a moment.
But he didn’t. Because Tad was down at Doctor Muskrat’s Pond waiting for him, to know if Tommy Peele believed him. How could Nibble say, “Well, we’re pretty sure you told the truth, but we can’t find any one else to lay it to. The real killer must be too smart for us.” So he just crept into the Brushpile beneath the two little owls, asleep like two small knots on their limb.
They slept late, for they had feasted on those chicks that morning. It was almost dark before they stretched their wings and twiddled their stumpy tails. “Have you seen anything of Stripes?” asked the Lady Owl, polishing her beak on the rough bark, just the way you want to brush your teeth before breakfast. “Or are you going back for another chick?”
“No,” answered her mate. “I’d rather follow him.” And he flew over to the hollow in the fallen oak. “He’s gone!” he cried when he came back again. “He’s been gone a long time. His scent’s quite cold.”
“That’s no sign,” she said cheerfully. “Stripes can leave less scent than any fur I ever knew, when he pleases—and make more when he isn’t pleased!”
Nibble almost squealed. “Stripes is a skunk! I’ve never seen him, but Watch has. What a joke on that dog!” What Nibble had learned surely would have burst out of him if she hadn’t added: “Never mind, we’ll find him fast enough.” And off they flew.
“So will I,” chuckled Nibble, racing along behind them.
He’d have lost them in the dark, because they flew zig-zagging all about, if they hadn’t kept calling to each other all the while. “Where? Where?” they cried every other minute. Then “Here! Here!” shouted the little he owl “Under the bridge!” And, sure enough, Nibble could see a white thing moving around by the bridge across the brook that came out of the lower end of Doctor Muskrat’s Pond.