I made a loud exclamation of pained surprise, and Uncle Antonio came out, fully dressed. He slept in his clothes to save time and trouble. “Oh,” he shrieked, tearing his hair, “eet ees Jocko! Jocko haf been here in ze night w’ile I sleep! Jocko lova da spaghett! He always washa da plate for me!”
He tore around like a madman, looking for his pet, but of course he found nothing. I saw something, but wisely held my tongue about it. A box of Hoop-La’s footprints had been left on the doorstep and there was a bundle of her tracks a little farther on in the wood.
Like Minerva from the head of Jove, a great scheme presented itself, all ready to be worked out. That afternoon, I climbed to my observatory, and with my powerful field-glass saw Hoop-La on the veranda of her home, grinning, licking her chops, and occasionally patting her stomach with an air of satisfaction.
That night I said to my esteemed relation: “Uncle Antonio, if you will fix up another pail of that spaghetti, borrow a Horse, and trust me implicitly, I think I can restore Jocko to your empty arms.”
He looked at me suspiciously, then assailed me with a torrent of questions, to all of which I made no reply. He spent the night preparing more sauce, and at dawn he set out for the nearest village, twenty-one and a half miles distant, to borrow a Horse.
About noon, he rode in, put up the Horse in the bridle chamber attached to the premises, and cooked a savoury mess of spaghetti. My mouth watered, but I dared not hesitate. I mounted, took the plate, and rode off toward Hoop-La’s den.
As I had hoped, she was at home. I tied the plunging steed, whose mouth was dripping and who regarded the spaghetti yearningly, and advanced to the front piazza.
Sniffing hungrily, she came out, and I heard the frenzied clankings of Jocko’s chain. “Come, Hoop-La,” I said, though my voice trembled. She called her children, and in a moment they were all eating greedily.
As I had planned, poor, imprisoned Jocko came out to the end of his chain. It did not permit him to go farther than a foot from the entrance, but that was sufficient for my purpose. Quick as a flash, I unfastened the chain from his collar, took the thoroughly frightened animal in my arms, and ran for dear life to the Horse.
I was none too soon. With an angry snarl, Hoop-La followed me, but she had already eaten too heartily to do her best work on the rough track which lay ahead of us. She clung to the Horse’s tail, growling and snarling in baffled rage, her claws and teeth urging the trembling steed into a foaming gallop.