“Your dog doesn’t seem awfully interested in ’em,” remarked Pigeon Brown. Which was a fact, since Ace, having been liberated, was dodging in and out of the displaced furniture, sniffing and wagging the stump of his tail, but apparently quite unaware of the presence of the rats. Jonesie scowled upon him and demanded his attention, but the terrier was too much interested in the contents of the waste-basket to heed the summons. After a brief but interesting chase, Pinky dragged Ace from under the bureau, to which place he had retired with a banana peel. Ace, confronted with the rats, put his head on one side, pricked up his ears when the rodents squealed at sight of him and wagged his tail amiably. After that he gazed trustingly and inquiringly at Jonesie and seemed to be asking permission to continue his interesting investigation of the premises. Pinky’s firm grip on his collar denied him, however, and Pill Farnham chuckled.
“Bet you he never saw a rat before in his life, fellows!” said Pill.
Jonesie faced him indignantly. “Didn’t he?” he inquired with deep irony. “He’s killed more rats than you ever dreamed of.” Pill tried to state that he was not accustomed to dreaming of rats, but Jonesie went on with growing indignation. “You don’t expect a dog that’s seen as many rats as he has to throw a fit, do you? You wait till we let ’em out! Then you’ll see whether he can kill rats or not! Only thing I’m bothering about is whether we oughtn’t to let ’em all out at once. I dare say one or two at a time won’t be any fun for him.”
“It’ll be more fun for us, though,” responded Steve, climbing back to the top of the table and carefully removing his feet from proximity to the floor. “Let her go, Jonesie!”
“Are we all here?” asked Jonesie, looking about. “Where’s Sparrow?”
“Isn’t coming,” answered young Fletcher. “Said he had a headache. Told me to tell you.”
“Headache!” jeered Jonesie. “Too lazy to walk, I guess! All right, fellows. Get out of the way now. Which trap shall we open first, Pinky?”
“This one,” replied Pinky, pushing forward the cage which held two rats.
“We-ell.” Jonesie studied the scene of combat. “Now when I open the thing you let Ace loose. Where are you going?”
“Just—just over here,” murmured Pinky, reaching behind him for the bureau.