“Of course not!”
“I didn’t know,” he said. “I’ve heard of such things, but I never really believed them. Say, if I could help you get away I would, honest, Fritz! But it’s no use. There isn’t anything I can do.”
We talked over two or three plans, but there didn’t seem to be any way out of it. When it was getting dark again the man came in and took me out of the box and led me into the house. As soon as he let go of the string I made for the door, but he caught me and cuffed me and closed the door tightly. Then he took a box and put me into it and nailed a lid down on top of me. There were some little holes bored in the sides of the box which barely let in enough air for me to breathe. Pretty soon he took the box under his arm and set out with it. As we went out of the yard Jim called “Good-bye, Fritz! Good luck!” But I was too unhappy to reply.
CHAPTER IX
IN THE ANIMAL STORE
It was a long journey and I was terribly frightened. After the man had walked a long way there was a lot of noise and then we were in a train, only I didn’t know what it was at the time. The motion made me very uncomfortable and I felt a little bit sick at my stomach. But I managed to go to sleep presently, with my nose close up to one of the holes in the box.
The next thing I knew the box was being lifted up and then the man carried me for awhile. It was very noisy where we went and it smelled differently from any place I’d ever been. I guessed it was the City, and I was right. When we reached the end of the journey the cover of the box was taken off and I found myself in a little room with the man who had stolen me and another man who looked very dirty and fat. I could hear a lot of funny noises; dogs barking and cats meowing and birds chirping. The man who had brought me there said:
“Thirty dollars takes him, Bill, and not a cent less. He’s a prize-winner, he is. Belongs to—”
“I don’t want to hear who he belongs to,” said the other man. “You bring him to me and say you want to sell him. That’s enough. If he wasn’t your dog I wouldn’t be buying him. But twenty dollars is all I can pay for him. There ain’t much call for dachshunds just now. They ain’t in style.”
So the two men talked and talked for a long time, the man who had brought me saying he must have thirty dollars and the other man saying he could only pay twenty. But after awhile they agreed on a price and the new man gave the other some money and he went away. Then the new man took me into another room that was filled with cages and put me into one and gave me water and food. I was very thirsty and a little bit hungry, but the place was so strange that I didn’t do more than drink a little water at first.