"That's nothing to what Billiard's did to him," Susie retorted sharply, nettled at her reception. "He picked out the prettiest of the bunch for Tabitha. We told him how much you used to want a dog all your own, Kitty. But it's the wildest thing I ever saw. Here he comes now. Billiard, didn't you choose your pup for Tabitha?"
"Would you accept it?" he panted somewhat shyly, embarrassed and a little provoked that Susie should have announced his intentions the first thing. "I—I got the handsomest fellow of them all, but I pretty near had to club it to death before it would come along peaceably."
"But Billiard," gasped Tabitha, finding her tongue at last, "that isn't a pup!"
"What is it then?" Susie bristled so aggressively that she forgot to keep a tight hold on her unwilling prisoner, and with a final scratch and yap of exultation, it freed itself from her arms, and darted away among the sagebrush.
"A coyote."
"No!" Toady dropped his as if it were poison, and lifted startled eyes to Tabitha's face.
"You're fooling!" cried Susie in exasperation over her loss.
"Dad, Uncle Decker, isn't that a baby coyote?"
Both men nodded silently, a look of amusement flickering about their lips.
"But—but—" spluttered Billiard, still hugging his half-smothered treasure to his bosom. "It—they look like pups."