“Why can’t we hide when he comes?” asked another young robber. “I never have seen any one I couldn’t hide from.”
“Then, unless I am greatly mistaken, you are likely to have a chance,” snapped the leader.
CHAPTER XVII
THE ROBBERS DECIDE TO FIGHT
A bad name sticks as naught else can
To bird or beast or boy or man.
Billy Mink.
When one of the young robber Rats at the meeting of all the Rats in the big barn boasted that he never had seen any one he couldn’t hide from, all the other young Rats nodded their heads in approval. You see, they prided themselves on knowing every hiding-place in that big barn, and they never had known an enemy small enough to follow them to these hiding-places. When the gray old leader of that robber gang said that unless he was greatly mistaken they were likely to have a chance to see some one they couldn’t hide from, they at once demanded to know what he meant.
The old leader looked around the circle of Rats waiting for him to speak. There were big Rats, little Rats, and middle-sized Rats. There were Rats gray with age, and sleek, brown-coated Rats. He counted noses. Every Rat of the tribe, save only the babies too small to leave the nests, and the one whom Billy Mink had caught, was present. In the faces of the gray old Rats he could see worry. Like himself, they understood the danger they were in. In the faces of the younger Rats there was no worry. It was plain to see that they felt quite confident of being able to take care of themselves. Never in all their lives had they met an enemy they could not run away from, and he knew they didn’t believe such an enemy lived.
“Knowledge of life is obtained only through experience,” he began. “You who are so sure you can hide from this new enemy are confident because you are ignorant. Cats and Dogs you do not fear, because you can go where they cannot follow. But this Mink who has found our den can follow where any of you, even the smallest, can go.”
“But if he does not see us hide, how can he find us?” squeaked a sharp-nosed young Rat.