Billy Mink opened his eyes. At first he couldn’t think where he was. Everything about him was strange. Then, all in a flash, it came to him where he was. He was in a dark corner of the haymow in the big barn where the Rats lived.
Billy yawned. Then he stretched one leg and then another. He yawned again, stretched some more, then lay quiet for a few minutes, trying to decide whether to take another nap or hunt those Rats again.
“I may as well learn all about this barn while I am here,” thought Billy. “One never knows when such knowledge may come in very handy. Besides, I want to find out where all these Rats live. How they did squeal and squeak, when they discovered me!” Billy chuckled at the memory. “It is great fun to hunt them.”
Billy lazily got to his feet and arched his back, which was one way of stretching. Then he started out to explore the big barn. Of course he didn’t go far before he smelled a Rat. That is to say, he smelled the scent left by the feet of a Rat. Right away Billy forgot everything but the fun of hunting, the game of hide-and-seek in which death was the price of being caught. He started out along the trail of that Rat. By and by, way down under some boxes, he came to a nest. It was made of old rags, torn paper, and other bits of rubbish. Billy didn’t knock to find out if any one were at home. No, indeed, Billy didn’t knock. He just popped his head right in. He expected to find some babies at home if no one else, because he knew that there are babies most of the time in the home of a Rat.
Right then, Billy got his first surprise. That nest was empty! Yes, sir, it was empty! There had been babies there, as his nose told him, but they had been carried away. Billy hunted about a bit until he found the trail leading away from the nest. This he followed. It led him downstairs to a hole in the barn floor, through this to the ground, and straight to an opening which led out of doors.
“Huh!” muttered Billy. “This is queer.” He ran about a bit and it didn’t take him long to discover that there were many tracks leading to that opening out of doors. He could tell by the smell that those Rats had gone out and not come back.
“It looks as if my future dinners have run away,” muttered Billy, and then he began to explore that barn in earnest. There wasn’t a hole or crevice or cranny in it that he didn’t poke his nose into. There wasn’t a Rat nest that he didn’t find. But not a glimpse of a single Rat did he get, not the squeak of a single voice did he hear. There wasn’t a Rat in the barn! When he had gone to sleep there had been many. He had heard them squeaking all about him. Do you wonder that he was surprised?
CHAPTER XXIII
BILLY HUNTS IN VAIN
All secrets, ’tis the law of fate,
Will be discovered soon or late.