Rick and Ruddy Part 22

"It'd be a fine place to camp out--if there weren't a lot of junk men in it," declared Tom. "Go on and whistle for your dog, Rick."

"But don't whistle too loud," advised Chot. "If the old junk man, and the sailor who must have rode with him, are there we don't want them to hear us. All we want is the dog."

"That's so," agreed Tom. "Course we ought to have that man arrested for taking Rick's dog. But no use looking for trouble. If we can get Ruddy back that's all we want."

"I'll whistle," offered Rick.

He puckered up his lips and gave a low, but clear call--one he often used to summon Ruddy. But this time there was no answer. Ruddy did not burst out from under a bush, or from among the weeds, as he frequently did, with dried leaves clinging to him when he had nosed in among them seeking the cause of many strange, wild smells.

"Guess Ruddy isn't there," said Rick, with a sigh, after several whistles.

"Come on; let's go up and look!" advised Chot. "Maybe they've got him hidden inside the cabin."

The boys hesitated a moment. They were not very big nor old, and the idea of facing two grown men, one of whom had been bold enough to entice away, or steal, Ruddy, was a little alarming at first.

"Oh, come on!" said Chot, desperately enough. "There's nothing to be afraid of! We got a right to help Rick get back his dog!"

And so, rather timidly it must be admitted, they went through the fence, at the bars where the junk wagon had found a pa.s.sage, and approached the cabin. They could see the wagon more plainly now. It was filled with odds and ends of the sort of junk which the men who collect it seem to make money on. There were bundles of papers, part of a broken stove, the spring of a bed, some old auto tires and bags of rags.

"It's funny he left it here without the horse," said Tom.

"Maybe his horse lost a shoe, same as an automobile gets a puncture,"

said Rick, "and he had to take his horse to a blacksmith shop. So he left the wagon here."

"Maybe," agreed Chot. "But blacksmiths aren't open after dark--anyhow the one on our street isn't."

"Well, anyhow here's the wagon, but the horse is gone and so are the men and so's Ruddy!" spoke Tom.

But at that instant there was a noise that seemed to come from behind the cabin. It was a loud noise.

"What's that?" cried Tom.

For a moment his two chums were so startled that they could not answer.

Then, as the strange sound came again, Chot said:

"It's just a horse whinneying!"

"The junk man's horse," added Rick.

And so it was. They saw the animal a moment later, tied by a long rope to the back of the log cabin. The horse looked up and stopped chewing a mouthful of gra.s.s he had just pulled. He had whinneyed as he heard the footsteps of the boys and their voices. Perhaps the horse thought his master was coming to give him a drink of water or take him to a stable.

However, the junk man's horse went to cropping gra.s.s again when he saw that the boys were evidently not coming any nearer to him.

"Ruddy isn't here," announced Rick, looking across the fast-dimming meadow back of the log cabin. Night was falling rapidly now, for the long, summer days were at an end, and autumn would soon give place to winter. "My dog isn't here!" and there was a catch in Rick's voice that sounded as though he were going to cry; but he didn't.

Again Chot was walking around, leaning over close to the ground.

Suddenly, out near the place in the fence where the bars had been taken down, to allow the wagon to be driven in, Chot lighted a match.

"He's been here!" he cried, pointing to something in the moist earth.

There was a patch where the gra.s.s, from the side of the highway, had grown partly over the road. It was a spot seldom touched by horses, autos or wagons. And here the earth was damp because, not far away, was a trickling rill of water. "He's been here!" exclaimed Chot.

"Who?" asked Rick.

"Your dog! I can see the marks of his feet! Look, those are a dog's tracks!"

Surely they were the marks of some animal, and when Rick looked more closely at them, in the light of another flickering match, he knew they were made by a dog's paws.

"I wonder if it could be Ruddy?" he murmured. "I wonder?"

"Sure it was," a.s.serted Chot. "I'm a Boy Scout, and I know a lot of different animals' footprints. I can tell a rabbit's when I see 'em in the snow. This is your dog all right, Rick!"

"But where is he?" asked the boy, whose pet had come to him out of the ocean.

"He must be somewhere around here," spoke Tom. "I guess the junk man and the sailor drove here, and left the wagon for the night. Then they went on somewhere else with your dog."

"But where did they go?" asked Rick.

"That's what we got to find out," said Chot. "I'll tell you what we've got to do," he added, drawing his chums toward him, and speaking in a low voice, though no one but the two boys was within hearing distance, as far as the lads knew. "We got to stay here until that junk man comes back after his horse and wagon. Then we'll make him tell us where the dog is."

"S'posin' he won't?" asked Tom.

"We'll make him! If he hasn't got your dog, Rick, maybe the sailor has, and we'll find out where he went. We've got to stay here until that junk fellow comes back. He'll come all right. He won't go away and leave his horse and wagon."

"Where can we stay?" asked Rick.

"In the log cabin, of course," answered Chot. "Some of the older Boy Scouts camp out here two or three nights. There's a fireplace in the cabin where you can cook, and an old oil stove; and there's some sleeping bunks. Course it isn't real good, but Boy Scouts don't mind."

"Do you mean we should stay camping out here all night?" asked Rick, and his voice had a strange awesome note in it.

"Sure, stay camping here all night--or until the junk man comes back,"

answered Chot. "Why not?"

"I'd have to ask my mother," Rick said. "I promised to be back before night, and it's almost dark now."

Chot thought this over a moment or two before answering.

"I'll tell you what we can do," he said. "We'll all go back home--we got to get things to eat, anyhow, and some blankets. Then we'll come back here and stay all night."

"All alone?" asked Tom.

"There's three of us," retorted Chot. "I stayed out all night once with some Boy Scouts. Course we had the Scout Master with us----"

"Oh, well, no wonder!" cried Tom.

"Well, maybe I can get our Scout Master to come back with us now and stay all night," went on Chot. "He'd like it. That's what we'll do!

We'll go back home, get something to cook for supper, bring some blankets and stay all night. We'll camp out in the log cabin. It'll be lots of fun!"

"Will you sure get the Scout Master?" asked Rick, to whom the idea was appealing more and more strongly.