Part 37 (1/2)
It was a most embarra.s.sing situation, to say the least. To add to its ridiculousness, Mrs. MacCall met Agnes as she came in swinging her books, and told her at the side door what had happened.
Agnes flung down her books and ”hoo-hooed” with all her might for Neale O'Neil. As soon as he answered, sticking his head out of his little bedroom window under the eaves of Con Murphy's cottage, Agnes left the housekeeper and the excited Finnish girl to explain the difficulty to Neale, while she ran after Aunt Sarah.
Soon, therefore, there was a procession of excited Corner House folk trailing through the Milton Streets to the pound. Sammy and the two little girls trotting on behind the dog catchers' van; then Aunt Sarah Maltby, looking neither to right nor left but appearing very stern indeed; then Agnes running as hard as she could run; followed by Neale at a steady lope.
The boy soon overtook his girl chum.
”What under the canopy are we going to do?” he demanded.
”Save Tom Jonah!” declared Agnes, her cheeks blazing.
”The kids are going to do that,” chuckled Neale in spite of his shortness of breath. ”Guess we'd better save Aunt Sarah, hadn't we?”
”Goodness, Neale!” giggled Agnes, ”they won't try to shut _her_ up in the pound I should hope.”
They did not overtake the determined woman before she was in sight of the dog refuge. The van had driven into the yard. Before the gate could be shut Tess, followed closely by the trembling Dot and by the more or less valiant Sammy, pushed through likewise and faced the superintendent of the lost dog department.
”What do you little folks want?” asked this kindly man, smiling down upon the trio.
”We want Tom Jonah,” said Tess, her voice quivering but her manner still brave.
”You've just got to give us Tom Jonah,” Dot added, gulping down a sob.
”You bet you have!” said Sammy, clenching his fists.
”'Tom Jonah'?” repeated the man. ”Is that a dog?”
Tess pointed. There was Tom Jonah at the screened door of the van.
”That's him,” she said. ”He never did anybody any harm. These men just _stole_ him.”
That was pretty strong language for Tess Kenway to use; but she was greatly overwrought.
”You mean they took him out of your yard?”
”They took him off'n the street,” said Sammy. ”But he'd only jumped the fence because he saw us comin' home from school.”
”He isn't muzzled,” said the man.
”He--he don't bite,” wailed Dot. ”He--he ain't got any teeth to bite!”
He was an old dog as the superintendent could see. Besides, he knew that his men were more eager to secure the fines than they were to be kind or fair to the owners of dogs.
”How about this, Harry?” he asked the driver of the van.
”The dog's ugly as sin,” growled the man. ”Ain't he, Bill?”
”Tried to chew me up,” declared the man with the net.
”Say!” blurted out Sammy, ”wouldn't _you_ try to chew a feller up if he caught you in a fish-net and dragged you to a wagon like that? Huh!”