Part 18 (2/2)
”All right,” Sube agreed; ”we won't catch any skunks if you don't want to. But we could! And hey! I got a name!”
”What?”
”Let's call it Cane & Tobin--Big Game!”
And although Gizzard felt that the euphonic effect of Tobin & Cane would have been an improvement, he acquiesced.
The new concern opened for business at once, and within half an hour had made its first capture. The hunters were stealing cautiously past a neighbor's garden, carrying the net between them, when Sport, Sube's dog, chased a large tiger cat out from between the rows of corn and directly into the net. The boys did little except to drop the net and keep out of reach of the snarling, spitting, clawing beast until it had become involved beyond possibility of escape.
Carefully carrying the net on two sticks, they bore their prey to their place of business, where they made ready for his accommodation a cage that had once housed a thriving family of rabbits. Before attempting to incarcerate him, however, they formally christened him Gyp the Blood.
Gyp had not occupied the net for any great length of time, but he had become very much attached to it, and vigorously resisted all efforts to deprive him of its clinging comfort. Force and strategy were tried in vain. Then Sube suggested the use of hypnotism.
”You see,” he explained, ”if I could charm 'im like they do snakes, he'd be as gentle as a little rabbit, and I could untangle 'im from that net as easy as unrollin' a piece of paper.”
”Snake charmin' is all right if it works; but if it don't work, you get killed! Go to it, if you can do it! Say, how do you charm a thing, anyway?”
”That's easy. You jus' look 'em in the eye and kinda whistle a little tune, and keep on lookin' 'em in the eye and gettin' closer and closer, and pretty soon without their knowin' what you're doin' at all--why, they're all charmed! But if they get on that you're charmin' 'em!
Wow!--Then look out!”
Gizzard was greatly interested in the occult art. ”How can you tell when you're done?” he asked eagerly.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
”I'll show you!” Sube bent over Gyp the Blood and gazed steadily into the brightly gleaming eyes. Meanwhile he had begun to whistle a little tune strangely reminiscent of the Streets of Cairo. But Gyp the Blood did not easily succ.u.mb to hypnotic suggestion. He continued to growl peevishly and lashed the floor with the loose end of his tail. Closer and closer bent Sube. The growling diminished. Then it ceased altogether. The distance between the eyes of the boy and the eyes of the cat became a matter of inches. Then there was a terrific snarl!
Sube fell over on his back howling with pain and holding both hands to his nose.
”It's jus' like charmin' snakes,” remarked Gizzard as he struggled to control his laughter. ”It's all right if it works!” Then, catching sight of Sube's nose, he exclaimed, ”Gee! He handed you a good one on the nose! Hurt much?”
”No, not much,” Sube prevaricated, for he considered the admission of pain unethical for all save girls and cry-babies. ”But I know how to do it now!”
”How to hypnotize 'im?”
”Don't get cute, now! No; how to get him out of that net. We'll put 'im in the cage net and all, and then while you hammer on the box and poke 'im with a stick I'll hook the net with a piece of wire and yank like Holy Moses!”
And it was done. And in less than two hours from the time of his capture, Gyp the Blood was safe behind the bars. But his fiery spirit was far from subdued. His eyes glowed as fiercely as before, and his blasphemous growling was none the less continual.
During the afternoon two more victims were brought in, and the Big Game establishment of Cane & Tobin began to sound like something. The necessity of a commissary department was also discovered. Plates and saucers were easy enough to purloin, but very hard to fill three times a day.
On account of the lack of confidence usually displayed by parents in the mercantile ventures of their sons, most of the youthful business of our country is run on the basis of a shady enterprise. The catching of cats for the market proved to be no exception to this rule. The strictest possible secrecy was maintained. It is therefore not unreasonable to a.s.sume that the commissariat obtained its supplies elsewhere than from the homes of the partners. It was at this particular time that Elder Woodruff's Jersey cow was guilty of an unaccountable shrinkage in milk; and as foraging in the enemy's country is held to be permissible in time of extremity, perhaps-- But there was no proof.
Business was good; and by closing time on Wednesday the firm had in stock ten high-grade, hand-picked stray cats. But Thursday pa.s.sed without a haul. Likewise Friday morning. The conclusion that the stray cat had become extinct was more than once hinted at. And, while no formal campaign against the pet cat was inaugurated, Sube returned from lunch bearing in his arms a hirsute beauty that might easily have claimed descent from the Shah of Persia. A short time afterwards Gizzard carelessly sauntered in with an Angora kitten.
Sube's offering, which was large and portly, instantly reminded Gizzard of Mrs. Rude's Snowdrop; but he reflected that all white cats look more or less alike and refrained from making any mention of the likeness. He also neglected to say that he had found his contribution on the walk in front of Nancy Guilford's house. He reasoned that cats do not ordinarily play around in the street in front of their owner's homes. He had heard that somebody had given Nancy a kitten, but reports are likely to be exaggerated. And while Gizzard had always suspected that there was something between Sube and Nancy, it came to him now with compelling force that he had never been _told_ anything about it; and perhaps he understood that mere inferences are not regarded as the best evidence by the authorities.
And when partners begin to keep things from each other the breakers are usually not far away.
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