“children! children! come in to breakfast!” called mrs. brown, as she heard bunny and sue out in the woodshed.
“we can’t come!” bunny said.
“why not?” his mother wanted to know.
“’cause patter is lost!” replied sue.
“nonsense! he isn’t lost! i guess he’s just hiding from you for fun,” said mr. brown, who was already sitting down to the table, as he was in a hurry to get down to his dock. the lobster boats were expected in that morning.
“patter is lost!” exclaimed bunny. “i locked him in here last night, and when i opened the door this morning he wasn’t here. he’s gone!”
catching the note of tears in bunny’s voice and knowing that if bunny cried sue would[198] do the same, also feeling that something might have happened, mr. brown went out to the shed.
as bunny had reported, there was no trick dog there to greet his friends. whitefeet, the pet kitten that sue had adopted as her own, rubbed up against the legs of the children as if asking where patter could be, but no dog was in sight.
“are you sure you locked the door last night, bunny?” his father asked him, as sue picked up whitefeet to pet her.
“oh, yes,” was the answer. “i’m sure, ’cause it was locked this morning. anyway, i remember dropping the key after i took it out of the lock last night.”
mr. brown looked all around the shed which was used to store kindling for the fires. then he stepped over to the window in the back wall of the place and tried it. the window was of the swinging type, hinged at the top, like those in your cellar.
“was this window fastened from the inside last night, bunny?” asked mr. brown.
“why—i don’t know,” was the answer. “i[199] guess i don’t ever fasten that window. patter couldn’t get out there; could he?”
“isn’t your dog a pretty good jumper?” went on mr. brown.
“oh, he’s a fine jumper,” said sue. “you ought to see him jump up on toby’s back.”
mr. brown pointed to a box under the partly opened window.
“is it any higher from there to the window than from the ground to toby’s back?” he asked.
“it’s about the same,” bunny answered.
“then,” continued his father, “if patter could jump that far, why couldn’t he jump out of the window?”
“but the window isn’t open very wide,” objected bunny. “it’s open only a crack, and if patter tried to jump up and go through the crack he’d bump his head.”
“he would unless some one held the window open from the outside so he could jump through and out,” said mr. brown.
“oh! do you think somebody took our nice dog, daddy?” asked sue, with anxious eyes fixed on her father.
[200]“some one might have done so,” he answered.
“who did?” demanded bunny brown and his sister sue.
“that’s what we have to find out,” said mr. brown. “come in now and eat your breakfast then i’ll help you look for patter.”
“is their dog really gone?” asked mrs. brown, as the three entered the house.
“it seems so,” admitted mr. brown. “but i guess we’ll get him back.”
“in time for the show?” bunny wanted to know.
“that’s so—i’d forgotten about the show!” exclaimed mr. brown. “let’s see—when is it?”
“day after to-morrow.”
“whew!” whistled daddy brown. “we’ll have to work fast.”
“what can you do if you don’t get patter back?” mrs. brown asked, as she passed the breakfast oranges to bunny and sue.
“we’ll have to postpone the show, i guess,” her husband replied. “it wouldn’t be much[201] of a performance without patter. he’s the chief performer.”
“oh, we’ve just got to find him!” cried bunny.
as you may imagine, neither the little boy nor his sister had very good appetites for breakfast. they were too worried about their lost dog. patter truly was gone—there was no doubt of it.
after breakfast, even though he was in a hurry to get to his fish dock to see about the lobsters coming in, mr. brown remained around the house long enough to help bunny and sue search for their pet.
they looked in places where he had hidden before, but he did not pop out at them with joyous barks. they went over the fields and lots near the house, but no patter answered to their calls and whistles.
mr. brown looked outside under the window of the shed, through which it seemed that patter must have jumped to get away.
“what are you looking for, daddy?” asked bunny.
“i was seeing if there were any footprints[202] there that might tell me who had been there in the night,” answered mr. brown.
“that’s like detectives do, isn’t it?” asked bunny, in a thrilled whisper.
“yes,” agreed his father. “but i guess i’m not much of a detective, for i can’t see anything except marks of the shoes of a lot of you boys.”
“yes, we were playing around the shed yesterday,” admitted bunny.
“will you tell the police?” asked mrs. brown, when her husband was ready to go to work, though a little late.
“i think i’d better,” he agreed. “it may be that some strolling band of gypsies took patter away, and the police keep pretty sharp watch over these strollers. they’ll know where they camp, and if any are around we’ll go have a look and maybe find patter.”
but no gypsy bands had been around bellemere for some time, the police reported, so it could not have been any of these wanderers that had taken patter. of course the dog may have wandered off and joined them, but this did not seem possible. patter was too happy[203] with bunny and sue to want to run away.
“some one took him—that’s what they did!” declared sue, sobbing.
“and if i could find ’em i’d have ’em arrested!” threatened bunny.
news of the lost dog quickly spread, especially among the boys and girls who were helping bunny and sue get ready for the show.
“we’ve got to find him!” declared george. “no trick dog—no show!”
“but where can we find him?” asked charlie star.
“we’ve got to search!” declared george. and then a frantic search began.
