Freddy and the Dragon (18 page)

With the bull and Hank closing in behind him, and the car blocking the road ahead, there was only one thing for Jack to do. He pulled up, swung sharp right, and turned down through the Bean woods.

There was no room for the station wagon between the trees. The cows didn't try to follow. Percy and Hank followed for a couple of hundred yards, but Jack kept gaining, and pretty soon they could no longer hear the swish and crackle of brush pushed aside that told where the horse was. They turned and went back.

It was a pretty disconsolate crew that gathered on the road below the cave. Jack and the money were gone; there was no sign of the Webbs when they shone their flashlights on the branch overhanging the cave entrance, which they had selected as their meeting place with Uncle Solomon. And the screech owl himself had disappeared.

After they had discussed it for a few minutes, Freddy said: “Well, there are only the two pigs left in there now, and the dog. I vote we go in and get them. We can't do anything about the lost troopers till the Webbs get back.”

“Those pigs are nasty fighters,” said Percy. “And so is the dog. We can lick 'em all right, but somebody is going to get hurt. Suppose we do it this way.” And he outlined the scheme.

The others agreed, and they got the dragon out and fired him up, and he followed the bull into the cave. Behind came the other animals, in case there was a fight after all. Even Alice and Emma went in. Only Charles stayed outside and flew with some difficulty up onto the branch over the entrance, to meet Mrs. Webb when she came out.

Percy had a flashlight in his mouth. He knew the way. But when they got to the room where Jack had lived, all the animals except Percy lay down and tried to look as much like furniture as possible. The dragon stayed there too. But Percy went on into the passage back of the screen. Back in the big hall they could hear the bugle blowing faintly. Percy thought it was lucky they hadn't run into the troopers' search party.

When he got nearly to the room where the pigs lived, the bull called to them. “Hey, Eddie! Pete! Cornelius!”

A long snout poked out of the opening. “Percy, that you? Where you been all this time? You was the first to run out on us, but now Thurlow's gone, and Gimpy didn't show up, and the two horses and Jack are gone.”

Percy went in and turned off his flashlight. A candle on the shelf gave a feeble light. He saw the old sacks and blankets the three animals had been sleeping on, and the dirt on the floor. He sniffed. “Don't you ever clean this place out?”

“What's the matter with it?” said Eddie. “Little untidy, maybe, but what do you expect in a black hole like this?”

“What's become of everybody?” Pete asked. “Jack was back for a minute tonight, but all he said was to sit tight and not worry. But if I ever saw a worried guy, Jack is it.”

“He's got good reason,” said the bull. “He picked a poor spot in this cave to set up his headquarters. Do you know what has been living in this cave for the past three or four thousand years? Dragons.”

“Dragons!” Pete exclaimed. “Who are you trying to kid? There's no such things as dragons.”

“That's what
you
think,” replied the bull. “Where do you suppose all these stories of dragons came from? You think somebody could make up such a thing as a dragon? Dragons used to be plentiful, I can tell you, a thousand years ago. But then people invented firearms, and the dragons had to go back into deep caves and hiding-places in the rocks. They don't come out much any more. With all these high-powered rifles people have got, a dragon wouldn't stand a chance.…”

“Ah, phooey!” said the other pig coming to the door. “Dragons! That's for kids!”

“Yeah?” Percy said. “Well, I can tell you there's at least one dragon in this cave—maybe more. But I've seen one myself. If you want to see him, just stick around, that's all. You'll see him, all right, and maybe he'll be the last thing you ever do see. Well, I just came in to warn you. I don't care to stay here any longer. I understand he's eaten up two troopers already.”

He stopped and appeared to listen.

“What do you hear?” inquired Eddie with some anxiety.

Actually Percy had been listening for the voice of his conscience. He had told a number of good round lies about the dragon, and although they were told in a good cause, he thought his conscience might have something to say about it. But his conscience was silent.

“Just thought I heard a rustling out in the passage,” said Percy. “Probably bats. But my duty's done: I've warned you. I'm surprised you haven't seen the fellow. They say he's lived in this cave for over a thousand years, and he knows all these passages as you know the bottom of your trough. Patrols 'em, too. Snorting out fire and smoke. If you'll take the advice of an old friend, you'll beat it for home. That's where Jack went when he saw him. Well, so long.” And he backed out.

The three animals looked at one another doubtfully.

“Sounds to me as if old Perce was seein' black spots before his eyes,” said Pete.

“Yeah,” said Cornelius. “But I never knew him to be scairt of anything before.”

“Dragons!” said Eddie. His tone was contemptuous, but it was a little uncertain, too.

There was a rustling and scratching outside in the passage. They knew it was not Percy, whose hoofs they had heard retreating through the other room. They looked at the door fearfully. And then a long horrid head was poked into the room. They cowered in the corners while the dragon, apparently not seeing them, snorted three times. The sparks flew, the black smoke puffed out, filling the room. Then the head was gone, and dimly they saw the long body with the green scales moving past the door up the passage.

When the rustling had died away they looked at one another.

“The way out is clear now,” said Cornelius. His tail was between his legs.

The pigs didn't say anything for a minute. Then Eddie said: “What are we waiting for?”

And they began to run, passing the Bean animals without seeing them, out of the cave and northward, toward the homes they had come from.

CHAPTER 16

The animals and Uncle Ben had come back out onto the road and had got the dragon packed into the station wagon, when Charles called down from his branch that Mrs. Webb had reappeared. “She says she can't find Webb.”

Charles flew down, and Mrs. Webb spun herself down on to Freddy's ear. “There's no sign of him,” she said. “I think he's in the shoe box. I think he stayed with the money, so that he could come back and tell us where Jack hides it.”

“He may be miles away by this time,” said Freddy.

“It might take him a long time to get back,” the spider said. “You know how we travel. But I know he wouldn't have stayed in those dirty rooms any longer than he had to. He was brought up to be neat. Dirt makes him uncomfortable.”

Freddy thought of the pigs' room in the cave. “It makes me ashamed of being a pig, sometimes,” he said, “when I see how some of them live.”

“If I've heard Webb say the same thing about spiders once, I've heard him a thousand times,” said Mrs. Webb. “Dusty old holes and corners some of 'em pick out to live in! Never wash. Webb slides down to the water trough a dozen times a day to wash his face and feelers.”

Freddy, who although he washed his face every morning, was apt to forget it during the rest of the day, decided to change the subject. But at that moment Uncle Solomon's high little laugh came rippling down to them from overhead.

“Well, my clever friends,” he said, “I suppose you have succeeded in tracking the gangster, Jack, to his new hideout, as I believe you call it.”

“You know perfectly well we haven't,” said Mrs. Wiggins, “or we wouldn't be waiting here. We're trying to decide what to do.”

“Perhaps I can assist you,” said the owl. “By a simple process of reasoning it should be easy to determine his present whereabouts. Dear me, animals are very slow thinkers.”

“Animals can't fly,” said Freddy. “You want us to think that you worked it all out in your head where he is. But the simple fact is that while we couldn't keep up with him, you flew over the treetops and watched him. That's how you know where he is.”

“That is true,” Uncle Solomon said. “Yet had any of you had the capacity for putting two and two together, you should have found where he is without my assistance.”

“Oh, quit trying to show off how smart you are,” Jinx said angrily. “You didn't even put one and one together. You just flew after him and watched where he went. Well, where is it? You going to keep us here all night while you squawk about your wonderful brain?”

“It is not that my brain is wonderful,” the owl said, “but that yours are so dull. I wished merely to point out to you—”

“Look, dustmop,” the cat said, “are you going to tell us where he is, or am I going to climb up there and claw some sense into you? Make up your mind.”

“I wouldn't be here, Jinx,” said the owl softly.

“Probably not. But I know where your nest is, and I can climb up to that. How about it?”

Uncle Solomon said rather sulkily: “He's at Anderson's. E. H. Anderson. He got off his horse at the edge of town and told it to go home—he'd be back in a few days. Then he walked to Anderson's.”

The owl evidently intended to explain that they could have guessed without his help how Jack would make for Mr. Anderson's, but at that moment two troopers, one carrying a bugle, appeared at the cave entrance.

They saw movement in the road, turned their flashlights on the group, then came down.

“What goes on here?” Then the trooper caught sight of Uncle Ben and said more politely: “Evenin', Mr. Bean.”

“Found your men,” Uncle Ben said. He went over to Freddy and put out his hand, and Mrs. Webb jumped onto it. Then he showed her to the troopers. “She found 'em.”

“She?” said the first trooper, whose name was Joe.

“Mrs. Webb. Friend of the Bean family.”

Mrs. Webb made a sort of curtsey, which was easy to do because she had eight legs.

Joe wrinkled up his nose in an expression combining amazement and disgust. He didn't like spiders. “Pleased to—uh—meet you, ma'am,” he muttered.

“Likewise,” said the other man, whose name was Walt. And touched his hat.

Hank stepped forward. “You boys know me, I guess,” he said. “If you was the ones that asked me all those questions—you all look the same in them hats. Anyhow, as Mr. Benjamin says, Mrs. Webb and her husband found where your two friends are. She can guide you to them. They're pretty tired and hungry, but they've had water. You will guide them, won't you, Mrs. Webb?” He put his ear down close to the spider.

“Why, yes, I s'pose I'd ought to. I hate to think of those poor fellows lying there starving in that dark cave. But I hate worse to think of Webb in that shoe box. Still, I wouldn't be much help in fighting gangsters, would I?”

Walt, who was not afraid of spiders, had put his ear down close to Mrs. Webb too. “Hey!” he exclaimed delightedly. “She really can talk! Listen to her, Joe.”

Joe backed off.

“But what does she mean about fighting gangsters?” Walt asked.

So the animals explained about how Jack had come up and got the box with the money and—probably—Mr. Webb in it, and had gone to Anderson's house.

Joe said: “Walt, you go in with your spider friend and get the boys out. I'll go with these folks down to Anderson's and see what there is to the story.”

So Mrs. Webb climbed up Walt's arm and sat on top of his ear, trying not to tickle, as she gave him directions.

“I'd feel safer,” said Walt, “if I had a ball of string to play out behind us, so we'd be sure to find our way back. You certain you know the way in and out?”

“Shine your flashlight on that bough over the cave door,” said Mrs. Webb. “Move it a little. There, see something like a fine wire that leads into the cave? See the light shine on it?”

“A spider web,” Walt said.

“That's your ball of string,” said the spider. “Mr. Webb and I went in spinning, and we came out following the strand we'd spun. We'll get them and get back all right.”

Joe started up to get the police car, which was parked a little way up the road, and all the animals that could piled into the station wagon.

As Walt, flashlight in hand, went into the cave door, he turned back for a moment. “Hey, Joe,” he called. “This little lady says if you find that shoe box, handle it kind of careful. She doesn't want her husband squashed.”

“We'll be careful,” Joe called back, and the animals chimed in: “Don't worry, Mrs. W. Take it easy. We'll bring Webb back with every leg and feeler in place.”

Joe started off first in the police car. The animals were slower getting loaded into the station wagon. The larger animals were following on foot.