XV

At last, late one night, they came down into the deep, dark pine woods where they had discovered the empty log house, and where they had found the bag of gold. Although the moon was shining brightly, it was very gloomy in the woods, and they were walking slowly and not talking very much, because they were thinking how they were going to carry the gold back in the carriage, and how glad Mr. Bean would be when he saw it. They had almost reached the log house when Robert and Jack both stopped at exactly the same moment and began sniffing the air.

“I smell tobacco,” said Jack. “Not very good tobacco.”

“It comes from the direction of the house,” said Robert. “Somebody’s smoking.”

“All honest people are abed by this time of night,” said Mrs. Wiggins. “Whoever it is is up to no good. Hank, you and I had better stay here, and the other animals can sneak up to the house and see what those people are up to.”

So Freddy and Robert and Jack and Jinx went very quietly up to the house. As soon as they got near it, they saw that there was a light in the window.

“I don’t like this,” said Jinx. “I hope they haven’t found our gold.”

“I wish the swallows were awake,” said Freddy. “We could ask them about it. But let’s look in the window.”

So they sneaked up and looked in the window, and there were three men sitting round the table and smoking clay-pipes. They were very rough-looking men, and they wore caps pulled down over their eyes, and they all had revolvers and dark lanterns, so the animals knew at once that they were burglars. On the table was a big heap of everything you can imagine—gold watches and pocket-books and money and silver forks and spoons and ear-rings and bracelets and diamond rings. They were all the things that the burglars had stolen from the farmers who lived near the pine woods.

The biggest of the three burglars was dividing the heap of things into three parts. “One for you, and one for you, and one for me. One for you, and one for you, and one for me.” But he wasn’t dividing them very fairly. For each time he said: “One for you,” he would pick up a small thing that wasn’t worth very much, like a small spoon or a ten-cent piece, and put it in front of one of his companions. But when he said: “One for me,” he would take out a gold watch or a ten-dollar bill or a jewelled bracelet all set with diamonds and put it in front of himself.

But the other burglars were very much smaller men and so they didn’t dare say anything, although they looked very much discontented with their shares.

Now the window through which the animals were looking was rather high up, as windows go, and although the two dogs and Freddy, the pig, could see in by putting their forepaws on the window-sill and stretching their necks, Jinx was too short, and he had to climb up and hang on by his claws. He didn’t mind this particularly, because his claws were sharp and strong, and he could have hung on like that for hours. But there was a big brown moth who was also trying to look in the window at what the burglars were doing, and it kept fluttering round on the pane right in front of Jinx’s nose, so that half the time he couldn’t see a thing.

At first he spoke to it politely, and asked it if it wouldn’t please move up a little higher, where it could see just as well and wouldn’t be in his way.

“Move up yourself!” growled the moth. “I was here first.”

“Of course you were,” said Jinx patiently. “But you must realize that I can’t move up. And I should think common politeness——”

“Oh, shut up!” said the moth.

So Jinx didn’t say any more, but he made up his mind to give that moth a lesson. So he let go for a mniute with one forepaw, and made one slap at the moth and scooped it right off the window.

But Robert, who was standing next to Jinx, was doing something that all dogs and a good many people do. When anything surprised or interested him very much, he opened his eyes very wide, and when his eyes opened, his mouth seemed to come open too. So he was standing with his mouth wide open staring at the burglars, and when Jinx hit the big brown moth with his paw, he knocked it straight down Robert’s throat.

“Arrrrrrgh!” said Robert. “Woof!”

“What’s that!” said all the burglars at once, and they jumped up and bent over the table to blow out the lamp. But as they all bent over at exactly the same time, their three heads came together in the middle, crack! And then the light was out and the animals couldn’t see anything more, but they could hear the burglars rubbing their bumped heads and groaning.

For quite a long while the animals waited for something to happen, but nothing did. The burglars were evidently badly scared. They seemed to be whispering together, and at last Jinx said: “I’m going in to see what they’re doing. I noticed when we came up to the house that the door was open a little way, and I think I can get in.”

So he went round to the door, and sure enough it was open a crack, and he made himself narrow, as cats can, and slipped in. It was so dark inside that the burglars could not see anything at all, but Jinx could see them quite plainly. Cats can see in the dark. He jumped up on the mantelpiece to be out of the way, and sat down.

The two small burglars, whose names were Ed and Bill, were in a corner, trying to open one of the dark lanterns, so they could light it. But as they never used the lanterns, but only carried them to show that they were burglars, they didn’t know how to open it. The big burglar, whose name was Percy, was standing by the table, on which were the three piles of stolen things that he had been dividing up, and he was feeling with his fingers in the other piles and taking out the biggest things and putting them on his own pile. But he couldn’t see what he was doing, and pretty soon he knocked a watch and an emerald necklace off on the floor.

At the sound Ed and Bill started up. “What you doin’ over there, Percy?” Bill whispered hoarsely.

And Ed said: “He’s after them jools.”

“Oh, I am not!” said Percy. “I was just feeling for the matches.”

“Oh, you was, was you?” said Ed. “Well, you just come over here and give us a hand with this lantern.”

So Percy hastily stuffed a handful of ten-dollar bills into his pocket and came over to them.

“Why don’t you light the lamp?” he asked. “We’re perfectly safe. That noise wasn’t anything.”

“Maybe so,” said Bill. “But I’m going to have a look round with the lantern first. Here, see if you can get it open.”

They were all standing close to the fire-place, and as Percy took the lantern, Jinx, who never could resist a joke, reached out and dug his claws into his shoulder.

“Ouch!” yelled Percy, dropping the lantern with a crash. “What d’ye mean, sticking pins in me like that?” And he struck out with his fist in the darkness and hit Bill on the nose.

Bill had just been going to say: “I didn’t touch you, silly!” but when that hard fist hit him, he changed his mind and flew at Percy, and in a second they were rolling on the floor and clawing and kicking and pulling each other’s hair like wildcats.

They rolled toward the table, and Ed, who was afraid that they would knock it over and spill all the money and jewelery on the floor, took a match from his pocket and scratched it on the mantelpiece just under where Jinx was sitting, doubled up with laughter at the commotion he had caused. The match flamed up, and by its light Ed saw Jinx.

Now, if you are a rather timid burglar, and you light a match in a dark room and see a cat that is half black and half red—for Jinx had been dipped in the paint pot, you remember—if you see such a cat grinning at you within an inch of your nose, you will probably do just as Ed did. He dropped his match and let out an awful yell.

When he yelled, Bill and Percy stopped fighting and sat up. “What’s the matter?” they asked.

“There’s a red and black cat sitting on the mantelpiece and grinning at me!” said Ed in a scared voice.

“Fiddlesticks!” said Percy, and Bill said: “Nonsense!” and then he too lit a match. He was near the window as he did so, and there was Freddy, the pig, with his nose against the glass, staring in for all he was worth to see what was going on inside.

Then it was Bill’s turn to drop his match and yell. “A pig with spectacles on is looking at us through the window!” For, of course, Freddy still had the circles around his eyes that Jinx had painted there.

“Fiddlesticks!” said Percy again, but he didn’t say it quite as loud. And Bill and Ed didn’t say anything.

There was silence for a few minutes, while the three scared burglars tried to get up enough courage to light another match. Then through the silence came the faint sound of wheels on the road outside.

“Listen!” whispered Percy. “Somebody coming. I’m going out to have a look. It won’t be black and red cats, and pigs with glasses on, anyway.” And he slipped silently out of the door.

The other two burglars tiptoed to the door and peered out after him, but although it was bright moonlight outside, the trees were so thick round the house that they could not see the road. And then, as they waited, came a terrible yell, and it was three times as loud as Ed’s yell and Bill’s yell put together. And they heard footsteps running, and Percy dashed up to the door, his eyes nearly starting out of his head with fright.

“Run! Run for your lives!” he panted. “Out on the road there’s a tiger harnessed to a carriage and behind the carriage there’s a leopard with horns, as big as a cow. Run, or we shall all be eaten up!” And he dashed off into the woods and the two others rushed out of the door after him, and the animals could hear the crash of branches and the thump of heavy feet die away in the distance. And I may say here that they never saw either Ed or Bill or Percy again.

Of course what had happened was this. Mrs. Wiggins and Hank had got tired of waiting, and when they had heard the first two yells they had started down the road to see what was going on. They had not seen Percy come out of the door, and when he saw them and let out his terrible yell, they had been much more scared than he was. Indeed, Mrs. Wiggins was quite faint and had to lie down for a few minutes by the road-side while Charles and Henrietta fanned her with their wings.

“I’m all of a flutter!” she said. “Oh my, oh my! Just put your hoof on my side and feel how my heart beats, Hank. What a dreadful experience!”

But pretty soon she was able to get up and be helped into the house.

The burglars had left all the things they had stolen behind them in their flight, but as the animals had no matches, and as it was late, they decided not to do anything about them until morning. So they all curled up comfortably on the floor and went to sleep.