MR. NIP'S ALARM
Together the two Curlytops and their friend Jimmy Norton ran out of Jimmy's yard and down the street, following Top, the trick dog. For as soon as Top had seen that Teddy was following after him, which, evidently, was just what Top wanted, the dog raced on, barking wildly.
"Do you think he came to call you?" panted Janet, as she ran beside her brother.
"Sure he did," Ted answered. "Didn't you ever read in books how dogs do that when they want you to come to help somebody who's in trouble—like somebody in the water?"
"I've read lots of stories like that," said Jimmy.
"Oh, maybe something has happened to Trouble!" cried Janet.
"Mother took Trouble down town with her," Teddy answered. "So if Trouble is in trouble Top wouldn't know it."
"Maybe our house is on fire," went on Janet, who seemed quite determined to have something dreadful happen.
"You'd hear the alarm bell and see the engines if there was a fire," declared Jimmy.
"Well, it's something!" exclaimed Janet. "Isn't it a pity dogs can't talk like parrots? If they could, Top could tell us just what the matter was."
"We'll see pretty soon," said her brother. "We're almost at our house, and it must be there that something is the matter."
As the children were racing down the street, with Top running in front of them, looking back every now and then to make sure the Curlytops and Jimmy were following, a man stopped the children and said:
"Why are you chasing that poor dog? Don't you know it is wrong to tease and annoy animals?"
"We're not teasing him," Teddy answered. "He's our dog, anyhow."
"That is no matter," the fussy man said. "I think it is wrong to chase dogs or to tie tin cans on their tails."
"As if we'd tie a tin can to the tail of our nice Top!" exclaimed Janet. "We never tie cans to dogs' tails!" she added. "And we're running after Top because he wants us to. He came to get us because something has happened at our house."
Seeing that the children had stopped, because the strange man had halted them, Top came running back, barking and wagging his tail. He caught hold of Teddy's coat, and again pulled it.
"See!" exclaimed Ted. "He wants us to follow him. He did that before, and that's why we ran after him, not because we're chasing him, Mister."
The man looked at the excited dog and at the kind-faced children. He must have known they would never have harmed animals, for he said:
"Oh, excuse me! I guess I made a mistake. I thought you were chasing the poor dog. Excuse me!"
The strange man turned and hurried off down the street, and after looking toward him for a few seconds the Curlytops and their chum again hastened along, following Top, who grew more excited all the while.
Into the yard of the Martin house dashed Top, closely followed by the children. But the dog did not stop at the house, nor did he run toward the barn where the other pets were kept. When Ted, Janet and Jimmy went over to Jimmy's house they had left the two dogs and the two cats playing outside the barn. Now there was no sight of Snuff and Turnover, nor of Skyrocket, the other dog.
Down past the barn and toward the brook into which Trouble had more than once fallen, ran Top, the trick dog.
"Oh, Trouble must have come back and have fallen in!" cried Janet.
"I don't believe so," said her brother. "If Trouble was in the water you'd hear him howling."
"Unless his head was under," suggested Jimmy.
"Yes, unless his head under," agreed Teddy. "But I don't believe it's Trouble. If it was anything like that, Top wouldn't come all the way to your house after us, Jimmy. He'd have barked and have gotten someone around here to come to the rescue."
"There isn't anybody home at our house but us, and we weren't home," explained Janet. "Mother and Trouble are down town, and Susan, our new girl, has gone out."
"I guess that's why Top came to us," Teddy said. "But where is he going, anyhow, and what is the matter?"
Barking and still wagging his tail, to show how glad he was that the children were coming where he wanted them, Top led the way down along the brook. The Curlytops passed the place where they had played ships the day Trouble was sent afloat in the box—the day Uncle Toby's letter came, telling about the pets he was leaving.
"What is it, Top? What's the matter, old fellow?" asked Teddy.
A bark was the dog's answer. But a moment later, as the children turned a bend in the stream, they heard a howl coming from a bunch of tall cat-tail plants growing on the edge of a swamp not far from the brook. It was the mournful howl of a dog in pain.
"That's Skyrocket!" cried Teddy.
"And he's in trouble!" added Janet.
"And that's why Top came to get us," declared Jimmy.
Top was barking louder than ever now, and as the Curlytops and their friend hurried along they could hear, more plainly, the howls of the dog they felt sure was their own, dear Skyrocket.
And a moment later, as they parted the green spears of the cat-tails, they saw, lying on the ground in the mud and water, poor Skyrocket. Their pet looked up at them and howled mournfully.
"Oh, he's drowning!" cried Janet, as she saw that Skyrocket was partly covered by the water of the swamp.
"He's got a broken leg!" said Jimmy.
"Dogs can go on three legs, if one is broken, though they can't go very fast," said Teddy. "Skyrocket is caught fast, that's what's the matter."
Top seemed overjoyed that he had brought help to his dog friend. Close up beside Skyrocket Top crawled, whining in sympathy, and then Top began licking, with his red tongue, one of Skyrocket's legs.
"Oh, I see what the matter is!" cried Teddy. "Skyrocket's leg is caught in a trap! That's why he couldn't get loose! Look!"
Teddy pointed to where, half hidden in the mud, water, and grass, was a spring trap. It was fast to a chain, and the chain was attached to a wooden stake, driven into the ground. But, worst of all, the steel jaws of the trap had snapped shut on the lower part of Skyrocket's left hind leg. The poor dog tried to stand up, but could not, as whenever he attempted to move the chain held him back.
"Poor Skyrocket!" murmured Janet, almost ready to cry.
"I'll get him loose!" said Teddy.
"It's a good thing Top came and told us what the matter was, or maybe we'd never have known it," remarked Jimmy.
"Come on, Jim! Help me open the trap and get Sky's leg out," said Teddy. "You pat his head—I mean Sky's head, Jan, and that will let him know we aren't going to hurt him."
So while Top looked on, whining in sympathy with his injured dog friend, and while Janet softly rubbed the head of Skyrocket, the two boys opened the trap. While Jimmy held it steady Teddy stepped on the strong spring with his foot. This was the only way to open it.
In another moment the trap was gently pulled loose from the leg of Skyrocket, and the poor dog, with a whine of thanks, managed to stand up. He tried to step on the injured leg, but quickly drew it up with a howl of pain.
"Oh, maybe it's broken!" half sobbed Janet.
"A dog can get well with a broken leg, but a horse can't," said Jimmy. "At least a horse never does, because he is so big he can't be kept off his leg until it heals. A horse can't go on three legs like a dog."
"A horse can stand up on two legs, and walk a little. I've seen 'em in a circus!" declared Janet. "But I never saw a horse go on three legs."
"There goes Skyrocket on three legs!" called Teddy, for his pet hobbled along a little way, to a drier part of the swamp, and then lay down and began licking with his red tongue the leg that had been caught in a trap.
"Look and see if it's broken," suggested Jimmy. "If it is, we'd better tie sticks around it like the principal of our school did one day when Tommy Hicks broke his leg."
"I remember that time," responded Teddy. "Easy now, old fellow," he said to Skyrocket. "Let me feel your leg to see if it is broken."
Gently, very gently, Teddy moved his fingers along the injured leg. Skyrocket whined a little, but remained lying there quietly. At last Teddy stood up.
"I don't believe it's broken," he said. "I guess it was only pinched hard in the trap."
"It's a smooth-jawed trap, not the kind with the teeth like a saw," said Jimmy, looking at the trap which had been allowed to spring shut after Skyrocket's leg was drawn out. "They use big traps, with terrible sharp teeth and jaws, to catch bears," said the little boy.
"I'm glad this wasn't that kind of trap," said Janet. "But who put it here, anyhow?"
"It's an old one, and rusty," went on Jimmy, looking at the trap, while Teddy got some water from the swamp in the top of his cap, and poured it over the bruised place where Skyrocket's leg seemed to hurt most. The water appeared to ease the pain a little, and the dog whined gratefully. Top, now that his work of bringing someone to the rescue was over, stretched out in a cool place and rested, breathing with his mouth open and his tongue hanging out. This is the way dogs always cool themselves.
"Yes, it's an old, rusty trap," agreed Teddy, coming up to look at the thing that had caught Skyrocket. "I guess some muskrat hunter left it here, all set and ready to catch some animal that came along, ever since last winter. Maybe the spring was rusty, and not so strong, and that's why it didn't break Skyrocket's leg."
"I'm glad it didn't!" voiced Janet.
"So'm I," echoed Jimmy. "But how are you going to get Skyrocket home?"
"Oh, it isn't far, and he can go on three legs," said Teddy. "Come on, old fellow," he called, and Skyrocket managed to hobble along the brook path and up to the house. Top walked along beside him, every now and then putting out his tongue and gently licking his companion.
"He's kissing him 'cause he's sorry," observed Janet.
"We're all sorry," declared Teddy. "I'm going to ask mother if we can't have the animal doctor look at Skyrocket's leg."
"Why, children! what is the matter? Has anything happened, Curlytops?" asked Mrs. Martin, who had reached home with Trouble by the time the two boys and Janet made their way up the back path to the house.
"Skyrocket's leg was caught in a trap, and can't we have the animal doctor see if it's broken?" Teddy asked.
Then the story was told, not forgetting the brave and intelligent part played by Top, and Mrs. Martin examined Skyrocket's sore leg.
"I don't believe it is broken, but we'll have the doctor look to make sure," she said.
And you can just imagine how glad the Curlytops were, and Jimmy also, when the doctor said:
"The leg is not broken, but it is badly bruised. However, it will be well in a week or so. Keep Skyrocket as quiet as you can."
"We will!" promised Janet.
"We want him to get well so he can be in the circus," added Teddy.
"Oh, I guess he'll be all right for that," said the doctor, with a laugh as he hurried away to look after a sick horse.
A soft bed was made for Skyrocket in the barn, and a basin of fresh water was placed near him. He licked Teddy's hands in gratitude as the little boy patted him in coming away.
It was several days after the adventure with Skyrocket and the trap that something else exciting happened at the home of the Curlytops.
Mr. Nip, the red, green and yellow parrot, became ill. His feathers were ruffled up, he sat all in a lump on his perch, and he would not eat.
"I guess you'd better have the man from the bird store come up to see your parrot," said Mr. Martin, when he went out to the barn at the children's request to look at Mr. Nip. "Your mother will call the bird man on the telephone."
And when the bird man—that is to say the man who kept the bird and fish store—came to see Mr. Nip, he said the parrot should be kept in the kitchen and fed special food with a little medicine in it for a few days.
So that is how it happened that Mr. Nip was moved in from the barn to the house. And it was the third night that the parrot had slept in the house that something happened.
In the middle of the night the Curlytops were awakened by hearing Mr. Nip cry out loudly:
"Go 'way! Go 'way! I'm a crack-crack-cracker! Get out of here!"
Teddy and Janet, who seemed to be the only ones awakened by this alarm of Mr. Nip, listened, half shivering in their beds.
"Did you hear that?" called Teddy to his sister in the next room.
"Yes. What is it?" inquired Janet.
"It's Mr. Nip," whispered back the Curlytop boy. "He's calling to someone. Maybe daddy or mother's down there giving him medicine."
But just then the parrot set up such a screeching as the children had never heard, since he came from Uncle Toby's at least.
"Go 'way! Go 'way!" cried the bird. "I'm a crack-crack-cracker! Police! Fire! Burglars!"
And then, to the surprise and terror of the Curlytops, a strange voice, somewhere downstairs in their house, exclaimed in a harsh whisper:
"Do something to that parrot! Throw a rug over his cage, or he'll have the whole house awake. Make him be quiet!"