CHAPTER XVII
FREDDIE IS CAUGHT
"Hark! Wasn't that Snoop?"
"Listen, everybody!"
Bert and Nan suddenly made these exclamations as they, with the rest ofthe Bobbsey family, were sitting in the main tent after supper. Thelanterns had been lighted, the mosquito net drawn over the front door,or flap of the tent, to keep out the bugs, and the camping family wasspending a quiet hour before going to bed.
Bert thought he heard, in the woods outside, a noise that sounded likethat made by the missing cat Snoop, and Nan, also, thought she heard thesame sound.
They all listened, Mr. Bobbsey looking up from his book, while Flossieand Freddie ceased their play. Mrs. Bobbsey stopped her sewing.
"There it is again!" exclaimed Nan, as from the darkness outside thetent there came a queer sound.
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "It doesn't sound like Snoop."
"Maybe it's Snap!" exclaimed Freddie. "He used to howl like that."
"It did sound a bit like a dog's howl," admitted Bert. "May I go out andsee what it is, Daddy?"
"I'll take a look," said Mr. Bobbsey. He stepped to the flap of the tentand listened. The queer sound came again, and he went outside, whileBert went near the tent opening to listen. He, as well as his father,then heard another noise--that made by some one walking across theground, stepping on and breaking small sticks.
"Who's there?" suddenly called Mr. Bobbsey, exactly, as Bert saidafterward, like a soldier sentinel on guard. "Who's there?"
"It's me--Sam," was the answer. "I done heard some queer noise, Mr.Bobbsey, an' Dinah said as how I'd better git up and see what it was."
"Oh, all right, Sam. We heard it too. Listen again."
Sam stood still, and Mr. Bobbsey remained quietly outside the big tent.Sam and his wife lived in a smaller tent not far away, and they usuallywent to bed early, so Sam had had to get up when the queer noisesounded.
Suddenly it came again, and this time Bert, who had stuck his head outbetween the flaps of the tent, called:
"There it is!"
"Who! Who! Who!" came the sound, and as Mr. Bobbsey heard it he gave alaugh.
"Nothing but an owl," he said. "I should have known it at first, only Icouldn't hear well in the tent. You may go back to bed, Sam, it's onlyan owl."
"Only an owl, Mr. Bobbsey! Yas, I reckon as how it is; but I don't liket' heah it jest de same."
"You don't? Why not, Sam?"
"'Cause as how dey most always ginnerally bring bad luck. I don't likede sound ob dat owl's singin' no how!"
"He wasn't singing, Sam!" laughed Bert, after he had called to the restof the family inside the tent and told them the cause of the noise.
"Ha! Am dat yo', Bert?" asked the colored man. "Well, maybe an owl don'tsing like a canary bird, but dey makes a moanful soun', an' I don't likeit. It means bad luck, dat's what it means! An' you all'd better git t'bed!"
"Oh, I'm not afraid, Sam. We thought it was Snoop mewing, or Snaphowling, maybe. You didn't see anything of our lost dog, did you?"
"Not a smitch. An' I suah would like t' hab him back."
"Ask him if he or Dinah saw Snoop," called Flossie.
Bert asked the colored man this, but Sam had seen nothing of the pet cateither.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Freddie. "Both our pets gone--Snap and Snoop! I wishthey'd come back."
"Maybe they will," said his mother kindly. "It's time for you to go tobed now, and maybe the morning will bring good news. Snap or Snoop maybe back by that time."
"That's what we've been thinking about poor Snap for a long while,"grumbled Nan.
"Well, I'm afraid Snap _is_ lost for good," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "He neverstayed away so long before. But Snoop may be back in the morning. He mayhave just wandered off. It isn't the first time he has been away allnight."
"Only once or twice," said Bert, who came back to the book he wasreading. "And both times it was because he got shut by accident inplaces where he couldn't get out."
"Maybe that's what's happened this time," suggested Nan. "We ought tolook around the island."
"We will--to-morrow," declared Bert.
"And look in the cave Flossie and I found," urged Freddie. "Maybe Snoopis there."
"We'll look," promised his brother.
When Flossie and Freddie were taken to their cots by their mother,Flossie, when she had finished her regular prayers, added:
"An' please don't let 'em take Whisker."
"What do you mean by that, Flossie?" asked her mother.
"I mean I was prayin' that they shouldn't take our goat," said thelittle girl.
"I want to pray that, too!" cried Freddie, who had hopped into bed. "Whydidn't you tell me you were going to pray that, Flossie?"
"'Cause it just popped into my head. But you stay in bed, an' I'll prayit for you," and she added: "Please, Freddie says the same thing!"
Then she covered herself up and almost before Mrs. Bobbsey had left thesides of the cots both children were fast asleep.
"Poor little tykes!" said the mother softly. "They do miss their petsso! I hope the cat and dog can be found, and Helen's doll, too. It'sstrange that so many things are missing. I wonder who Flossie meant by'they,' I must ask her."
And the next morning the little girl, when reminded of her petition thenight before and asked who she thought might take the goat, said:
"They is the gypsies, of course! They take everything! Blueberry Tomsaid so. And I didn't want them to get Whisker too."
"Who in the world is Blueberry Tom?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"He's the boy who was so hungry," explained Freddie. "He came to theisland to pick early blueberries only there wasn't any."
"Oh, now I remember," Mrs. Bobbsey said with a laugh. "Well, I don'tbelieve there are any gypsies on this island to take anything. Snoopmust have just wandered off."
"Then we'll find him!" exclaimed Nan.
During the next few days a search was made for the missing black cat.The twins, sometimes riding in their goat wagon, and again going onfoot, went over a good part of the island, calling for Snoop. But he didnot answer. Sam, too, wandered about getting firewood, and also callingfor the lost pet. Mr. Bobbsey made inquiries of the boatmen and the manwho kept the soda-water stand, but none of them had seen the children'spet.
Bert printed, with a lead pencil, paper signs, offering a reward for anynews of Snoop, and these were tacked up on trees about the island so theblueberry pickers might see them. But though many read them, none hadseen Snoop, and, of course, Snap was missing before the Bobbseys cameto camp, so, naturally, he would not be on the island.
But in spite of the missing Snap and Snoop, the Bobbsey twins had lotsof fun in camp. During the day they played all sorts of games, went onlong walks with their father and mother, or for trips on the lake.Sometimes they even rowed to other islands, not far from BlueberryIsland, and there ate their lunch.
The fishing was good, and Freddie and Bert often brought home a nicemess for dinner or supper. Whisker, the big white goat, was a jolly pet.He was as gentle as a dog and never seemed to get tired of pulling thetwins in the wagon, though the roads of the island were not as smooth asthose in Lakeport.
But though the twins had fun, they never gave over thinking that, someday, they would find Snap and Snoop again.
"And maybe Helen's doll, too," said Flossie. "We'll hunt for her somemore."
"But it's easier to hunt for Snoop," said Freddie, "'cause he can hollerback when you holler at him."
"How can a cat holler?" asked his sister.
"Well, he can go 'miaou,' can't he?" Freddie asked, "an' ain't thathollerin'?"
"I--I guess so," Flossie answered. "Oh, Freddie, I know what let's do!"she cried suddenly.
"What? Make mud pies again? I'm tired of 'em. 'Sides, Momsie just putclean things on us."
"No, not make mud pies--I'm tired of that, too. Let's go off byourselves and hunt Snoop. You know every time we've gone very far fromcamp we've had to go w
ith Nan and Bert; and you know when you hunt catsyou ought to be quiet, an' two can be more quiet than three or four."
"That's right," agreed Freddie, after thinking it over.
"Then let's just us two go," went on Flossie. "We won't get lost."
"Nope, course not," said Freddie. "I can go all over the island, and Iwon't let you be lost. Snoop knows us better than he does Nan and Bertanyhow, 'cause we play with him more."
"And if we find him," went on Flossie, "and he's too tired to walk homewe'll carry him. I'll carry his head part an' you can carry his tail."
"No, I want to carry his head."
"I choosed his head first!" said Flossie, "The tail is nicest anyhow."
"Then why don't you carry that?"
"'Cause it's so flopsy. It never stays still, and when it flops in myface it tickles me. Please you carry the tail end, Freddie."
"All right, Flossie, I will. But we had better go now, or maybe Momsieor Nan or Bert or Dinah might come out and tell us not to go. Come on!"
So, hand in hand, now and then looking back to make sure no one saw themto order them back, Flossie and Freddie started out to search for thelost Snoop. They wandered here and there about the island, at first notvery far from the camp. When they were near the tents they did not callthe cat's name very loudly for fear of being heard.
"We can call him loud enough when we get farther away," said Freddie.
"Yep," agreed his sister. "Anyhow he isn't near the tents or he'd'vecome back before this."
So the two little twins wandered farther and farther away until theywere well to the middle of the island, and out of sight of the whitetents.
"Snoop! Snoop! Snoop!" they called, but though they heard many noisesmade by the birds, the squirrels and insects of the woods, there was noanswering cry from their cat.
After a while they came to a place where a little brook flowed betweengreen, mossy banks. It was a hot day and the children were warm andtired.
"Oh, I'm goin' in wading!" cried Freddie, sitting down and taking offhis shoes and stockings.
"You hadn't better," said Flossie. "Mamma mightn't like it."
"I'll tell her how nice it was when I get home," said the little fellow,"and then she'll say it was all right. Come on, Flossie."
"No, I've got clean white stockin's on and I don't want to get 'em alldirty."
"Huh! They've got some dirt on 'em now."
"Well, they aren't wet and they'd get wet if I went in wading."
"Not if you took 'em off."
"Yes they would, 'cause I never can get my feet dry on the grass likeyou do. You go in wading, Freddie, and I'll sit here an' watch you."
So Freddie stepped into the cool water and shouted with glee. Then hewaded out a little farther and soon a queer look came over his face.Flossie saw her brother sink down until the brook came up to the loweredge of his knickerbockers, wetting them, while Freddie cried:
"Oh, I'm caught! I'm caught. Flossie, help me! I'm caught!"