footsteps, even if I should not be fortunate enough to get a smell at the
bundle he had left behind, for I should know the dirty smell of that man's
shins and his old bundle anywhere."

"And is that where you have been, chasing that tramp? Did you find him?"
asked Tabby.

"Tabby, will you keep still and stop asking questions? You throw me all
off my story! If you will only keep quiet and let me stop long enough to
get my breath, I'll tell you all. But mind, it is going to be in my own
way!"

"Very well, then; I will keep still, but I am so excited, I feel I _must_
ask a question now and then or blow up!"

So once again Tabby wrapped her tail tightly around her legs to keep from
tapping the end of it in her nervousness. And Zip proceeded with his
story.

"Well, when I got out of the drug store, I ran just as fast as I could to
Judge Perkins' house across lots, through mud puddles and down lanes."

"And you looked it when you got here!" broke in Tabby.

To which remark Zip paid no attention, but went right on with his story.

"When I reached the Judge's, I made straight for the cellar window,
hoping to find the cane with the bundle of clothes still on it propping up
the window.

"Was it there? Was it there?" interrupted Tabby.

[Illustration]

"Yes, it was there, and I went up and smelt of it and no mistaking the
odor, it was the same dirty bundle I had dropped in the frog pond! I paid
no more attention to it, but began to look for footprints and smell around
on the ground by the window. Just as I thought, it was the same tramp! I
started on his scent, which was easy to follow, as his feet were big and
the scent strong. They led me down through the garden, past the barn and
into a thick clump of trees by the stone wall at the end of the Judge's
place. Here the fellow had stopped, dug a hole and buried the silver! He
had done it hurriedly and with his hands, for I could see finger marks on
the ground and the handle of one spoon sticking out. I waited for no more,
but ran along the wall trying to find a place to get through, but I could
not until I reached the gate. Then I crawled under and then ran back to
where the tramp had climbed the wall and dropped down on the other side.
Here I picked up his trail again and followed it to the railroad track
where the freight trains stand on a siding. I lost it here, so I think he
must have jumped on a freight and escaped that way. Now what do you think
of that for a sto