ry?"

"I think you are a very clever dog. But isn't it too bad that they will
never find their silver and there it will be all the time buried in their
own back yard!"

"Of course they will find it!" exclaimed Zip.

"I would like to know how! For they won't be digging in that part of the
garden."

"Well, they just will, for I am going to lead them to it!" Zip said.

"How are you going to do that when you can't talk, I should like to know?"

"No, I can't talk, but I can bark and make such a fuss that they will
follow me to the place and then I will scratch around and reveal the
silver."

"My, but I should like to be there and see their faces when the first
spoon comes flying out of the earth when you scratch!"

"You can be. I will tell you when I am going and you may go ahead and be
sitting on the fence when I bring them to the spot."

"You are a dear, Zip! And I'll give you all the meat they give me for
dinner for three days!"

"All right; it's a bargain."

"When are you going?"

"Right away, for I want to be there when the Judge gets home. Come ahead
and let's start!"

And five minutes later you could have seen a little, spotted dog and a
big, yellow cat running side by side across lots and down lanes in the
direction of Judge Perkins' home.

CHAPTER III

ZIP UNEARTHS THE STOLEN SILVER

"Listen, Tabby! I hear the sound of wheels and of horses' feet on the
road," and stopping to look and listen, Zip spied the Judge's fat, white
horse trotting down the road toward home. And he also recognized the
village constable sitting beside the Judge.

"See, Tabby, he has brought the constable along with him to help get a
clue to the burglar. Let us hurry along and we can get there first by
going across lots."

This they did, so when the Judge arrived home and went to show the
constable the window where the burglar got in, he found Zip sitting
demurely beside it.

"Hello, Zip! What are you doing here?" he asked.

You may think it strange the Judge knew Zip's name, but not so in a little
village. Generally everyone knows the name of all the dogs and cats and
call them by name when they chance to meet them in any unlooked-for place,
as now.

"Did you hear them talking of my burglar in town and come to see for
yourself where he got in?" asked the Judge.

Zip stopped the Judge's questions by jumping up and down on the window
sill, smelling the bundle of clothes, jumping up and down, nosing around
t