CHAPTER XIV

SALLY AND SPOT

‘The Conants have got a dog,’ Sally said to Oxford one day. ‘Isn’t that awful?’

‘Are you sure they’ve got one?’

‘Yes, I heard Miss Harvey say so, and I’ve seen him.’

‘You’ve seen him?’

‘Yes, he was skipping about in our clothes-yard this morning. Miss Harvey wouldn’t let me out. She said it was too dangerous. I was afraid you’d meet him.’

‘What does he look like?’

‘Miss Harvey told Elvira he was a wire-haired terrier. He’s white with a black spot. He’s not so terribly big, but it seems he hates cats and loves to chase them. Miss Harvey thinks he would kill us if he got the chance.’

‘I’m quite sure he wouldn’t kill me,’ said Oxford.

‘I don’t suppose he would, but he might kill me.’

‘Not if I am around, Sally. You had better never go out without me.’

Oxford and Sally were sitting in the kitchen windows as they were talking, and they could look across at the windows in the Conant house. Suddenly Sally gave a hiss.

‘What is the matter?’ asked Elvira.

‘He’s there; it’s himself,’ said Sally, but Elvira could not understand.

Oxford understood, and he looked across at the Conant house. There, in one of the windows, was the monster who would like to kill cats.

He was not so terrible to look at. The cats gazed at him fascinated. He looked back at them with a fixed gaze.

Elvira heard some more hisses and going to the window she saw Spot.

‘Bless your hearts, he can’t get you,’ said Elvira. ‘There are two sets of window-panes between you and Spot.’

It gave a new thrill to life having Spot living next door, but it was most inconvenient, for Oxford and Sally were always kept in when Spot was taking his exercise.

‘He doesn’t seem to realize this place is ours,’ said Oxford. ‘He walks into this clothes-yard, just as bold as if it belonged to him.’

‘But there is no fence between the two places,’ said Sally. ‘We go into Mrs. Conant’s garden whenever we like.’

‘We are old settlers,’ said Oxford. ‘We have a right to go where we please, but I call it bold for an impudent young puppy to come over into our yard. Before we know it, he will be in the Wild Wood.’

He had an endless fascination for them, however. They liked to watch him starting out at an early hour in the morning for an airing with Mrs. Conant’s husband. They trembled and felt safer when he went back to the house and the door closed.

Elvira would say, ‘I think it is safe for Oxford and Sally to go out now. It will be some time before Spot goes out again.’

They never felt much security when they were out, for at any moment the door of the Conant house might open and the monster might come out.

‘Anyway, he can’t climb trees,’ said Oxford, ‘and there are a lot of them about.’

As the days passed and nothing happened, they grew less and less afraid of their enemy and more and more confident, and there was always the excitement of sitting at the kitchen windows and looking across at Spot as he sat at his window. Sometimes they saw Mrs. Conant pass the window with Spot frisking along by her side. She would wave her hand as she passed. It was the season of the year when her pretty pink dress seemed to Sally more suitable to the weather than her own coat of fur.

Sally felt sure that some day there would be a meeting between herself and Spot. She did not know why she felt so sure of this. When she spoke of her fears to Oxford, he said: ‘How silly you are, Sally. All you have to do is to stay close by me, and I will defend you with my good right paw.’

‘I am sure you would,’ said Sally, ‘but sometimes you go off on journeys. I can’t stay shut up in the house all day when you go on a journey.’

‘Of course, I can’t give up all my pleasure trips to stay at home and protect you. The only safe thing is never to go out unless you see that impudent scoundrel’s face in the window. When he’s in, he can’t be out.’

‘But he might suddenly be let out,’ said Sally.

And this was exactly what did happen one bright day in early June when Oxford was away for a day or two.

Sally saw Spot in the window and she mewed to be let out. She mewed and mewed until even Miss Winifred heard. The others were at the top of the house. They could hear her, but it was a long way to come down just for Sally.

‘Poor pussy,’ said Miss Winifred, as she opened the kitchen door. ‘What do you want?’

Sally mewed again in her strong voice and went to the outside door.

‘Do you want to go out?’ said Miss Winifred, as she opened the screen door.

Sally made it evident that she did. She ran down the steps to the clothes-yard. It was good to get out into the bright sunshine, and she ran down toward the street. Suddenly she heard an awful bark and looking up she saw that the monster was almost upon her. Trembling all over, Sally fairly flew over the ground and scampered up the nearest tree. There she sat looking down on Spot. He was standing still at the foot of the tree looking up at her. Some time passed, and finally Sally gathered courage to ask,

‘How long are you going to stay there?’

‘Until you come down,’ said Spot.

‘I mean to stay here a long time,’ said Sally. ‘Days, perhaps. It is very comfortable in this tree.’

‘Is it? It doesn’t look so.’

Time passed. It seemed hours to Sally. The round sun was getting low in the heavens, and still that awful dog stood there at the foot of the tree. Sally did not dare to come down.

‘I’ve often seen you in the window,’ said Sally pleasantly. ‘I should think you would want to go back to that nice window; it seems a little cold here.’

[Illustration]

‘I’ve often noticed you at your window,’ said Spot. ‘I was thinking it was about time for you to go home.’

‘I mean to stay out all night,’ said Sally. ‘I never was out all night. My friends give fine concerts then. There is to be a moon to-night.’

Time passed, and Sally was growing hungry and tired. Would no one come for her? Miss Harvey and Elvira would not know she had been let out, and she had heard them say that Miss Winifred was going off for the night. Poor Sally was getting more and more miserable.

‘Don’t you think Mrs. Conant will worry if you stay out so long?’ she asked.

‘She never worries. She lets me lead a free life. How about Elvira and Miss Harvey? What will they think if you don’t come in?’

‘They don’t know I’m out.’

The sky was clouding over and the bright sun was going to set long before its time in a bank of gray.

‘It is going to rain,’ said Sally. ‘I don’t mind the rain at all because of my warm fur coat.’ All the same, she didn’t like to get wet. ‘Do you mind the rain, Spot?’

‘No, but it isn’t going to rain,’ he said.

Sally was now longing to get into the house. She gave another of her piercing mews which she had been giving at intervals, but she was some distance from the house and Elvira did not know that she was out.

[Illustration]

‘Some cat is in trouble. It sounds a little like Sally’s mew,’ Elvira said to Miss Harvey. ‘Did you let her out?’

‘No, I am sure she is somewhere around the house.’

Presently, to Sally’s joy, she saw Mrs. Conant coming along the avenue.

‘Why, Spotty, what are you doing here?’ she asked.

She looked up to see what the dog was watching, and she saw poor Sally in the tree.

‘Come, Spotty, come home at once and let that poor cat alone,’ she said.

As she passed the kitchen window she said: ‘One of your cats has been treed by Spotty. I am very sorry. He ought to have better manners.’

‘She is the nicest person,’ Sally said to herself as she scrambled down the tree after she heard the front door close on Mrs. Conant and her dog. ‘She understands the feelings of a cat, but it is strange she could not tell the difference between Oxford and me. Perhaps I’m growing better-looking now I am fatter.’

[Illustration]