The Case of the Monkey Burglar by John R. Erickson

Author:John R. Erickson
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: cowdog, Hank the Cowdog, John R. Erickson, John Erickson, ranching, Texas, dog, adventure, mystery, Hank, Drover, Pete, Sally May
Publisher: Maverick Books, Inc.
Published: 2015-05-06T18:18:49+00:00

Chapter Eight: Drover and I Figure It Out

I grabbed a deep breath of air and began crawling toward him, rehearsing my story as I went. This wasn’t going to be fun. I crawled out into the sunlight and gave him a grin that said:

“Okay, those tracks. We noticed them too, but we have no idea where they came from. We were wondering if they might be . . . well, fossilized monkey tracks. You know, tracks that have been here for thousands and thousands of years. See, once upon a time, when the world was young, bands of wild monkeys roamed across the ranch and . . .”

I studied his face, and right away I knew that he wasn’t buying my story. Gulp. Then he spoke. “Hank, what happened while I was asleep?”

I felt myself wilting under the heat of his gaze. It was . . . it was hard to explain . . . impossible to explain, actually. I mean, it was beginning to appear that Willie and Bub might have been impostors.

Are you shocked? So was I. They had told us an incredible pack of lies, and we’d been completely hoodwinked.

My head sank, and I felt rotten.

Slim turned to Viola and told her about Deputy Kile’s report on the Monkey Gang. She was astonished. “He uses a monkey to steal? And you think they robbed Daddy’s shop? Slim, this is really bizarre! But how did the monkey get past Daddy’s dogs? Blackie and Jackie hear everything.”

“Well, the deputy said they give goofy pills to the dogs.” He glared down at me. “But I guess they decided my dogs were goofy enough and didn’t need any pills. They watched the whole thing and didn’t even raise a squeak.” His eyes widened. “Say, we’d better jump in your pickup and check things up at headquarters. Those crooks might still be around. Come on!”

They got into Viola’s pickup and roared away, leaving Drover and me sitting in the glare of our own failure.

“Drover, how could we have allowed this to happen? What went wrong?”

“I don’t know. I guess it was the clothes that fooled us.”

“You’re right. Who would ever expect to see a monkey wearing a cowboy costume?”

“Not me. It’s not fair—they cheated.”

“They really did. They thought they could make chumps out of us, dressing the monkey in clothes. And you know what? It worked. We were chumps, Drover. We fell for the whole shabby mess.”

“Yeah, and I feel awful about it.”

I began pacing back and forth in front of him. “But we can’t just roll over and die. We must learn from our bitter experience and come back again: stronger, wiser, and tougher dogs.”

He stared at me through his tears. “What do you mean?”

I whirled around and faced him. “I mean if the Monkey Gang strikes again, we’ll be ready for them.”

“We will?”

“Yes sir. We won’t be fooled by the phony cowboy clothes, and next time when we see a midget with monkey ears and a monkey mouth, we’ll know that he’s a monkey.

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