The Case of the Vampire Cat Read Free

guess.”
    â€œWhere would you go to find a beggar in this weather?”
    â€œWell, you’d just . . . how should I know? Quit asking silly questions and catch some mice.”
    â€œI don’t even know what a beggar is, and I’m too cold to care.”
    â€œA beggar, son, is one who begs.”
    â€œOne what ?”
    â€œOne beggar. A beggar is one beggar who begs. That’s simple enough.”
    â€œWhy are they going to town?”
    â€œBecause they . . . I don’t know. They need a horse, I guess.”
    â€œI thought horses lived in the country.”
    â€œThey do live in the country but . . . never mind, Drover, just never mind. I’m sorry I brought it up.”
    â€œOh, that’s okay, but I’m still freezing.”
    After that, I stayed as far away from Drover as I could. Just being close to him made me feel goofy.
    Little Alfred arrived on the scene just then. He was all dressed up in a red snowsuit, red mittens, snow boots, and a wool stocking cap.
    Slim got the hay loaded, just about the time Loper and Sally May and Baby Molly arrived. Alfred had been cleared by Headquarters to go with us to the Hodges’ Place, but Sally May still had quite a bit of advice to give Slim about being careful.
    Then we all said good-bye and went our separate ways. Loper and his bunch went north to feed hay, and Slim and our bunch loaded up in the old blue pickup and headed south.
    When we passed Miss Viola’s house down the creek, Slim honked his horn and said, “That’s where my petunia lives.” We didn’t see his petunia, but her two dogs, Black and Jack, came ripping out of the driveway and barked at us.
    Well, you know me. I don’t take such things lightly. I sprang to the window and barked back at them, and if the window glass hadn’t been rolled up, I probably would have thrashed them both, right there in the middle of the county road.
    Nothing makes me madder than . . .
    Hmmm. Slim stopped the pickup and opened his door, and then he said to me . . . I think he was addressing me . . . he said, “You really want a piece of those dogs?”
    I, uh . . . no, that was okay. There was no actual law against . . . heck, as long as they just barked and didn’t . . . no, we’d let it slide this time.
    In other words, no thanks.
    â€œThen hush.” He slammed his door and started off again.
    Fine. I could handle that. Hushing had never been a problem for me.

Chapter Three: We Meet the Weirdest Cat You Ever Saw

    H ave I mentioned that Loper had taken a lease on the Hodges’ ranch? Maybe not, but he had, and we were wintering a bunch of cows on it. It was a dandy place to winter cows, because all the canyons and rough country gave them protection from storms.
    But it wasn’t such a dandy place to reach in a two-wheel-drive pickup, in a snowstorm. Once you left the blacktop highway up on the flats, you faced nine miles of long, lonesome road, without a single house to mark the way or give you the feeling that you could get help if you needed it.
    And there were spots in that long, lonesome road where a guy could get himself stuck. Slim came pretty close on several occasions. The road was bad and getting worse.
    The road came to an end at the little camp house. When we got there, Slim shut off the pickup and took a deep breath.
    â€œWhoo boy! I wasn’t sure we were going to get here. We shouldn’t have tried to make it down here without a four-wheel-drive. It’s a good thing we’ve got the Cammo-Stealth army truck down here. Let’s see if she’ll start.”
    We all piled out of the blue pickup and moved over to the Cammo-Stealth army truck. What was the Cammo-Stealth army truck? A 1953 Dodge 4 x 4 with big mudgrip tires all the way around, a six-cylinder engine, and a four-speed transmission. It had a canvas top and was painted camouflage colors.
    That’s where the “Cammo” part of the name came