Billy Whiskers Adventures | Page 5

piece of your tail?
Or, better yet, when you broke into the German headquarters and butted
the great Hindenburg himself," advised Button.
"Very well, I will, as probably that would be as interesting as anything
I could recount. What are you two fellows going to relate to them?"
"I think I shall tell them about our trip on the canal boat in France,"

replied Button.
"And I plan to describe to them the Dog Hospital and tell how it was
blown up by the Germans," added Stubby.
"It is quite an idea," said Billy, "their having a club like this. It keeps
them in touch with all that goes on throughout the whole country. I am
quite anxious to see what it is like."
As the hands of the clock in the Ferry station pointed to twelve, they
heard a loud meow and looking up they saw the big cat that had first
appeared to them sitting on the fence.
"Well, friends, here I am! Are you ready to start?"
"All ready!" replied Billy.
"But how are you to get out?"
"We will show you," said Stubby, whereupon Billy hopped up on the
packing box and from it onto the roof of the shed and then jumped
down into the alley.
"Very cleverly done!" commended the cat, whose name, by the way,
was Tiger because he was striped like one. "But what puzzles me is
how your friends are to get out as the jump is too high for them."
"Too high for them, did you say? Nothing is too high for a dog that has
done police duty in France. Listen! Did you not hear something hit the
fence and then the scratch of nails on the boards? Well, that is my
friend Stubby running up the side of the fence. From the sounds,
evidently he did not get enough of a running start and fell back. But
here he comes! See his head appearing over the top?"
In a second Stubby appeared, balancing himself on the ridge of the
fence. The next moment he stood beside them. At the same time Button
also ran down a post of the fence.
"Now we are all here, we'll have to hurry to allow for having to stop to

hide when we see watchmen and strange dogs. Not knowing any of our
members, you will have to be careful not to attack them, thinking they
are enemies. I will give you the password. It is three short, sharp barks.
On seeing another dog, all our members bark this password and if the
dog they bark at does not reply in like manner, they know it is a stray
dog. The cats all give three caterwauls in the same manner."
"Oh," exclaimed Button, "here comes a brute of a bulldog, whose
mouth looks as if it were just watering for the back of a cat. Unless he
gives the password quickly I shall take no chance but run up this tree. I
am willing to tackle almost any dog but a bulldog."
"Bow! Wow! Wow!" barked the bulldog as he approached them.
"Bow! Wow! Wow!" replied Stubby, while Billy baaed, "Baa! Baa!
Baa!" and Button meowed, "Mew! Mew! Mew!"
By this time the bulldog had come up to them and Tiger introduced
them, telling the dog what distinguished friends he was meeting.
[Illustration]
They found him most agreeable and that his looks really belied him,
just as the appearance of many persons does. As they all trotted along
toward the big warehouse down by the dock, Stubby and the bulldog
ran side by side, while Billy and the two cats ran on ahead. Presently
Stubby barked: "Oh, Billy! What do you think? Our new friend here
says he is the full brother of Boozer, the bulldog that belonged to
Captain Percy, and that he was in the Dog Hospital at the same time we
were there, laid up with a broken leg."
"The world is small after all. To think we should meet over here just
after seeing your brother in France!"
"Hiss!" warned Tiger. "No more talking until we are inside the building.
We are approaching the warehouse now and we must not let the
watchmen see us. The only way we can get in is through a window in
the basement that has been left open by mistake. There is a broad plank

running from the window down to the floor that the men use with their
wheelbarrows to carry out the dirt. It makes it very handy to get out.
We all could jump down, but few of our club members can jump up so
high. None of us can jump like Stubby here."
"Bow-wow!" barked the bulldog in a low voice as a man with a lantern
turned into the alley