Billy Whiskers Adventures | Page 6

down which they all were running. "Hide quickly
until he passes!"
As the man passed them, they heard him muttering to himself: "I never
saw so many cats and dogs in my life as I have seen to-night in this
alley. I did not know there were so many in the world! And when I get
up to where I saw them they are all gone--disappeared--vamoosed.
They must be the ghosts of the dead and gone dogs and cats that used
to live in the warehouse."
Just then the bulldog, whose name was Buster, sneezed, which so
startled the man that he ran as if he had been shot.
"Nice brave watchmen they have!" said Billy.
"Plague take my nose!" said Buster. "It is so short and stubby that all
the dust gets into it and to save my life I can't help sneezing. And I
always do it at the most inopportune moment."
Just then a whistle sounded, and Tiger said, "We must hurry! There
goes the twelve o'clock whistle at the factory down the river. It is the
signal for the night shift to come on."
[Illustration]
The warehouse being near where they were, in about five minutes they
found themselves entering the low window Buster had spoken about.
When they looked inside, it was pitch dark and as if they were looking
into a coal pit. But their eyes being such that they could see in the dark,
they had no trouble in walking the plank and soon found themselves on
the floor of the cellar. It looked a black square in shape and there was
absolutely nothing in it, Tiger said. Still in the distance they could see

black shapes moving about.
"What in the world is over in that corner?" asked Billy.
"Oh, they are only wharf rats," replied Tiger. "Shall we charge down on
them just for fun?"
"Say we do! But I hate rats as I do poison," said Billy.
"So do I, but they are our natural enemies," answered Tiger.
"Ours too," from Stubby.
"You stand and watch the fun, while we rat haters kill a few,"
suggested Tiger.
"Very well!"
"When I say three, all of you run for the bunch and kill as many as you
can," instructed Tiger.
For the next ten minutes you never in all your life heard such squealing,
snarling and snipping of teeth as there was in that cellar. Two unusually
big cats and two dogs all bound to kill rats were fighting these fierce
wharf rats. But what made the battle such a bloody one was that wharf
rats are braver than house rats and will fight to the death when attacked.
Being large, and having long, sharp teeth, more often than not they get
the better of ordinary cats and dogs that are sicked on them. In less than
fifteen minutes hundreds of rats had been killed, for Buster was a noted
rat killer. All he did was to open his jaws, grab a rat in the middle of its
back, give his head a shake and the rat's back was broken. Then he
tossed that rat aside and served another one likewise.
The rats had all disappeared or else were lying dead in heaps when
Billy heard Stubby give a whine of pain, and turning to discover where
he was, he saw him standing in the midst of a pile of dead rats with one
nearly half as large as himself hanging to his throat under his jaw. The
rat had hold of Stubby in such a way he could not shake him off, and

all the time the rat was sucking his blood.
Billy saw him in a minute and with one bound he was beside Stubby
and had ripped the rat open with his long, sharp horn, which made its
mouth open and set Stubby free.
"Thank you, old fellow, for saving me! I was almost gone when you
came with your timely assistance."
[Illustration]
"I guess we have had enough fun with rats for one night," said Tiger,
"and we better be getting on or we will be late for the opening
exercises."
"I am a perfect mess!" said Stubby in disgust. "See how bloody I am."
"So am I," replied Tiger.
"I too," chimed in Button.
"I tell you what let's do," proposed Stubby. "It won't take five minutes.
Let's run out and take a swim in the river. I can never appear before a
strange audience with my coat looking like this."
"I'll go with you," replied Buster.
"I think," said Button, "I would prefer cleaning my coat by rolling in
that nice clean bank of sand in the corner of the cellar to swimming in
the river."
"I am with you on that proposition," said Tiger. "No water