“You might as well come out, Drover,” I said, peering into the darkness and trying to decide which stack of junk he was hiding behind: the paint cans, the windmill parts, the old tires, the electric fence batteries, the spare parts for the stock trailer, High Loper’s canoe, Sally May’s wedding presents—you could have lost three elephants in that place. “Come on, Drover, and face the music. I see you.”
“We was only funnin’, Hank, it wasn’t real. Pete said so.”
“You coming out or do I have to tear this place apart?”
“I’m scared, Hank.”
“Okay, you asked for it.”
I waded in. When something got in my way, I just by George leveled it, knocked it aside, left it in rubble. You should have heard them paint cans clatter! I mean, when Hank the Cowdog gets on a case, nothing’s safe, especially a villain. It’s only a matter of time until I track him down and then you can imagine the terrible scene.
Drover was in real peril.
I tore the place apart, turned it upside-down, just about wore me out. “Drover, tell you what I’m gonna do. If you’ll turn yourself in, we’ll forget the death penalty. I’ll let you off with a good thrashing.”
“I’m still scared, Hank. I’m too scared to walk.”
“All right, a minor thrashing.”
“I’m just petrified, Hank, I can’t move.”
I thought for a long time. Justice has to be flexible. “Okay, here’s my last offer. If you’ll stand with your nose in the corner for fifteen minutes, we’ll let it slide this time.”
He came out. He’d been under the canoe. Sure thought he was behind the paint cans. “Now you march down to the gas tanks and put your nose in the corner.”
“Okay, Hank, but that’s a terrible punishment.”
“You bet it is, and let this be a lesson to you.”
We picked our way through the junk, across the cement floor to the door. When we got into the moonlight, Drover stopped. “Oh my gosh, Hank, look at you feet! You’re bleeding!”
I glanced down. Sure ’nuff, my feet were covered with blood. Must have cut them on something sharp and terrible. I started getting faint from loss of blood. My legs got wobbly. “Rush me to the sewer, Drover, this is serious.”
Drover sniffed the air. “Wait a minute. What’s that I smell?”
Just before I lost consciousness, I sniffed the air. “Wait a minute. What’s that I smell? It’s paint, Drover, red paint. You saw something red and wet and jumped to conclusions. A lot of times you can study the clues, son, and figger these things out. Now march.”
I marched him down to the gas tanks and stuck his nose in the corner. It was a terrible punishment, all right, but he had it coming.
Well, it was great to be home again. I mean, in just a few days’ time, I’d managed to get all the loose ends tied together. I had my ranch back in order and things were running smoothly again.
Just to give you an idea of how well things worked out, around seven o’clock in the morning I looked up in the sky and saw the silver monster bird again, but he wasn’t flying low this time, no siree, he was way the heck up there. I mean, you scare them birds bad enough and they’ll stay off your ranch. They know the meaning of danger.
I was watching the monster bird pass over when I heard High Loper and Slim coming down the hill. I looked around and was shocked to see a smile on Loper’s face. And unless I was badly mistaken, he was even laughing to himself.
“Hank, by golly, I just heard the good news. Billy called, and boy, was he steamed up! Said you gave his Doberman a licking. Heck of a deal, heck of a deal!” He whopped me on the side a couple of times, made me cough in fact, but that was okay. “This calls for a celebration. Double dog food, Hankie, come on boy, let’s go up to the machine shed.”
Off we went: a loyal, courageous dog and his master. It was just by George a pretty touching moment in ranch history.
But as you might expect, Drover tried to butt in—you know, as if he had done something to deserve special commendation, when in fact he was still on probation.
Loper chuckled all the way up the hill. “Just went over there and whipped that old Doberman, on his own ranch! I like that, Hank, shows spunk and spirit and vinegar and . . .”
We had walked into the machine shed. Loper stopped. His smile began to droop, then it fell flat. He walked to the center of the room. Slim and I waited at the doorway. The place was . . . well, a little messy, shall we say.
His eyes went to the paint cans and the big puddle of red on the floor. He looked at the red tracks on the cement. He looked at my red paws. I glanced around to cast an accusing eye at Drover, but naturally the little dunce wasn’t paying me any mind.
I began to wag my tail.
I can’t see that it would serve any purpose to go into details here. It should be clear by now that the machine shed was damaged in the line of duty. It should be clear that misunderstanding is just one of the prices of greatness.
Those of us who live on the heights must live with the judgments of small minds. We can only hope that in the next life justice will reign.
It reigns here, but it also hails.
Further Reading
Have you read all of Hank’s adventures?
1 The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog
2 The Further Adventures of Hank the Cowdog
3 It’s a Dog’s Life
4 Murder in the Middle Pasture
5 Faded Love
6 Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
7 The Curse of the Incredible Priceless Corncob
8 The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse
9 The Case of the Halloween Ghost
10 Every Dog Has His Day
11 Lost in the Dark Unchanted Forest
12 The Case of the Fiddle-Playing Fox
13 The Wounded Buzzard on Christmas Eve
14 Hank the Cowdog and Monkey Business
15 The Case of the Missing Cat
16 Lost in the Blinded Blizzard
18 The Case of the Hooking Bull
19 The Case of the Midnight Rustler
20 The Phantom in the Mirror
21 The Case of the Vampire Cat
22 The Case of the Double Bumblebee Sting
23 Moonlight Madness
24 The Case of the Black-Hooded Hangmans
25 The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado
26 The Case of the Kidnapped Collie
27 The Case of the Night-Stalking Bone Monster
28 The Mopwater Files
29 The Case of the Vampire Vacuum Sweeper
30 The Case of the Haystack Kitties
31 The Case of the Vanishing Fishhook
32 The Garbage Monster from Outer Space
33 The Case of the Measled Cowboy
34 Slim’s Good-bye
35 The Case of the Saddle House Robbery
36 The Case of the Raging Rottweiler
37 The Case of the Deadly Ha-Ha Game
38 The Fling
39 The Secret Laundry Monster Files
40 The Case of the Missing Bird Dog
41 The Case of the Shipwrecked Tree
42 The Case of the Burrowing Robot
44 The Dungeon of Doom
45 The Case of the Falling Sky
46 The Case of the Tricky Trap
47 The Case of the Tender Cheeping Chickies
48 The Case of the Monkey Burglar
49 The Case of the Booby-Trapped Pickup
50 The Case of the Most Ancient Bone
51 The Case of the Blaz
ing Sky
52 The Quest for the Great White Quail
53 Drover’s Secret Life
54 The Case of the Dinosaur Birds
55 The Case of the Secret Weapon
56 The Case of the Coyote Invasion
57 The Disappearance of Drover
58 The Case of the Mysterious Voice
About the Author and Illustrator
John R. Erickson, a former cowboy, has written numerous books for both children and adults and is best known for his acclaimed Hank the Cowdog series. He lives and works on his ranch in Perryton, Texas, with his family.
Gerald L. Holmes has illustrated numerous cartoons and textbooks in addition to the Hank the Cowdog series. He lives in Perryton, Texas.
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