Finally, one of the men who owned the lumber yard came out of his office, and saw the boys bothering Don. The man called to them:
“Hi there, you little fellows! Run away, and play somewhere else.”
Then the boys ran away, and left Don alone. The man did not know there was a dog hiding under his lumber pile. But Don felt very kindly toward the man who had driven away the boys.
“Now if he would only help me get rid of this can on my tail I’d be all right,” thought Don. “I wonder where Jack is?”
For some time Don stayed hiding under the lumber pile. His heart was not beating so fast now, though his tail still hurt him, where the can was tied on. And he was hungry and thirsty, for he had eaten nothing since the night before. Don was just thinking it would be safe to come out of his hiding place, when he heard a dog barking. And he knew, at once, that it was his shaggy friend Jack.
Though Jack’s voice would have sounded to you and me only like: “Bow wow wow!” to Don it said:
“Where are you? What has happened? Where are you hiding?”
“Bow wow!” answered Don. “Here I am. Oh, where have you been? Such a lot has happened since you went away, and left me sleeping. There is a can tied to my tail.”
“Poor fellow!” said Jack to Don, as the latter crawled out. “You have had a lot of trouble, haven’t you? Never mind, I’ll soon have that off your tail.” And he did, gnawing the rope with his sharp teeth.
“Now I have a bone for you,” went on Jack. “I left it in the place where we slept. It isn’t a very good one, but it’s the best one I could find this morning.”
“Oh, that’s a fine bone,” said Don, when he was hungrily gnawing it. At home he would hardly have looked twice at such a bone, for it had very little meat on it. But since he had run away he was glad enough to get almost anything.
“Where did you go?” asked Don of Jack, as the bone was finished, and Don began to feel thirsty.
“Oh, seeing that you were soundly asleep, I went out to look for breakfast,” answered Jack. “I did not think the boys would find you asleep. We must look for a new hiding place, since they know where this one is. Now we’ll see if it’s all right to go get a drink, down at the river. It isn’t far.”
Jack looked out, but, almost at once, he drew in his head again.