"Get it now!" yelled William. "Get it while they're fighting."
Ginger seized the basket and effected the capture neatly, but not without a dozen or so more scratches. They fastened up the basket and resumed their journey.
[Illustration: THE WHITE CAT RAN SUDDENLY INTO A TABBY CAT WITH A BROKEN EAR. THERE WAS A WHIRL OF FURY. "GET IT NOW!" YELLED WILLIAM. "GET IT WHILE THEY'RE FIGHTING!"]
"Well, you can't say I din't do that, can you?" said Ginger, vaingloriously. "You can't say I din't do that pretty neatly! You can't say you helped much there. I bet if _you'd_ got all these scratches there'd be some sort of a fuss!"
"Yes, and who let it loose? That's all I'm asking. Who let it loose?... Oh, come on! Let's get it home. I'm about sick of it. I'm about sick of being his cat-carrier!"
"Seems a bit quieter, doesn't it?" said Ginger.
"Speck it knows now it's no use makin' a fuss. Speck it din't quite know before wot sort of cat-catchers we was."
"Let's have another look at it, William!"
"Oh, yes, an' go lettin' it loose all over the place again. Oh, yes, do!"
"It's quiet now. It'll not mind me lookin'. I want to see if it's got very dirty."
"I'll have a look at it this time," he said, "then p'raps it won't get loose all over the place!"
Cautiously he opened the basket lid. Over his face came a look of horror. It faded, leaving it grim and scornful.
"Oh, yes, you did it," he said, with heavy sarcasm. "You did it pretty neatly, as you said you did. Oh, yes, I din't help much. Oh, yes, you caught it."
He opened the basket wider. A friendly tabby, with a broken ear, regarded them and gave a tentative purr.
"Oh, yes, you caught it all right, but you caught the _wrong_ one!"
Ginger looked at it, aghast, speechless. Then he pulled himself together.
"Well, we'll have to pretend that it's the one."
"Oh, yes," said William. "She'll believe it's a valu'ble white cat, in a highly nervous state, won't she? Oh, yes, she's quite likely to believe that!"
They sat down by the roadside and stared at each other hopelessly. The tabby showed no signs of wishing to leave them, though, in their despair, they had left the basket open.
"We--might do something to make it nervous," suggested Ginger, feebly.
He began to make strange noises of obviously hostile and insulting intent to the cat. The cat began to purr. William watched with cold scorn.