"Mercy me, children!" gasped Ruth. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, we mustn't let Tom Jonah _bite_ that man," Tess declared, and kept right on running toward the henhouse.
"If that dog bites----" screamed Ruth, and ran after her smaller sister.
There was the big dog leaping savagely toward the low eaves of the hennery. A kicking figure was sprawled on the roof, clinging with both hands to the ridge of it. The girls obtained a glimpse of a dark face, with flashing teeth, and big gold rings in the marauder's ears.
"Tak' dog away! Tak' dog away!" the man said, in a strangled voice.
"He's one of those Gypsies," whispered Agnes, in an awed voice.
A tribe of the nomads in question had passed through Milton but a day or two before, and the girls had been frightened by the appearance of the men of the tribe who had called at the old Corner House.
Now, whether this marauder belonged to the same people or not, Ruth saw that he looked like a Gypsy. For another reason, too, her mind was relieved at once; Tom Jonah was only savage toward the man on the roof.
When Tess ran right up to the leaping dog, he stopped barking, and wagged his tail, as though satisfied that he had done his duty in drawing the family to the scene. But he still kept his eyes on the man, and occasionally uttered a growl deep in his throat.
"What are you doing up there?" Ruth demanded of the man.
"No. I think I will let the dog hold you till a policeman comes. You were trying to rob our henroost."
"Oh, no, Missee! You wrong. No do that," stammered the man.
Before the fellow could manufacture any plausible tale, a shout came from beyond the back fence, and somebody was heard to scramble into the Corner House yard.
"What's the matter, girls?" demanded Neale O'Neil's cheerful voice.
"Oh, come here, Neale!" cried Agnes. "Tom Jonah's caught a Gypsy."
"Tom _Who_?" demanded the tall, pleasant-faced boy of fifteen, who immediately approached the henhouse.
"Tom Jonah," announced Tess. "He's just the _nicest_ dog!"
The boy saw the group more clearly then. He looked from the savagely growling animal to the man sprawling on the roof, and burst out laughing.
"Yes! I guess that fellow up there feels that the dog is very 'nice.' Where did you get the dog, and where did _he_ get his name?"