"Better not!" cautioned Sube. "Your mother'll give you a dose of castor oil!"
"No she won't," muttered Gizzard weakly. "I'm goin' anyhow."
"Seen any strays to-day?" Sube called after him as he went out of the door.
Twice that afternoon Gizzard returned, and each time went away complaining of weakness in his middle. Why he did not tell Sube what he had heard can never be explained, for Gizzard did not know himself. Perhaps he did not wish to have his partner unduly alarmed by rumors that might turn out to be false. But when he came rushing into the barn after supper, he told what had been on his mind, without further delay.
"Hey, Sube!" he cried in a tremulous voice. "You gotta get out of here! He jus' went in your house lookin' for you!"
He caught Sube by the arm and dragged him towards the door.
"What I got to get out for?" asked the amazed cat-catcher.
"Dan Lan-non!" enunciated the terrified informant. "He's goin'ta _'rest_ you!"
At the name of this grim officer of the law all felons trembled. Sube was no exception to the rule. He grew deathly pale. He had that empty feeling in his interior that Gizzard had complained of. He vaguely wondered what crime he had committed, but did not stop to inquire, as Gizzard dragged him feverishly towards the back door of the barn. Once outside he seemed to recover possession of his senses and assumed the lead. He conducted Gizzard to the midst of a clump of blackberry bushes in the rear of a deserted house not far away, and there Gizzard unburdened his soul.
Sube was scared. He was petrified. But he was faithful to the last. He could not believe that Nancy had betrayed him.
"It must of been that ol' M's Rude," he kept repeating. "It _must_ of been! It couldn't of been--anybody else! Now I wonder if that big cat with the long hair belonged to her."
"It wasn't M's Rude," declared Gizzard. "It was Nancy Guilford! Why, didn't she say she was goin' to have you--!"
"Girls _say_ lots of things they don't mean."
"Yes, but she said it, and then it happened!"
"I don't care what she _said_! I tell you it was that ol' M's Rude!" Sube burst out angrily. Then modifying his tone he continued: "But that don't cut any ice anyway! What I want to know is, what we goin' to do?"