The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog Read Online Free PDF Page B

warm. Warm chicken. My mouth began to water and I noticed a rumble in my stomach. This fresh evidence was pointing the case in an entirely new direction.
    â€œUh Drover, why don’t you run on and get some sleep? You’ve had a tough day.”
    â€œOh, I’m awake now.”
    â€œYou look sleepy.”
    â€œI do?”
    â€œYes, you do, awful sleepy. Your eyes seem kind of baggy.”
    â€œDon’t you think we should sound the alarm?”
    â€œNot just yet. I need to do a little more study on the corpse.” My stomach growled real loud.
    Drover perked his ears. “What was that?”
    â€œI didn’t hear anything.”
    He waited and listened. I concentrated on making my stomach shut up. You can do that, you know, control your body with your mind, only it didn’t work this time. My stomach growled again, sounded like a rusty gate hinge.
    â€œWhat is that?”
    â€œRigor mortis,” I said. “Chickens do that. Run along now and get some sleep. We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”
    â€œWell, okay.” He started off and heard my stomach again. He turned around and twisted his head and stared at me. “Was that you ?”
    â€œDon’t be absurd. Good night, Drover.”
    He shrugged and went on down to the gas tanks. I gave him plenty of time to bed down, get comfortable, snap at a few mosquitoes, and fall asleep. My mouth was watering so much that it was dripping off my chin.
    When everything was real quiet, I snatched up the body, loped out into the horse pasture, and began my postmortem investigation. It was very interesting.
    I didn’t hurry this part of the investigation. I labored over my work for several hours and fell into a peaceful sleep.
    When I awoke it was bright daylight. I could feel the rays of the sun warming my coat. I glanced around, trying to remember where I was, and when I figured it out, my heart almost stopped beating.
    I was lying in the center of a circle of white feathers, and several more feathers were clinging to my mouth and nose. My belly bulged, and Sally May was standing over me, a look of horror on her face.
    â€œHank! You’re the one! Oh Hank, how could you!”
    Huh? No wait, there had been a mistake. I had only . . . well, you see, I just . . . the chicken was already dead and I thought . . . hey, listen, I can explain everything . . . 

    It must have looked pretty bad, me lying there in the midst of all that damaging evidence. Sally May headed down to the house, swinging her arms and walking fast.
    I didn’t know what to do. If I ran, it would look bad. If I stayed, it would look bad. No matter what I did, it would look bad. Maybe eating the dern chicken had been a mistake.
    I was still sitting there, mulling over my next course of action, when Sally May returned with her husband.
    â€œThere, look. You see who’s been killing the chickens? Your dog! ”
    I whapped my tail against the ground and put on my most innocent face. Loper and I had been through a lot together. Surely he would know that his Head of Ranch Security wasn’t a common chicken-killing dog. He had to trust me.
    But I could see his face harden, and I knew I was cooked. “Hank, you bad dog. I never would have thought you’d do something like this.”
    I didn’t! It was all a mistake, I’d been framed.
    â€œCome here, Hank.” I crawled over to him. He picked up the chicken head which was lying on the ground. I hadn’t eaten it because I’ve found that beaks are hard to swaller. He tied a piece of string around the head and tied it around my neck. “There. You wear that chicken head until it falls off. Maybe that’ll help you remember that killing hens doesn’t pay around here.”
    They left, talking in low voices and shaking their heads. I tried to bite the string and get that thing off my neck, but I couldn’t do it. I was