Hank the Cowdog and the Case of the Mysterious Sound

By Zach Schaarschmidt

Hi, itās me again, Hank the Cowdog. Today Drover almost got himself killed by Junior and his farther, the vultures. Well, I guess I should tell you the rest of the story.

It all started when Drover and I were sleeping on our gunny sacks under the gas tanks and I heard a noise. It was coming from the bushes. I woke up Drover. "Do you hear that Drover?"

"Yeah, I hear a sprinkler," said Drover.

"That aināt no sprinkler. Besides we donāt have a sprinkler! Thatās a rattlesnake!!"

"Oh Hankie, Iām scared!"

"You should be Drover, cause a dangerous animal is behind that bush with fangs and we need to do something about it!" Just then I saw Drover lying on the ground playing dead. Up in the tree there were two vultures staring down at the stub-tailed mutt. They came over because they saw Drover lying on the ground and thought he was dead.

All of a sudden I heard Sally may with some juicy bacon scraps and had to get there before Pete the Barncat did. So I went up to the fence. Back at the tree, the two vultures were arguing over whether or not Drover was dead, because they were hungry. "He-y-y-y dad, d-d-d-do ya think heās d-d-d-dead yet?" said Junior.

"Well it sure looks like it to me son."

I heard someone or something talking back at where Drover lay near the tree. So I went to check it out. When those two vultures saw me they were gone in a flash, or should I say gone in a flutter gone in a ... well just forget about it. Lets just say they left as soon as they saw me. Thatās how I saved another day on the ranch. Ok, well I guess thereās nothing else to say or I mean write, actually I think they mean the same thing. 

©Maverick Books, All rights reserved.
"Hank the Cowdog" is a registered trademark of John R. Erickson Illustrations by Gerald L. Holmes