The Case of the Double Bumblebee Sting
John R. Erickson
Illustrations by Gerald L. Holmes
Maverick Books, Inc.
Publication Information
MAVERICK BOOKS
Published by Maverick Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 549, Perryton, TX 79070
Phone: 806.435.7611
www.hankthecowdog.com
First published in the United States of America by Gulf Publishing Company, 1994.
Subsequently published simultaneously by Viking Children’s Books and Puffin Books, members of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 1999.
Currently published by Maverick Books, Inc., 2013.
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Copyright © John R. Erickson, 1994
All rights reserved
Maverick Books, Inc. Paperback ISBN: 978-1-59188-122-3
Hank the Cowdog® is a registered trademark of John R. Erickson.
Printed in the United States of America
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Dedication
To Mary Dykema, my mother-in-law, in appreciation for her many years of love and support
Contents
Chapter One First Report of the _______
Chapter Two Tricked by Pete but Not for Long
Chapter Three Pete’s a Cheat
Chapter Four A Severe Double Bumblebee Sting
Chapter Five Sally May Rushes to My Rescue
Chapter Six Okay, Maybe It Was a Rattlesnake
Chapter Seven Molly Eats Bugs
Chapter Eight Sally May’s Secret Crinimal Record
Chapter Nine Who Needs Buzzards at a Time Like This?
Chapter Ten Sally May Really Cares, After All
Chapter Eleven Hiccups Overwhelm Her Compassion
Chapter Twelve History Seems to Repeat Itself, Doesn’t It?
Chapter One: First Report of the _______
It’s me again, Hank the Cowdog. It was morning. It was early summer. Slim and Loper were about to leave the ranch for three days to help a friend with his spring branding.
Little did they know, and even littler did I know, that within minutes I would be attacked and bitten by a . . .
Maybe I shouldn’t say. It might frighten the kids, and you know how I am about these kids. I don’t mind giving ’em a little thrill, but I sure would hate to scare ’em too badly.
So I don’t dare mention that I was bitten on the nose by a rat . . . tell you what. For the time bean, we’ll just leave it at that and say that I was bitten on the nose by a rat. A big rat.
That shouldn’t scare the kids too badly. I mean, everybody knows that rats bite but they don’t have poison fangs or stingers. In the meantime, let’s see if we can get the little kids into bed, the ones who might be terribly scared if they knew the truth of the matter.
(See, the whatever-it-was that bit me turned out to be quite a bit worse than a rat. Mum’s the word.)
So let me set the scenery. Ranch headquarters. Early morning. Birds chirping and chattering in the big elm trees, mostly blackbirds and starlings and sparrows and those other birds whose names I don’t know. I’m not a bird dog.
Swallows. There were several swallows darting around.
And baldheaded peckerwoods, did I mention them? They tap on trees with their beaks. That would give me a headache.
Where was I? Oh yes. Loper’s pickup was parked beside the gas tanks. He’d already hooked up the gooseneck trailer and was filling the pickup with gas.
I noticed a certain edge of tension in the air, which is common around here when someone is trying to meet a deadline or get away for a trip. Loper had been looking forward to this trip for a long time, and no doubt he was running behind schedule.
It happens every time.
Slim arrived in his pickup and pulled up beside the gas tanks. He shut off the motor and gave Loper a grin. “Mornin’. How’s it going?”
Loper was not wearing a happy face. “Typical. The phone started ringing at seven o’clock. The pressure pump tripped the circuit breaker again. That’s the third time in two days. Alfred spilled a full glass of milk at breakfast. It went in my lap and I had to change pants.
“I can’t find my good heeling rope. The stock trailer had a flat tire. The pickup was out of gas. I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and caught Molly scrubbing the pot with my toothbrush.
“Just a typical day. We’re running thirty minutes late and quite a few dollars short, and you need to saddle both our horses. Then, unless lightning strikes, we might be ready to leave.”
Slim got out of the pickup and headed for the saddle lot in that slow walk of his. Loper watched him for a moment and shook his head. “That’s the slowest human being I ever met. I’d like to see him in a burning house some time. I’ll bet he’d walk just like that.
“Hey!” he yelled at Slim. “Hurry up, first chance you get! If we don’t get on the road, they’ll have the first pasture gathered.” Slim lifted one hand in the air and continued slouching along at exactly the same pace. Loper grumbled and muttered. “Slowest human I ever saw.”
There didn’t seem to be much excitement at the gas tanks, so I made my way up the hill to the yard gate. Drover followed. It was morning, after all, and Loper had mentioned something about “breakfast.” Over the years, I had noticed that breakfast scraps most often occurred in the morning, after breakfast, and that was definitely worth checking out.
We have two good reasons for checking out the scrap situation. The first is that scraps are delicious, especially breakfast scraps which might include juicy fatty ends of bacon. The second reason is that we dogs feel some obligation to . . .
How can I put this so that it doesn’t sound tacky? We dogs recognize that Pete the Barncat gets very little exercise and, therefore, should not be eating certain foods, particularly those that are high in . . . well, fat and juice, such as juicy fatty ends of bacon.
Pete is such a natural glutton that he can’t impose discipline upon his eating patterns and he needs friends to, uh, help him. We accept that as part of our job, helping Pete choose only those food groups that are good for his health, such as corncobs, brussels sprouts, and burnt toast.
I’m told that burnt toast is the best thing in the world for cats to eat—makes their coat shine and keeps ’em trim and thin.
Ho! Guess