Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/297

 dog needed no telling. “Leggo my coat,” Barney was panting. “I ’ll kick yer head off! Leggo, will yuh! Leggo!”

The man was Barney’s suspect, without his Panama hat.

“Colin!” he cried. “Colin! Stop it, sir!” He caught the dog by the collar and cuffed it. Barney dropped his end of the coat. The man got it away from the dog as a woman ran out, in a kitchen apron, calling, “What has happened, Charles? What is it?”

He replied: “Colin has attacked this boy.”

“What for? What was he doing?”

“Search me,” Barney answered. “He did n’t say a word. He just jumped out an’ grabbed me, an’ I dodged, an’ he got the coat.”

The dog was barking protestingly, but he could not make himself understood.

“Bad dog!” the woman scolded him. “Go in the house, sir. You bad dog, you. Did he tear it?”

“I guess so,” Barney said. “I heard it rip.”

“Give it to me. I ’ll mend it. Oh, you bad