by Holly Webb
It would have been better if he had yelled at her. Somehow, Dad’s quiet, sympathetic, sad way of putting it seemed awfully right. It was just a silly idea. All her clever detective work suddenly seemed so babyish.
“OK,” Emily muttered miserably. Then she looked round. “Where’s Jack?” she asked.
Dad looked down at his hand, as though he expected Jack still to be holding it. “I don’t believe this,” he murmured, looking around wildly.
Suddenly Emily saw a flicker of bright green through the broken fence panels – Jack’s coat. He was heading down the alleyway she’d been about to investigate. “He’s there!” she said, racing after him before Dad could stop her.
Jack was crouched down by the fence, further down the alleyway. He was listening, with his ear up against a hole in the wood.
Dad grabbed him, but Jack pulled out of his arms. “No, Daddy! I’ve found Sam! I’ve found him!” He jumped round and round as Dad tried to hold on to him.
“Jack, it’s just a dog barking, it’s not Sam.” Dad was trying hard not to sound too cross, as he knew how much Jack and Emily wanted to find Sam, but he was losing patience.
“It is! Emily, it is, isn’t it? You won’t be cross with me now, will you?” Jack grabbed Emily’s hand and tugged at her hopefully. “Listen!”
Emily crouched down by the hole in the fence. “OK, I’ll listen,” she said, more to make Jack shut up than anything else.
On the other side of the fence, Sam barked with all his strength, hurling himself against the side of his pen. It was Emily! She’d come for him at last! The miserable tone of his barking changed to delight.
“Right, we’re going home, now!” Dad snapped. “This is ridiculous. What if the people who live here come out and see you upsetting their dogs?” He took both their hands and started to walk back to the street. “Emily, I’m sorry, but this has to stop. Come on.”
No! They were going! Sam scrabbled against the wooden shed with his claws, fighting to get out and chase after them. How could they leave him now when they were so close?
“Dad, it really does sound like Sam,” Emily said desperately, pulling back. “Please! Listen, don’t you think it could be him?”
“It is Sam!” Jack put in crossly. “You’re not listening to me. I told you it was.” He wrenched his hand out of Dad’s and shot back to the fence. “Just listen.” He started to sing loudly, “Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream… Come on, Sam!”
And from the other side of the fence, Sam joined in gladly, “Ruff, ruff, ruff-ruff-ruff!”
“It is! It is him! Oh, Dad, we’ve found him.” Emily flung her arms round her dad and hugged him, then she ran to join Jack by the fence. “Sam, it’s me! We’re going to get you out!” Then she hugged Jack and lifted him off the ground.
Dad was looking at the fence as though it had just exploded. “I don’t believe it,” he muttered. “Emily, I’m so sorry, I should have listened to you before. That has to be Sam, it just has to be.” He shook his head in amazement. “OK, well, we’d better see what we can do. We can’t exactly walk up to the front door and ask for him back.”
Emily looked up at him worriedly. “What are you going to do?”
Dad smiled down at her. “It’s all right. We’ll get him out. We just need some help, that’s all. I’m going to call Mum and get her to call the policeman who was in charge of the dog-napping case. I wouldn’t be surprised if those other dogs we can hear were stolen too.”
Ten minutes later, a police car drew up outside the house, and Emily and Jack ran to meet it. “Can you get them out? Please?” Emily gasped.
“Hey, stop! You! Come back!” Dad was still standing in the alley by the fence, and he waved at the policeman. “Look, there are people climbing over the back fence!”
He was right. The dog-nappers had seen the police car arrive and were trying to get away, struggling over the fence that led into another garden.
The policeman got on his radio at once, calling for backup to come and chase after them. “Well, they’ve definitely done something they don’t want to be caught for,” he said. “So, how did you end up here?” he asked Dad curiously.
“Emily.” Dad gave a sort of resigned shrug. “She wouldn’t give up, and I have to admit, she was right.”
“Me too!” Jack shouted indignantly.
“Well, we had our suspicions about these people. They’ve been trying to sell puppies to a pet shop not far from here. But you beat us to it,” the policeman said, grinning. “I’ve got a search warrant for this house. Know what that means?” he asked Emily.
Emily shook her head.
“It means I can go in and look around. I think we should start just about here, don’t you?” he asked, walking up to the rickety old gate at one end of the fence. He picked up an old brick that was lying on the path, and broke the lock. “Back in a minute,” he said.
Emily could hear the barking from inside the garden getting louder and louder. She was sure the dogs knew they were about to be rescued. “You remember Sam, don’t you?” she asked anxiously, pulling a photo out of her pocket. She’d been carrying it around with her all week, and it was bent and grubby, but Sam was still unmistakeable.
“Don’t worry,” the policeman assured her. “I’ll get him for you. Not that you need much help!”
Emily and Jack stood by the gate, craning their necks to see into the garden. There was a big old shed up against the fence, and they watched as the policeman shoved the door open.
Then Emily gasped as a golden blur shot out of the door, hurtling towards her. Sam!
She sat on the grass, crying and laughing at the same time as Sam jumped all over her, not knowing whether to bark or lick, and trying to do both. At last he stopped, out of breath, and just curled himself into Emily’s arms, his head tucked under her chin. He sighed contentedly. He was back where he should be.
Emily hugged him tightly. It was so wonderful to breathe the sweet doggy smell of his fur, and feel the warmth of him nuzzled in her arms. The strange tight feeling in her middle, all that fear that she’d never see him and cuddle him again had completely gone.
Emily stood up shakily, and smiled at Dad and Jack over Sam’s head. “Come on. Let’s take Sam home.”
About the Author
Holly Webb started out as a children’s book editor, and wrote her first series for the publisher she worked for. She has been writing ever since, with over sixty books to her name. Holly lives in Berkshire, with her husband and three young sons. She has a pet cat called Marble, who is always nosying around when she’s trying to type on her laptop.
Other titles by Holly Webb:
Lost in the Snow
Lost in the Storm
Alfie all Alone
Sam the Stolen Puppy
Max the Missing Puppy
Sky the Unwanted Kitten
Timmy in Trouble
Ginger the Stray Kitten
Harry the Homeless Puppy
Buttons the Runaway Puppy
Alone in the Night
Ellie the Homesick Puppy
Jess the Lonely Puppy
Misty the Abandoned Kitten
Oscar’s Lonely Christmas
Lucy the Poorly Puppy
Smudge the Stolen Kitten
The Rescued Puppy
The Kitten Nobody Wanted
The Lost Puppy
The Frightened Kitten
Copyright
STRIPES PUBLISHING
An imprint of Little Tiger Press
1 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road,
London SW6 6AW
Text copyright © Holly Webb, 2008
Illustrations copyright © Sophy Williams, 2008
First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing in 2012.
eISBN: 978–1–84715–264–0
The right of Holly Webb and Sophy Williams to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copy
right, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
www.stripespublishing.co.uk