So Reddy trotted through the swamp till he came to the edge of it. There
his keen nose found the scent of the farmer. It didn't take him two
minutes to discover that the farmer had followed Bowser the Hound to the
edge of the swamp and then gone back. Eagerly Reddy looked over to the
farmyard for those fat hens. They, too, had disappeared. Not one was to
be seen. But there was no mystery about the disappearance of these other
fat hens. He heard the muffled crow of the big rooster. It came from the
henhouse. All those fat hens had been shut up. It was perfectly plain
to Reddy that the farmer suspected Reddy might return, and he didn't
intend to lose another fat hen. With a little yelp of disappointment,
Reddy turned his back on the farm and trotted off into the woods.




CHAPTER XLI

WHAT BLACKY THE CROW SAW

The greatest puzzle is simple enough when you know the answer.

_Bowser the Hound._


There were just two people to whom the disappearance of that fat hen
Reddy Fox had hidden in the hollow stump was not a mystery. One of them
was Blacky the Crow. When the farmer and Bowser the Hound had rushed out
at the sound of Blacky's excited cawing, Blacky had flown to the top of
a tall tree from which he could see all that went on. Everything had