She circled his paw excitedly. “Oh! Oh! Then my husband delivered the news to you! Is he still in the cave?”

“The news? There is a lot of news out there, beetle. To which are you referring?”

“My husband and I attended the funeral of your king. We saw the bite marks and knew it was an attack by the snakes.”

“Yes, yes, beetle. A field mouse has already told us this.”

“So you know that other creatures in our land are being attacked by the snakes?”

“No…we weren’t aware of that.” Paco looked at her suspiciously.

“I’m connected to one of the beetle news chains. Apparently the attacks were as far away as the hill lands, beyond Persly’s Woods.”

“I will keep that in mind. Thank you.”

The beetle reflected. “You say a field mouse brought the news about your king?”

“Yes, late this morning.”

“What about my husband? Did you see him at all? He’s crawled into your hall before and shouldn’t have gotten lost.”

Paco answered gently, “I’m afraid not, my dear.”

“Oh, no! Oh, no! What if something–”

The creaking door silenced the beetle and lifted Paco’s ears. A woman stepped onto the porch. Paco assumed it was the boy’s mother. The door was open as she turned toward the car in the driveway beside the flower garden. Paco made his move.

As Carol stepped off the concrete porch, out of the corner of her eye she saw a small blur zip past her. “Aaaghh!” she screamed as the hind end of a rat-terrier ran into her house. “Get out of here! Shoo!” She raced back inside.

Fleeing the woman, Paco almost ran into a large piano against the back wall of the front room. Down a hallway he ran, trying to figure out where the boy was. He darted past a dirty clothes hamper, Benjamin’s frantic mother chasing after him.

“Boy?” Paco yelled as loud as he could. “I say, BOY? Are you in here?” All Benjamin’s mother heard was “Ruff! Ruff, ruff, RUFF!”

Benjamin’s dad was asleep in his new leather chair in the living room. He shot upright and saw his wife race by. “Did I just hear a dog barking in the house?”

“A stray came out of nowhere and ran through the door! Feel free to help!”

Paco ran this way and that through the rooms. Benjamin was in the basement, lying in bed, gazing at Pugsly’s old collar on his wrist. He thought about how he’d been petting him just the night before. He regretted letting him out for the night, but he seemed to want to get out so badly. He kept scratching at the door.

Benjamin thought again about the incident in the cave.