I entered the house to call the police and the cock followed me. He jumped on the table in the middle of the kitchen and began to flap his wings and to crow like hell. As I was holding the receiver at my ear and, at the other end, the constable was asking for more and more details, I put the receiver under the cockls beck and went off to complain to my two neighbors.
- So, your dog has vanished, hasnlt he, said Uncle Gabi, with an ironical twinkle in his eyes.
- Oh, donlt be sorry ”˜bout the dog, said Uncle Samu with a jerk and pulled his cap over his eyes, but the hens and the donkey, what a pity!
Uncle Gabi made for the field and took me along. He showed me the wheel tracks of the cart. Here, thatls the road they took. He stretched out his arm towards the hazy horizon. I looked that way and suddenly I caught sight of black and white spot looming out of the haze. Baruc! He went round by a reed thicket and I saw him grow. Uncle Gabi said a quick good-bye and off he went. Whenever Baruc runs to me like this, I step aside lest he should knock me down. I donlt always succeed in stepping aside and for sure I didnlt succeed that time, so the dog tumbled over me and I fell down.
I caught him by the collar and I fixed the leash and we took the road back in the direction from which he had come. He was pulling me along. It was only in the third village that he stopped in front of a farmstead and began to bark. I knocked at the door and two lads came out. They were the culprits. They had stolen the dog to sell him for a tidy sum of money, they had intended to keep the hens and the donkey for themselves, as for the cart, which I treasured as an antique, they wanted to set it on fire. They had tied the dog and locked him up in a storehouse but Baruc had gnawed the rope, then jumped through an opening and ran off. They hadnlt expected that much. I donlt know why I felt something was missing.
- Was it just the two of you?
-No. Zsolt, Sarpe and Patru are at the dispensary.
I gave them some money to buy medicines and heal their wounds. Then I took the donkey, the cart and the hens and make for home, with Baruc tied to the axle. As I got near the house I saw a constable in the yard, quarreling with the cock. Knowing Alma, I can bet she was hiding behind the curtain, enjoying the scene.
I stopped the cart in the field and I waited for the constable to leave.
