Chapter Thirty-Two
Furry and Fearless
“Chief! Dad!” Neil called, as he pointed with one hand. “Look over there!”
They followed the direction of his finger, and they saw a small hole that had formed in the wall of the museum, almost at ground level. As the building was shaking and shuddering, pieces of it were coming undone and falling apart. The brick and mortar of the wall had come loose, and the small, roughly shaped hole had been exposed.
“It’s no good,” Chief Fresco sighed, clearly disappointed. “It’s too small, I’ll never fit through there.”
“The hole’s not for you,” Jack explained. “It’s for Nibbler!”
Chief Fresco looked down at Jack dubiously. “What do you mean?”
“That’s why we called you guys, so you could bring Nibbler here,” Neil said. As he observed the mildly offended reactions of the adults, he quickly made an amendment. “Oh, uh, we’re grateful to you, too, of course. Nibbler couldn’t have made it here so quickly without the police escort! But listen, let’s send him in there, and I bet you anything he can bring Maria and Sara back out of that mess, I just bet you he can.”
Chief Fresco looked utterly perplexed by the proposal, but Coach was rubbing at his bearded chin, as he always did when engaging in deep thought.
“I don’t know…” Coach said. “He’s not a bloodhound or a tracking dog. He has no training whatsoever in this kind of thing.”
“He can do it!” Jack assured the adults. “Nibbler is no ordinary dog. I know everybody thinks that about their own dog, but I’m telling you – there’s something special about him.”
“It’s true!” Neil put it. “He’s helped us out of some really tight circumstances. Some crazy, weird stuff has been going on the past two weeks, and Nibbler’s been right there by our side, bailing us out of trouble!”
“I will admit, he is one darned peculiar beast,” Coach said, as he continued stroking his beard thoughtfully, gazing down at the happy dog.
Nibbler seemed to realize that he was the subject of their discussion, for he was enthusiastically wagging his tail and smiling, kissing everybody’s hands and knees with his slobbery tongue.
“It seems like a long shot, but we’ve got nothing to lose. I can’t get anywhere near that inferno, and neither can these firefighters. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Jack and Neil are right,” Chief Fresco finally agreed. “We need to send in Nibbler!”
“Hey, boy,” Jack said to his dog. He knelt on the ground before the Labradoodle and scratched him behind the ears. “Maria and Sara – can you find them for us? Can you go get Maria and Sara?”
“Maria and Sara, Nibbler!” Neil repeated. He stood behind the dog, stooping over, speaking directly into his floppy ears. “Maria! Sara!”
There was a very good reason for Neil’s use of repetition. Nibbler was a remarkably bright dog, and he had a pretty good vocabulary, too, as far as four-legged critters went.
For instance, if you said, “ball”, he would go fetch it. If you said, “sock”, he would nibble it right off of your foot. He spent plenty of time playing with the Fresco Sisters, so the boys theorized that if they repeatedly stressed the names of Maria and Sara, Nibbler would get the picture.
“Woof!” Nibbler responded, and crazy as it might have seemed – the boys had a strong suspicion that he knew exactly what was being asked of him.
“You see?” Neil asked. “I told you he’s up to the task.”
Chief Fresco knelt beside Jack. He placed his palm atop the Labradoodle’s head and looked him in the eye. “Can you do this, Nibbler?” There was a desperate, pleading quality to his voice, which Neil and Jack had never before heard.
Nibbler tilted his head, as if to inquire as to whether or not the chief was serious. The expression on his furry face implied that he thought it was ridiculous that the chief should even question his abilities.
“Well, he seems pretty confident,” Chief Fresco said, as he scratched Nibbler for encouragement.
The museum was rocked by what sounded to be an explosion from within, accompanied by another one of the great, beastly bellows. Hot flames shot from the windows and doors. A rain of fiery debris and busted bricks landed not far from where the students were huddled, forcing them to retreat farther as the firefighters ordered them to move back.
“I guess it’s now or never,” Coach said. “We’re counting on you, Nibbler!”
“Go on, boy! See if you can find them!” Chief Fresco encouraged, fluffing the dog’s ears for luck.
“Woof!” Nibbler assured Chief Fresco with a bark, as well as a slobbery kiss to the face.
“Nibbler, there, do you see?” asked Jack.
He pointed toward the small hole that Neil had spotted, near the base of the museum. Nibbler obediently followed the direction of the pointed finger, for he was used to doing such. Jack would often point to things that he wanted Nibbler to retrieve, such as a fallen branch in the yard, and the dog would scurry after the object in question.
“Is he going to know what you’re trying to tell him?” Coach asked.
“Of course he is, Dad!” Neil said with a chuckle. “You guys keep underestimating Nibbler.”
Neil’s confidence was well placed, for Nibbler immediately departed. His tail was wagging wildly as he went, his rump shaking about with delight, as if this were a great, fun game.
“Go get them, Nibbler! Get Maria and Sara!” Jack called, as his dog wiggled his way through the busted bricks and into the small hole.
Nibbler fit through it quite easily, and as his body vanished inside, the last thing that was seen of him was his fluffy tail, which was still happily wagging. He seemed to have not an inkling of the danger he was barreling into headfirst. Either that, or the Labradoodle must have been completely impervious to fear.
Or perhaps, Neil and Jack considered… Nibbler knew exactly what kind of danger he was plunging into, but he also comprehended what was at stake. This was, after all, the most steadfast friend that one could hope for, and he was fiercely loyal to all of the Beans, including Maria and Sara.
“That,” Jack said with a sigh, “is a really, really good dog.”