Faded Love Read online

  Five minutes in that tub just about ruined me. Never mind the rattlesnake poison, I was worried about dying of cleanliness! I took it as long as I could, and then I said to myself, “I’ve got to get out of here.”

  I jumped out of the tub and tried to shake all that stuff off. Guess I throwed water everywhere, got Sally May so agitated that she yelled, “Get him out of here before he ruins the wallpaper!”

  That was music to my ears. Loper pitched me out the back door. “Hank, I don’t know how you do it, but I think you could find a way to screw up a bowl of ice cream.”

  I didn’t hang around for steak and eggs. I jumped the fence and made a wild dash into that nice green pool of water. I flew into it.

  And oh, it was so nice! How I love sewer water! It soothed me, it healed me, it brought back my deep manly smell. I give those healing waters full credit for counteracting snake venom. It saved my life.

  Well, I was rolling around in the water when Drover came along. “Oh Hank, I thought we’d lost you. Boy, am I glad to see you alive!”

  “Alive and well, Drover. It takes more than a gallon of rattlesnake venom to put me out of commission.”

  “A whole gallon, no fooling?”

  “Yes sir, injected directly into my juggling vein.”

  “Gosh, it’s a miracle you survived. I almost died of fright, just watching.”

  “It’s all in a day’s work, Drover—fighting snakes, cheating death, courting women.” I climbed out on dry land and gave myself a shake. “Now we’d better head for the gas tanks and get some shut-eye. In another three-four hours it’ll be dark, and you know what that means.”

  Drover rolled his eyes around. “What does that mean, Hank?”

  “Strange sounds in the night, creepy-crawly things, monsters, murders, another case for us to crack. There’s no end to it, Drover.”

  We trotted over to the gas tanks and found our gunnysack beds just as we had left them. I fluffed mine up, walked around it three times, and flopped down. In seconds, I was asleep and dreaming about a big juicy bone.

  “Hank?”

  “Huh?”

  “How come I can’t quit thinking about Beulah?”

  I cracked one eye. “It’s a bad habit. It shows poor training and a lack of discipline. We don’t have time for that nonsense. Now go to sleep.”

  “Okay.” There was a moment of silence, then, “Hank, do you ever dream about Beulah?”

  “I used to, but not anymore. She chose Plato and I’m finished with her, forever. Go to sleep.”

  At last he was quiet. I drifted off to sleep again and went looking for that same juicy bone I’d been working on. I was floating along when all at once I saw . . .

  Gosh, she was pretty, the long collie nose, the deep brown eyes, the long flaxen hair . . .

  Further Reading

  Have you read all of Hank’s adventures?

  1 The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog

  2 The Further Adventures of Hank the Cowdog

  3 It’s a Dog’s Life

  4 Murder in the Middle Pasture

  5 Faded Love

  6 Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

  7 The Curse of the Incredible Priceless Corncob

  8 The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse

  9 The Case of the Halloween Ghost

  10 Every Dog Has His Day

  11 Lost in the Dark Unchanted Forest

  12 The Case of the Fiddle-Playing Fox

  13 The Wounded Buzzard on Christmas Eve

  14 Hank the Cowdog and Monkey Business

  15 The Case of the Missing Cat

  16 Lost in the Blinded Blizzard

  17 The Case of the Car-Barkaholic Dog

  18 The Case of the Hooking Bull

  19 The Case of the Midnight Rustler

  20 The Phantom in the Mirror

  21 The Case of the Vampire Cat

  22 The Case of the Double Bumblebee Sting

  23 Moonlight Madness

  24 The Case of the Black-Hooded Hangmans

  25 The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado

  26 The Case of the Kidnapped Collie

  27 The Case of the Night-Stalking Bone Monster

  28 The Mopwater Files

  29 The Case of the Vampire Vacuum Sweeper

  30 The Case of the Haystack Kitties

  31 The Case of the Vanishing Fishhook

  32 The Garbage Monster from Outer Space

  33 The Case of the Measled Cowboy

  34 Slim’s Good-bye

  35 The Case of the Saddle House Robbery

  36 The Case of the Raging Rottweiler

  37 The Case of the Deadly Ha-Ha Game

  38 The Fling

  39 The Secret Laundry Monster Files

  40 The Case of the Missing Bird Dog

  41 The Case of the Shipwrecked Tree

  42 The Case of the Burrowing Robot

  43 The Case of the Twisted Kitty

  44 The Dungeon of Doom

  45 The Case of the Falling Sky

  46 The Case of the Tricky Trap

  47 The Case of the Tender Cheeping Chickies

  48 The Case of the Monkey Burglar

  49 The Case of the Booby-Trapped Pickup

  50 The Case of the Most Ancient Bone

  51 The Case of the Blazing Sky

  52 The Quest for the Great White Quail

  53 Drover’s Secret Life

  54 The Case of the Dinosaur Birds

  55 The Case of the Secret Weapon

  56 The Case of the Coyote Invasion

  57 The Disappearance of Drover

  58 The Case of the Mysterious Voice

  About the Author and Illustrator

  John R. Erickson, a former cowboy, has written numerous books for both children and adults and is best known for his acclaimed Hank the Cowdog series. He lives and works on his ranch in Perryton, Texas, with his family.

  Gerald L. Holmes has illustrated numerous cartoons and textbooks in addition to the Hank the Cowdog series. He lives in Perryton, Texas.