Speaker 1: Golden doodle doo. Cole was a golden doodle. Unlike most
Speaker 1: golden doodles, Cole didn't have golden fur, but instead a
Speaker 1: coat of black. As a puppy curled up on his bed,
Speaker 1: it was remarked that he looked like a lump of coal,
Speaker 1: and from that moment onwards, Cole was his name. Cole,
Speaker 1: it turned out, was a smart dog, brighter than the
Speaker 1: average hound, and certainly brighter than the other golden doodle
Speaker 1: in the house.
Speaker 2: This was Ellie.
Speaker 1: Ellie was just as lovable as Coal, but she was
Speaker 1: both clumsy and, if truth be told, a little daft. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: Cole was very patient with his fellow doggo He didn't
Speaker 1: complain when Ellie stepped in his food dish, knocked objects
Speaker 1: from the table onto his sleeping head, or shut the door.
Speaker 2: On his tail. He knew she didn't mean it.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, oh boy, it's stopped raining, barked Ellie as
Speaker 1: she rested her front paws on the sill of the
Speaker 1: front window. Cole came over to look for himself. That's good,
Speaker 1: he said, As out on the street a large truck
Speaker 1: pulled up in front of the neighbor's house. Cole cocked
Speaker 1: his head to one side as he observed a grumpy
Speaker 1: looking woman get out from the driver's side. She wore
Speaker 1: grubby overalls, her hair was pulled back into a ponytail,
Speaker 1: and there was a greasy mark across her cheek. Oh
Speaker 1: is that the lady, asked Ellie as she wagged her tail. Yep,
Speaker 1: that's her, replied Cole. They watched as she opened the
Speaker 1: back of the truck. She had moved in just over
Speaker 1: a week ago, and Cole had noticed that she would
Speaker 1: leave to collect a truckload of boxes every day. More boxes,
Speaker 1: said Cole. That house must be full of them. Maybe
Speaker 1: they've got treats in them, Cole said Ellie excitedly. Just
Speaker 1: imagine a house full of doggie treats. But she doesn't
Speaker 1: have a dog, pointed out Cole, not that we've seen anyway.
Speaker 1: Maybe the treats are for us, announced Ellie. Maybe she
Speaker 1: wants to make friends with us.
Speaker 2: Cole doubted this.
Speaker 1: He'd been on the back lawn yesterday and caught sight
Speaker 1: of the neighbor in her upstairs window, and all she
Speaker 1: had done was glare at him. I don't think so, Ellie,
Speaker 1: he said. She doesn't act like she wants to get
Speaker 1: to know us better, Ellie, Cole realized he was talking
Speaker 1: to an empty room. Oh now, where's she gone, he sighed.
Speaker 1: He found her outside by the back fence, sniffing furiously.
Speaker 1: What are you doing, you daff dog o, he asked,
Speaker 1: sniff the treats, she said, she's been putting them in
Speaker 1: the garage. I heard her going in and out. I'm
Speaker 1: sure they're not treats, insisted Cole. They might be, said Ellie,
Speaker 1: although all I can smell is whiffy socks. Do dog
Speaker 1: treats come in whiffy socks? Flavor? No, Ellie not, normally,
Speaker 1: smiled Cole. They heard the neighbor come marching back to
Speaker 1: the garage, presumably carrying another box, something she repeated another
Speaker 1: twenty times. At that point, they heard her close the
Speaker 1: garage door, and from within there came the sound of
Speaker 1: power tools. I'm going in, Ellie, said Cole. It's too
Speaker 1: noisy out here for me. You go right ahead, Cole
Speaker 1: replied Ellie, still sniffing. I'll be right behind you. Except
Speaker 1: Ellie wasn't right behind him. She didn't come in at all,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't until it began to get at dark
Speaker 1: that Cole realized he was still alone. What's that daft
Speaker 1: pup up to out there, he said to himself. He
Speaker 1: was horrified to discover that Ellie was no longer in
Speaker 1: the backyard, although there was a golden doodle sized hole
Speaker 1: right beside the fence. Oh Ellie, what have you done,
Speaker 1: Cole groan. She'd get into trouble in the neighbor's yard.
Speaker 1: The noise in the garage was still going on, so
Speaker 1: there was a chance the neighbor hadn't seen Ellie yet.
Speaker 1: He was going to have to fetch her back before
Speaker 1: she did. Taking a deep breath, Cole dived after her.
Speaker 1: He emerged behind a magnolia bush, which allowed him to
Speaker 1: look around without the risk of being seen. There was
Speaker 1: no sign of Ellie, but he could see the garage
Speaker 1: clearly now. There was a glass panel in the top
Speaker 1: of the door, through which light flickered then went out.
Speaker 1: Seconds later, the garage door swung up and the grumpy
Speaker 1: looking lady came out. She pushed the door back down,
Speaker 1: but didn't close it completely. As she made for the
Speaker 1: house with her back turned, she didn't see Ellie dart
Speaker 1: around the garage's side and squeeze through the open.
Speaker 2: Gap, but Cole saw it all.
Speaker 1: The trouble was with the ladies so close by, he
Speaker 1: couldn't call out or follow, at least not yet anyway.
Speaker 1: Come on, come on, Cole muttered, as the neighbor began
Speaker 1: fussing with some cardboard she had stacked by her back door.
Speaker 1: Finally she went inside. Cole broke into a run, crossing
Speaker 1: to the garage quickly to shuffle underneath the open door. Ellie, Ellie,
Speaker 1: where are you? He hissed as he stood up straight.
Speaker 1: The garage had been turned into a workshop, with boxes
Speaker 1: stacked all around the walls. Many open boxes littered the ground,
Speaker 1: some still containing objects, some empty, and some flattened out.
Speaker 1: Cole picked his way through them, sniffing the air for Ellie.
Speaker 1: He needed to be quick. He couldn't imagine the neighbor
Speaker 1: intended to be long if she had left the door open.
Speaker 2: Ellie barked, Cole, where was she?
Speaker 1: In the center of the garage was a machine of
Speaker 1: some sort. It was a wide metal ball covered in
Speaker 1: lumps that looked a lot like those in the boxes.
Speaker 1: The front of the giant metal ball was made of
Speaker 1: a circular glass panel like a porthole, and staring out
Speaker 1: from it was Ellie Cole.
Speaker 2: She yapped happily.
Speaker 1: Have you come to look for treats too? No, Ellie,
Speaker 1: I've come looking for you, he replied gruffly. Come on
Speaker 1: before she gets back. I can't, Cole, said Ellie, suddenly
Speaker 1: looking worried.
Speaker 2: I can't get out. Well, how did you get in?
Speaker 2: Cole asked?
Speaker 1: There was a door, but it closed when I touched
Speaker 1: a button, explained Ellie. Then press it again, Cole said urgently.
Speaker 1: He was worried they'd be discovered any moment.
Speaker 2: I don't know which one it was, whined Ellie.
Speaker 1: And there are hundreds of them in that case. Let
Speaker 1: me think about this, said Cole, sitting down. And don't
Speaker 1: go pressing anything else in case you make things worse. Oh, Cole,
Speaker 1: whimpered Ellie. As the metal ball whirred into life, Lights
Speaker 1: came on across its surface, and crablike legs appeared around
Speaker 1: its base. You pressed something, didn't you, barked Cole as
Speaker 1: he scooted backwards into a stack of boxes. The metal
Speaker 1: ball was walking forwards. I didn't mean to, Ellie said,
Speaker 1: starting to panic.
Speaker 2: It was an accident.
Speaker 1: In desperation, she slammed two paws down on the control
Speaker 1: panel in front of her. Two large metal tentacles snaked
Speaker 1: out of either side and slashed forward like whips, ripping
Speaker 1: the garage door from its hinges. Ellie yelped Cole, running
Speaker 1: after her. Get me out of here, the trapped Golden Doodle,
Speaker 1: barked as the machine scuttled into the evening air. Just
Speaker 1: don't press anything else, Cole barked as he dodged a
Speaker 1: flailing tentacle too late. Yapped Ellie as a large lump
Speaker 1: on the machine's top opened out to reveal some sort
Speaker 1: of cannon. It blasted a bloom of fire so hot
Speaker 1: that Cole had to shrink back from the heat. The
Speaker 1: blast tore into the parked truck, triggering the vehicle's alarm,
Speaker 1: shattering the window and igniting the roof. Cole yelped Ellie
Speaker 1: again as the machine continued its march forward. This was
Speaker 1: a disaster, thought Cole, but it soon got worse. The
Speaker 1: grumpy neighbor was staggering out of her back door, hands
Speaker 1: tearing at her hair in disbelief as her creation trashed
Speaker 1: her truck. She watched in horror for a moment before
Speaker 1: racing for the garage Cole realized that in all the chaos,
Speaker 1: she'd not seen his dark coat in the gathering shadows,
Speaker 1: and she wouldn't know that there was a dog inside
Speaker 1: her machine either, at least not yet. Cole ran forward,
Speaker 1: ducking a tentacle that was now pushing the truck out
Speaker 1: of the way. Ellie, quickly, just press everything, he barked.
Speaker 1: But you told me not to press anything, the.
Speaker 2: Trapped dog replied.
Speaker 1: I know I did, But we we've got to get
Speaker 1: you out of there, now, replied Cole urgently. The neighbor
Speaker 1: was returning, fiddling with what looked like a remote. Now, Ellie, now,
Speaker 1: he barked. Several things happened, one after the other. Firstly,
Speaker 1: a tremendous blast of smoke blew outwards in a billowing
Speaker 1: ring from the machine's base. This smoke screen was so
Speaker 1: thick that it instantly made it almost impossible to see
Speaker 1: the machine. This was followed by a sharp bang, and
Speaker 1: Cole caught sight of Ellie in a chair, rocketing up
Speaker 1: into darkening skies from the expanding smoke cloud. The smoke
Speaker 1: cloud overtook him, forcing him to scramble backwards.
Speaker 2: Until he backed into the fence.
Speaker 1: This gave him the briefest of glimpses of his neighbor
Speaker 1: angrily pressing buttons on her remote. As the smoke covered
Speaker 1: him again, the machine, somewhere at the center of the
Speaker 1: expanding cloud, became silent. Not wishing to be found where
Speaker 1: he shouldn't be, Coal scuttled along the line of the fence,
Speaker 1: using the smoke as cover, until he found the magnolia bush.
Speaker 1: Two seconds later, he was in his own backyard and
Speaker 1: looking skywards again for any trace of Ellie. A large,
Speaker 1: dark shape was drifting downwards. A parachute, barked Cole, running
Speaker 1: towards the front of the house. It gently set down
Speaker 1: the ejector's seat and its golden dudal passenger in the
Speaker 1: middle of the road, just as the first sirens could
Speaker 1: be heard.
Speaker 2: Approaching.
Speaker 1: You okay, Ellie, asked Cole, sounding worried. Oh that was fun,
Speaker 1: laughed the dog. I wish I could do it again.
Speaker 2: Not much chance of that.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's get out of the road, he said,
Speaker 1: leading the way to the cover of their own front yard.
Speaker 1: Neighbors all along the street were gathering in the road
Speaker 1: to stare at the blanket of smoke and flaming truck,
Speaker 1: not to mention the bizarre machine that now stood motionless.
Speaker 1: People backed away to let the first police cars pull up.
Speaker 2: Am I in trouble?
Speaker 1: Asked Ellie with a whimper, as police officers poured from
Speaker 1: the vehicles. I think we both might be, said Cole
Speaker 1: as they watched. To their surprise, though, it was the
Speaker 1: grumpy lady that was led away in handcuffs and bundled
Speaker 1: into the nearest police car. A fire truck arrived and
Speaker 1: tackled the flames. Then more police and a specialist crime
Speaker 1: team turned up.
Speaker 2: What's going on?
Speaker 1: Asked Missus Noakes, who lived across the street. Her question
Speaker 1: was directed to a police officer doing crowd control. Looks
Speaker 1: like we've caught the person responsible for the nationwide bank robberies,
Speaker 1: replied the policeman. You made the vault villain, gasped Missus Noakes.
Speaker 1: She'd not long ago moved in. We're thinking she must
Speaker 1: have moved to a new city after each robbery, said
Speaker 1: the policeman.
Speaker 2: Wow, said cole By.
Speaker 1: Now both dogs were lying on the lawn watching the
Speaker 1: goings on as if it was a movie. It was
Speaker 1: all too exciting watching the comings and goings. Our new
Speaker 1: neighbor was a bank robber. Ellie, so I'm not in trouble, then.
Speaker 2: She asked, I don't think so, confessed Cole.
Speaker 1: In fact, I think you might have saved the day.
Speaker 1: The policeman, having finished speaking to missus Noakes, was approaching them.
Speaker 2: Look at you two sitting so beautifully there, he said,
Speaker 2: with a smile. I bet you don't.
Speaker 1: Have a clue what all this fuss is about, do you.
Speaker 1: He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a bag
Speaker 1: with a crushed cookie, giving a large chunk to each
Speaker 1: of the dogs before returning to his duties. A treat,
Speaker 1: said Ellie, sounding delighted. Well, I guess you've earned it,
Speaker 1: Cole replied with a grin.
Speaker 3: The end, like like like like like