be a three-time whistle. Got it?"

The team nodded and the older schnauzer, the sheepdog and the two mongrels made their move to get to the access route to the back fence, while Ruby and Francois stayed in the corner.

"Good luck, my friend." Francois whispered to the young schnauzer.

"Be careful." Ruby added.

"Promise." Scamp confirmed. "Alright, here goes." 

He began to walk from the shades of the corner to the open light of the alley; and as suspected, he saw a big muscular brown Doberman hybrid searching for scraps in the garbage with his back turned. Scamp could only see his hind legs and rump clearly, but knew that this was Buster because his Rotweiler build was easy to recognise and there was no other dog he had seen with similar external features. As he walked up slowly to him, he was sure that Buster might turn around at any minute and jump in shock and suprise, and then he might do something nasty. But even so, Scamp was not afraid of that and he decided to speak before Buster could make a move and possibly surprise him. Well, here we go. Scamp thought. Let's pray that everything goes to plan.

"Hey, Buster, old pal." Scamp spoke up in the friendliest tone possible but also with charm and humor. "How is pickings?"

Buster's head jerked up quickly from the ground in surprise at the familiar voice and spun around to catch a glimpse of his former 'street student', and he jumped again when he did. But then he settled down and looked on in anger at Scamp, seemingly furious at him for beatraying the trust and teachings that Buster had once given to him; but also for supposedly stealing 'his girl' from him and performing the junkyard pile trick that got him trapped in it.

"Do mine eyes decieve me?!" Buster, with incorrect grammar, quietly exclaimed. "If it isn't the little 'old-school father' wannabe. What a rather pleasant surprise (!) I didn't think I would ever see your face on these streets again!"

"And I thought that I would never see YOUR face again." Scamp replied, not fazed by Buster's mind games. "I didn't want to at first, but I changed my mind."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Buster asked in confusion.

"There is something that I need to say to you, Buster. There are a few things that you must know."

"'Must'?" Buster, still feeling angered, asked in disbelief. "How is it that a treacherous mutt like you; who gave everything he ever dreamed of away and threw all my street-wise lessons into the garbage; can hope to teach me something that I 'must' know? You are even more mixed up than I thought."

"Listen, Buster." Scamp responded, trying to keep as composed and as gentle as possible to show his friendliness to his former once-assumed mentor. "I am not here to hurt you and I have no intention whatsoever of seeking retribution for what you did to me or my father. You may think that after you walked out on your mentor and locked me in the pound, I, or maybe some of the others, would be trying to pay you back. Well, think again."

Buster opened his mouth slightly in surprise and tilted his head to one side to show further confusion with it.

"But since you might not want to lend me your ears because of what you might be thinking or feeling on the inside; be it possibly revenge; I am going to make sure that you do."

And before Buster could respond, Scamp immediately whistled three times. Soon after he did, Ruby and Francois appeared from around the corner of the alley and walked towards Scamp. This caught Buster by surprise and shock but also off guard; because Mooch, Sparky, Scratchy, and Tramp then jumped from the other side of the fence at the back of the alley and landed on this side of it; and then they immediately grabbed Buster by various parts of his body and held him to the concrete surface of the ground. 

"What are you all doing?!" Buster yelled as he was struggling to get out of their tight grasp. "Let me go, right now!"

"The leash!" Scamp commanded to Ruby, who was holding it in her paw. She quickly handed it to him and Scamp rushed over to a tap and tied the leash handle in a knot to it, leaving the clip at the other end free. He then took off his own blue collar from around his neck, went over to a bound Buster, and forced the collar over his head and around HIS neck.

"Alright, get him over to the tap!" Tramp commanded to the dogs holding their former Junkyard leader. They dragged him over to the secured leash while still holding him tight to make sure that he couldn't easily wriggled out of the bind. As strong and as fit as Buster was, it was not enough against a leverage of four against one.

"Scamp, get the clip and put it on the collar!" Tramp commanded to his son. Scamp Immediately grabbed the clip and hooked it on to the small iron ring of the collar around Buster's neck. He then went to check that it was on securley enough before giving the signal to his gang to let Buster go.

"Alright, it's on good. let him go." He confirmed.

The two mongrels, sheepdog and older schnauzer released their grip on Buster's legs. As soon as they did, Buster stood on his legs and began frantically moving about in all directions to try and escape, but the leash held firm as well as the tap that it was tied to and he could not get anywhere. He would even choke lightly when he went forwards as the collar 'hugged' against the front of his neck and partially blocked his windpipe.

"Woah, woah!" Tramp, noticing Buster struggling, calmly said in a friendly tone. "Slow down there, old pal."

"What is this mind game that you are playing with me?!" Buster yelled, slowing down his struggles as he knew that he was trapped. "You must all be crazy coming back after me. First you all walk out on me and then you come back to me even if I said that you were not allowed to! Why are you doing this?"

"Because, as I said before, we have no intention of hurting you and we have something that we have to say to you." Scamp replied, also keeping his composure.

"'We'?" Buster asked.

"Yes; all of us." He gestured to the whole Ex-Junkyard gang.

"Well, if you all want to say something to me, why go to extreme measures and force me into a trap?" 

"Because you might not have wanted to pay attention considering you now hate us all because you thought that we turned our backs on you; so we had to use force." Tramp responded; now taking first charge at speaking to his former student. "I am sorry but we had no choice. The thing is, Buster, you are seriously jumping to conclusion on things. It is not what it seems. I am speaking to you as your teacher and trainer here. There are a few things that I should have mentioned to you before I left the streets, and for your good you need to listen in. So how about we make a deal: We will let you go on the condition that you let us speak to you AND we then make you a generous offer; which you might like, just quietly." Tramp grinned lightly when he said this to show some dignity towards the Doberman/Rotweiler hybrid.

Buster suddenly stopped fighting the entrapment and stood still in deep anticipation when he heard these words. He began to ponder about his initial thought on Tramp betraying him if he was being offered something generous by him instead.

"What...what offer?" Buster eagily asked in hope.

"We will get to that, but first you need to listen to our advice." Tramp replied. "Then after we are done, we will let you go. From there we will leave you alone and you will be free to make your own decision. We promise that we will not bother you again after this."

"Hear, hear! Yes, we promise. Promise. We promise. We swear. Totally and honestly." Came the individual replies from the other canines. Tramp grinned and winked his eye at them all before turning back around to Buster.

"And we are not trying to con you or anything like that." He assured. "This is not a trick and I swear that you can trust us. Deal?"
 
Buster thought that this all sounded very fair, and from then he began to lessen his initiative about Tramp being his enemy. So he decided to oblige.

"Okay, then. Fair enough. Go ahead and fire away."

"Good dog." Tramp replied. He then began to speak his advice. "Now, Buster, when we first met, you were just a little pup abandoned on the streets without anyone to look after you. Do you remember that?"

"Yes." Buster replied, feeling slightly saddened as he was thinking back on those memories of being lonely.

"And I felt for you. So I took you in and trained you to tackle the streets. I continued to train you until you were fully grown. And when you grew big and strong, I realized how fit and commited you had become through several years of working like you were in the military. I swear I have never met another dog who worked as hard as you ever did, and I was so impressed that I knew that you were bound to be my possible successor following the day when I might have to step down as a leader. Or you could have become a leader in your own right or way."

"He did." Sparky added. "He became the leader of the Junkyard after you left, Tramp. You left him with that honor."

"That's right." Tramp responded, turning his head and eyes from the grey mongrel back to the bound Doberman/Rotweiler. "After I decided to move on from the Junkyard and go as a lone roadside stray, I let you take over. I did that because you were

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