The haunted hound; (16 page)

'This beats me," Mr. Worth said, stopping again. "What ails 'em, Judy?''

''I don't know. Maybe the coon ran them across a panther trail."

''Don't see how. There aren't any panthers within twenty, thirty miles of here, if that close."

"Well," Judy declared, "they ran into something they don't like."

Mr. Worth walked on again. "Who's got the flashlight?"

"I have," Judy said.

"I'm going to find out what kind of critter has upset these dogs," Mr. Worth said, his voice sounding determined. "Whatever it is, it must be over in that clump of bushes."

The grass was higher there and Jonathan couldn't see Judy at all—just the grass waving where she was pushing through it.

Then Jonathan walked into a tangle of roots. He didn't trip and fall, the roots grabbed him by the foot and threw him down so hard he grunted when he hit the ground.

He heard his knife and key chain tinkle and when he sat up and felt in his pocket they weren't there.

He felt around the roots and, when he didn't find them, started to go on. Then he thought of all the explaining he'd

have to do to Mrs. Johnson, so he got down on his knees and really hunted for them.

He finally found them. He put them back in his pocket and looped the chain into his belt and stood up.

Jonathan found himself all alone in an ocean of high grass. It stretched out as far as he could see, flat and pale gold in the moonlight and unbroken except for the clump of bushes rising above it like a dark island.

Mr. Worth and Judy weren't making a sound and he couldn't see any trace of them anywhere.

''Judy!'' Jonathan called, not making it very loud.

She didn't answer, but he thought he heard them moving. The sound was coming from the clump of bushes, so he pushed his way toward it.

When he started to call again, he stopped himself. Maybe, he reasoned, it would be the wrong thing to do. Maybe he wasn't supposed to make any noise. They certainly weren't.

He stopped for a moment to listen. He could still hear the noise of the grass being pushed aside—a sort of soft, swishing noise.

And as he listened, he realized that the sound of it was coming toward him.

Maybe they had missed him and Judy was coming back to find him.

''Here I am," he said quietly, and walked toward the approaching noise.

Because the sound uas between him and the clump of bushes which made a dark background, Jonathan couldn't

see anything above the grass. But the noise was getting closer and closer, so he kept on going.

At last he could see where she was by the way the grass waved around. 'Tm coming, Judy/' he said.

She didn't answer, just kept coming toward him.

Jonathan felt a little angry. Why didn't she say something? Why did she keep on coming? 'Tm coming, Judy!"

He began to plow toward her through the grass, going straight to where he could see it waving around.

They weren't more than five feet apart before Jonathan got suspicious. The moonlight was bright enough for him to see clearly where she was, but he couldn't see her. All he could see was the grass opening and then closing again.

Why was she hiding down below the top of the grass that way? he wondered. Then he thought. Maybe she's trying to scare me or something.

''I see you," he said, a little irritated. ''Come on, stand up and quit fooling around, Judy."

The waving stopped and, slowly, she stood up. Jonathan watched a dark head come up above the pale gold grass.

The head kept on rising, taller and taller. There wasn't any whiteness where Judy's face should have been, and she was either climbing up on something or the ground was much higher.

Then, as she kept rising above the grass, Jonathan knew that that wasn't Judy.

It was a bear.

It was so big and so black it seemed to blot out the moon

and most of the sky. As it stood there on its hind legs not more than five feet from him its huge body waved back and forth across the moon. At first Jonathan couldn't believe it. After all, Mr. Worth

had said that there weren't any bears anywhere around here, so it couldn't be a bear.

But it was a bear!

Jonathan had seen enough pictures of bears, and enough live ones in the zoo to recognize the little ears outlined against the sky, the long black snout, and the short arms sticking out from the massive shoulders.

Jonathan's mind began to race around. He'd better climb a tree. There weren't any trees around there. And, if the bear came up the tree, to kick him on the snout. But there

weren't any trees, and right now the bear's snout was way up above Jonathan's head.

Then he got tangled up \\ith what Judy had told him to do the next time a bull chased him. Lie down and curl up so the bull couldn't see him. But this bear was already looking right at him.

Jonathan gulped once and said, ''J^^Y' ' ^^ didn't come out very loud, so he tried again. "'J^uu-dy!"

There was no answer. Except from the bear. It made a sort of low, grunting noise and took a step toward Jonathan, its arms reaching out. Its paws were so close that Jonathan could see the long, curved black claws sticking out from the ends of the five fingers.

Then he was too scared to do anything. Way back in his mind he was still thinking a little, but it wasn't doing him much good. All he knew was that he'd better not run. In the first place, it might make the bear madder. In the second place, he doubted whether he could get his legs to move. His knees felt like cold oatmeal and were knocking together, and his feet felt as though they had roots running down into the ground.

He yelled then, ''Judyf

Jonathan didn't know it, but the yell \\as just a little whisper.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

onathan looked at the bear and the bear looked at Jonathan. Then the bear opened its mouth and Jonathan looked at the rows of long teeth, very white in the moonlight.

The bear made another grunting noise and took another step toward Jonathan, its whole body swaying and waving and its arms reaching out.

In the movies, Jonathan remembered, men always had long, shiny knives in sheaths on their belts. When bears grabbed them, they janked out the knives and plunged them into the bear's heart so that the bears always fell down dead just before biting off the men's heads.

All he had was the little gold knife on the chain. If he stuck that into the bear, it would just make the bear really sore.

Slowly, step by step, the bear came toward him. At last, when it was so close Jonathan could even smell it, the bear reached out for him.

This time Jonathan really did yell. It was just a sort of choked gurgling noise, but it was loud.

The bear stepped back a pace and leaned forward, looking at him.

Then, sounding cross, Judy said, "Come on, Jonathan/'

Her voice sounded far, far away to Jonathan.

''Judy,'' he yelled. ''Here's a bear!"

"A what?" she asked.

"A bear."

"You're kidding. Come on."

"Judy," Jonathan said, pleading with her, "here's a real, live bear."

"Well, leave him alone and come on."

Then the bear reached out and put one paw down on Jonathan's shoulder. Then it put the other paw down and stood there, its snout right in Jonathan's face.

The bear's weight almost crumpled Jonathan's knees and his voice was feeble when he called, ''J^^Y? ^^'^ resting on me.

"Oh, come on, Jonathan," she called, really irritated.

Jonathan decided then that Judy Worth Shelley was the most useless girl he'd ever heard of.

"Tell Mr. Worth that there's a bear resting on me," he begged her.

Then Mr. Worth, from farther away, said to Judy, "What's the trouble?"

"Oh, Jonathan's pretending he's caught a bear or something," Judy told him.

"There aren't any bears around here," Mr. Worth said.

"I know that," Judy said. "He's just kidding."

The bear now was feeling the side of Jonathan's head with one paw. The long claws felt like the teeth of a rake across his cheek.

''Mr. Worth/' Jonathan said, ''please come here." And he meant it.

''Go see what's the trouble, Judy/' Mr. Worth said.

Jonathan could hear Judy coming through the grass then.

The bear was still patting him with the huge black paws. Then it started nosing around with its snout.

The gasp Judy gave when she turned on the flashlight sounded like a bicycle tire blowing out. "Uncle Dan! It is a bear. Hes got Jonathan/"

Mr. Worth came crashing through the bushes, the dogs whining along beside him.

Jonathan got up strength enough to raise his hands and put them against the bear's chest. Then, hoping the bear wouldn't mind, he shoved with all his might.

The bear made a disappointed-sounding noise and stumbled backward a little way.

Judy's hand was shaking so hard the beam of the flashlight was dancing around on the bear as it came slowly back toward Jonathan again.

"Run!" Judy yelled.

"Wait!" Mr. Worth ordered.

He came plowing through the grass right up to the bear. "Teddy," he said.

The bear turned around slowly, shielding its eyes with one arm.

''Come here, Teddy/' Mr. Worth said.

The bear made a pleased noise and wallowed over to Mr. Worth.

*'I be doggone," Mr. Worth said, reaching out and patting the bear. ''This is old Eb Smith's tame bear. You know, Judy, over at Eb's filling station.''

Jonathan sank down into the grass, his legs melting.

"Still got his collar on and a piece of rope." He patted the bear again and rubbed his head. "Poor old bear. Must've gotten loose and then lost out here in the woods. He must've been mighty glad to see you, Jonathan."

"JONATHAN!" Judy yelled, flashing the light around.

"Here I am," Jonathan said, not even trying to stand up.

"I thought maybe something else had you," Judy explained.

"No wonder the dogs quit," Mr. Worth said. "It must have puzzled them to have that old coon run them into a thicket with a bear. Probably first time in their lives they ever smelled a bear."

Jonathan, still sitting down, said, "I thought you said there weren't any bears around here."

"There aren't," Judy said.

Jonathan got to his feet again. "Well, that's a bear, and he's around here/'

"Oh, well," Judy said, "he doesn't count."

Jonathan glared at her. "How was I supposed to know he didn't count? I wish he'd've come up and rested himself on you before you knew whether he counted or not."

''I wouldn't have minded/' Judy declared. Jonathan started to snort, but she went on, 'TdVe just died right there/'

Jonathan wasn't mad at her any more. ''I couldn't even move."

"Good thing you couldn't," Mr. Worth declared. "If you'd run, old Teddy might have thought you were teasing him. He might have patted you one. And if he had, it would've knocked you clean out of the county."

The bear ended the hunting for that night. While Judy led the dogs back to the sand bar on a leash, Mr. Worth led the bear. He borrowed Jonathan's belt so Jonathan had to hold up his pants all the way.

When they got back to where the blankets were, the fire was almost out. They started that going bright again, tied the bear to one tree, the dogs to another, and turned in.

After breakfast in the morning Mr. Worth decided to take the bear back to its owner. "Leave the dogs tied up so they won't strike a trail till I get back," he told Judy.

After he left there was nothing for Jonathan and Judy to do but loaf.

Judy decided that she would cook some of the river mussels to see if they were good to eat. To Jonathan the things looked something like oysters, except the shells were smooth and even. But the stuflF inside didn't appeal to him. It was gray and slimy-looking.

While Judy dug mussels and opened them, Jonathan

wandered off down the river, sometimes fishing, but not very hard. Mostly just wandering along.

He wished that somehow he could live the way Judy and Mr. Worth did. As far as he could see, they never cared what time it was, or even whether it was day or night. They just drifted along, eating when they were hungry, resting when they were tired, and sleeping any old time they wanted to. It made him remember the way Mrs. Johnson was always nagging him about being on time for meals and going to bed when he wasn't even sleepy.