The haunted hound; (15 page)

That was Mr. Worth. He began to yell, and Judy began to shout at Slewfoot and Strive, pelting them with the stick in one hand and yanking at their collars with the other. The stick broke and she dived in, so that there was just a heaving battle.

Jonathan, afraid he'd hit Judy or Mr. Worth, dropped his stick and grabbed one of the dogs. He was hauling it away w^hen something heavy hit him right in the back of the neck. It knocked him down to his hands and knees, and when he opened his eyes he saw the coon, looking tremendous with all its fur sticking straight up, running out from under the tree.

The dogs had stopped snarling and they were all getting untangled. Jonathan yelled, ''There he goes!" and started after the coon.

Between the coon and the river there was only a little clump of bushes. Jonathan jumped over them and saw the coon just ahead of him, almost to the high bank of the river.

He took a flying tackle at the coon, sailing through the air and grabbing with both hands. He got the coon by the hindquarters but couldn't hold him.

The coon whirled around, his face about an inch from Jonathan's. His teeth were bared and white in the moonlight and he was making a snarling noise.

Jonathan had landed so hard he'd knocked the wind clean out of himself and couldn't do a thing as he waited expecting the coon to eat him alive.

Instead, the coon lifted up one front paw and slapped Jonathan in the face so hard that yellow sparks jumped in front of his eyes.

When Jonathan could see again, the coon had turned and was loping toward the river.

Behind him he could hear Judy and Mr. Worth and the dogs all veiling. The flashlight was throwing a beam around and the whole place seemed to be alive.

The coon ran faster as Jonathan got up and started after it.

He caught up with it just on the edge of the bank but this time he didn't try to grab it, but kicked at it.

He touched it enough to make it grunt, but when he tried to kick it again, the riverbank began to cave in.

Jonathan was amazed to find himself floating softly down toward the black water below him. Somewhere close to him the coon was falling, too; he could hear it snarling.

->A.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Cf^* T

\J[\ Y^ lonathan had about fifteen feet to

▼ ^^ lJ fall and it gave him time to get

really mad at that coon falling beside him. His face still hurt where the coon had slapped him, the back of his neck hurt, he had skinned a knee somewhere, and he had run about a hundred miles—all on account of that coon.

Jonathan hit the water flat on his back, again, knocking out his wind, which made him even madder. Then he went under the water, drinking about a gallon of it, and that didn't help any either.

When he came up he saw the coon swimming for the far bank. In the moonlight the coon made silvery waves vee-ing across the river, and his big black-and-white striped tail wobbled along in the middle of the vee.

Jonathan took out after him, swimming as well as he could with his clothes and his shoes on.

At last, reaching out, he grabbed the coon by the tail. The coon swung around, his fangs white and sharp-looking in the moonlight, and snapped at Jonathan's hand. But Jonathan

hauled back on him and tried to pull him down under the water.

It was too deep to touch bottom, so Jonathan was treading water while, with his free hand, he was trying to swim, too.

The coon quit trying to bite him and started swimming away again. That didn't do any good.

So then the coon came back. He ignored the hand holding him by the tail and went right for Jonathan's head.

He looked ferocious with all four feet reaching for Jonathan, and sounded worse, his snarl a little choked with \\ater.

There wasn't anything for Jonathan to do but let go the tail and duck, completely under the water^ to keep the coon from swarming all over him.

But Jonathan was still mad. When he came up again, the coon was swimming around in circles looking for him.

Jonathan let him get as close as he dared and then skeeted water in the coon's face with the palm of his hand. That upset the animal and Jonathan grabbed him by the tail again.

Every time the coon turned around to bite him, Jonathan would give him a face full of water.

Finally Jonathan's feet touched bottom. Standing waist deep in the river, he kept skeeting water at the coon until he saw his chance, then he reached in fast and grabbed the coon b\' the nape of the neck.

All the twisting and snarling and flailing around didn't

do the coon any good. Jonathan hung on, dragging him slowly out on the other bank.

Out on the sand, Jonathan was still mad. He held the coon out at arm's length with both hands and shook him as hard as he could, saying, ''You daggone rascal, what vou mean slapping me in the face?" Then he shook him again until the coon's teeth rattled.

By this time Judy, Mr. Worth, and the dogs were on the opposite bank, all shouting at him.

"Hold him, Jonathan," Mr. Worth called. "Don't let him go. The dogs are coming."

"Don't let him bite you," Judy yelled.

Jonathan looked at the soaking wet coon and wasn't mad any more. And, for some reason, he didn't like the idea of the dogs chewing him up. He wasn't a sissy or anything, he told himself, but, after all, that old coon had put up a pretty good fight against three people and two dogs—and still had a lot of fight left in him.

"Wait a minute," Jonathan called, as he saw them all scrambling down the opposite bank. Then, when Judy stopped to listen, he said, "Let's let this old coon go. He's a pretty good old coon."

"I think so, too. Uncle Dan," Judy said.

"Now that's right funny," Mr. Worth said. "I wasn't going to suggest it since Jonathan put up such a battle to catch him, but if ever a coon deserved to be let loose that one does."

"I got the dogs," Judy said. "Let him go, Jonathan, but

watch he doesn't just jump you as soon as you turn him loose/'

Jonathan swung the coon back and forth twice, then let him go at the top of the third swing.

The coon hit the ground and whirled right around, snarling at Jonathan and ready to fight.

''Beat it!" Jonathan said. ''Scram!'' He got a handful of sand and threw it at the coon.

Then, as though showing them that he \\'asn't scared, the coon turned slowlv toward the \\'Oods. He looked back at Jonathan with his teeth bared, then walked away into the deep shadows. He never ran a step.

Jonathan waded back across the river.

"I'm sure glad we did that," Mr. Worth said. "The next time we have a race with that coon it'll be one to remember because coons learn fast, and that one learned a heap tonight. He'll be worth chasing next time."

"Did he hurt you?" Judy asked.

"I don't think so," Jonathan said, "but he really slapped the daylights out of me."

"Me, too," Mr. Worth said, starting to laugh. "That was the slappingest coon I ever saw. When I was up in that tree, it was just me and him and mostly him. He came skittering down out of that fork and before I knew it I had a face full of coon feet." He laughed harder. "I remember the Little Bird speaking to me two, three weeks ago about getting a haircut, and now I'm sure glad I forgot to get one because that old coon bit off a chunk of my hair and, had

I had a haircut, he'd have bit him off a chunk of my head.

''So I turned loose, being sort of startled to have so much coon climbing on me, and tried to get him off. Well, sir, from then on it was a messr

Judy laughed. ''I never heard of a coon hunt where the dogs almost ate up the hunters.''

''They couldn't help that now, Judy," Mr. Worth argued. "Old Strive and Slew were all excited after such a race and, when they saw a coon as big as me falling down to 'em, they were too happy to notice the difference."

"Did they hurt you?" Jonathan asked.

"No, they just chawed me up a little." Then Mr. Worth looked at Jonathan. ''Boy," he said, "you couldn't have paid me to jump in the river with that coon. I've seen old boar coons get in the water and stand off a pack of dogs."

"I fell in," Jonathan said. "He did, too."

"Maybe so," Mr. Worth said, "but you went ahead and tangled with him, right there in swimming water, too. Man, if that'd been me I'd've been under water still."

"Me, too/' Judy said. "And I wouldn't have jumped for that coon the way you did. Did you see him, Uncle Dan? He just took off, sailing through the air, and lit right on top of that coon. Ohhhhh," she said, shivering. "You almost had him, too."

"That's when he slapped me," Jonathan said. "I didn't know they could slap so hard."

"And their hands are so cold," Judy said. "I'd rather be slapped by a wet eel than a coon's hand."

Jonathan felt a little cold on the outside, but inside he felt warm and fine to have Judy and Mr. Worth think that he had done all those things beeause he was brave. Jonathan didn't think that he'd been brave at all, but if they wanted to think so, well . . .

''It's past one o'elock,'' Mr. Worth said. ''What do you all want to do? Run another eoon or sleep some?"

Jonathan was sure that he couldn't run another step, but he waited for Judy to answer first, hoping that she would be sensible for once and say she wanted to sleep.

Jonathan let out a sigh when she said, "That was a good race, Uncle Dan. Tm about run down."

"Me, too," Mr. Worth said. "Let's go back up the river and turn in/'

After they had gone a short distance, Judy turned the dogs loose. Jonathan noticed that, although they ran around a good deal, they didn't seem to be hunting anything very hard. He guessed that they were about as tired as he was.

He was wrong. The dogs struck again. Strive first, then Slewfoot.

"Oh, oh," Mr. Worth said. "Doesn't look like we're going to get any sleep tonight. That's a hot one."

The sound of the dogs giving tongue as hard as they could, and then fading slowly away, seemed to wash all the tiredness out of Jonathan. His legs felt springy and alive again and his breath wasn't raw and hot in his throat as he

ran

Mr. Worth stopped for a moment to listen. "He's head-

ing for the flat ground, sounds like. Must be a young and foolish coon/'

Judy nodded. ''The dogs'll eat him up if he goes into those cane reeds. So maybe we'll get some sleep after all.''

The moonlight was clear and bright whenever they came out into little open places in the woods or ran along the sand bars. Jonathan ran beside Judy, while Mr. Worth loped ahead, his legs loose and long.

''If we catch this one, can I have him?" Jonathan asked.

"Sure. What for?"

"Mamie, our cook, wants one—to eat."

"She can have him," Judy said. "I ate some once. I don't like it. Too fat."

Mr. Worth stopped at the edge of a high bluff and waited for them. When Jonathan got there, he was surprised to see how the land lay ahead of them. Stretching out from the foot of the bluff it was flat and level for as far as he could see. The moonlight was strong on it and some sort of tall, thick grass made it look almost like water.

The two hounds were out in it somewhere, close on the coon, their voices loud and excited.

"That coon had better settle down and really run," Mr. Worth said, "because there's no place for him to tree."

"Maybe he knows where there's a hole he can get in," Judy suggested.

"He better find it then."

They climbed down the bluff and waded out into the high grass. It came almost to Jonathan's chest and, as he

watched Mr. Worth and Judy pushing through it, they looked hke boats in the moonhght. The grass closed up again as soon as they went through it, but there was still a wake behind them.

There was no way to see what he was walking on for the moonlight couldn't get down through the grass. Jonathan caught up with Judy. ''Suppose we step on an alligator?'' he asked.

''Step right off him/' Judy said. Then she laughed, panting. "No gators will be this far from the river."

Suddenly the dogs stopped barking. Jonathan waited for them to do as they had with the other coon and start baying, but they didn't make any noise at all for a long time.

"Now what've they run into?" Mr. Worth asked, listening.

"Whate\'er it is, they don't like it," Judy decided.

"Maybe that coon slipped into a hole and they can't find it in all this grass."

"Maybe he's running down a possum trail, or even a wildcat's, and they can't make it out."

Then, making the grass wave in two long streaks as they moved through it, the dogs came back to them. Slewfoot was whining a little but Strive didn't make any noise.

"Well, doggone," Mr. Worth said, exasperated. "What happened, Slew?"

Judy sounded exasperated, too. "They don't even seem to care where that coon went."

"Maybe they just wanted to be sure we were still inter-

ested in what they were doing. Come on/' Jonathan said.

As soon as Mr. Worth started off, the dogs did, too, but they didn't go tearing away, barking and running the coon. Instead, they stayed just ahead of Mr. Worth, Slewfoot still whining a little every now and then.