Pollyanna

  CHAPTER XIII. IN PENDLETON WOODS

  Pollyanna had not turned her steps toward home, when she left thechapel. She had turned them, instead, toward Pendleton Hill. It hadbeen a hard day, for all it had been a "vacation one" (as she termedthe infrequent days when there was no sewing or cooking lesson), andPollyanna was sure that nothing would do her quite so much good as awalk through the green quiet of Pendleton Woods. Up Pendleton Hill,therefore, she climbed steadily, in spite of the warm sun on her back.

  "I don't have to get home till half-past five, anyway," she was tellingherself; "and it'll be so much nicer to go around by the way of thewoods, even if I do have to climb to get there."

  It was very beautiful in the Pendleton Woods, as Pollyanna knew byexperience. But to-day it seemed even more delightful than ever,notwithstanding her disappointment over what she must tell Jimmy Beanto-morrow.

  "I wish they were up here--all those ladies who talked so loud," sighedPollyanna to herself, raising her eyes to the patches of vivid bluebetween the sunlit green of the tree-tops. "Anyhow, if they were uphere, I just reckon they'd change and take Jimmy Bean for their littleboy, all right," she finished, secure in her conviction, but unable togive a reason for it, even to herself.

  Suddenly Pollyanna lifted her head and listened. A dog had barkedsome distance ahead. A moment later he came dashing toward her, stillbarking.

  "Hullo, doggie--hullo!" Pollyanna snapped her fingers at the dog andlooked expectantly down the path. She had seen the dog once before, shewas sure. He had been then with the Man, Mr. John Pendleton. She waslooking now, hoping to see him. For some minutes she watched eagerly,but he did not appear. Then she turned her attention toward the dog.

  The dog, as even Pollyanna could see, was acting strangely. He wasstill barking--giving little short, sharp yelps, as if of alarm. He wasrunning back and forth, too, in the path ahead. Soon they reached a sidepath, and down this the little dog fairly flew, only to come back atonce, whining and barking.

  "Ho! That isn't the way home," laughed Pollyanna, still keeping to themain path.

  The little dog seemed frantic now. Back and forth, back and forth,between Pollyanna and the side path he vibrated, barking and whiningpitifully. Every quiver of his little brown body, and every glance fromhis beseeching brown eyes were eloquent with appeal--so eloquent that atlast Pollyanna understood, turned, and followed him.

  Straight ahead, now, the little dog dashed madly; and it was not longbefore Pollyanna came upon the reason for it all: a man lying motionlessat the foot of a steep, overhanging mass of rock a few yards from theside path.

  A twig cracked sharply under Pollyanna's foot, and the man turned hishead. With a cry of dismay Pollyanna ran to his side.

  "Mr. Pendleton! Oh, are you hurt?"

  "Hurt? Oh, no! I'm just taking a siesta in the sunshine," snapped theman irritably. "See here, how much do you know? What can you do? Haveyou got any sense?"

  Pollyanna caught her breath with a little gasp, but--as was herhabit--she answered the questions literally, one by one.

  "Why, Mr. Pendleton, I--I don't know so very much, and I can't do agreat many things; but most of the Ladies' Aiders, except Mrs. Rawson,said I had real good sense. I heard 'em say so one day--they didn't knowI heard, though."

  The man smiled grimly.

  "There, there, child, I beg your pardon, I'm sure; it's only thisconfounded leg of mine. Now listen." He paused, and with some difficultyreached his hand into his trousers pocket and brought out a bunch ofkeys, singling out one between his thumb and forefinger. "Straightthrough the path there, about five minutes' walk, is my house. This keywill admit you to the side door under the porte-cochere. Do you knowwhat a porte-cochere is?"

  "Oh, yes, sir. Auntie has one with a sun parlor over it. That's the roofI slept on--only I didn't sleep, you know. They found me."

  "Eh? Oh! Well, when you get into the house, go straight through thevestibule and hall to the door at the end. On the big, flat-topped deskin the middle of the room you'll find a telephone. Do you know how touse a telephone?"

  "Oh, yes, sir! Why, once when Aunt Polly--"

  "Never mind Aunt Polly now," cut in the man scowlingly, as he tried tomove himself a little.

  "Hunt up Dr. Thomas Chilton's number on the card you'll find somewherearound there--it ought to be on the hook down at the side, but itprobably won't be. You know a telephone card, I suppose, when you seeone!"

  "Oh, yes, sir! I just love Aunt Polly's. There's such a lot of queernames, and--"

  "Tell Dr. Chilton that John Pendleton is at the foot of Little EagleLedge in Pendleton Woods with a broken leg, and to come at once with astretcher and two men. He'll know what to do besides that. Tell him tocome by the path from the house."

  "A broken leg? Oh, Mr. Pendleton, how perfectly awful!" shudderedPollyanna. "But I'm so glad I came! Can't _I_ do--"

  "Yes, you can--but evidently you won't! WILL you go and do what I askand stop talking," moaned the man, faintly. And, with a little sobbingcry, Pollyanna went.

  Pollyanna did not stop now to look up at the patches of blue between thesunlit tops of the trees. She kept her eyes on the ground to make surethat no twig nor stone tripped her hurrying feet.

  It was not long before she came in sight of the house. She had seen itbefore, though never so near as this. She was almost frightened nowat the massiveness of the great pile of gray stone with its pillaredverandas and its imposing entrance. Pausing only a moment, however, shesped across the big neglected lawn and around the house to the side doorunder the porte-cochere. Her fingers, stiff from their tight clutch uponthe keys, were anything but skilful in their efforts to turn the boltin the lock; but at last the heavy, carved door swung slowly back on itshinges.

  Pollyanna caught her breath. In spite of her feeling of haste, shepaused a moment and looked fearfully through the vestibule to the wide,sombre hall beyond, her thoughts in a whirl. This was John Pendleton'shouse; the house of mystery; the house into which no one but its masterentered; the house which sheltered, somewhere--a skeleton. Yet she,Pollyanna, was expected to enter alone these fearsome rooms, andtelephone the doctor that the master of the house lay now--

  With a little cry Pollyanna, looking neither to the right nor the left,fairly ran through the hall to the door at the end and opened it.

  The room was large, and sombre with dark woods and hangings like thehall; but through the west window the sun threw a long shaft of goldacross the floor, gleamed dully on the tarnished brass andirons in thefireplace, and touched the nickel of the telephone on the great desk inthe middle of the room. It was toward this desk that Pollyanna hurriedlytiptoed.

  The telephone card was not on its hook; it was on the floor. ButPollyanna found it, and ran her shaking forefinger down through the C'sto "Chilton." In due time she had Dr. Chilton himself at the other endof the wires, and was tremblingly delivering her message and answeringthe doctor's terse, pertinent questions. This done, she hung up thereceiver and drew a long breath of relief.

  Only a brief glance did Pollyanna give about her; then, with a confusedvision in her eyes of crimson draperies, book-lined walls, a litteredfloor, an untidy desk, innumerable closed doors (any one of which mightconceal a skeleton), and everywhere dust, dust, dust, she fled backthrough the hall to the great carved door, still half open as she hadleft it.

  In what seemed, even to the injured man, an incredibly short time,Pollyanna was back in the woods at the man's side.

  "Well, what is the trouble? Couldn't you get in?" he demanded.

  Pollyanna opened wide her eyes.

  "Why, of course I could! I'm HERE," she answered. "As if I'd be hereif I hadn't got in! And the doctor will be right up just as soon aspossible with the men and things. He said he knew just where you were,so I didn't stay to show him. I wanted to be with you."

  "Did you?" smiled the man, grimly. "Well, I can't say I admire yourtaste. I should think you might find pleasanter companions."

  "Do you mean--because you're so--c
ross?"

  "Thanks for your frankness. Yes."

  Pollyanna laughed softly.

  "But you're only cross OUTSIDE--You arn't cross inside a bit!"

  "Indeed! How do you know that?" asked the man, trying to change theposition of his head without moving the rest of his body.

  "Oh, lots of ways; there--like that--the way you act with the dog," sheadded, pointing to the long, slender hand that rested on the dog's sleekhead near him. "It's funny how dogs and cats know the insides of folksbetter than other folks do, isn't it? Say, I'm going to hold your head,"she finished abruptly.

  The man winced several times and groaned once; softly while the changewas being made; but in the end he found Pollyanna's lap a very welcomesubstitute for the rocky hollow in which his head had lain before.

  "Well, that is--better," he murmured faintly.

  He did not speak again for some time. Pollyanna, watching his face,wondered if he were asleep. She did not think he was. He looked as ifhis lips were tight shut to keep back moans of pain. Pollyanna herselfalmost cried aloud as she looked at his great, strong body lying thereso helpless. One hand, with fingers tightly clenched, lay outflung,motionless. The other, limply open, lay on the dog's head. The dog, hiswistful, eager eyes on his master's face, was motionless, too.

  Minute by minute the time passed. The sun dropped lower in the westand the shadows grew deeper under the trees. Pollyanna sat so still shehardly seemed to breathe. A bird alighted fearlessly within reach ofher hand, and a squirrel whisked his bushy tail on a tree-branch almostunder her nose--yet with his bright little eyes all the while on themotionless dog.

  At last the dog pricked up his cars and whined softly; then he gave ashort, sharp bark. The next moment Pollyanna heard voices, and very soontheir owners appeared three men carrying a stretcher and various otherarticles.

  The tallest of the party--a smooth-shaven, kind-eyed man whom Pollyannaknew by sight as "Dr. Chilton"--advanced cheerily.

  "Well, my little lady, playing nurse?"

  "Oh, no, sir," smiled Pollyanna. "I've only held his head--I haven'tgiven him a mite of medicine. But I'm glad I was here."

  "So am I," nodded the doctor, as he turned his absorbed attention to theinjured man.