Barry Read Online Free PDF Page B

said the Cold Man. “Youwanted us to go to the hospice. Let’s get there before my tongue freezes in my head.”
    I did not move. I had stopped because I sensed something coming. Something Big. And I knew, as surely as my name was Barry, that if we kept going in the same direction, this Big Something was going to bury us alive. I turned around and went the other way. When the travelers refused to follow, I barked at them to show that I meant business.
    “This is crazy,” said the Leader. “We’ve made a decision to go back to the hospice and that is where we should go. We can’t go around in circles like this.”
    “I don’t know,” said the Cold Man. “The dog seems to be wary of something. These dogs have a reputation for being very smart. I’m going to play it safe and follow the dog.”
    The men stood in the snow and argued while Iwhined. What was the matter with them? The Big Something was coming and we needed to be gone from this spot. There was no time to lose.
    When they stopped arguing, two of them had decided to follow the Leader back to the hospice. The Cold Man and two others followed me away from it. I had done what I could.
    We had walked for about fifteen minutes when we heard it behind us: the roar of a mighty river of snow and ice and rocks as it rushed madly down the mountainside toward the valley. I knew that the avalanche had probably overtaken the three who had not heeded my warning.
    The three in my care jabbered and wept and prayed for the lives of their companions. They also knew that had they not followed me, they would now be under the snow. I turned around and set off in the direction of the hospice. The path nowlay buried in debris. The air was filled with a fine film of snow and dust. The men were nowhere to be seen. I took off at a run, leaving the three survivors on the site while I raced to get help. WhenI got to the hospice, I barked and barked until I summoned two marronniers from their chores.

    “I have the feeling that Barry has found some avalanche casualties,” one of them said. “I am betting it is the party who left here this morning.”
    Brother Gaston, Michel, and Brother Martin got their cloaks and sticks and followed me, dragging the rescue sleds. Bernice and Jupiter came, too. I would need their help to find the bodies buried in the snow. Fortunately, the avalanche was not so very far away from the hospice and we arrived in less than an hour. The three survivors cried out when they saw us. Brother Gaston wrapped them in blankets and sat them on one of the sleds while we dogs set to work.
    We ran in circles, our noses to the rubble brought down by the avalanche. I was the first to catch the scent. I stopped and barked. Michel cameover and poked his stick far down in the snow. He stopped when the stick was about half buried. The stick would sink no farther. It appeared that it had hit something solid. It might have been a rock, but I had a feeling that it was a man. I wagged my tail.
    “Good work, Barry,” Michel said to me.
    My chest swelled with pride. It made me happy to please the clerics and the marronniers.
    “He is down about six feet,” Michel said to the others.
    They got their shovels from the sled and began to dig away the snow. I helped with my paws. Meanwhile, Jupiter and Bernice continued to sniff for the other two men. By the time Jupiter started to bark, we had dug the Leader out of the snowbank.
    He spat snow out of his mouth. Then he looked at me, his breast heaving. “I should have listened toyou, dog. You were right and I was wrong.”
    The clerics hustled the man over to the sled, laid him out, and bundled him in blankets. Then we went over to where Jupiter stood barking. Again Michel poked his stick down in the snow. The stick sank almost entirely.

    “He is buried very deeply,” said Brother Martin with a hopeless shrug.
    My brother and I dug along with the clerics until finally we uncovered the man at the bottom of the pit of snow. To