No Shadow (Prodigal Sons of Cane) Read Online Free PDF Page B

it.
    Her curiosity
getting the better of her, she walked across the yard toward the trees.
“Hello?”
    She peered
through the line of trees, seeing a creek running through the side yard,
parallel to the driveway. She also noticed a tire swing on one of the largest
trees. This must have been a great place to grow up.
    “Hello?”
    Still no
answer. She decided to give up. She could hardly trespass in someone else’s
yard just because she was sure someone was hiding from her.
    She started to
turn around when she heard a whimper.
    The pitiful
sound came from farther up toward the house. It sounded distinctly like someone
was in pain.
    Her crisis
instinct triggered, she hurried toward the sound, avoiding tree roots and
wishing she weren’t wearing her granny boots because the high heels kept
sinking into the soft ground.
    The whimper
sounded again, and this time was accompanied by scrabbling noises. She located
it as coming from what appeared to be a hatch door in the ground.
    With a flare of
panic, she wondered if a child had fallen in. “Hello? Is someone hurt?”
    No answer. Just
more whimpers and scrabbles.
    Helen ran over
and squatted down to peer into the hatch door opening. It must be an old dugout
root cellar, over which the shed had been torn down long ago. It was dark down
in the cellar, but she saw something moving when her eyes adjusted.
    “Are you all
right?” she called down, her voice a bit shaky.
    When she heard
the next whimper she realized it wasn’t human, and she soon made out the form
of a light-colored dog on the dirt floor several feet down.
    “Poor little
thing,” she murmured. “Did you fall in?”
    Without
thinking, she climbed down the ladder, wishing she’d chosen to wear slacks
today instead of the plaid A-line skirt. The ladder was rather rickety, but it
held together as she descended.
    The cellar was
dark and musty, and the poor little dog tried to slink away from her at first.
It limped, however, and couldn’t get very far.
    After she’d
coaxed it into submission, she ran her hands over its body and discovered that
the back right leg was what made it jerk away from her hands.
    “Poor old
fellow,” she said in a cheerful voice, “Let’s see if we can get you out of
here.”
    She picked it
up and realized it was heavier than she’d thought. Close to thirty pounds. When
she approached the ladder, she realized her problem. The ladder wasn’t stable.
She’d need both hands to get out of here, and she couldn’t hold the dog and
climb at the same time.
    She put the dog
down and her heart clenched in sympathy as it whimpered. “I know it’s bad. I’ll
get some help and be right back. I promise.”
    She climbed up,
and when her head emerged, she blinked in the daylight. Then she saw another
flicker of motion to her right, in the trees.
    This time, she
caught sight of a slight young woman with shiny brown hair. “Oh, hi there,”
Helen called out. “Can you help? There’s an injured dog down here, and I can’t
get it up myself.”
    The woman froze
in place. She was dressed in jeans and a long sleeved shirt. She had a pretty,
delicate face and a terrified expression.
    “I don’t think
it’s serious,” Helen clarified, assuming the woman must think there was a
serious emergency. “But can you stand up here at the top and take the dog when
I hand him out?”
    The other woman
still didn’t move.
    Not
understanding the hesitance, Helen added, “It’s not dangerous. I’ll go down and
get him. Just come to the hatch door, will you? He’s a nice little fellow. He
won’t bite.”
    She started
down the ladder again, assuming anyone with half a heart would respond to her
request and come to help her.
    When she got to
the bottom and picked up the dog, she saw the young woman’s anxious face peeking
down. She looked college-aged, maybe a little older. Her straight hair was cut
in a stylish bob, and her skin was a perfect pale ivory.
    Helen had to
balance a couple of rungs up on the