Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill | Page 5

him, I assure ye! I worked for him onct, I did. And I tell ye he owes me money yet. You ax him if he don't owe Jasper Parloe money-- you jest ax him!"
He began to get excited and did not seem at all inclined to step out of Ruth's path. But just then somebody spoke to her and she turned to see the station master and two or three other men with him.
"This is the girl Mr. Mason spoke to me about, isn't it?" the railroad man asked. "The conductor of the express, I mean. He said the dog would mind you."
"He seems to like me," she replied, turning to the mastiff that had stood all this time close to her.
"That is Tom Cameron's dog all right," said one of the other men. "And that lantern is off his motorcycle, I bet anything! He went through town about dark on that contraption, and I shouldn't wonder if he's got a tumble."
Ruth showed the station master, whose name was Curtis, the bit of handkerchief with the appeal for help traced upon it.
"That is blood," she said. "You see it's blood, don't you? Can't somebody take Reno and hunt for him? He must be very badly hurt."
"Mason said he expected it was nothing but some fool joke of the boys. But it doesn't look like a joke to me," Mr. Curtis said, gravely. "Come, Parloe, you know that patch of woods well enough, over beyond the swamp and Hiram Jennings' big field. Isn't there a steep and rocky road down there, that shoots off the Osago Lake pike?"
"The Wilkins Corners road-- yep," said the old man, snappishly.
"Then, can't you take the dog and see if you can find young Tom?"
"Who's going to pay me for it?" snarled Jasper Parloe. "I ain't got no love for them Camerons. This here Tom is as sassy a boy as there is in this county."
"But he may be seriously hurt," said Ruth, looking angrily at Jasper Parloe.
"'Tain't nothin' to me-- no more than your goin' out ter live with Jabe Potter ain't nothin' to me," responded the old man, with an ugly grin.
"You're a pretty fellow, you are, Jasper!" exclaimed Mr. Curtis, and turned his back upon the fellow. "I can't leave the station now-- Ah! here's Doctor Davison. He'll know what to do."
Doctor Davison came forward and put his hand upon Ruth's shoulder most kindly. "What is all this?" he asked. "And there is the mastiff. They tell me you are a dog tamer, Miss Fielding."
He listened very closely to what Mr. Curtis had to say, and looked, too, at the smeared handkerchief.
"The dog can find him-- no doubt of that. Come, boys, get some lanterns and we'll go right along to the Wilkins Corners road and search it." Then to Ruth he said: "You are a brave girl, sure enough."
But when the party was ready to start, half a dozen strong, with Parloe trailing on behind, and with lanterns and a stretcher, Reno would not budge. The man called him, but he looked up at Ruth and did not move from her side.
"I declare for't," exclaimed one man. "That girl will have to go with us, Doctor Davison. You see what the dog means to do."
Ruth spoke to the mastiff, commanded him to leave her and find "Tom." But although the dog looked at her intelligently enough, and barked his response-- a deep, sudden, explosive bark-- he refused to start without her.
"It's a long way for the girl," objected Doctor Davison. "Besides, she is waiting to meet her uncle."
"I am not tired," she told him, quickly. "Remember I've been sitting all the afternoon. And perhaps every minute is precious. We don't know how badly the dog's master may be hurt. I'll go. I'm sure I can keep up with you."
Reno seemed to understand her words perfectly, and uttered another short, sharp bark.
"Let us go, then," said Doctor Davison, hurriedly.
So the men picked up their lanterns and the stretcher again. They crossed the tracks and came to a street that soon became a country road. Cheslow did not spread itself very far in this direction. Doctor Davison explained to Ruth that the settlement had begun to grow in the parts beyond the railroad and that all this side of the tracks was considered the old part of the town.
The street lights were soon behind them and they depended entirely upon the lanterns the men carried. Ruth could see very little of the houses they passed; but at one spot-- although it was on the other side of the road-- there were two green lanterns, one on either side of an arched gate, and there seemed to be a rather large, but gloomy, house behind the hedge before which these lanterns burned.
"You will always know