Free Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk Page A

where Ruth got hurt,” she said. “But he scares me so bad I was afraid to say anything about it.”
    I remembered Ruth telling me she’d seen something moving on the hill just before the rock hit her. But it couldn’t have been Toby.
    â€œYou’re the one who’s scary, Betty,” I said. “Toby didn’t have anything to do with all that. Toby would never hurt Ruth.”
    â€œHe surely wasn’t aiming at her,” said Mr. Glengarry. “He was aiming at the German.”
    Mr. Ansel. The German.
    Mr. Glengarry had lost a brother in the first big war, and he was one of the people who didn’t speak to Mr. Ansel. “Toby’s crazy because of what the Germans did to him. If anyone would be throwing rocks at a German, it would be Toby.”
    â€œI didn’t see Toby,” I said, “and I was right there in the road with Ruth.” To Betty, I said, “You weren’t anywhere around when she got hurt, Betty, so how come you’re the only one who saw him?”
    â€œI was up in the belfry,” Betty said. “Andy wanted to show me the school bell when everyone went out to recess. There’s a little window up there, looks right out onto the road and the hill. I saw it happen better than you ever could from down below.”
    My mother leaned forward a little. “But you didn’t say anything about it until now?” If anyone was a friend to Toby, it was my mother. It was clear that she didn’t believe Betty, but I, too, had kept a secret because I was afraid of someone bigger and stronger than I was, and she knew that.
    â€œI thought he would hurt me if I did,” Betty said.
    I was stunned at how small she sounded. She, who had turned the tables with no effort at all.
    â€œAndy’s not afraid of Toby,” I said. “How come he didn’t say anything?”
    â€œBecause I was the only one who saw what happened. Andy was on the other side of the belfry, messing around with a swallow’s nest, and by the time he made it over to the window, Toby was gone. I didn’t tell him what I’d seen. I was afraid Toby might hurt Andy, too.”
    She sounded so scared that I almost believed her.
    â€œWhat about the wire across the path?” I said. “Toby wouldn’t hurt James.”
    â€œMaybe not, but I take that path, too,” she said. “Maybe Toby meant it for me.”
    â€œThat’s enough now,” Mr. Glengarry said. “Toby’s crazy. Everybody knows that. And you can’t expect any-thing but crazy business from a crazy man.”
    â€œI don’t blame Betty one little bit for being afraid of Toby,” Mrs. Glengarry said. She was a quiet woman and I was surprised to hear the grit in her voice, but here was a chance to believe that Betty was nothing but a pigtailed girl in a blue jumper afraid of a bad man who carried guns wherever he went.
    â€œPerhaps not.” My mother rose to her feet. “But if anyone threatens Annabelle again, there won’t be any more talking about it.”
    I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but when my father took me by the hand and we stood next to her, I felt like a giant. Like when I stood on our hilltop looking down into Wolf Hollow. Or when I held a bird’s egg in my hand.

    After we got home, my parents spent some time in the yard, talking. I went inside and straight up to my room.
    My steady world was spinning, and with each turn of the pinwheel, I became more confused.
    I didn’t believe that Toby was crazy. Sad, maybe. Quiet. Odd, even, to choose a life alone, sleeping in a smokehouse, walking the hills day after day. But not crazy. Not dangerous-crazy.
    And besides, why would Toby throw a rock from a hillside when two girls and two horses stood below? If Toby wanted to hurt Mr. Ansel, he had chances every day, all over the place, when there wouldn’t be any girls or horses standing by.
    Toby was a man who