Free Fear Stalks Grizzly Hill by Joan Lowery Nixon Page A

and rolled his eyes.
    As Brian and Sean dumped their knapsacks in the guest bedroom, Alan said, “It rained yesterday. The ground is soft, so we ought to be able to find a lot of animal and bird tracks.”
    “Let’s go!” Brian said.
    They ran down the stairs and out to the backyard. A small patio was ringed with flowers. Beyond was a narrow strip where grass was trying hard to grow in spite of heavy shade from the large oaks and pines.
    Brian bent to study the muddy patches where grass was sparse. “Hey, look!” he said. “Crow tracks … sparrow … and I know that one, too. It’s rabbit.”
    Sean pointed to paw prints under one of the nearby trees. They were short and wide, with long claw marks. “What are those?” he asked.
    “I don’t know,” Brian said.
    Alan shrugged. “Me either.”
    Sean drew in a shaky breath and took a step back from the overhanging trees. “Look at the size of those claws! They’re grizzly bear tracks, aren’t they?”
    “I told you, there aren’t any grizzlies around here,” Alan said.
    “Besides, the paws are too small for a grizzly,” Brian added.
    “Maybe it’s a young grizzly bear,” Sean said. He glanced at the strange tracks again and backed even farther away.
    “There’s one way to find out,” Brian said. He pointed to the prints, which led off to the right. “We’ll follow the tracks and see what we find.”

2

    B RIAN RETURNED TO THE house to get his plaster of paris. He mixed some of it with water in a large measuring cup with a spout and when he came back outside, he poured the smooth, white liquid into a few of the nearest tracks.
    “Those won’t take long to dry,” he said. “Pretty soon we’ll have some casts we can study.”
    Sean mumbled, “I don’t want anything to do with the claw-footed thing that made those tracks.” But Brian and Alan began to follow the prints, and Sean didn’t want to be left alone, so he hurried to catch up with them.
    The tracks wandered up into the grass, then back into the damp earth. The boys followed them into the forest, but the tracks soon turned and left the forest, making clear impressions in the mud. They led to a tall oak with a thick, twisted trunk, just behind the patio of the house next door to the Nash house.
    Brian looked carefully around the base of the tree then said, “The tracks stop here. There aren’t any leading away from the tree.”
    Sean stared upward into the tree’s widespread branches. He was glad that nothing looked back at him. “Grizzly bears climb trees,” he said. “I saw it in a movie.”
    Brian and Alan glanced upward, too. “They don’t stay in trees,” Brian said. “This animal—whatever it is—went up and didn’t come down.”
    “Unless it flew away,” Alan said, and laughed.
    “Bears don’t fly,” Sean said.
    “Maybe it swung from tree to tree,” Brian teased.
    “Yeah? Well, maybe it’s hiding up there and is going to jump down and get us,” Sean complained.
    Brian asked Alan, “You said you’d take us to the giant grizzly’s den. How about now?”
    “It’s too late,” Alan answered. “It’ll be dark soon. Want to go first thing in the morning?”
    “Sure,” Brian said.
    “No way,” Sean said.
    Suddenly, something huge and hairy rushed past Sean and jumped on Alan, knocking him into Brian. The container of plaster of paris mix flew out of Brian’s hands as he fell.
    “Help!” Sean yelled. “Bears! Help!”
    “It’s okay,” Alan said. “It’s just Rusty. Down, Rusty! Down! I haven’t got any dog yummies with me.”
    Brian scrambled to his feet. “That’s the biggest St. Bernard dog I’ve ever seen,” he said.
    “Or else the hairiest,” Sean said.
    A tall, thin man rushed up and snapped a leash on Rusty. “Sit, Rusty! Sit! Stay!” he yelled.
    Rusty paid no attention. He bounced around, jerking the man who clung to the leash.
    Alan shook his head. “Rusty only obeys three commands—down, sit, and stay,” he told Brian and