Free The Secret Dog by Joe Friedman Page A

they seen Reggae?
    He had to get them both out of sight! He lifted his head and looked around. There were a couple of tall gorse bushes not too far away. They could hide behind them.
    ‘Come,’ he whispered, and he started to crawl along the ground on his stomach. Reggae wagged her tail and crept along by his side. To her, this was a wonderful new game.
    Safely hidden behind the bush, Josh tried to compose himself. Who was this person? And why was he in
his
valley?

 
    Chapter 14
    Josh felt like a mouse trapped by a cat. But who was the cat? Kneeling, he peered through the yellow gorse flowers.
    From this distance, all he could see was a dark, hooded man with heavy eyebrows. He was shouting angrily at his two dogs, who were running around wildly and barking. The man wasn’t looking in his direction. Josh breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn’t been spotted.
    As the man came down the hill, Josh got a clearer look. His heart sank. It was Dunham, a man who was hated and feared, both for his fierce and uncontrolled temper and his shady practices. Josh had heard many stories about Dunham told by his uncle’s friends over late-night drinks. How he’d been caught stealing wood from someone’s forest – and almost beat to death the man who found him at it. And how he always remembered a grievance, seeking revenge even years later.
    Josh had no trouble believing these stories, because Kearney was Dunham’s son. A bully cut from the same mould as his father.
    Why had Dunham sought out such a hidden valley? A place far away from where he lived?
    Josh watched as Dunham placed himself in frontof a small group of ewes. Josh tickled Reggae behind her right ear. Fortunately, he didn’t have to worry about
her
making any noise.
    Dunham’s dogs were running back and forth on long leads, barking excitedly. They hardly paid any attention to their master’s commands.
    He shouted their names, again and again. Eventually when they came to heel Dunham struck each dog hard on the head. Josh inhaled sharply. What was the point of that? It would just teach them not to come when he called the next time.
    Josh took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself. He hated to see animals badly treated. Especially Border collies. And it wasn’t just the dogs  . . .  What would these bullied and badly-trained dogs do to the commons sheep,
his
sheep, the ones he’d been using to train Reggae?
    ‘Away,’ Dunham ordered. The two dogs headed straight for the sheep, barking loudly. Alarmed, the ewes scattered. It was then Josh saw the green markings on the right thigh of several of the sheep. They belonged to his uncle! They must have escaped onto the commons through the broken fence Calum had been muttering about mending for weeks. Using the long leads, Dunham hauled the dogs back. Then he hit them again. ‘To the right, you stupid mutts.’
    Dunham ordered the dogs off again. This time, at least they went to their right. But rather than finding the balancing point, one dog charged one of his uncle’s ewes and bit her behind the ear. The other dog jumped on the back of a young lamb, alsowith his uncle’s mark, who bleated in shock and pain. When its mother rounded on him, both dogs attacked her, tearing off mouthfuls of fleece. The ewe and her lamb cried out in pain.
    Dunham watched the attack in silence. Then he called the dogs. Eventually, ears low and heads down, they returned. He patted them on their side.
    ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘Show ’em who’s boss.’
    Josh couldn’t believe what he’d seen. How could Dunham think it was all right to treat sheep that way? Didn’t he realise those animals were his uncle’s? In fact it didn’t matter who they belonged to. It was a serious crime to mistreat sheep.
    Josh sat down heavily behind the gorse. His uncle’s ewe had been attacked for defending her own lamb. He couldn’t let this go on. But then he remembered what Dunham had done to the crofter who found him stealing wood