Hotel For Dogs by Lois Duncan Read Free Book Online Page A

the yard. He’s dug a hole under a bush and he’s lying in it, and he looks awful.”
    “Red’s
here
!” Pushing past his sister, Bruce hurried out the door.
    There was a dog, all right, under a bush as Andi had described. For a moment he could not believe that the dog was Red Rover.
    Gone was the shiny coat, the proud lift of the head, the gaily waving plume of a tail. This dog’s hair was dull and lusterless, matted with mud and burrs. His tail was curled under him, and his head was pressed against the ground. He did not lift it when Bruce approached or even when he spoke to him. A frayed rope circled his neck.
    “It’s the harness. He must have tried rubbing it off and got it pushed up around his neck.” Bruce knelt on the ground and began to work on the knot. It was like a lump of steel beneath his fingers. The rope itself was so tight that he could not get so much as a fingernail beneath it.
    Andi, who had been watching in horror, ran back to the kitchen. When she returned, she was carrying a paring knife.
    “Will this help? Maybe you can cut it.”
    “I hope I can do that without cutting Red.” Bruce took the knife and began sawing nervously against the thinnest part of the rope.
    The dog slumped beside him, too miserable to care what was being done to him. When the rope gave way at last, he drew a long rasping breath and looked up gratefully into Bruce’s face, but still he didn’t try to move.
    “He could have been strangled.” Bruce ran his fingers gently along the dog’s throat. There was a raw, hairless circle where the rope had cut into the tender skin. “He couldn’t have lived that way much longer. If you hadn’t found him and we hadn’t gotten that rope off, he would have died.”
    “Right next door to his own home!” Andi’s voice was low and shaken. “He’d rather dig a hole and die in it than go back to Jerry. Oh, Bruce, imagine how scared he must be of him if he would do that!”
    “Don’t worry, old fellow.” Bruce caressed the drooping head. “I’ll take care of you. Nobody’s ever going to hurt you again.”
    “But if we take him back —” Andi began.
    “We’re not going to,” Bruce said quietly. “We’ve got a new tenant for our hotel.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
    Getting Red Rover to follow them was not difficult. The big dog seemed to realize that Bruce was his new master. All he had to say was, “Come, Red,” and the poor animal struggled to his feet and allowed himself to be led through the backyard of the house next door and across the vacant lot to the dog hotel. The problem came with getting him through the window.
    “We’ll never make it,” Andi said, studying the distance from the ground to the sill and then turning to evaluate the size of the dog. “He’s too heavy to lift that high. Do you suppose we could get him to jump?”
    “Not in the condition he’s in now,” Bruce said. “The poor thing can hardly even walk. We’ll have to try lifting him. There’s no other way.”
    A voice spoke from behind them. “Why don’t you rig a ramp?”
    Bruce froze. Then he turned slowly to face the speaker.
    “What are you doing here?” he asked in a low, tight voice.
    Tim Kelly regarded him calmly.
    “Looking for you. I saw you crossing the lot, but I couldn’t catch up with you.”
    He paused and then repeated his original statement. “You could put up a ramp. We’ve got some old lumber over at my house if you want to use that. All it would take would be a couple of boards propped against the sill.”
    “You’re a spy!” Andi burst out furiously. “I’ve seen you with Jerry! You’re one of his gang, and you’re going to run back and tell him we have Red Rover.”
    “That’s crazy,” Tim said. “If I was going to do that, would I be offering you boards for a ramp?”
    “What’s the deal?” A little color was beginning to come back into Bruce’s face. “Why do you want to help us hide Red?”
    “Do you think I want Jerry to get another