Paw Prints in the Snow by Sally Grindley Read Free Book Online Page A

from the rumble of a passing truck. He began to edge his way around to the back and was convinced he heard a slight scuffling. The ground to the rear sloped away quite steeply and Joe saw that there was a sort of basement to the building. Its entrance was marked by a crooked wooden door at the bottom of a steep flight of steps. Joe shivered in the gathering gloom, a wave of anxiety passing through him.
    It’s getting late. I really should return to the park headquarters.
    He made up his mind to leave, but another, rather pathetic growl stopped him. It was coming from inside the basement, and whatever was making it seemed to be in trouble.
    Joe went to the top of the steps, his heart beating fast. A small dog, even a raccoon dog, was nothing to be scared of, he reasoned. As the son of a vet, he would never be able to forgive himself for abandoning an injured animal. He would check that it was all right, then go home.
    He put his foot on the first step, slipped on the ice and fell.
    To his own ears, the scream Joe let out was loud enough to alert everyone in the village. He landed with a sickening thud in the courtyard in front of the basement door, his right leg twisted underneath him. He attempted to stand up, but couldn’t. It was impossible – the pain was excruciating. As he tried to shift into a more comfortable position, it dawned on him that his leg might be broken.
    Nobody knows where I am! The thought struck him like a hammer blow.
    He called out for help, but his voice seemed thin and muffled by the falling snow. He pulled his coat tighter round him, glad that Binti had insisted they buy the thickest quilting on the market, whether or not Aesha complained about resembling a beluga whale in it.
    Aesha will come and look for me, won’t she? he thought. She’ll worry that I’ve been away for so long. Or is she fast asleep? Mum and Dad will finish work and be worried when they find I’m not back.
    Joe heard a growl, louder and more persistent than before. He hoped that whatever it was couldn’t get out of the basement. He didn’t want to be licked or slobbered over by a strange animal. And what if it bit him? What if the animal behind the door wasn’t the small animal he had been following, but something bigger, perhaps one of the larger dogs he had seen wandering the village streets?
    The pain became so intense that Joe started to feel light-headed. He knew he needed to stay awake, though, so he concentrated on calling out over and over again. He could hear cars passing once in a while, but no other sounds of human life.
    He began to be scared that he might not be found for hours. What then? Even in his thick coat he would surely begin to suffer from the cold. He forced himself to think of everything they had done since they had been in Russia, every tiny detail, just to keep from falling asleep. He thought about the tiger tracks in the snow, the bear in the tree, the picnic by the waterfall, the day with the sniffer dogs and the way he had mistaken Artem Klopov for a smuggler. So much had happened in such a short space of time, and now his adventure had come to a disastrous end.

Chapter 15
    Joe had no idea how long he lay there, the darkness closing in, the snow falling steadily. He was terrified that his tracks would be wiped out completely and that there would be no trace left of his last movements. He drifted in and out of consciousness, the pain eating away at his resolve to stay awake and the cold beginning to gnaw at both legs.
    There had been no further sound from the animal in the basement. Joe wondered if it was still there, or whether it had managed to find a way out. When he heard a dog barking not too far away, he was convinced that the animal had made its escape from somewhere at the front of the building.
    Joe thought about Foggy and wondered if he was still safely tucked up at Waggy Tails. He wanted to be with him now, lying alongside him, Foggy keeping him warm, licking his hand to keep him