The Healer by Daniel P. Mannix Read Free Book Online Page A

and so goes to find out what the new scent is. Some trappers use glands of the African civet cat, musk ox, and the Lord only knows what. I used a perfume called One Night in Paris, but it is hard to get now. It was very good perfume, cost a dollar a pint. Maybe girls stopped using it because the foxes chased them."
    Gazing at the set, Billy wondered if many years from now, when he was a grown man, he would look back and see himself as a boy standing on this hill. He wondered if he would be able to remember how the barn looked, and the field and the set. And would he know then if Abe Zook had caught the fox?
    "Why do you have those chains with the thing like an anchor on them on the traps?"
    "You mean the drags?"
    "I suppose that's what they're called. I should think it would be better to tie the traps to a stake so the fox can't run off with them?"
    "I'll tell you about that. This farmer wants me to trap the foxes to save his chickens, and I am to get the skins to sell. But if he finds a fox caught here, he will be tempted to take the skin for himself and say the fox got away. I think it is wrong to put temptation in anyone's way, so now when the fox is caught, he will run with the trap, but sooner or later the drag will catch in the bushes and hold him there. Then we can come with Wasser and track him. The farmer does not have a tracking dog, so he cannot tell where the fox has gone."
    The whole business seemed indescribably cruel to the boy, yet he wondered how he would feel if a fox were taking his chickens.
    Someone was hailing them and Billy saw a man in work clothes coming from the barn. They went to meet him. He was a heavy-set man, clean-shaven, and looked at Billy curiously.
    "You seen Ike Yoder yet?" he asked Abe Zook.
    "Today not."
    "He's looking for you. Them wild dogs, or whatever they is, killed three of his sheep last night."
    Billy saw Abe Zook stiffen. The boy thought,
the werewolffen. I'm sure lucky they didn't kill me
.
    "He seen 'em. He says one is a funny looking dog gone wild, but he swears the other is a wolf. Can you trap 'em?"
    Abe Zook shook his head. "The dog maybe, but the other is too smart. I have tried, but he will not come to a trap. He is not like a fox. I knew they were about. Last night I heard them but they were afraid of Wasser."
    "Ike thinks he can run 'em down with dogs."
    Abe Zook considered. "It is possible, maybe. Tonight they could come to the dead sheep to feed, if Ike leaves the sheep where they were killed."
    "Maybe Ike can sit up over them with a gun."
    "That is no good. He can hide himself, but his scent he cannot hide. I tell you this wolf is not a fox; he is a smart one. Better let them eat the sheep, and when it makes dawn we come with the dogs. Then they will be heavy with food and cannot run good."
    "Well, you can talk to Ike about it. He'll be over to your place after dark."
    They hurried back toward the cabin, Billy wild with excitement. Conservationist though he was, the prospect of a wolf hunt was too romantic to be resisted. "Is Wasser going too?" he asked and was delighted when Abe Zook assured him that Wasser would be a very important member of the hunt. "He knows the scent of those werewolffen well. Maybe the other dogs are not sure of it and will want to go off on a fox or deer, but Wasser will not change."
    One matter puzzled Billy, yet he was afraid to mention it. Finally he blurted out, "You call them werewolffen and say you have to keep them off with wolfsbane, but then you say you can run them down with dogs. If they're really werewolffen, how can you do that?"
    Abe Zook did not answer at once and went on with such long strides that Billy had to run to keep up with him. After a time he said, "Because an animal is a werewolf is not to say that he cannot be killed. It means there is a power in him that other animals are not having. I am a braucher because there is a power in me to heal by the laying on of hands that other men are lacking, yet I can be killed or