The Healer Read Online Free Page B

great arc, its head weaving up and down and the beak going like a pair of castanets.
    "Move, you stupid fool!" said the boy and made a motion as if to push the bird toward the door. Suddenly one of the owl's long legs shot out like an extended lazy tongs. So swift was the motion and so great was the reach that Billy was utterly unprepared for it. The owl seized him by the hand, plunged its inch long talons into him with a force so terrible that his whole arm went numb. Billy screamed with fear and pain.
    He tried to tear himself loose but the owl clung to him with one leg and to the bar with the other. The grip was so powerful that Billy sank down on his knees, sobbing with agony, holding the owl's leg with his other hand and trying to pull it loose. Outside he heard Wasser barking frantically. "Wasser, help me!" he shouted, straining at the bird's great rear talon that had gone nearly through his hand. Clicking and hissing, the owl spread its wings so they filled the narrow shed from side to side. Regardless of the pain, Billy tore the bird free from the bar while the owl thrashed about with his broad pinions, striking at him with the other foot which was now free for action.
    Then Abe Zook was there. He had a lantern in his hand and he moved nearly as quickly as had the owl. Setting down the lantern, he put his heavy boot on the owl's free foot, holding it to the dirt floor. With both hands he tried to loose the deadly grasp of the other foot but he could not move the back talon. The bird seemed clamped onto the boy for good, its foot locked into place like a bulldog's jaws. Zook managed to work the forefinger of his right hand under the curve of the talon where it entered the flesh, and with his left hand pulled loose the shorter "finger" talons, which were not nearly so powerful. Then, bracing himself, he pried the owl's foot open, using the full strength of his shoulder muscles. Slowly, the rear talon was pulled out of the bloody flesh and Billy rolled away, moaning and sobbing.
    "Get out of here!" Zook snapped and Billy crawled through the open door, holding the wrist of his injured hand, half hysterical with the shock of the encounter. As soon as he was out, Zook released the bird, which lay on its back, wings spread and legs bent up against its breast, ready to strike again. The old man picked up the lantern and followed the boy, securing the door after him.
    Wasser was anxiously jumping on Billy, puzzled but wishing to be helpful. "Get away from me!" Billy gasped, and pushing the hound away, ran for the house. A kerosene lamp was burning on the table and by its light, he examined his hand. The "finger talons" had left some ugly gouges in his flesh but they were nothing to the mark in the back of his hand where the great rear talon had gone in. The hole looked as though it had been made by a tenpenny nail, yet there was little blood. Billy sucked at the hole and managed to draw a few drops. Then Zook came in. He blew out the lantern and walked over to the boy.
    "Better to let me see," he said. Billy held out the hand. Holding the boy's wrist with his cracked, thin fingers, Zook turned it to the light.
    "It hurts," said Billy unnecessarily.
    "It will hurt more when the feeling comes back to your hand," said Zook grimly. He walked along under one of the beams and took down one of the herbs. "Soldier's herb, so you must a wounded soldier be," he said more cheerfully.
    "Will it hurt?"
    "No, no, it will take away the pain a little. It is only lance leaf." He made a poultice of the leaves and bound them in place with a strip of cloth he tore from an old shirt. "Now I will make you some medicine so you will sleep."
    Billy looked at his hand. It was swelling alarmingly. Blood was seeping from under the poultice. He watched Abe Zook take a tightly packed, gummy substance from a small jar and mix it with honey. Zook held out a spoonful of the mixture and said, "Eat!"
    Billy ate. His hand and whole arm throbbed so agonizingly