“You are not Anna!” cried Hans.
Konrad caught the woman as she tugged at the door of her car. “Where is my cousin?” he said. He sounded as if he might strike her. “Where is Anna?”
The woman cringed back against the car.
“There’s a cabin up near the meadow, isn’t there?” said Jupe. “Is she there?”
The woman nodded.
Konrad released her, and a second later he and Hans and The Three Investigators were racing up the slope toward the high country.
15
The Monster
Smoke was thick on the upper meadow when the boys reached it. Jupiter felt that his lungs would burst. He dropped to his knees in the long grass and turned his face away from the hot wind that swept across the mountainside. Ahead of him and to the right, a cougar stalked from the trees, stood for a second as if tasting the scorched air, then ran to the west, to the barren cliffs beyond the trees.
Konrad tugged at Jupe’s elbow. “Get up. Quick. Show us where is Anna.”
Jupiter stumbled up. Pete was already running across the meadow, making straight for the woods on the far side. Bob ran after, trying valiantly to keep up with Pete. Running with the two boys were animals. Jupe saw that the entire meadow was alive with large and small creatures, all fleeing wildly from the threat of the fire.
“Hurry!” urged Konrad. Hans was ahead of them, following Pete and Bob.
Jupe nodded and forced his trembling legs to carry him across the meadow.
It seemed to Jupe that his legs were made of lead, that he was struggling as if trying to run through deep water. He saw Pete and Bob ahead of him, waiting at the edge of the trees. He stumbled and Konrad grabbed his arm.
“Where?” demanded Konrad.
Jupe pointed to a place where an outcropping of white stone thrust through the grass. “I saw Havemeyer go that way.”
A faint scream came to them then, a high, wordless wail of terror, and they heard a distant pounding, as if someone were hammering at a door with clenched fists.
“Anna!” cried Konrad.
A skunk darted across Pete’s feet and disappeared among the trees.
The scream came again, louder.
“We are here, Anna!” shouted Hans.
The Three Investigators and the Bavarian brothers charged in through the trees in the direction of the screams and pounding. Pete coughed harshly, and Jupe felt that he was strangling in the dim, smoky air.
“Anna?” shouted Hans. “Where are you, Anna?”
“I am here! Who is it? Let me out!”
The Bavarian brothers raced toward the cry, passing Pete and Bob. They crashed through the woods, breaking branches, nailing with their arms. The boys stumbled after them. Suddenly, in a little gully, there was a cabin.
It was a rude affair of planks covered with tar paper, barely six feet square, with a tiny window high up near the roof. In several places the tar paper had peeled away, but on the crude door was a shiny hasp and a bright, new padlock. When the boys tumbled down the incline into the gully, Hans was heaving at the door with his shoulder.
The door didn’t give an inch.
“That is more solid than it looks,” said Konrad. “Don’t worry. Cousin Anna,” he called. “We will get a rock and break the lock.”
“There’s a fire.” The woman’s voice inside the cabin was rough with fear. “I smell a fire. Where is it?”
“Below, near the camping place.” Konrad had found a stone and was weighing it in his hands. “We still have time. We will get you out”
The woman was silent for a second, then said, “Who is there? Is it… is it Hans? Konrad?”
Konrad grinned and broke into a spatter of German, then began to pound at the padlock with the rock.
The wind gusted and blew the smoke thickly around them.
“Hurry!” said Hans.
Konrad nodded, and he raised the rock to give the padlock a mighty blow. And then a scream sounded behind him.
Hans, Konrad, and The Three Investigators whirled around. Above them, glaring down into the gully and beating at the stinging, acrid air, stood a gigantic humanoid figure. Jupe saw eyes glinting red, and he glimpsed teeth when the hairy creature threw back its head and howled with sheer animal terror.
“The monster!” Bob gulped and turned white.
“What is that?” cried the woman in the cabin. “What do I hear?”
“Shhh!” cautioned Jupe.
“Be quiet, Anna,” whispered Hans.
But the creature had heard. Anna’s cry had reached it through the panic. It lowered it’s huge head and brushed at the tangle of matted hair that hung almost to its eyes, and it stared through the smoke at Konrad.
Konrad stood frozen with his back to the door, the rock in his hand.
There was a low snarl from the being which had come upon them. The big head lunged forward, and then the beast was rushing at Konrad.
“Watch it!” Pete jumped to one side. The creature charged past, making straight for Konrad as if he had somehow caused the trouble and filled the air with smoke.
Konrad shouted and dived away from the door. The enormous creature crashed on, carried forward by the momentum of its charge. It struck the door, which collapsed inward with a terrible splintering sound. The great beast fell into the cabin on top of it.
And Anna screamed. She screamed as Jupe had never heard a person scream — keen, throat-tearing shrieks of pure terror. And mingled with Anna’s screams were the wails of the strange being which had crashed into the cabin.
“Anna!” Konrad scrambled up from the ground, where he had fallen when he dodged the beast.
Hans took two steps toward the cabin, fearful, yet unable to ignore those agonized shrieks. “Anna! It will hurt Anna!”
“Not if we use our heads,” said a brisk, snappish voice. Mr. Smathers trotted out of the trees at the bottom of the gully, looking fearfully grimy. His eyes were watering even more than usual.
“Don’t move,” he ordered. “Everyone stay right where they are and leave this to me.” With that, he scooted past The Three Investigators and the astonished Hans and Konrad, and disappeared into the cabin.
16
Mr. Smathers to the Rescue
Mr. Smathers had barely entered the cabin when the terrible wailing ceased.
“There, there,” the boys heard Smathers say. “I know it’s bad, but you’ll be all right.”
Something growled.
“I know, I know,” said Smathers. “But stay with me and you’ll be safe.”
The growling changed to a sound that was softer — almost a whimper.
“Come along, now,” coaxed Mr. Smathers. “Look how you’ve frightened the lady. Aren’t you ashamed?”
The Three Investigators looked at each other and wondered if they were dreaming.
Smathers appeared in the door of the cabin. Close behind him was the huge creature — a hulking, horrifying shape that looked half-human, half-animal. It trailed after Smathers as meekly as a well-trained dog might follow his master.
“We are going to the high country above the timberline,” Smathers informed the astounded spectators. “We’ll be safe there. Someone had better see to the woman. She is not in good shape.”
Smathers and his strange charge went off then, climbing rapidly through the trees. Soon they were lost in smoke.
“Anna?” Hans kicked aside bits of the splintered door and went into the cabin.
Konrad and The Three Investigators crowded in after him.
Anna Schmid was crouched against the far wall of the cabin. The little place was quite dark, but the boys could see that despite her disheveled clothing and tangled hair, she looked almost exactly like their hostess at the inn.
“Hans?” she said. “Konrad? Is it really you?”
“We have come to take you out, Anna.” Hans knelt beside her. “We must be quick. Can you stand?”