After the meeting Pollyanna didn’t go home but turned instead toward Pendleton Hill. It was a “vacation day” (the day when there was no sewing or cooking lesson), and Pollyanna was sure that nothing would do her quite so much good as a walk through the green quiet of Pendleton Woods.

It was very beautiful in the Pendleton Woods, as Pollyanna knew by experience.

Suddenly Pollyanna lifted her head and listened. A dog had barked some distance ahead. A moment later she saw the dog.

“Hullo, doggie!” Pollyanna recognized Mr. Pendleton’s dog.

The dog, as Pollyanna could see, was acting strangely. He was still barking and running back and forth. Pollyanna followed the dog.

“Ho! That isn’t the way home,” laughed Pollyanna.

The little dog seemed frantic now. Back and forth, back and forth, and then it ran to the side path. Polyanna followed it again. And soon Pollyanna saw a man lying motionless at the rock a few yards from the side path.

A twig cracked sharply under Pollyanna’s foot, and the man turned his head. Pollyanna ran to his side.

“Mr. Pendleton! Oh, are you hurt?”

“Hurt? Oh, no! I’m just taking a siesta in the sunshine,” snapped the man irritably. “See here, how much do you know? What can you do? Have you got any sense?”

Pollyanna answered the questions literally, one by one.

“Why, Mr. Pendleton, I–I don’t know so very much, and I can’t do a great many things; but most of the Ladies’ Aiders said I had real good sense.

The man smiled grimly.

“There, there, child, I beg your pardon. Now listen.” He paused, and with some difficulty reached his hand into his trousers pocket and brought out a key. “About five minutes’ walk, is my house. This key will admit you to the side door. When you get into the house, go straight through the vestibule and hall to the door at the end. On the big desk in the middle of the room you’ll find a telephone. Do you know how to use a telephone?”

“Oh, yes, sir!”

“Find Dr. Thomas Chilton’s number on the card you’ll find somewhere around there. Call Dr. Chilton and tell him that John Pendleton is at the foot of Little Eagle Ledge in Pendleton Woods with a broken leg, and to come at once with a stretcher and two men. He’ll know what to do.”

Pollyanna did not stop until she reached the house. When she opened the door she caught her breath. This was John Pendleton’s house; the house of mystery.

The room was large, and there was a big desk in the middle of the room. It was toward this desk that Pollyanna hurriedly tiptoed.

Pollyanna found the telephone card and called Dr. Chilton. She delivered her message and answered the doctor’s pertinent questions. After that she hung up the receiver and drew a long breath of relief.

In what seemed, even to the injured man, an incredibly short time, Pollyanna was back in the woods.

“Well, what is the trouble? Couldn’t you get in?” he demanded.

Pollyanna opened wide her eyes.

“Why, of course I could! I’m HERE,” she answered, “and the doctor will be here as soon as possible with the men and things. He said he knew just where you were, so I didn’t stay to show him the way. I wanted to be with you.”

The man smiled grimly. “Well, I can’t say I admire your taste. I think you could find pleasanter companions.”

“Do you mean – because you’re so – cross?”

“Thanks for your frankness. Yes.”

Pollyanna laughed softly.

“But you’re only cross OUTSIDE – you aren’t cross inside!”

“How do you know that?” asked the man.

“Oh, lots of ways; there – like that – the way you act with the dog,” she added, pointing to his hand that rested on the dog’s head near him. “It’s funny how dogs and cats know the insides of folks better than other folks do, isn’t it? Now I’m going to hold your head,” she finished abruptly.

He did not speak again for some time. Pollyanna, watching his face, wondered if he were asleep. She did not think he was. He looked as if his lips were tight shut to keep back moans of pain.

Minute by minute the time passed.

At last the dog gave a short, sharp bark. The next moment Pollyanna heard voices, and very soon their owners appeared three men carrying a stretcher and various other articles.

Dr. Chilton advanced cheerily.

“Well, my little lady, playing nurse?”

“Oh, no, sir,” smiled Pollyanna. “I just held his head. But I’m glad I was here.”

“So am I,” nodded the doctor and turned his attention to the injured man.