Mary Pope Osborne - Magic Tree House 46 (6 page)

“Nothing’s wrong with him, Jack,” said Annie. “He just likes you!”

“Well, tell him
not
to like me so much,” said Jack.

“Come on, Jack. Be positive,” Annie said.

“No. I’m done with training,” said Jack. “You
can do it by yourself. I’m going inside to read about flora and fauna in our research book.”

“But it’s easier with two of us,” said Annie. “Just one more command? Please?”

Annie looked hopefully at Jack. Barry looked at Jack, too. His tail had stopped wagging.

“Oh, okay,” said Jack, sighing. “One more command.”

“Yay, thanks!” said Annie.

Barry barked and wagged his tail.

“Let’s try the
stay
command,” said Annie. “We’ll teach Barry to go down on all fours and stay—like all the dogs in the dining hall this morning.”

“He’ll never be that calm,” said Jack.

Annie handed him the leash. “Here. Now try to gently pull Barry’s head down while I press between his shoulder blades. See, I memorized all this stuff. Okay, Jack?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jack said. He knelt in front of Barry and gently pulled down on the leash.

Annie pushed Barry’s shoulders with the palms of her hands. Barry didn’t move. “I can’t find his shoulder blades,” said Annie. “Try this, Jack. Pull on his front legs. Pull them out in front of him.”

Jack grabbed Barry’s forelegs and pulled. Barry jumped up and put his paws on Jack’s shoulders again, knocking him into the snow for the third time. Then the giant dog flopped onto Jack’s chest, pinning him to the ground.

“Get off!” gasped Jack. “I can’t breathe!” But Barry’s brown eyes just stared happily at Jack. His cold, wet nose sniffed Jack’s face. “Get-off-me-now-please!” commanded Jack.

Annie laughed. “You really love Jack, don’t you, Barry?” she said.

Barry answered,
YES!
with a big sneeze right in Jack’s face. Then he bounded to his feet.

“Eww, Jack!” said Annie, laughing.

“Gross!” cried Jack, wiping his face with the rough sleeve of his robe. “Okay, that’s it.” He scrambled to his feet. “I’m done. I’m
so
done with this. See you guys inside.”

“Wait, we’ll go with you,” said Annie. “Come on, Barry. We’ll do more training later. But you did a really great job! What a good dog!”

“Oh, brother,” said Jack.

Barry sneezed again and gave his body a shake. Annie held the door, and the big dog trotted into the monastery, his head held high.

J
ack and Annie followed Barry inside. In the dining hall, Barry bounded over to one of the large dog bowls and slurped water. He splashed more outside of the bowl than he actually drank. When he finished, he galumphed toward Jack, water and drool flying out of his mouth.

“Stay away from me!” said Jack, pushing Barry away. “Annie, I’m going to go read now.”

Jack hurried out of the dining hall and headed down the hallway toward their room. But Annie
and Barry dashed ahead of him. The dog’s playful barks echoed through the monastery, making it seem full of life, despite its emptiness.

As soon as they entered their bedroom, Jack closed the door and grabbed their book. Barry jumped onto Annie’s bed. As Jack started to read about flora and fauna in the Alps, Barry yelped. He leapt up and barked at the door.

“What now?” said Jack.

“Someone’s ringing the bell!” said Annie. “The bell at the front door. Hear it?”

Jack could barely hear the bell clanging over Barry’s barking.

“We’d better go answer it,” said Annie. “No one else is here. Come on, Barry.”

“No, wait,” said Jack. “I’ll go with you. Barry should stay here, so he doesn’t jump all over whoever’s there.”

“Okay, wait here, Barry,” said Annie.

Jack left the book on his bed, and he and Annie hurried out of the room. Before Barry could
follow them, Jack closed the door tightly. The dog howled.

“Don’t cry! We’ll be back soon!” shouted Annie. Then she and Jack hurried down the torchlit hallway to the front entrance.

The bell kept clanging.

Annie opened the heavy wooden door, and she and Jack peered out.

Two men in military uniforms stood on the steps of the monastery. One had a black mustache, and the other had bushy sideburns. Both wore blue and white coats with red cuffs and red collars. White pants were tucked into their riding boots. Swords hung from their sides.

Jack was startled. The soldiers looked as if they’d stepped out of a time long ago.

“Good afternoon. We think one of our officers may be here,” said the soldier with the mustache.

“Um, I’m afraid your officer isn’t here,” said Annie. “No one’s here but us. All the monks have left to help the French army.”

“We are an advance party, and our officer got separated from us,” said the second soldier. “Consul Napoléon hoped he had made his way here on his own.”

“Napoléon?” asked Jack.

“First Consul Napoléon Bonaparte,” the soldier said.

Oh, man,
thought Jack.
Napoléon Bonaparte was a famous military leader of France!

“When our officer arrives, please tell him to wait for us,” said the man with the mustache. “We will return later.” The two soldiers turned and walked away from the monastery.

Jack whirled around to Annie. “Did you hear the name of their leader? Napoléon Bonaparte! He lived two hundred years ago! Let’s go look in our book! Maybe it has information about Napoléon crossing the Alps!”

Jack and Annie hurried down the torchlit hallway to their room. “Oh, wow,” Jack said, pointing at one of the torches. “I should have figured
out we weren’t in
our
time! We don’t use torches and lanterns for lighting anymore.”

“Well, you’ve had a lot on your mind,” said Annie.

“Monks seem timeless,” Jack went on. “But as soon as you see a soldier, you can start to figure out the time in history. I can’t wait to read about this in our book. Maybe there will be a clue to help us with our mission.”

Jack ran the rest of the way to their room. He opened the door and stopped. “Oh, no,” he said. “I … don’t … believe … it.”

Annie caught up to Jack and peered into the room. “Oh, Barry,” she said.

Barry was sitting on the floor, wagging his tail. Paper was hanging from his mouth.

“He
ate
our Alps book,” said Jack, stunned. “He
ate
it!”

All around the room were bits and pieces of paper. Jack started collecting the pieces, but it was hopeless. Most of the book was in Barry’s
stomach. “I really don’t believe this,” said Jack.

“Bad dog, Barry!” yelled Annie.

Barry stopped wagging his tail. He lowered his head.

“Bad,” said Annie sternly. “Bad, bad, bad!”

Barry kept his head low and wiggled his way toward the door. Then he stood up, and with his tail drooping, he slunk out of the room.

Jack flopped down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. “There’s no hope now,” he said. “We’ll never read about flora and fauna in the Alps or about Napoléon or anything. I feel like we’ll never figure out this mission or save Penny.”

Annie sat next to him. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“It’s not your fault,” said Jack.

“Well, I shouldn’t have offered to train Barry,” said Annie. “We should have studied the book when you wanted to.”

Jack shook his head. “Whatever,” he said. “I just don’t know what to do next. We can’t go home yet. We can’t give up. We have to save Penny.”

“I know, I know,” said Annie. “Maybe we should just go outside and walk around. Get some fresh air. Want to?”

“I guess,” said Jack. He picked up his bag and sighed. “Maybe if we just walk around, we’ll think of something.”

“Let’s find Barry first,” said Annie.

“Why?” said Jack. “So he can ‘help’ us some more?”

“No, I just want to make sure he’s okay,” said Annie. “I feel kind of bad for yelling.”

Jack and Annie headed out of the room and down the hall.

“Barry!” Annie called.

There was no sign of him.

“I wonder where he went,” Annie said. “Barry!”

“When he comes, just don’t tell him he’s a good dog,” said Jack.

They passed the dining hall and looked inside. “Barry?” Annie called. But the room was empty.

Jack and Annie kept walking, until they got to the parlor. “Barry?” Annie called, peering in. But that room was empty, too.

Jack felt a cold wind blowing. It grew colder as he and Annie kept walking down the hallway, heading for the front door.

“Barry!” Annie called.

The whole monastery felt quiet and empty and cold. Jack and
Annie were both shivering by the time they reached the front hall.

“I wonder where—
Oh, no!
” said Annie. “Look!” She pointed to the front door. It was open. “We must not have closed the door hard enough and the wind blew it open! Barry must have gotten out!”

Annie rushed outside. “Barry! Barry!”

“Oh, man,” said Jack. He hurried out into the cold, too. “Barry! Barry!”

The only sound they heard was the wind whistling over the pass. The only sight was snow flying through the air.

“He’s run away!” wailed Annie. “I know it!”

“Barry!” Jack called.

“He’ll get lost!” said Annie. “Brother Michael said he should never run loose—he’ll get lost and never find his way home!”

“He couldn’t have gone far,” said Jack. “Don’t panic. We’ll find him.”

Jack and Annie began wandering through the cold, shouting, “Barry! Barry!”

Gusts of wind blew over the pass, swirling the snow around them.

“Barry! Barry!” they called.

Jack kept expecting to see the big dog bounding through the white powder. How could he just disappear?

“I don’t know what to do,” Annie said, hugging herself. They both stopped walking. They were shivering in their robes, and their teeth chattered.

“Maybe we should go back and look through the monastery again,” said Jack.

“No, I know he’s not there!” said Annie. “I can feel it! He’s lost somewhere, I’m sure of it!” Tears filled her eyes. “I really hurt his feelings when I said
bad, bad, bad
. He didn’t know our book was so important. He thought he was a good dog. I kept telling him he was a good dog. But really he wasn’t a very good dog, Jack. He was just a funny, happy dog! I should have closed the door all the way!” Tears ran down Annie’s red cheeks. “I feel terrible.”

“Hey, hey, it wasn’t
your
fault,” said Jack. “I
feel terrible, too.
I
could have closed the door. But don’t worry. When the others come back, the dogs can help us find him.”

“That’s a long time from now,” said Annie, still crying. “It’ll be really dark.”

“I know,” said Jack. He put his hand on Annie’s back and spoke gently. “But the Saints can find him in the dark, like they found us. If they can smell people really far away, they can smell a big dog like Barry.”

“I wish
we
could smell him right now,” said Annie. “I wish we were dogs. Then we could find him.” She covered her face and sobbed.

“You wish we were dogs?” said Jack.

“Yes,” said Annie, sniffling, “so we could find him.”

“Well …” Jack took a deep breath. “Okay. I think I know what we can do,” he said.

“What? What can we do?” asked Annie, wiping her face.

“
This
is what we can do,” said Jack. He reached
into his bag and pulled out the tiny bottle from Teddy and Kathleen.

Annie stared at Jack. “Oh, wow!” she breathed.

“We can use
this
to turn into dogs and find Barry,” said Jack.

“Jack! That’s the best idea you’ve ever had!” said Annie.

Jack smiled. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do,” he said. “We’ll each take a sip. Then together, we’ll say: ‘
Turn us into Saint Bernard dogs!
’ ”

“And we’ll turn into dogs for an hour!” said Annie.

“Dogs for an hour,” said Jack. He took another deep breath. Then he pulled the cork out of the bottle.