The Healer by Daniel P. Mannix Page B

staying together; separated, they could cover twice as much ground. Billy had walked until he could walk no more and called until he was tired of his own voice. He had covered all the woods; Dracula must have left that section, and there was no possible way of telling where he might have gone.
    Standing at the edge of the woods looking over the valley, Billy saw a small grove of trees on a distant rise. If Dracula had left the ridge and flown across the valley, there was a chance he had gone to the grove. Billy decided to make one last attempt and then give up.
    As he started across the valley, he heard a sound that sent his hopes leaping up like fire. Crows were screaming to his left. He listened a moment to make sure they were not simply calling to each other. No, they were ganging something and that something might well be Dracula.
    As fast as he could go, Billy hurried toward the sound. Now he could see the crows, wheeling and plunging over a tall ash. Knowing the birds would fly off as he came closer, Billy hesitated to be sure of marking the spot exactly. Then he went slowly toward it. It might be a hawk or even a stray cat. He tried not to feel too eager.
    He was almost under the tree when the flock saw him and, still giving their angry cries, shredded away. His heart beating so fiercely he could feel it, Billy came closer. There was Dracula sitting on a high limb, his feathers puffed out and looking supremely content with himself.
    Billy called and showed his piece of meat. Dracula, after one glance, completely ignored him. Billy made a hole in the meat, put his belt through it, and tied the loose end to a root so if the owl did come down to it he could not fly off with the lure. Then he went off and hid. He waited and waited but Dracula seemed to have gone asleep.
    After a long time, he heard Abe Zook calling for him, and he shouted back. Dracula heard the hail and turned his head to look. Then Billy saw the braucher coming toward them. As Zook stamped through a bramble patch, a rabbit darted out, a brown shadow over the white snow. Dracula saw the rabbit too. His head began to bob as he focused on the scudding shape. He was not hungry, but he could not resist the live lure. Suddenly he slipped out of the tree and, quiet as a giant moth, drifted through the trees. He was hardly using his wings at all, dodging between the trunks by steering with his tail, letting the momentum of his fall carry him. Then the wing beat increased and the owl shot forward. Quiet as a shadow but swift as an arrow he swept, over the rabbit, but instead of going straight in to his quarry, at the last second he rose, brought his wings up over his body so the tips almost touched, and plummeted straight down. Billy heard the agonizing death scream of the rabbit as the talons locked home, and then the kill was made.
    "Slow! Slow and on your belly!" shouted Abe Zook as Billy rushed forward. The boy stopped himself just in time. If frightened, Dracula could easily fly off with the rabbit and be lost for good. Talking quietly, the boy came in. Dracula had been concentrating on his kill. Now he looked up, his wings spread to shield his capture and his beak going angrily. Billy showed him the meat. "Here, Dracula, here, boy. Meat!" he said softly. There was not a chance of the owl's being interested in cold mutton when he had a freshly killed rabbit in his foot, but it was important for the owl to feel that Billy was only trying to feed him. Dracula partly closed his wings and his beak stopped chattering. Lying down on the snow, Billy wormed himself in. Again the wings opened, then Dracula turned his head. He bent his legs preparatory to taking off.
    Billy could see one of the leg straps lying on the snow. It was a terrible decision. If he made a grab for it and missed, the frightened bird would be gone for good. If he waited, the owl might take off anyhow. Dracula was weaving up and down, his yellow eyes searching for a good spot to fly to. Billy