The Strange Message in the Parchment Read Online Free Page A

you came up,” Eezy said. “Next time I’ll be wide awake, I promise.”
    The girls looked at each other, then Junie said, “Eezy, you were not just asleep. You were unconscious. What happened to you?”
    The shepherd hung his head. “I see I can’t keep anythin’ from you. Well, two men came up here to see me. We didn’t quite hit it off. They got mad and knocked me out. Never gave me a chance to fight back.”
    Nancy explained that she and Junie had seen two men running very fast down the hill with Rover after them.
    “But,” Junie added, “before we got close enough to identify them and see their license plate, they sped away in a car.”
    “That’s just as well,” Eezy said. “They’re tough, bad people. Take my word for it. And don’t get involved with ’em.”
    Junie begged the elderly shepherd to tell them why the men had been there. Eezy shook his head. “I’m not goin’ to say anything more about ’em ’cept that they wanted me to do somethin’ I don’t approve of. We had just better let it go at that.”
    By now Eezy seemed to have recovered his strength, and he walked back with the girls to his cabin. “May I invite you lovely ladies to join me in a glass of cool lemonade?” he asked. “This is the time of day I like to wet my whistle.”
    Nancy and Junie accepted and followed the shepherd inside. The place was immaculate and attractively decorated with furniture Eezy had made. He was pleased that the girls were interested in his handicraft.
    He did not refer to the unfortunate incident, except to say that he was mighty thankful to Rover for having run the men off the premises.
    Nancy asked, “Where was Rover when the men were here?”
    “I think he was off chasin’ a wild dog, maybe. I heard another dog bark.”
    “I have something for you in the jeep,” Junie said. “My father asked me yesterday to bring you a walkie-talkie. If you have any more unwanted visitors here, just call the farmhouse and reinforcements will come at once to help you.”
    “That’s very kind of you,” Eezy said. “I hope I won’t have to use it.”
    As the girls walked to the car to get the instrument, Junie said, “It’s too bad Eezy didn’t have the walkie-talkie sooner.”
    “I wonder if he would have had a chance to use it,” Nancy said. “Obviously he talked to the men first, but didn’t realize they would beat him up.”
    Junie nodded. “Now that he knows, he can call if he sees them in the distance.”
    When the girls returned to the cabin, Junie showed the shepherd how to use the walkie-talkie.
    Eezy’s eyes twinkled. “I can call you now and ask you to come up and keep me company!”
    “You do that,” Junie said, then the girls bid him good-by. On the way home they discussed the incident.
    “Have you any idea what the men could have wanted that Eezy didn’t approve of?” Nancy asked.
    “Not the slightest,” her friend replied. “Of course, I suspect that they might have been trying to bribe him into helping them rustle sheep. But then it might have been something more personal that Eezy didn’t want to talk about.”
    Nancy asked if there was much sheep rustling in the rest of the neighborhood.
    “No,” Junie replied. “There are only a few sheep farms around here besides Dad’s. More than likely, since they had only a car with them and planned to steal sheep, they would have taken only one or two for food.”
    “Then it’s more of a puzzle than ever what they wanted Eezy to do that he wouldn’t, and his refusal made them so mad they knocked him out.”
    Junie suggested that perhaps her father might have some ideas on the subject, so after dinner that evening she asked him. He thought for some time and wrinkled his brow. “I don’t like this. There are so many miles of unguarded fields in this area that all kinds of things could happen. The attack on Eezy bothers me. It’s too bad you didn’t get a better glimpse of those men.”
    Nancy said they were of medium