Read Online 12 Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV by Alfred Hitchcock (ed) - Free Book Online

kept twitching and jumping and panting in his sleep until-well, really, Charles, it was quite impossible. Like trying to draw an aspen in a high wind!"
        "That's too bad. I guess you'll have to find another subject."
        For a moment my aunt did not answer. Looking at her, I thought I caught the glint of tears in her eyes.
        "Yes," she replied slowly, "I guess I will… I think, Charles,
        I'll go into town this afternoon and buy a few little things for Teddy."
        For a moment something cold slid up and down my spine. Then it was gone, and I was thinking it was nice of the old girl, considering how much store she set by her drawing, not to be annoyed at the little dog…
        She came up to my room just before dinner and showed me what she'd bought for Teddy. There was a bright red collar with a little bell, a chocolate-flavored rubber bone, and a box of some weird confection called "Dog Treet," which, according to the label, was a wholesome sweetmeat for pets.
        She put the collar on Teddy while I watched and then gave him two of the dark brown lozenges out of the "Dog Treet" box. He ate them with a flurry of little growls, and seemed to relish them…
        
***
        
        Sunday morning I sat around, nursing the old bones until my watch told me it was time to get going if I didn't want to be late for the all-day hike Drake and I had planned with the girls.
        We had a fine time in the country. Drake wandered into a thicket of poison oak, and Virginia, giggling, dropped a woolly caterpillar down my neck.
        
***
        
        It was quite dark when I returned to the house. Even before I got inside I noticed that all the lights were on and that there was a general air of confusion.
        When I opened the door I found Aunt Muriel standing in the hallway, having what looked like a fit. Amy was standing before her waving a bottle of smelling salts.
        "It's Teddy!" my aunt gasped when she saw me. "Oh, Charles, he's-"
        I put my arm around her comfortingly, and my aunt dissolved into tears. They began to trickle over the coating of talcum powder on her cheeks and drop on the high net collar around her neck.
        "It's Teddy," she whimpered. "Oh, Charles, he's dead!"
        I'd been expecting it subconsciously, but all the same I jumped.
        "What happened?" I asked.
        "I let him out in the yard for a little run about three hours ago. He was gone a long time, and at last I went out to look for him. I called and called and finally I found him out under the rhododendron. He was awfully sick. So I came right in and called the doctor, but when he got here, poor little Teddy-was-was gone. Somebody must have poisoned him." She began to cry again.
        I stroked my aunt's shoulder and murmured reassuring words while my mind was busy. Some one of the neighbors? Teddy had been a quiet little beast, but he did bark once in a while, and some people just don't like dogs.
        "Dr. Jones was ever so nice and sympathetic about it. He took poor little Teddy away in a bag. He's going to take him to a man he knows and have him stuffed."
        Stuffed? I felt sweat break out along my shoulder blades and under my arms. Mechanically I pulled the handkerchief out of my hip pocket and handed it to my aunt.
        She took it and began to blot her eyes. "It's such a comfort to me, anyway," she said, blowing her nose, "to think that he did-enjoy his -last day-on earth."
        I took her up to her room and mixed her a bromide. I stood over her while she drank and talked to her soothingly and patted her hand. After a while I got her calm enough so I could go to my room.
        I lay down on the bed and stared up at the spots on the ceiling for a while. My heart was beating hard and quick. Pretty soon I reached in my coat pocket for cigarettes and began to smoke.
        I emptied the pack while I lay there, looking at the ceiling,