"You seen your dad?"
"Yes."
"I mean, since we took him away last night?"
"Yes."
"Did he come back here?"
"That's right."
"What time?"
Ted hesitated. He'd had his eyes fixed on the clock, but seconds and
split seconds counted, too.
"I don't know the _exact_ time."
"Better tell the truth," Corporal Hausler warned bluntly. "It can go
hard with you if you don't. Where's your father now?"
"I don't know."
"Maybe a couple of slaps will jar your memory!"
He took a step forward. Tammie, rippling in, placed himself in front of
Ted. There was no growl in his throat or snarl on his lips, but his eyes
were grim and his manner threatening. Hausler stopped.
"I don't think you'd better let him bite me."
Loring Blade said quietly, "Cut it out, Paul. There's enough trouble in
this family without adding unnecessarily to it. Ted didn't do anything."
"He can tell us where his father is."
"I cannot!" Ted flared.
"When did he leave here?"
"Last night."
"What time?"
"I forgot to hold a stop watch on him."
"Why didn't you stop him? Don't you know that failing to do so can make
you liable to arrest as an accessory after the fact?"
"A sheriff and a game warden couldn't stop him."
"He's right," Loring Blade agreed. "We couldn't. Why don't you start
your men into the hills?"
"If he left this house," Hausler threatened, "we'll be on his track in
two minutes."
He turned and went out, and Ted laughed. Loring Blade swung to face him.
"You feel pretty bitter, don't you?"
"How would you feel?"
"Not too happy," the warden admitted. "Why did you laugh?"
Ted grinned faintly. "Does that trooper really think he, or anyone else,
can track Dad?"
"If he does have such ideas," Loring Blade conceded, "he'll soon have
some different ones. Nobody can track Al Harkness."
"Nor can they find him."
"Perhaps not immediately, but sooner or later they will."
"Yes?" Ted questioned. "Send a thousand men into the hills, send a
thousand into any big thicket, and they wouldn't find him unless they
happened to stumble right across him."
"Al can't stay in the hills forever."
"Maybe not, but he can stay there a long time. He knows every chipmunk
den in the Mahela."
"He won't be easy to find," the warden conceded, "but he will be found.
What time did he come back last night?"
"Just about an hour after you took him away."