Ted looked quizzically at him and the warden continued, "We were on Dead
Man's Curve, and he was between Jack and me, when suddenly he pushed the
door open and just seemed to float out of it. We beat the brush around
Dead Man's Curve until one o'clock this morning. About then I tumbled to
the idea that he must have come back here."
"Why didn't you come last night?"
Loring Blade shrugged. "He slipped through our fingers once. It wasn't
hard to figure that he wouldn't have done that only to let himself be
picked up again. Besides, it did seem sort of useless to hunt him at
night. He headed into the woods, and because he didn't make a sound that
either Jack or I could hear, we thought he was holed up right close.
Ted, do you think he shot Smoky?"
"No!"
"Why not?"
"He said he didn't."
"Delbert said he did."
"Just what did he say?"
"That's all. He regained consciousness briefly. The officer with him
asked who shot him and he said Al did from ambush. I doubt if he's
talked since."
"Do you believe Dad shot Smoky?"
The warden frowned. "If he did, it wasn't from ambush. There's more to
it than that. We could have brought it out, but it will be harder now.
When Al ran, he made things look pretty bad."
"Not to me."
"But to a lot of other people. Do you think you can get him to come back
and give himself up?"
"I asked him last night to stay and face it out."
"Why wouldn't he?"
"Dad's part of the Mahela," Ted said quietly, "and the Mahela's code is
the one he knows best. He would not go to jail for a crime he didn't
commit, any more than a wild deer would voluntarily enter a cage."
"Doggone, that sure complicates things. Do you have any bright ideas?"
"What did you find in Coon Valley?"
"Just what I told you, Smoky's back trail and your dad's tobacco pouch."
"Nothing else?"
"Smoky's rifle. We brought it in with us."
"No sign of anything else?"
Loring Blade answered wearily, "You know what it's like there. Unless
it's a trail like Smoky's, and Smoky was bleeding hard, there's little
in the way of sign that a human eye can detect."
"Just the same, I think I'll go up there."
"What do you expect to find?"
"I don't know. Anything would be a help."
"Guess it would at that. Good luck."
"Are--are you going to join the hunt for Dad?"
Loring Blade grinned wryly. "I'm not that optimistic. I agree with you
that, if Al wants to lose himself in the Mahela, he won't be found. But
sooner or later he'll show up. He can't spend the winter there."
"I wouldn't bet on that."
"Bet the way you please. Now I'm not saying that you will, but if you
should run across Al up there in the hills, see if you can persuade him
to give himself up. He still has a good case, in spite of Smoky's
testimony. Too many people know Al too well to believe he'd shoot
anybody from ambush; he has a lot of friends. The only ones who'd join
the posse were Delberts and Pete Tooms, and I sure hope none of them
stumble across Al. If they come in fighting, he's apt to fight right
back, and one stove-in Delbert around here is enough. Good luck again,
Ted."
Ted lost his belligerence; the warden was his father's friend. "Stay and
have breakfast with me."
"Thanks, but we breakfasted in Lorton before we came here. I'll be
seeing you around."
"Do that."
The warden left and Ted was alone except for Tammie. He dropped a hand
to the collie's silken head and tried to think a way out of the
bewildering maze in which he was trapped. He was sure of two things; Al
had not shot Smoky Delbert and his father would stay in the hills until,
as Loring Blade had said, winter forced him out. But it would have to be
bitter, harsh winter. Al could make his way in anything else.