"Did Smoky hear any shooting?"
"Come to think of it, a half minute or so before he got to Glory Rock he
heard two shots."
Ted's heart pounded excitedly. The two shots had been for Damon and
Pythias. Smoky wouldn't have heard the one that got him. Ted continued
his questioning.
"Did Smoky have any idea as to who was shooting at what?"
"He thought your dad was banging away at a varmint."
"Then he did know Dad had gone up Coon Valley ahead of him?"
"Why yes, he saw his boot track in the mud. But you knew that."
"Was Smoky afraid to go on?"
"Why should he have been afraid? Who expects to get shot?"
"Tell me exactly how he said he saw Dad shoot him."
"Smoky was near the three sycamores when he thought he saw something
move. A second later, your dad rose from behind Glory Rock and shot
him."
"Smoky's very sure of that? It was Dad that rose from behind the rock?"
"He told the same story at least a dozen times that I know of. It never
varied."
"Dad didn't step out from beside the rock, or anything like that?"
"No, he rose from behind it."
"Loring, has it occurred to anybody, except me, that the back of Glory
Rock is a sheer drop? Anyone who could rise from _behind_ and shoot over
it would have to be at least nine feet tall!"
"I--By gosh, you're right! I knew Al never bush-whacked him! He must
have been standing in plain sight when Smoky came up the valley!"
"Smoky never saw who shot him."
"That's not the way he told it."
"Think!" Ted urged. "Think of the sort of man Smoky is. There was bad
blood between him and Dad and had been for some time. You were there
when Dad dressed him down for setting traps before fur was prime. There
was, as you'll remember, talk of shooting even then. Smoky knew Dad had
gone up Coon Valley ahead of him; probably he even _thinks_ Dad shot
him. He said he saw him because he wanted to be sure of revenge. Smoky
would do that."
"Yes, he would. But it seems to me that you're doing a lot of guessing."
"Maybe. You brought Smoky's rifle out?"
"Yes."
"Had it been fired?"
"No, the bore was mirror slick."
"What would you do if you ran across Dad?"
"I'd bring him in, if I had to do it at gun point."
"Loring, I am going to do something that neither you nor I thought I
would ever do. I am going to betray my dad into your hands."
"Then you do know where he is?"
"No, I haven't seen him since the night he left."
"Cut it out, Ted. We all know you've been taking him supplies and we've
tried a dozen times to catch you at it. You do know where he is?"
"I don't, but Tammie does."
"So!" the warden exploded. "Callahan was right! He thought he saw Tammie
leave your house that night with a pack on his back. But when you
whistled him in, and he didn't have any pack, Callahan figured he'd made
a mistake. How'd you manage that?"
"Dad was coming to see me and he saw Callahan, too. He met Tammie within
yards of the house and took his pack off. Loring, if this is to be done,
it's to be done my way."
"What's your way?"
"You do exactly as I say."
"I'm listening."
"Meet me at my house two hours after midnight. We'll cross the hills to
Glory Rock; we won't be able to walk up Coon Valley. Then you're to hide
behind or beside the rock, any place you can listen without being seen,
until I say you can come out."
"Now look here, Ted, I like you and I like your dad, but I'm not
sticking my neck out for anybody."
"I promise you won't, and I also promise that you will get a chance to
bring Dad in."
The game warden pondered. Finally he agreed, "All right, Ted, it'll be
your way. But if there are any tricks, somebody's going to get hurt."
"O.K. Meet me at two?"
"At two."
Ted drove happily to Nels Anderson's modest house and found his friend
chopping wood. Nels greeted him with a broad smile.
"Hi, Ted! Come in an' have a cup of coffee?"
"I can't stay, Nels. How are you doing?"
"Goot, goot for now. Them deer hunters what stayed in your camp, they
paid me nice an' I get another yob soon."
"Crestwood's changing hands and the new owners are taking over next
week. You might go ask them for your old job back."
"Yah! I do that."
"If you don't get one there," Ted said recklessly, "I myself will be
able to offer you something that'll tide you over until you get another
job. I'm going to build more camps."
"Py golly, Ted, I yoost don't know how to thank you!"
"Will you do me a favor?"
"For you I do anything!"
"Then listen carefully. At seven o'clock tomorrow morning I want you to
go to Crestwood and see Thornton; he'll be out of bed. Tell him that
there's something near those three sycamores in Coon Valley that he'd
better take care of."
Nels scratched his head and let the instructions sink in. "At seven
tomorrow mornin' I see Thornton. I tell him, 'There's somethin' near
them three sycamores in Coon Valley you better take care of.'"
"That's it."
"Yah, Ted, I do it yoost that way."
* * * * *
Ted's alarm awakened him at a quarter past one. He reached down in the
darkness to shut it off, and as he lay there he knew a cold foreboding.
Until now, the day to put his plan into execution, he had been very sure
he was right. But suppose he was wrong? Al would be in Loring Blade's
hands, delivered there by his own son! Ted got up and almost grimly
clothed himself. His father couldn't stay in the Mahela much longer
anyhow, and Ted knew he was right. When he was dressed, he sat down and
wrote a note:
Dad; Meet me at the three sycamores near Glory Rock and bring
Tammie with you. It's very important. When you get there, hide in
the beech scrub until you think it's time to come out. You'll know
what it's about after you arrive.
Love,
Ted
He put the note in a pliofilm bag and was just on the point of handing
it to Tammie when he hesitated. Timing was very important, and certainly
Al Harkness was never going to show himself at the three sycamores if he
saw Loring Blade anywhere near them. Ted put his doubts behind him. His
note said plainly that something was stirring and his father wasn't
going to show himself anyway until he knew what it was.
Ted opened the back door, gave the pliofilm bag to Tammie and said,
"Take it to Al. Go find Al."
Tammie streaked away in the darkness and Ted turned back to the kitchen.
He set coffee to perking, laid strips of bacon in a skillet and arranged
half a dozen eggs nearby. At seven o'clock--and because he was who he
was it would be exactly seven o'clock--Nels would go to Carl Thornton
and deliver Ted's message. If Thornton was innocent, he'd probably think
Nels had gone crazy.
But if Ted was right and he was guilty, Thornton would come up Coon
Valley as soon as possible, to find and destroy any incriminating
evidence that lay there. He would get the message at seven. Give him ten
minutes to get ready, forty minutes--Crestwood was nearer than the
Harkness house--to reach the mouth of Coon Valley and another twenty
minutes to reach the sycamores. If he was not there by nine o'clock, he
would not come.
There was a knock on the door and Ted opened it to admit Loring Blade.
"Hi!"
"Hi!" the warden grumped. "I've made all arrangements."
"For taking Dad to jail?"
"For having my head examined!" the warden snapped. "Who in his right
mind would let himself in for this sort of thing?"
"In about three minutes," Ted promised, "I'll have hot coffee and bacon
and eggs. You'll feel better then."
They ate, the warden maintaining a sour silence and Ted again filled
with doubt. All he really knew was that Carl Thornton had killed Damon
and wounded Pythias before the season opened. The wounded deer in the
beech scrub could have been shot by anyone at all and--
No, they couldn't. Al and Smoky Delbert, as far as anyone knew, had been
the only two people in Coon Valley that day. Al wouldn't shoot an
illegal deer and Ted had Loring Blade's word for it that Smoky's rifle
had never been fired. There had been a third party, and after Ted chased
him out of the thickets on Burned Mountain, Pythias had cut through the
beech scrub. Obviously, he knew the route and he wouldn't have
remembered that, a couple of months ago, he had almost come to disaster
on it. A deer's memory isn't that long.