"What are you going to do?" "Lay in the hills 'til somethin' turns up. Can't do nothin' else now." "Dad, don't go!" Ted pleaded. "Stay and face it out. It's the best way." "It might have been," Al agreed, "and I was most tempted to go clear in. But it ain't any more." "Why?" "Lorin' had his radio on; listened on the way down. Smoky Delbert come to and talked. He named me as the man who shot him and said I shot from ambush! Be seein' you, Ted." 5 COON VALLEY Tammie whined uneasily and Ted woke with a start. He glanced at the clock on the mantel and saw that it read twenty minutes past five. The last time he had looked, he remembered, the clock had said half past two. Obviously he'd fallen asleep in the chair where he'd been waiting for someone to come or something to happen. No one had come, but they were coming now. On the Lorton Road, Ted heard the cars that Tammie had detected twenty seconds earlier. He got to his feet and looked out into the thin, gray mistiness of early dawn. With its lights glowing like a ghost's eyes in the wan dimness, a car churned up the Harkness drive and a second followed it. The boy shrank away. Last night's events now seemed like some horrible nightmare, but the tread of steps outside and the knock on the door proved that they were not. Ted opened the door to confront Loring Blade and Corporal Paul Hausler, of the State Police. He glanced beyond them at the men gathered beside the cars and saw that three of the nine were attired in State Police uniforms. The six volunteer posse men were Tom and Bud Delbert, Smoky's brothers; Enos, Alfred and Ernest Brill, his cousins; and Pete Tooms, who would go anywhere and do anything as long as it promised excitement and no monotonous labor. Loring Blade greeted Ted, "Good morning, Ted." The boy muttered, "Good morning." "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?"