By now they must have passed the town. They decided to head straight north. They crossed the west branch of the railroad and found the track that would take them closest to the North Carolina line. Tim struck another match and they looked at the map. There were very few towns along their route between Alston and a place called Unionville forty miles or so to the north. They walked along the track for two or three miles, and as the land began to rise Tim said, “Let’s take a chance and roast a couple of ears of corn.” Their fire kindled well. Red gazed into the flames. “At least we aren’t in jail.” “The people in the country we have to cross must all know about us by now. And most of them are hunters. They’d just as soon track a man as a coon.” They took off their boots and rested their feet on a dry log. They held the boots near the fire as they waited for the flames to flicker low. Tim looked at the compass and studied the map. They talked for a while, looking into the fire, and when the flames had died they put the corn in the embers. When the corn was roasted Red kicked aside the embers and picked out the ears. They shucked them, working fast so as not to be burned. The kernels were orange gold and charred in places. Red said, “What a feast.” “Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll find some more along the way. There was nothing like this in jail.” Red held his watch to the glow of the fire. “It’s quarter to eleven. Let’s push on.” CHAPTER SIXTEEN They spent their fourth morning in shelter from the rain. They had circled farms, forded dozens of streams. More than once they had ducked off country roads to avoid teams of oxen and country wagons, but as far as they knew they hadn’t been seen. The rain had started an hour ago. Now it was coming down in torrents, swelling the streams and turning the rivers to turbid floods. They had found a sheltered place at the edge of a deep ravine. They had bent four closely grouped saplings, tying the top of each to the base of another and covering them with the poncho Devil had given them. They had made a mush of rokeeg and water and eaten the stuff. It was tasteless now. They had stretched their blankets on logs laid side by side, and Red was so tired that he slept like a baby on this bed that was something akin to a corduroy road. The rain beat against the poncho and dripped through leaks, soaking Tim’s blanket and wetting his clothes. He didn’t want to look at Kate’s map in the rain. The paper was thin and he was afraid if it got wet it might come apart. They were just east of the railroad line. He hoped they were close to Unionville. They hadn’t traveled as fast as they had hoped they would, but if they could keep moving they might reach North Carolina in two or three days. They had thought about hopping a freight as one went by, but the risk was too great and they couldn’t ride the railroad very far. It ended at Spartanburg.