Jeff did his best to look like a man who faces a desperate situation, but who was mightily cheered because his dog saw fit to track him down. If he did everything exactly right, and with split-second precision, his plan had at least an even chance of working. Escape would not solve everything. Pete would still be unpunished and if the Whitneys should meet him, Jeff, again, they would not bother to take him prisoner. They'd shoot on sight. But he could name Johnny Blazer's killer. That would start things, and maybe he'd be able to finish them. Regardless of what might happen in the future, this was now. Jeff had to get out of the cabin before he could do anything else, but it was as though Barr could read his mind. "You're ponderin'," he accused. "Is that a crime in these hills?" "If," Barr said deliberately, "you try to make a break, I'll kill ye in your tracks. I have spoke it." Jeff said irritably, "Don't be a darn fool!" "Don't you be one, nuther. You're gettin' a chanst." "Yes," Jeff sighed, "a big chance." He looked again at the candle. "Any of your hounds ever get you out of jail, Barr?" "_Pah!_ How might a houn' do such?" "Well, Pal got me out." "Those words I mistrust." "He did," Jeff insisted. "It was in Cressman--" He told of the Cressman jail and of how he was literally thrown out of it because, when he played the mouth organ, Pal howled. He spoke of inquiring the way to Delview as a ruse to throw Pop and Joe Parker from his trail, for he suspected that they had intended to have him rearrested there. Instead of going to Delview, he had come over the hills to Smithville. Barr chuckled derisively. "Peddlin' teach you sech tall tales?" "It's true." "Ha! You toot music an' the dog howls?" "Let me show you." Jeff took a mouth organ from his pack, blew a soft note and Pal responded with a moaning wail that trailed out on a soft soprano note. Barr seemed dumfounded. "Doggone!" Jeff's eyes strayed to the candle. Barr rose, wrenched it from its drippings and put it down at the far end of the table. He resumed his seat. "I can see best when hit's thar," he announced grimly. "You wa'nt havin' notions 'bout that candle, was you?" "Why, no, of course not." Jeff managed to appear innocent, even while he mentally kicked himself. His chance had come and gone. There'd be another chance and Barr seemed more at ease. "This night I learn't what I knew not. A dog howls to noise." "This one does." "Make him do hit ag'in. 'Tis a mighty curious thing." Jeff blew another note and Pal howled again. Barr's eyes sparkled. An elemental creature himself, he was interested in the elemental and this fascinated him. He must find the answer, but while seeking it he did not forget to keep his eyes on Jeff and Pete. "Why's he do hit?" he asked. "I don't know," Jeff admitted. "Can't figure it myself." "Have him do hit some more."