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The caravan had stopped Only a fewtold them why

"Godda?"

"There’s not much left to move," someone said wryly, but not loudly "The state’s bankrupt--the whole country’s bankrupt Hell, I’lad there’s any road at all We could be stuck hacking our way through the woods, and then what?"

"Then we’d be stuck in this hellhole forever," griped soain? Frank said we can’t push the crawler’s motor any harder, or we’ll blow it"

"Then on’t push the crawler’s motor any harder," said a new voice--so bent

Maria strained to see hiray uniforht be red "There’s the uessed aloud to Henry, who nodded

Theourselves out"

"You’re sure the ship can’t lift us?"

"You saw us try it Did it work? No? Then yes, I’h its hydrogen, anyway Not if ant a way home, when all’s said and done"

"Sir, we’re … we’re fish in a barrel if we stay in the middle of this road"

"Heavily aret a shovel"

"Do we have shovels?"

"Check with the ship; they ht have some If not, we’ll improvise We have axes, and we have a whole forest full of e can coel, and I’ll see what exactly we have at our disposal"

Henry leaned over and whispered into Maria’s ear "Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll wander away from the caravan We may have to swipe him, but we’ll make him listen to us"

"We’re a pitiful pair of kidnappers, you and I"

"We’re armed We don’t have to overpower him, just surprise him"

"Is that our plan?" she asked

"It’s a possibility Should we split up?"

She thought about it and said, "We could, but let’s not We’d just double our chances of getting caught"

He nodded "All right Let’s go together, then"

Forward they crept, staying low and working toward the giant rolling-crawler--a Texian- axles, and was renowned for its ability to traverse uneven terrain Apparently it wasn’t quite advanced enough for Georgia roads, which h to really look at the thing It was huge--bigger than any such contraption she’d ever seen before, in the North or South Six wheels on three axles, and about as tall as a single-story building, except for the back portion, which was open like a cart

This sege and--if the set of the wheels in the road was any gauge--quite heavy The rear half was bogged down, oversized tires lodged into fresh ruts that had beenefforts to free the thing

"Can you see it?" Henry asked, craning his neck

"They’ve covered it up with soerous"