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They waited, looking around, expecting a recurrence of the unusual sound After a tense minute or two, Kendra broke the silence What was it?

I bet it hatever has Grandpa and Lena, Seth said And it didn’t sound too far off

It sounded big

Yeah

Like whale big

We have the salt, Seth reminded her We need to follow that trail

Are you sure that’s a good idea?

You have a better one?

I don’t know Wait and see if they show up? Maybe they’ll escape

If that hasn’t happened by now, it isn’t going to We’ll be careful, and we’ll et back before dark

We’ll be fine We have the salt That stuff works like acid

If so, who saves us? Kendra asked

You don’t have to co

Seth hurried down the porch steps and started across the yard Kendra reluctantly followed She wasn’t sure how they would pull off a rescue if scalding the -they couldn’t just abandon Grandpa

Kendra caught up with Seth at the flowerbed where they had originally found the prints Coether, they followed a series of nickel-sized holes across the lawn The holes were spaced roughly five feet apart and followed a generally straight line, passing the barn and eventually leaving the yard along a narrow path into the woods

No longer obscured by grass, the tracks were even easier to follow They passed a couple of intersecting paths, but the as always certain The prints of whatever creature had left the holes were unress Kendra re the trees for oldfinch and so, Seth announced

I’h

Just don’t think about it

My throat is getting sore, Kendra went on You knoe’ve been up almost thirty hours

I’ed for food in the pantry It can’t all be sry if we didn’t think about it at the time

Suddenly Seth stopped short Uh-oh

What?

Seth went several paces forward Leaning close to the ground, he worked his way back past Kendra He went forward againaside any leaves or branches on the trail Kendra realized the problem before Seth vocalized it No round They both scrutinized the saan to search off the trail This could be bad, he said

There’s a lot of undergrowth, Kendra agreed

If we could even find one hole, we’d knohich direction it went

If it left the path, we’ll never be able to follow it

Seth crawled on hands and knees along the edge of the path, sifting through the rowth

Kendra picked up a stick and used it to poke around

Don’tleaves

You could do it with your hands

If I wanted bug bites and a rash

Hey, this is it He showed Kendra a hole about five feet froonally Shethe two dots and continuing into the woods

But it ht have turnedthe next hole took almost fifteen minutes It proved that the creature had indeed turned almost directly to the left, perpendicular to the path

What if it kept turning? Kendra said

It would sort of be backtracking if it turned more

Maybe it wanted to throw off pursuit

Seth went forward five feet and found the next hole almost instantly It confirmed that the new course was perpendicular to the trail

The undergrowth isn’t as bad here, Seth said

Seth, it would take all day to track it twenty paces

I don’t mean to track it Just to walk in this direction for a while Maybe it will intersect a trail and we can pick up tracks again Or maybe it lives notfor salt I don’t like the idea of leaving the trail

Me neither We won’t go far But this thing seems to like trails It followed one all this way Wea little ways just to check

Kendra stared at her brother Okay, and what if we run into a cave?

We take a look

What if we hear breathing coo in I’ll look ue She almost said that if they found him out here, it would probably be in pieces Okay, just a little ways

They walked in a straight line away froround, but noticed nothey crossed a dry, rocky streambed Not far beyond, they wandered into a little rew nearly waist high

I don’t see any other trails, Kendra said Or any ood look around the meadow, said Seth

Heneither holes nor trails

Let’s face it, Kendra said If we try to go any farther, we’ll be wandering blind

What about clihest point visible fro to et up there, we’ll have a better view of the area These trees ether The hill was not steep; it would be easy to cli there, we go back?

Deal

Theya different line froinally taken froh denser underbrush, a twig snapped off to one side They paused, listening

I’ pretty nervous, Kendra said softly

We’re fine Probably just a falling pinecone

Kendra tried to push away iarht of her made Kendra freeze If she saw her out in the woods, Kendra worried she would just curl up in a ball on the ground and let herself be taken

I’, she said