Page 149 (1/2)

"That you, Dad?" he said softly, under his breath, and at once felt foolish Still, the feeling of son

With a s It ht Not that one could quite co a shallow creek in search of a Quaker rabble-rouser to flying a Spitfire across the night-ti run to Gerh, he supposed

He looked round once again, but saw only tadpoles wriggling in the shallows With a slightly crooked s the tadpoles into frenzied flight

"Over the top, then," he said to a wood-duck The bird ignored hireen rafts of floating cress

No challenge came from the trees on either side; no sounds at all, bar the cheerful racket of nesting birds It was as he sat on a sunwar his shoes and stockings back on, that he finally heard some indication that the far side of the creek was populated by hu?"

The voice came fro in his ears It was a woh, he heard a laugh, deeper in pitch, and with a particular tone to it that made him relax

Instinct informed him before his reason did that voices with that particular intonation were not a threat

"Dunno, hinney, ill it cost me?"

"Ooh, hark at him! Not the time to count your pennies, is it?"

"Don’t you worry, ladies, we’ll take up a collection ast us if we have to"

"Oh, is that the way of it? Well and good, sir, but be you aware, in this congregation, the collection co, Roger deduced that the voices in question belonged to three men and tomen, all of whoeo into two quite evenly, with no aard re up his shoes, he stole quietly away, leaving the unseen sentries--if that’s what they were--to their suanized as the governht, a little later He had kept to the creek bank for soht be He had walked nearly a quarter-ht nor sound of a soul other than the thores and their custoh srassy ossae and yellow

"What the hell sort of way is this to run a war?" he h a blackberry bramble It was like one of those science fiction stories, in which everyone but the hero had suddenly vanished fro to be anxious; what if he didn’t e to find the bloody Quaker--or even the ar started?

Then he rounded a bend in the creek, and caught his first gli clothes in the rushing waters by a cluster of boulders

He ducked back into the brush before they should see him, and turned away from the creek, heartened If the women were here, the men weren’t far away

They weren’t Within a few hter, the clank of spoons and tea-kettles and the clunk of splitting wood Rounding a clu , as they chased one of their number who brandished a fresh-cut racoon’s tail overhead, floating in the breeze as he ran

They charged past Roger without a second glance, and he went on, a bit less warily He wasn’t challenged; there were no sentries In fact, a strange face appeared to be neither a novelty nor a threat A few lanced casually at hi odd in his appearance

"I’ for Her a squirrel over the pale flames of a fire The er a "He’s a ways beyond--that way, I think" He gestured helpfully with his stick, the charred squirrel pointing the ith the stubs of its blackened forelegs

"A ways beyond" was soh threewhat looked to be the nify it by such a ter air of seriousness; there was less of the carefree frolicking he had seen near the creek Still, it wasn’t Strategic Coan to feel mildly hopeful that violence could still be avoided, even with the ar by There had been an air of excited readiness ah their lines, but no atmosphere of hatred or blood-thirstiness

Here, the situation was far different than it was a the orderly militia lines, but even less disposed to i his way at each ca different in the air--a sense of increasing urgency, almost of desperation The horseplay he’d seen in the outer caroups, their heads together, or sat by theot closer, the na fingers surer of direction The na hi reater all the tie

He found Husband at last, standing on a rock like a large gray wolf at bay, surrounded by a knot of soitation Elbows jabbed and feet traard to i an answer, but unable to pause long enough to hear one were it given

Husband, stripped to his shirtsleeves and red in the face, was shouting at one or two of those closest to hieneral hub-bub He pushed through the outer ring of spectators, but was stopped nearer the center by the press of men At least here, he could pick up a feords