“For all I know,” Abington went on, “you invented the story of fossilized human remains as a temptation that would insure my protection and the food you’d need in case you made your escape from Park. Do you suppose I was so blind I did not see that possibility from the start? A fossilized man, as you knew, was bait I’d be pretty sure to swallow. Well, I did swallow it—but not with my eyes shut, I assure you. Please give me credit for that much intelligence.
“I took you at your word,” he continued, “and I have played the game straight. I shall continue to play it square, until I find that you have lied to me.”
He waited, balanced, ready for the blow he expected. Instead, he saw the expression in Bill’s eyes change to a grudging mollification, as if the very abusiveness of the attack reassured him.
“I never said anything to put you on your ear,” Bill hedged morosely, after an uncomfortable pause. “What are you razzing me for? I said I wouldn’t be caught and I won’t be. That goes, professor.”
“Very well, let’s have no more talk about it.” Abington lifted his pack to his galled shoulders and started on, leaving Bill to his own devices; wherefore Bill presently overtook him and walked alongside.
The truce held while the clouds flamed with the sunset, a barbaric pageant that could not rival the sanguine magnificence of that wild ensemble of towering hills slashed with deep gorges whose openings were frequently hidden away behind bold, jutting pinnacles.
“Looks like the devil was practicing on these hills, trying to make a world of his own with nothing but fire for building material,” Bill observed at last, wanting to appear friendly and awed in spite of himself before the spectacle. “When God came along and told him to knock off, looks like the devil just kicked it all to thunder and dragged his feet through the mess a few times and walked off and left it like that. Don’t you think so, professor?”
“I’ve heard theories advanced that were not half so plausible,” Abington replied, his voice once more calm and slightly ironic, as if he still doubted Bill’s sincerity. “A man could spend a lifetime in this country without exhausting its archaeological possibilities.”
“Yeah—or without getting caught,” Bill added, speaking as had the other of the thing nearest his own heart.