“You reckon ma’s hid somewhere out of this?” Jim asked.
“Sure!” cried pa, drawing Jim into bed beside him. “Sure she is. Her and that there girl is as dry as a bone somewhere, sitting laughing at all this fuss of rain.” But when Jim had fallen asleep, soothed by these words, Pa McBirney got up and walked the floor until morning. Then he cooked Jim’s breakfast and his own, and packed a basket with food.
“We-all will be taking a little stroll,” he said. “Just hand me down my rifle, sonny. Maybe we might see something we’d like for dinner on the way.”
He went out of the back door, bidding Jim keep close beside him, and looked around for quite a while before starting on the up trail; and then he kept away from the wood trail and took the one that led up the face of the rocks—one which no one but a mountaineer could find or follow. His footsteps appeared on the freshly-washed earth only as far as the spring. From there on, there was no trace of him and his boy, and anyone who came looking for them would indeed have hard work to follow.
“There was talk of them show folks setting up the merry-go-round and all the rest of the contraptions down there at Lee to-day,” said pa. “I only hope they’ll do it and not go turning their attention to things that don’t concern them.”
Once or twice as Jim and his father came out upon some rocky ledge of the mountain the boy peered down into the valley to see if he could catch sight of tents or wagons, but all below them was wrapped in a wonderful lilac mist. And anyway, he had not much time to give to these matters. He was thinking of where his mother would be found, and wondering how it was that his father kept such a sure course. Not an idea of where his mother could be entered the boy’s head, but he knew there were secret hiding places on the mountains, of which children were not told, and he was right in thinking that his mother had gone to one of these.
After a long time he said:
“Where you heading for, pa?”
“Well,” said pa, “your ma thought best not to tell me where she was going. She wanted me to speak up truthful and say I didn’t know her whereabouts. But it wouldn’t take many guesses for me to locate her in Conscript Den.”
“What’s that?” asked Jim, staring at his father with open eyes and mouth.