She pulled away just far enough to look into his face. She was smiling. "I think I like you better than I did Frank," she said.
Nelson lay awake for a few moments, trying to identify the noise. It was a low humming sound off in the distance. He could feel Glynnis, breathing evenly with sleep beside him. The sky was just beginning to color with sunrise in the east. As quietly as possible, Nelson eased himself erect, still trying to place the noise. He placed it, and realized that he had not really wanted to identify it.
"Quiet," he said as he roused the girl. She opened her eyes wide, and stared at him, confused and uncomprehending.
"What's wrong?"
"Hear that noise?"
"Yes," she said after a second.
"One of their search machines. Probably they've adopted a loose search pattern, or maybe we left some kind of sign somewhere. It's not coming closer, but we'd better get out of here."
They ate hastily, in the awakening light of sunrise. They ran away from the sound of the machine, and it lessened in the distance.
It was the middle of the morning when they heard it again. Nelson judged it to be roughly a mile away and to the west. He waited a minute, listening. It seemed to be describing a search pattern curve that swung in front of their path. He decided to double back and around to miss it.