“About halfway, I should judge. Time to see his light now.”
Even as Jo spoke the light flashed yellow.
“Just where I thought he would be,” whispered Jo exultantly. “Now follow me and be quick and quiet, for you can bet he is watching and listening or he wouldn’t be traveling so slowly. Keep in the shadows as much as possible and remember he is less likely to see us when he has the light. Light shows up things that are close by but it blinds pretty well for distance.”
Jo crouched low into the shadow of the ground so that he would not be outlined against the white house in the moonlight. Lithe as a cat he sped into the shadow of a tree a short distance away.
“He won’t move on from there until the light shows,” Ben said to Ann. “Wait until he runs again and then we will go together to the tree where he is now.”
The light flashed almost immediately.
Ann could see Jo’s dark slim bulk speed on to a bush and shoulder to shoulder she and Ben reached the shelter of his first hiding place. Jo waited where he was and in the next flash his followers slid over to his patch of darkness.
There was shadow most of the way now and they quickly reached the underbrush that bordered the road by the wreck. They were several minutes ahead of the man with the flashlight.
“Flatten down,” Jo warned softly. “He won’t expect anybody to track him from this side, so there’s nothing to be scared of now. He’ll make for the far side of the ship.”
They could hear the sound of heavy boots walking cautiously along the road. Nearer and nearer it came and Ann had to swallow hard. Although she hoped that Jo was right when he said there was no danger while they were lying in the bushes, she could not help fearing that the man must hear them as plainly as they heard him. Ben’s arm trembled where it pressed against her shoulder and she knew that he felt as she did.