Then it was she realized that Edward was timid. She could hardly call it cowardice because the boy followed her; but from the corner of her eye she could see that it was with reluctant steps.
She felt sorry for him, somehow. Probably his grandmother had taken all the spirit out of him. That is why he permitted his cousin Clarence to ride over him, and his old granny, too.
“Are you certain he was dead?” he whispered.
“No, I’m not certain at all. We ought to hurry,” she continued, “if he isn’t, we might be able to help him.”
Half way down the avenue, she stopped at two tall pine trees standing closely together like a loving pair which had grown up side by side.
“I think it was just here,” she whispered. “We were behind these two trees, Nancy and I, when they began to fight, and it was along this smudged place that he pulled the man’s body and pitched it into that clump of bushes.”
Edward paused and drew in a deep breath. A brave soldier about to go under fire could not have been more resolute than he when he finally doubled his fists and plunged through the bushes followed by Billie. Although the moon was bright, they could not see any signs of an object having been dragged over the ground. The elastic undergrowth had sprung back into place and the body might have lain there forever under the trees and no one the wiser.
“Was this the place?” he whispered, trying to keep Billie from seeing that he was shaking all over.
“Yes,” she answered, parting the branches of the acacias. “It was right in here, I think.”
But there was no sign of any creature, living or dead, in the high grasses.