“I see it, but what—?”

“Now off to the left a bit there’s a peak that looks like a man’s foot. See that?”

“Yes.”

“I believe Duggai’s watching us from one of those two peaks. They’re the most likely places.”

“Good Lord, then that means Jay—”

“Probably walked right past him last night, yes.” Mackenzie went right on without allowing her time to think about it. “I want you both to memorize the shapes of those two peaks. When we clear out we’ll keep to low ground and try to keep things between us and those peaks. If you can see the peak it means Duggai can see you. Keep them out of your line of sight when we move.” He took a drink and passed the bowl to Earle. “Well start in the ravine where we’ve got the raincoat pit. We’ll bag the rest of the water and take it with us. We go up the ravine—it seems to notch itself right up to the top of this slope and it’ll give us concealment that far. We worm our way across the top and down the back of this little ridge. That’ll put us out of Duggai’s sight. We’ll cut northeast until the ridge flattens out and see where we go from there. If Jay turns up we’ll be able to see him out on the flats.”

“Won’t we be heading straight toward Duggai?”

“It can’t be helped as long as Jay’s out there. Once we’ve linked up with him we can divert away from Duggai.”

“But he’ll know we’re gone.”

“If we do it right he won’t know till morning. That may give us enough of a jump on him. If he has to wear himself out searching for us it’ll give us an advantage we didn’t have before.”

He saw Shirley’s troubled gaze move from point to point along the slope above him. She was visualizing the path. She turned slowly and looked out across the mile of flats between here and the hills. “Sam—what happens if Jay doesn’t come?”

“Then we go to him.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“We know where he disappeared into the hills. It was roughly midway between those two peaks. If he doesn’t turn up in the next few hours we’ll have to get around behind Duggai and pick up Jay’s tracks there. Follow them to wherever he is.”

“Won’t Duggai think of that too?”

“He will—but he may not think of it fast enough. The idea is to convince him that we’re still here. If he doesn’t get suspicious until morning we’ve got a good chance.”

“How do we do that?”

“We put on an act for him,” Mackenzie said.

18

First he made a show of setting his traplines along the jackrabbit run. What he actually did was to gather up the snares and loop them securely around the belt of his breechclout. From any distance it would look as if he were stringing new traps.

Shirley walked a hundred yards out onto the flats and peered out toward the hills: it was an act contrived to persuade Duggai that they were alarmed about Jay but in fact there was no fraud in it. After a while she returned to camp with a physical show of worried dejection.

They lifted Earle and set him down near the fire where he would be comfortable for the night. But Mackenzie made a point of interposing a heavy clump of fuzzy cholla cactus between Earle and the peaks. Setting Earle down he said quietly, “You’ll have to make your own way into the ravine. Drag yourself on your elbows. Take it easy—take all the time you want. And go directly that way. Keep the cactus between you and him. If you keep low enough he can’t see you. It’s only fifteen feet. Remember—keep in a straight line. Crawl to that catclaw, go straight under it, slide right down into the ravine. “Okay?”

“Wait—don’t go yet. Something I want to say.”

Mackenzie glanced at the fire. It would need more wood before they left. Shirley began to sponge Earle down with ash-soap. Earle drew a ragged breath and spoke with matter-of-fact control:

“I’ve been thinking about this. Had a long time to think it out. It makes sense, so hear me out and keep your protests to yourselves until I’m finished.”

Mackenzie knew what was coming but he only said, “Go ahead.”

“I’m not going to apologize for being a drag on you. It wasn’t my fault, this damn leg. But we haven’t even got anything to make a crutch out of. You’re going to have to carry me—maybe I can hobble along on one foot for a while but I still need somebody’s shoulder for support. Now you just said we’ll have to cross a lot of the ground pretty low. We’ll have to crouch and crawl. I’m not much good for that, am I. I mean it’s all right sliding ten or fifteen feet from here to that gully but that’s not the same thing as miles and miles.”

Shirley said, “Earle, for heaven’s sake we’re not going to leave you here.”

“I asked you to hear me out. Will you let me finish?”

Mackenzie said, “Go on, Earle.”

“I’ve seen how that plastic distillery contraption works. I assume if you made it smaller it would make less water, but it would still make water. Correct?”

“Yes.”

“Suppose you were to cut off one-quarter of the plastic and leave it with me. I’d have enough water to live on. There’s enough dried meat and saltbush and grass around here for me to stay alive for quite a while. I’ve got that pit in the ground to keep me out of the sun. I can live as long as you can—probably longer when it comes right down to it because I’ll be staying put while the rest of you are wearing yourselves out. The Good Lord’s provided for me so far—I think he’ll go on providing. Long enough for you to get out of this desert and get a rescue helicopter to me. Now Sam, that fire can’t burn for more than two or three hours after we leave it. Even if Duggai doesn’t come down here until morning he’s bound to come. He’ll see there’s nobody moving and he’ll come down to see if we’ve died or what. When he finds us missing he’ll start following our tracks. It won’t take him long to catch up, will it. But if I keep the fire burning and he sees me moving around in the morning he won’t have any reason to come down here.”

With baleful triumph Earle leaned his head back against the earth. “That’s what I wanted to say.”

Shirley touched Earle’s chest. She lifted her eyes to Mackenzie. “He may be right.”

“No. I’d thought of it but it won’t work.”

“Why on earth shouldn’t it work?”

“For one thing, Earle hasn’t got enough mobility. We’ve pretty much cleaned out the immediate areas for cactus and saltbush. He’d tear his leg to pieces dragging himself across this ground gathering food. For another thing there isn’t that much meat. Even if we left him all we’ve got it wouldn’t do for more than three or four days—and we won’t be out of here that fast. But the main thing’s Duggai. He’s got a telescope on that rifle. He may have binoculars too. He’ll see it’s only Earle down here. He’ll wonder what’s happened to you and me. When we don’t turn up he’ll come down for a look. He’ll find Earl here alone and I imagine he’d kill Earle before he came looking for us.”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Earle. I’m grateful for the offer.”

Shirley was staring off into the night—the dark mass of the hills. Mackenzie had been watching them for the past half hour hoping to see Jay but nothing stirred out there.

Earle said, “Survival of the fittest, Sam. Isn’t it better that he kills one of us than all of us?”

“I don’t think you can quantify that kind of thing,” Mackenzie said. “I want us all to live.”

“I still think my idea gives us the best chance of that.”

Shirley said, “What if I cast my vote with Earle? It’s two against one then.” She regarded Earle gravely.

Mackenzie bit a chapped shred off his lip. “I told you. I’m not putting things to a vote.”

She said, “There’s another alternative, you know.”

Earle looked up. “Let’s hear it.”

“I could stay with Earle.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”