HE ESCAPES TO NOWHERE

This time he was able to lighten his feet and went over the fence In a bound. He heard gasps of astonishment behind him, and then shouts, and the man's pursuing footsteps. Presently, these sounds faded, and the forest was quiet.

Little Jon ran on until he was nearly exhausted. He would have followed the doe and her fawn, but they had gone over the ridge where the way was too steep for his throbbing ankle.

Finally he huddled by a fallen log, removed one boot, and rubbed his swollen ankle while he gained his breath.

Tears rolled down his cheeks. He missed the doe terribly, she was his only friend, only companion (including her fawn) in all this strangeness.

Suddenly, he dug his knuckles into his eyes, drew on his boot, and struggled to his feet. He couldn't stay here all day. It solved nothing. He had to keep moving, keep searching.

Resolutely he began limping around the curve of the slope, taking the easiest course. Somewhere there must be other people—people unlike those he left behind him. But when he found them, he would have to be careful.

He heard the soft slither of the snake ahead before he saw it, even before it rattled its dangerous warning. Its sudden rattle astonished him.

He stared at it with more curiosity than fear. What a strange creature, legless and covered with scales, and with a rattle on the end of its tail!

It seemed he had heard of such things, vaguely, just as he had heard of the odd kind of vehicle the woman had driven. But where?

Troubled, he limped carefully around the snake. With the thought that there might be other dangers here, dangers he knew nothing about, he drew a knife from his belt and cut a staff from the shrubbery. The small knife felt so much a part of him that he hardly questioned it till he had finished using it. It was a tool—it seemed that someone had given it to him long ago—but he couldn't remember any more about it.

The staff made walking easier for a while, and he trudged painfully on, stopping at times to rest or to drink from one of the many springs. The sun, which he could glimpse only at intervals through the trees, began to sink behind him. He was hungry, and his eyes searched continually for food. There ought to be berries. He had noticed some earlier, growing near the barbed-wire fence where the man had caught him.

Edible things, he decided finally, must grow in the open places, lower down.

Warily, slowly, he began to angle toward the valley. He reached the bottom of the slope much sooner than he expected, only to discover that the valley had vanished.

Another slope rose immediately ahead. In sudden alarm, he realized he could no longer see the sun. With every step he took the gloom was deepening.

The forest had chilled, and for the first time he saw the gray mist creeping down from above.

The gloom, the chill, and the creeping mist in this strange and bewildering land, together with his growing hunger and lameness, were almost too much.

A sob broke from his lips, and he began to tremble with a black dread. He couldn't go much farther. What would he do when darkness came?

Then like a glow of warmth in the chill, he felt the comforting knowledge of wild creatures near. They were friendly but timid. He was on the point of calling to them when he heard the distant sound of a motor.

He stiffened, his hands clenched tightly on his staff. Memory of the angry man and the harsh woman rose like a warning. He shook off the thought of them. He had to go on. It was the only way.....

Abruptly he began plunging toward the sound, following the narrow gully that curved away on his right.

A half hour later, he broke through a tangle of evergreens and stared in amazement at the scene ahead.

He was on the edge of a steep bank that dropped down to a winding gravel road. Beyond the road, a broad valley opened.

The valley was ringed by wave on wave of blue and purple mountains that rose to the clouds. The valley was in the shadow, but he could make out the farms with their little white houses and see animals grazing in the pastures.

The motor he had heard earlier had passed, but a second one was approaching. Instantly his mind went out to it, exploring. There were several people in the vehicle, and they were very different from the ones he had met- but not different in a way that mattered. As the machine swung into sight, he allowed himself only a curious glimpse of its bright newness before he cowered back into the tangle.

The shadows deepened in the valley and began to creep over the distant mountains. Three more vehicles passed, and once a man on a horse went by. The horse sensed his presence and whinnied. Little Jon liked the horse, but he fought the urge to call to it, for the man filled him with uneasiness.

It was nearly dark when he heard the final motor. This time, aware of the friendliness of its occupants-and something beyond friendliness-he did not hesitate. It was a small truck, and as it swung around the bend in the road, he slid quickly down the bank to meet it.