TEN

Back and forth,” Theo said, his head cocked as he listened intently. “Across the valley. Each pass brings them closer to us. Three sets of hounds. Maybe four.”

Caitlyn and Theo had found an overlook that still shielded them from view of the men climbing down the rock face behind them, at the head of the valley.

“What are the dogs’ names?” Caitlyn said.

“How in the world could I tell that from what I’m hearing?” Theo said.

“It’s a joke, skunk boy. You seem to know so much else about them.” The words felt bitter on her tongue. She knew she was being unnecessarily cruel to him, trying to find an outlet for her grief.

“Oh, very funny. Do you find it funny that they are squeezing us in? Unless we figure out a way to fly.”

Unless we figure out a way to fly. Caitlyn shivered at the thought.

“If we time it right,” Theo said, “we can slip past the dogs and end up safely on the other side of them.”

“No,” Caitlyn answered. “The dogs will cross my scent. They’ll know it’s fresh. And I have no doubt that I’m the one they want, not you.”

“At the factory, everyone said all you have to do is walk through water to lose the dogs.”

“Wrong. In pools, the scent stays on top of the water,” Caitlyn said. “Where the scent is broken up by fast water, they’ll send teams up and down both sides of the creek until they find where we stepped out again.”

She knew this because Papa had explained everything about bloodhounds to her. They’d been on the run from Mason Lee for three days, but it wasn’t until the final two days that Mason was able to put bloodhounds on the trail. That’s when it was over. Papa had used every trick possible, but all it had done was slow the hounds.

“Okay, then. What if you climb a tree and cross over to another tree, branch to branch, and keep going until you are far enough away?”

“Skunk boy, you can’t see well enough to count your own fingers. Think you’ll make it up the first tree without falling?”

“You do it,” he said. “Leave me here. If you can get away, you should. Better that one of us makes it Outside than neither.”

He sounded so pathetic yet brave that Caitlyn felt her first twinge of affection for him. “Have something to eat.”

She found an energy bar in her backpack and gave it to the boy.

His hands shook so rapidly as he attempted to tear open the wrapping that she sighed, took the bar from him, opened it, and handed it back.

“Besides,” Theo continued, barely understandable because he’d crammed so much into his mouth, “you said they were looking for you, not me. I’ll hide in the valley and eat more crawfish and worms. That’s better than going back to the factory.”

His words echoed. “You said they were looking for you, not me.”

This was true. Papa explained how bloodhounds follow a trail. The bounty hunters give them a piece of clothing that belonged to the fugitive. The hounds follow only that scent. No other scent distracts them.

Theo had given her a way out. “You said they were looking for you, not me.”

Theo gulped down the rest of the bar and waited for her answer.

Caitlyn thought there might be another way out of the valley. Unfortunately, it meant she would have to trust her life to a nearly blind skunk boy.