"Of course they were-and they will be again. They run the whole program over and over again." She looked thoughtful. "But, Johnnie, you pay too much attention to what your mother says."
"I suppose so," he admitted.
"You had better break yourself of it. Otherwise no girl is going to take a chance on marrying you."
He grinned. "That's my insurance policy."
She dropped her eyes and blushed. "I wasn't speaking for myself! I don't want you-I'm just taking care of you for practice."
He decided not to pursue that angle. "Honestly," he said, "a person gets in the habit of behaving a certain way and it's hard to stop. For instance, I've got an aunt-my Aunt Tessie, remember her? -who believes in astrology."
"No! She doesn't!"
"Surest thing. She doesn't look nutty, does she? But she is and it's embarrassing because she will talk about it and mother insists that I have to be polite. If I could just tell her she has holes in her head, it wouldn't matter. But oh no! I have to listen to her rave and pretend that she's a sane, responsible adult-when she can't count above ten without an abacus."
"An 'abacus'?"
"You know-a slipstick with beads. I said 'abacus' because there isn't a prayer that she could ever learn to read a slipstick. She likes being a lame brain-and I have to cater to it."
"Don't do it," Betty said suddenly. "Pay no attention to what your mother says."
"Slugger, you are a subversive influence."
"Sorry, Johnnie," she answered mildly. She added, "Did I ever tell you why I divorced my parents?"
"No, you never did. That's your business."
"So it is. But I think I'll tell you, you might understand me better. Bend down." She grabbed him by an ear, whispered into it.
As John Thomas listened he took on an expression of extreme surprise. "Not really?"
"Fact. They didn't contest it so I never had to tell anyone. But that's why."
"I don't see how you put up with it."
"I didn't I stood up in court and divorced them and got a professional guardian who doesn't have nutty ideas. But look, Johnnie, I didn't bare my soul just to make your chin drop. Heredity isn't everything; I'm myself, an individual. You aren't your parents. You're not your father, you are not your mother. But you are a little late realizing it." She sat up straight. "So be yourself, Knothead, and have the courage to make your own mess of your life. Don't imitate somebody else's mess."
"Slugger, when you talk that stuff, you make it sound rational."
"That's because I'm always rational. How well fixed are you for groceries? I'm hungry."
"You're as bad as Lummox. The grub sack is over there."
"Lunch?" inquired Lummox, hearing his name.
"Umm... Betty, I don't want him tearing down trees, not in daylight. How long will it take them to track me down?"
"I wouldn't count on over three days, big as this place is."
"Well... I'll hold back food for five, just in case." He selected a dozen canned rations and gave them to Lummox. He did not open them as Lummox rather liked having the packages suddenly become hot when he bit into them. He finished them off before Betty had their own lunches opened.
After they ate Johnnie started to bring up the subject again. "Betty, do you really think that-" He broke off suddenly. "Hear anything?"
She listened, then nodded solemnly.
"How fast?"
"Not over two hundred."
He nodded. "Then they are scanning. Lummox! Don't move a muscle!"
"I won't, Johnnie. Why not move a muscle?"
"Do it!"
"Don't get excited," Betty advised. "They are probably just laying out their search pattern. Chances are they couldn't identify us either in the scope or visually with these trees to break up the image." But she looked worried. "I wish Lummie were already in the mine tunnel, though. If anyone is smart enough to run a selective scan straight down that road while we're on it tonight... well, we've had it."
John Thomas was not really listening. He was leaning forward, cupping his ears with both hands. "Hush!" he whispered, "Betty-they're coming back!"
"Don't panic. It's probably the other leg of the search pattern."
But even as she said it she knew that she was wrong. The sound came over them, hovered and dropped in pitch. They looked up, but the denseness of the forest and the altitude of the craft kept them from seeing it.
Suddenly there was a light so bright that it made the sharp sunlight seem dusky when it passed. Betty gulped. "What was that?"
"Ultraflash photo," he answered soberly. "They're checking what they picked up on the scope."
The sound above them squealed higher, then dropped; the eyeburning flash occurred again. "Stereoed it," Johnnie announced solemnly. "They'll really see us now, if they only suspected before."
"Johnnie, we've got to get Lummox out of here!"
"How? Take him up on the road and let them pinpoint him with bomb? No, kid, our only hope now is that they decide he is a big boulder-I'm glad I made him stay tucked in." He added, "We mustn't move, either. They may go away."
Even that outside hope passed. One after another, four more ships were heard. Johnnie ticked them off. "That one has taken station to the south. The third one was north, I think. Now they'll cover to the west... a pinwheel guard. They've got us boxed, Slugger." She looked at him, her face dead white. "What do we do, Johnnie?"
"Huh? Why, noth-No, Betty look. You duck down through the trees to the creek. Take your flight harness with you. Then follow the stream a good distance and take to the air. Keep low until you get out from under their umbrella. They'll let you go-they don't want you."
"And what will you be doing?"
"Me? I stay here."
"And so do I."
Johnnie said fretfully, "Don't make me any trouble, Slugger. You'd just be in the way."
"What do you think you can do? You don't even have a gun."
"I have this," John Thomas answered grimly, touching his sheath knife, "-and Lummox can throw rocks."
She stared at him, then laughed wildly. "What? Rocks indeed! Oh, Johnnie-"
"They're not going to take us without a fight. Now will you get out of here-fast!-and quit being a nuisance?"
"No!"
"Look, Slugger, there isn't time to argue. You get clear and fast. I stay with Lummox; that's my privilege. He's mine."
She burst into tears. "And you're mine, you big stupid oaf."
He tried to answer her and could not. His face began to break in the spasmodic movements of a man trying to control tears. Lummox stirred uneasily. "What's the matter, Johnnie?" he piped.
"Huh?" John Thomas replied in a choked voice. "Nothing." He reached up and patted his friend. "Nothing at all, old fellow. Johnnie's here. It's all right."
"All right, Johnnie."
"Yes," agreed Betty faintly. "It's all right, Lummie." She added in a low voice to John Thomas. "It'll be quick, won't it, Johnnie? We won't feel it?"
"Uh, I guess so! Hey! None of that-in just one half second I'm going to punch you right on the button and then dump you off the bank. That ought to protect you from the blast."
She shook her head slowly, without anger nor fear. "It's too late, Johnnie. You know it is. Don't scold me-just hold my hand."
"But-" He stopped. "Hear that?"
"More of them."
"Yeah. They're probably building an octagon... to make sure we don't get out."
A sudden thunderclap spared her the need to answer. It was followed by the squeal of a hovering ship; this time they could see it, less than a thousand feet over their heads. Then an iron voice rumbled out of the sky. "Stuart! John Stuart! Come out in the open!"
Jobnnie took out his sheath knife, threw back his head and shouted, "Come and get me!"
Betty looked up at him, her face shining, and patted his sleeve. "Tell 'em, Johnnie!" she whispered. "That's my Johnnie."
The man behind the giant voice seemed to have a directional mike trained on him; he was answered: "We don't want you and we don't want to hurt anybody. Give up and come out."
He threw back a one-word defiance and added, "We aren't coming out!"