posed anything； that the girls had decided to take a walk and pick flowers by the dawn's early light。 That or some similar green…girl foolishness。 One look； and she understood why Howie had been white。
She screamed for Klaus … shrieked for him … and Klaus came on the dead run； his workboots whitened by the half…full pail of milk he had spilled on them。 What he found on the porch would have jellied the legs of the most courageous parent。 The blankets in which the girls would have bundled themselves as the night drew on and grew colder had been cast into one er。 The screen door had been yanked off its upper hinge and hung drunkenly out into the dooryard。 And on the boards of both the porch and the steps beyond the mutilated screen door； there were spatters of blood。
Marjorie begged her husband not to go hunting after the girls alone； and not to take their son if he felt he had to go after them； but she could have saved her breath。 He took the shotgun he kept mounted in the mudroom high out of the reach of little hands； and gave Howie the 。22 they had been saving for his birthday in July。 Then they went； neither of them paying the slightest attention to the shrieking； weeping woman who wanted to know what they would do if they met a gang of wandering hobos or a bunch of bad niggers escaped from the county farm over in Laduc。 In this I think the men were right； you know。 The blood was no longer runny； but it was only tacky yet； and still closer to true red than the maroon that es when blood has well dried。 The abduction hadn't happened too long ago。 Klaus must have reasoned that there was still a chance for his girls； and he meant to take it。
Neither one of them could track worth a damn … they were gatherers； not hunters； men who went into the woods