Oh, God, McKee thought. Now I've got trouble with her.
'You can't possibly climb out of this canyon and walk all the way back to Shoemaker's with your head hurt like that. We're going back.'
'Do you know why that pickup of mine wouldn't start?'
Miss Leon looked at him again.
'Why not?'
'Our friend had pulled the wires off the spark plugs.'
She doesn't believe it, McKee thought. He felt suddenly dizzy with fatigue and pain.
'Look,' he said. 'If we had time, I'd take you back there and show you. But we don't have time.' His voice was fierce. 'Now drive and keep driving until I tell you to turn right.'
Miss Leon drove, looking straight ahead. McKee looked at her profile. Her face was angry, but there was no sign of fear. It would be better if she was a little afraid, he thought, and he tried to think of what he might say. The pain in his hand had become suddenly like a knife through his knuckles, making concentration impossible. He inched it carefully out of his shirt front. The finger was rigid now, turning a bluish color, and the swelling had spread up the palm to the heel of his hand. He heard her sudden, sharp intake of breath.
'You need a doctor,' Miss Leon said. 'That hand's broken.'
McKee put the hand carefully back inside his shirt, irritated at himself for giving her a chance to see it.
'It's just a dislocated knuckle. The swelling makes it look worse than it is.'
'This is absolutely insane. I'm going to turn around and we're going back where you're camped and soak that hand.' She started slowing the Volks.
McKee put his boot on top of her foot on the accelerator and pressed. The little car jerked forward and she pulled at the wheel to control it.
'Now get this straight,' McKee said. His voice was angry and he spaced the words for emphasis. 'I had a hard day yesterday. I was up all night. I'm tired and my hand hurts. I'm worried about Jeremy. You're going to behave and do what you're told. And I'm telling you again that we're going to climb out of this canyon.'
'All right, then,' Miss Leon said. 'Have it your way.'
There was a long, strained silence.
'If I'm wrong about that guy, I'll apologize,' McKee said. 'But really I can't take a chance on being wrong. Not if he's as crazy as I think he is.'
Miss Leon was silent. He glanced at her. She looked away. McKee suddenly realized she was crying and the thought dismayed him. He slumped down in the seat, baffled.
'Is this where we turn?'
'Right, up that side canyon.'
The tributary seemed narrower now than it had when he and Canfield had poked into it earlier. Just day before yesterday. It seemed like a week.
McKee wondered what he could say. What did you say when you made a woman cry? 'Getting pretty narrow,' he said.
'Yes.'
The canyon bent abruptly and the stream bed here was too narrow for all four wheels. The Volks tilted sharply as the right wheels rolled over a slab of exposed sandstone. It jolted down, slamming the rear bumper against the stone.
McKee suddenly noticed tire tracks on the bank ahead of them. A truck had been in here recently, but before yesterday's rain. Runoff had wiped out the tracks on the sandy bottom but the rain had only softened the imprint where the stream hadn't reached.
McKee was suddenly alert and nervous.
Miss Leon slowed the Volkswagen.
'Do you want me to try to drive over that?' she asked. Just ahead the canyon walls pinched together and water-worn rocks upthrust through the sand.
'Ill take a look,' McKee said. He climbed stiffly from the Volks. The rocks were partly obscured by brush and didn't look too formidable. A few yards upstream they gave way to another stretch of sand. Beyond, the canyon rose sharply and was crowded with boulders from a rock slide. It was probably impassable for a vehicle.
'Put it in low and angle to the left,' McKee directed. 'We can get it past that brush and leave it there out of sight.'
The Volks jolted over the rocks more easily than McKee had expected. He showed Miss Leon where to park it out of the water course behind the brush and then collected the canteen and cracker box.
'We can lock the car,' he said. 'You can take anything you think you'll need, but I'd keep it light.'
'I have a box of things I was taking to Dr. Hall,' Miss Leon said. 'I couldn't replace those.'
'We can take it,' McKee said. It was then he noticed she was wearing an engagement ring-a ring with an impressive diamond. Why be surprised? he thought. Why be disappointed? Of course she was engaged. Not that it could possibly matter.
Walking was easy for the first fifty yards across the hard-packed sand, but then it became a matter of climbing carefully over the rocks. McKee noticed with surprise that the truck had apparently made it across this barrier. Its path was marked by broken brush. He glanced back. Miss Leon was sitting on a rock, holding her ankle. He noticed she hadn't brought the box.
