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with laced boots. Qwen wore only a flannel shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of moccasins. He said he liked to travel light. He had a long hunting knife in his belt, a pack of chewing tobacco in his shirt pocket, and a whistle dangling from his belt buckle. The whistle was “so you guys will know where I am when I want you to know. I’ve been on search parties before and lots of times the searchers get lost before we find what we’re lookin’ for.”
    “There’s not going to be that many of us,” Kevin said. “I’ve got two assistants who’ll take the flanks.”
    “That’s it? I thought this was damn important.”
    “It is, but that’s all I have to bring. From what they tell me, you should be able to do it all by yourself,” he said. Qwen laughed. He recognized that Kevin wasn’t all that happy about this or about him.
    “You ever go into deep woods before?”
    “Not like this,” Kevin said.
    “What about him?”
    “He was domestic from birth. Nothing wild about him.”
    “It comes more natural to him. He don’t need no lessons, but if he’s as domesticated as you say, he ain’t going to be hard to find,” Qwen said.
    That was before they actually began. Now, he stood by the wild blueberry bush and shook his head.
    “What bothers you?” Kevin asked him. As far as he could see, there was nothing, no hint, no tracks, nothing. Qwen squatted and Kevin squatted behind him.
    “Most any animal would go right between the bushes. They don’t consider that if they go right between these bushes, they’ll probably break a branch or two and leave a sign, especially an animal bein’ chased or an animal runnin’ away from somethin’.”
    “So? He didn’t break a branch.”
    “More ‘n that. He didn’t want to. Lookee here,” Qwen said, pointing to the earth. “He crawled through the opening. He took care about it. This is an animal on its stomach pullin’ itself along.” Kevin nodded, but Qwen didn’t look away. He had the eyes of a hunter and his prey was not only somewhere out in the wilderness; it was in the mind of the man beside him. “What is he?”
    “I told you. Just a German shepherd, but one in whom we’ve invested a great deal of work and research. It would be very costly for us to lose him now.”
    Qwen stood up and took a chunk of chewing tobacco out of his pouch. “This isn’t all,” he said. “He started northwest and then went due north. He went northeast and back to due north. Then he turned back there and went southwest. Now he’s come back to due south.”
    “He’s confused.”
    “Yeah, maybe. Or he’s zigzaggin’ to throw off pursuit. Could he be doin’ that?” Qwen asked. There was some laughter in his eyes.
    Kevin bit his lower lip. “You’d better blow that whistle. Those guys are going too far ahead.”
    Qwen just looked at him. Then he took the whistle out and blew it. “He’s movin’ pretty fast,” Qwen said. “He’s not the lost animal you described searchin’ for food and shelter. I’d say he’s got a sense of direction and purpose.”
    “So?”
    “So if we go on much farther, we’re goin’ to have to consider livin’ off the land—huntin’ for our own food and water. I think we’re talkin’ about days. We’ve been goin’ three and a half hours; it’s goin’ to take us nearly that much to go back and it’ll be close to dark by then.”
    “What do you suggest? You’re the leader as far as this is concerned.”
    “Damned if I ever seen anything like you guys—bunch o’ doctors and technicians rushin’ out here to look for an escaped dog. What I suggest is we go back. You and I get some supplies together and we come back out in the mornin’. This ain’t what you said it would be. I’m goin’ to have to earn that money.”
    “Just the two of us?”
    “You said he wears a collar and you got a leash and he’ll come to you when we finally find him?”
    “Maybe,” Kevin confessed.
    “I’ll need to think about some