He paused, peering at each flashlight, giving them time to think. “The trouble is, if you don’t give me food and clothes and a rifle, then I’m not leaving here until I find that still of yours, and in the morning the police will follow my track through there. It won’t matter if you take the thing apart tonight and hide it. I’ll come after you to where the parts are hid.” “We’d wait for dawn to take it apart,” the old man said. “You can’t afford to stay here that long.” “With bare feet I can’t go much farther anyway. No. Believe me. The way I am,
