They patched up an abandoned shack over on the bottoms, the postmaster
at Millville told Bart, and lived by fishing, hunting and their
depredations on orchards and chicken coops.
In one of their nightly forays about a year previous they were captured
and fined heavily. They could not pay the fine and were sent to jail for
six months.
About the first of June they were released, came back to Millville,
found their old shack burned down, and since then, the postmaster
understood, had camped out in the woods, giving the town a wide
berth--in fact, only occasionally appearing, to buy a little flour,
sugar or coffee, or, mostly, tobacco.
Nobody had seen them for over a week--nobody knew anything of a
newly-painted red wagon.
It seemed probable, Bart theorized, that if they had made for hiding in
any of their familiar woodland haunts, they had reached the same by
driving through Millville before daylight, and when nobody was astir.
Bart finally found a woodcutter who knew where the Tollivers had had
their camping place the week previous. He described the spot and Bart
was soon there--a secluded gully about two miles from town.
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