He felt sure they would overtake Jalwar and Folly, but
they did not. Not all that day nor the next.
It was on that third day that Mudge had them halt while
he knelt in the sand.
” ‘Ere now, ‘ave either of you two noticed this?”
“Noticed what?” The sweat was pouring down Jon-
Tom’s face, as much in frustration at finding no sign of
their quarry as from the heat.
Mudge put a paw fiat on the ground. “This ‘ere sand.
‘Ave a close look.”
Jon-Tom knelt and stared. At first he saw nothing. Then
one grain crept from beneath Mudge’s fingers. A second, a
third, moving from west to east. Mudge’s paw hadn’t
moved them, nor had the wind. There was no wind.
At the same time as loose grains were shifting from
beneath the otter’s paw, a small rampart of sand was
building up against the other side of his thumb. The sand
was moving, without aid of wind, from east to west.
Jon-Tom put his own hand against the hot sand, watched
as the phenomenon repeated itself. All around them, the
sand was shifting from east to west. He felt the small hairs
on the back of his neck stiffen.
4′ Tis bloody creepy,’ * the otter muttered as he rose and
brushed sand from his paws.
“Some underground disturbance,” Jon-Tom suggested.
“Or something alive under the surface.” That was not a
pleasant thought, and he hastened to discard it. They had
no proof that anything lived in this land, anyway.
“That’s not all.” Mudge gestured back the way they’d
come. “There’s somethin’ else mighty funny. See that ‘ill
we passed the other day?” Jon-Tom and Mudge strained to