Once in the woods she might have some chance of eluding him, and perhaps Skinner would show as much wisdom going as he had in coming, and take her down to the sageland.
But Skinner walked to the farther edge of the meadow before he stopped, and Al Woodruff never turned his back to a foe.

An owl hooted unexpectedly, and Lorraine edged closer to her captor, who was gathering dead branches one by one and throwing them toward a certain spot which he had evidently selected for a campfire.

He looked at her keenly, even suspiciously, and pointed with the stick in his left hand.
"You might go over there by the saddle and set down till I get a fire going," he said.

"Don't go wandering around aimless, like a hen turkey, watching a chance to duck into the brush.

There's bear in there and lion and lynx, and I'd hate to see you chawed.