to the ground crew was intolerable. They knew Gunthrie. They knew the area. Surely, they could find him.
“You’re certain the birds didn’t give a hint the crew had a prisoner.”
“Absolutely certain,” Diego reiterated. “He’s not there.”
“And he’s not in his house. The sentries are looking for him.” Rubin mused, “Where are you, Luther?” He frowned and looked at his brother. “Where’s his still? It isn’t up on the ridge. It’s not in any of the other places he had it before. Where did he put it?”
They looked at each other for a long time. Diego trilled several notes and several of his birds took to the air, flying in various directions over Luther’s property. Both Rubin and Diego connected with them, seeing for themselves what the birds were seeing. Men were moving on the ground below, clearly searching for someone. They were trying to be stealthy as they hunted in pairs through the woods and around the meadow. Two were making the rounds near Luther’s house, traveling in circles, trying to find tracks.
“That’s a good question,” Diego mused aloud, even as he paid attention to what the birds could see.
Rubin didn’t talk. Looking through the eyes of flying birds was disorienting and he didn’t want to miss a detail. As it was, he was nearly distracted by the pair of soldiers in camouflage clothing working their way around a spot toward the back of the particularly flat area in the woods Rubin had been in often. It was close to the Gunthrie house, right out back, just inside the tree line.
“Have the birds go back to just there, Diego,” Rubin directed quietly, sending him the exact visual.
Diego didn’t question him. The flock of birds changed direction, coming together, circling and flying over the house and woods, dropping lower and then circling higher to settle in the tree branches.
“What is it?” Diego asked. “Other than the soldiers?”
“The ground. It’s not right. Look at the ground.”
His brother went silent, taking his time. Like Rubin, he was familiar with the area. They’d been there numerous times over the years, visiting first Luther and Lotty, and then Luther, to check on his health whether he liked it or not. When they did, he liked to walk around his property, and they always obliged, walking with him, keeping him company, knowing he was proud of his place.
“Not enough ground cover. Should be a little more overgrown than that,” Diego said.
“Yeah. He tore that up for some reason.” Rubin blinked rapidly to get his vision back to normal and then waited until his brother did the same before looking at him. “Are you thinking what I am?”
“That he put that still underground?”
“What else? Where is it? He would never get rid of it. You know he wouldn’t.” Rubin was certain of that.
“He’s got to be seventy or eighty. How could he possibly build an underground room for a still?” Diego demanded.
“Because he’s a genius,” Rubin said. “Everyone always underestimates him. Just because he doesn’t want to drive a car doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the ability. I’ll bet if those soldiers go to start up their equipment, none of it will work. Luther Gunthrie is intelligent and quite capable of building an underground maze if he chose.”
Diego’s head snapped up. “Rubin. He could have discovered a cave.”
“Or a cave system,” Rubin said. “We talked about it that one time at Huntington Falls. We were on that picnic with Lotty. She said something about Luther being so excited over someplace he liked to go. He’d taken her there, but she didn’t like him going because it seemed like a lot of mud and he had to crawl in places. Or pull himself through on his belly. That just terrified her, so she asked him not to go back there. She was afraid it would cave in on him. As far as she knew he never did again. She used the words ‘cave in on him.’ She used that as one of the examples of what a man might do for his wife when she was really afraid of something.”
Diego nodded. “Is that what you call it? A picnic? You were assessing her condition, as I recall, and had me chatting about everything and getting her to throw rocks into the water.” He fished around in his jacket until he came up with a packet. Tearing it open, he emptied part of the rations into his mouth and then zipped the packet closed and returned it to the