Gonff trotted alongside his friends, his quick eye noting the landscape.
"It gets a bit hilly further on, mateys. We could drop down and hide in a dozen places. What d'you say? Shall we give 'em the slip?"
Martin glanced backward. "I'd rather not risk it. They've got us in plain view. No, best keep on until evening, then we can pick a good hiding place when it's dark and camp there the night. Are you all right, Bugs?"
Bugs wrinkled his nose. "Don't like runnin'. I like diggin' better. Wait, that gives me an idea!"
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Scratch stopped to extract a burr from his paw. Blacktooth and Splitnose ran slap bang into him from behind.
"Clodhoppers!" Scratch shouted. "How is it that you have all this open country to run in, yet you both manage to crash into me? What d'you think this is, a game of leapfrog?"
He turned back around to look at Martin and his friends in the distance, but they had disappeared!
"Where did they go?" Splitnose exclaimed.
If he had only known it, they were actually right beneath his feet. Bugs had dug a hole and they had all dived into it. Now Bugs was tunneling westward through the soil, creating a path for Martin and Gonff to follow. He could dig even faster than a mole.
"I tell ya, Doc, this is the only way to travel," he sighed. "I feel a lot safer under good old Terra Foima."
"Just as long as you don't take another one of your 'wrong turns at Albuquerque,'" Gonff chuckled.
But he didn't, and when they poked their heads up a few hours later, they saw a range of mountains up ahead. They were so tall their tops reached into the clouds.
"I reckon this is where 'the teeth of land rise up to bite the wool of sheep,'" said Martin. "To a bird, those mountains would look just like giant teeth biting the clouds."
"Aye," Gonff agreed. "They look quite close, but don't let that fool you. We've got a fair bit of travelling to do before we reach them."
"It's gettin' dark, guys," Bugs said. "I think we've lost those maroons now. Whaddya say we rest here for the night?"
"Good idea," said Martin. "We'll have some supper and sleep, then we can get a fresh start in the morning."
While Martin and Gonff took some oat scones and russet apples out of their packs, Bugs enlarged a small hole in the side of a hill. In a short while they were happily installed in a superb little cave. Bugs had even dug a ledge halfway round for them to rest on. The three friends lay on the ledge, eating their supper and watching the crimson underbellies of purple cloud rolls as night took over from the long, hot day.