“Please,” said Umbo. “Don’t be stubborn. Do it for me.”
Loaf sighed and opened his eyes.
The woods around them were vivid with autumn colors, and a rain as light as mist was falling. Now he could feel it on his face.
“By Silbom’s right ear,” said Loaf.
“Now I’m going to let go of your hand,” said Umbo, “and try to keep you here with me.”
He let go.
“Still see the autumn leaves?” asked Umbo.
“Yes,” said Loaf. “But I don’t see you!”
Umbo looked shocked. “I’m invisible?”
“I can still see your clothes, but they’re empty!”
“Liar,” said Umbo. “You’d be a lot more upset than that if I had disappeared.”
“You’d like to think so,” said Loaf. “Dig it up and take the jewel, you little thief.”
Umbo dug with his hands. “How far down did you bury it?”
“Not as deep as that.”
“Then . . . did I make a mistake? Did I take us back before you buried them?”
“Maybe. Or maybe it’s because you’re digging in the wrong spot,” said Loaf.
“I saw where you dug to get to them!”
“But you were watching from over there, and a long way, too. You didn’t miss by much. Back from there about a pace. But first fill in that hole and hide it.”
“Why? There’s nothing in it.”
“Because you don’t want to put it into somebody’s mind that something was buried here—not this near to the real hiding place. Remember, we’re leaving seventeen jewels hidden here and we won’t be back to claim them for a while yet.”
“Why don’t you fill up the hole?” said Umbo. “You’re the one who knows how to hide things.”
So Loaf refilled the first hole and scattered a handful of tiny pebbles and short twigs across it until it looked just like the surrounding dirt. Meanwhile, Umbo had found the real hiding place and had the bag opened to show all eighteen jewels.
“I can’t remember now which one is missing,” said Umbo.
“Don’t play games,” said Loaf. “Somebody could come along at any moment—in either time.”
“I’m not joking,” said Umbo. “You have to open up the jewels we already have and see which of these is the missing one.”
“You’re doing this on purpose because you want to do your experiment,” said Loaf.
“Who’s wasting time now?” asked Umbo.
Loaf sighed, drew the bag of jewels up out of his trouser leg, and opened them. “I can’t tell you which one is missing, I can only tell you which ones are here.”
“So lay them down beside the others.”
“No,” said Loaf.