“Elchanan, wake up, and don’t make a sound,” he whispered, straight into his partner’s ear. Elchanan’s eyes opened immediately, wide and alert

If they were stuck for the night, Elchanan thought, they might as well be a bit more comfortable.

“Help me here a second,” he told Avi, unzipping his knapsack. “I don’t want to lose anything. I’m going to hand you stuff as I take it out. We need to find the tent.”

“The tent?” Avi sounded incredulous. “You have a tent in there?”

“Well, I packed one, so I should have it... what’s this?” Elchanan’s fingers scrabbled against something hard. “Oh, no, it’s just — forget it. Here.” He dumped a waterproof jacket and a pack of spare batteries in Avi’s hands, followed by the lock-picking kit.

“What on earth?!”

“Got it!” Elchanan interrupted as his hand closed around a crumpled mass of canvas. “The tent. Leave that stuff, you can just put it back in my knapsack. It’s nothing.” He was glad for the dark this time. Last thing he needed Avi to see was the lock-picking kit, of all things. Why had he thought he’d need it in a forest?

Avi seemed to be examining the items in his hands, feeling them carefully all over and trying to figure out what they were.

“Here, just shove them back inside my knapsack, okay?” Elchanan said, brusquely. “I need your help putting up this tent. It’s not hard, but I’ve never done it in the dark... can’t really see what I’m doing.”

“So don’t,” Avi said. His voice sounded odd.