Granther's camp is the Vermont family retreat Andy McGee inherits from his deceased grandfather, and the place where Andy and Charlie McGee try to find safety after fleeing the Manders farm. The Shop's computer analysis identifies it as their likeliest destination, turning a familiar refuge into a site of concealed surveillance. When Andy finally decides they must leave, the camp offers no protection from the danger outside; their departure begins in the early-spring light, and at the steps Charlie undergoes a sudden, frightening change.

Identity and Setting

The camp stands on Tashmore Pond in Vermont and had belonged to Andy's grandfather, Granther McGee; ownership later passed to Andy. It is a known family place rather than an improvised hiding spot: Andy and Charlie had vacationed there, and its familiarity makes it a plausible destination when they need somewhere to go. The narrative refers to the dwelling as Granther's camp, cabin, and cottage, presenting it as both a family refuge and a modest residence that can be left clean and orderly.

Its position also matters to the escape route. The camp lies within reasonable striking distance of the farm by back roads, so it connects the McGees' earlier flight with a place Andy might naturally choose next. To the people searching for them, that connection makes it predictable. The same local geography that makes the camp accessible to the fugitives helps the Shop calculate where they are likely to go.

Discovery and Surveillance

The Shop finds the camp through accumulated information rather than a chance sighting. Its computer files contain details about more than two hundred relatives and four hundred friends connected to the McGee-Tomlinson family tree. After receiving the McGees' last-known location, the computer produces a ranked list of likely destinations. Granther's camp heads that list because it is inherited property, a place the family knows, and a plausible refuge after the Manders farm.

Cap Hollister takes credit for locating the McGees, which strengthens his position, although the account emphasizes that the decisive work was computer analysis. Less than a week after Andy and Charlie move in, Cap knows they are there. The Shop establishes a loose cordon around the camp and arranges to purchase Notions ’n’ Novelties in Bradford because the fugitives might need to shop there. The anticipated trip is enough to extend surveillance beyond the property itself.

The operation is deliberately passive. Agents photograph the camp with telephoto lenses from concealed positions, and Cap does not want to risk another firestorm. By the time the McGees are ready to leave, an even dozen agents have taken positions around Granther McGee's cabin. They wear mottled white and green clothing; none was present at the Manders farm. The restraint has limits: John Rainbird carries a rifle, and Don Jules has a .22 pistol, while the other agents are unarmed. Rainbird chooses Jules to take Andy because Jules is practical, silent, and experienced in working with him. He wants to avoid panic and the possibility that the operation will end with two corpses.

Andy's Decision to Leave

On March 27, Andy abruptly decides that he and Charlie can no longer stay. More than two weeks have passed since he mailed his letters, and no answer or other sign has reached him. The silence around the camp, which might otherwise seem reassuring, instead makes him uneasy. He considers that his letters may simply have been dismissed, but his deeper suspicion is that they were diverted. If so, the Shop has learned where they are.

The decision changes the camp's meaning. It has served as a place to hide, but remaining there would give the pursuers more time to close in. The agents' covert presence makes the apparent stillness deceptive: the family is living in a familiar retreat while an organized search operation watches from outside. Andy's departure is not prompted by a visible attack at the cabin; it follows from his reading of the silence and his fear that the letters have exposed their location.

Departure and Narrative Significance

Before leaving, Andy and Charlie pass through the cottage after the dishes from breakfast have been washed. Everything is as they found it, neat and spotless, as Granther would have wanted. The detail gives their exit the shape of a careful leave-taking rather than a hurried wrecking of their refuge. Andy puts an arm around Charlie's shoulders and gives her one brief hug, then picks up the suitcases. Father and daughter step outside together into the early-spring sunshine.

At the edge of the steps, Charlie suddenly stops and makes a strangled swallowing sound. Andy drops the suitcases at once; although he has heard nothing, he recognizes that something is terribly wrong and that Charlie has changed. The moment interrupts the practical act of escape with a new, immediate crisis. The evidence establishes the suddenness and gravity of the change, but does not specify its nature here. Granther's camp therefore functions as more than a temporary address: it is the point where the McGees' carefully chosen refuge gives way to renewed danger, and where departure itself becomes the threshold to what comes next.