Every week or so, he visited the nearest police station. He spoke to the people in the office, read reports, warrants, wanted posters, and looked through filing cabinets at records that were kept there.
Ellis in summer went on a week vacation to the Smokey Mountains north of Asheville.
He took a train from the downtown Charlotte train station. The car he was in had a center aisle with rows of bench seats on each side. Ellis got a window seat. He took a lunch in a paper bag with water in a glass jar to drink. He watched Charlotte pass by the window and disappear. The countryside came up next with farms and woodlands. A few small cities were passed. The time went by. The land was level for a long spell. Then an incline came up that went gradually up into the mountains. At a depot Ellis left with one suitcase. He paid a taxi to drive him about six miles to a resort area with twelve small log cabins on a lake in a valley with wooded mountains all around it. He rented a cabin for the week. The cabin had a bedroom and a living room. There was a bathroom and a small kitchen. A fireplace in the living room had with logs to burn stacked in a pile near a wall to one side. Ellis unpacked and rested for a time on the bed. He needed to get used to his new location. He bought food at a nearby country grocery store. He spent days walking trails in the woods, sitting in lounge chairs on the lakeside smoking his pipe, talking with people, rowing a wood rowboat about the lake, watching clouds pass over the mountains, eating quiet meals in his cabin, building a night fire in the fireplace, and watching the night sky in peace and tranquility. The peaceful silvery moon rose above the lake. It glowed and filled the land with a magical luster. Ellis saw several deer and a brown bear. He got a decent rest there. Catching the train, he traveled back to Charlotte. The scenery beside the track was entertaining.