How does Arthur stand firm in an attempt to evade the police and find an even more isolated location?

Ownby, of course, is not at all willing to surrender to this fate, and his stand is anything but desperate. He seems both more prepared and more clever than the police who are trying to arrest him and somehow manages to escape. His choice of a new destination is telling of his character. He wants to go to Harrykin, a region which is apparently more or less uninhabited.