Section 15 pages 180-195 q 6

The father senses he is going to die soon. The boy senses this as well. There is going to come a time when they will be apart from each other. The boy's questions become less urgent. He takes on a Christ-like sureness about his dying world. The man knows the boy has emotional evolved beyond a scared child and does not need father in the same way that he once did. 

why did three men on the highway leave the man and the boy alone