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after Lark had told her story, Matthealked for the second time into the blood-stained kitchen, not to further test his stoht was inconvertibly true

The scene of carnage had not changed He put his hand to his ain, but it was only a reflex action; he had not yet lost his breakfast of cattail roots nor the midday meal of dried meat and a handful of berries, whichup or that the food was too precious to expel He thought the latter was h to take a sight like this without feeling sick

He walked around the kitchen, avoiding the blood and in the case of Peter Lindsay, the brains that had been blown out the back of the head He was looking for details, as the sunlight through theshiore and the flies buzzed back and forth on their industrious journeys

No boots on the hter&039;s old boots, taken of course fro on the floor Couldn&039;t Slaughter just ask for a damned pair of bootsi Mattheondered Or at the very least take the someone&039;s lifei God damn the man! Steady, steady, he told hi a little bit, and he had to get a grip Slaughter would not be Slaughter, if he asked for things he desired No, Slaughter&039;s as to take, and to kill, and however senseless it seemed to Matthew it must ht that Slaughter was a breed apart; a hu who detested the very air that other huht down to their shadows But to kill children

Matthew picked up a green reen It had within it a swirl of blue It was a beautiful thing, polished and smooth He had it in mind that he should put two or three of these ers, to reliness and evil of what had happened here there still remained beauty in the world But he had no wish to rob the dead and, besides,older, he thought, by the minute

He put the marble back where it was, looked at all the food on the table and knew that Greathouse ht be able to cast the corpses out of his mind and feast on the leftovers, but Mattheould rather have eaten cattail roots and driedboard Or perhaps, he suspected, he wasn&039;t hungry enough

The pot of soapy water on the table drew his attention In it he saw floating hair of otten his shave; one more step toward his presentation as an earl, a duke, or a marquis, the better to cut the throat of sorave

God damn the man

Walker In Two Worlds came into the room This was also his second visit here; his face was impassive, his eyes fixed only on Matthew But he looked tired and drawn, and even his feathers see flower

"Slaughter went up the hillside," he reported "I caught sight of hiot into the woods before I could drawWalker had chosen the better part of valor-and shown good sense-not to continue the pursuit without having the little bullpup pistol covering his back

"It&039;s very thick up in there," Walker said "Many places to set a trap"

"He&039;ll keep going" Matthew opened his left hand and looked at the two gold coins Lark had given hiuinea pieces, the same type as he&039;d taken from the lockbox in Chapel&039;s house Sorief on the Philadelphia Pike, and coughed these up for Slaughter and Rattison "I wonder if he really thinks I&039;ll give up"

Now Walker did turn his gaze away froarded the dead man and the two children "Will youi"

Matthe a small blood-splattered pillow on the floor, next to one of the chairs It displayed an e on a tree branch

"I don&039;t understand your god," said Walker, in a toneless voice "Our spirits created the world and the heavens and all that we are, but they never proht your god showed more " He searched his memory for the word "Compassion"

Matthew couldn&039;t reply Rain fell equally on the just and unjust, he thought The Bible surely contained more verses and lessons about misery and unti like thisi The question begged for an answer More than that; it screamed for an answer But there was no answer, and Matthew put the two gold coins into his waistcoat pocket along with the other iteot out of the kitchen before his sense of dark despair crushed hiirl and her irl&039;s back was pressed hard against the trunk, her glazed eyes staring straight ahead, while the e childlike abandon and playing with the heht blue dress

Faith looked up at Matthew as he approached "are you Mr Shaynei"

Her voice was high-pitched and childlike Matthew thought it was nearer to the voice of a girl seven years old The sound of it was unsettling, co from the throat of a woman in her early thirties But Matthew had already seen the emptiness of the woman&039;s eyes, the scorched shock where a ht that here was a patient for the doctors in Westerwicke

"No," Matthew said Lark had previously given hiirl had come out of the barn like a sleepwalker, her face devoid of expression but for the tear tracks on her cheeks and the grim set of her old coins

He says you&039;re square as far as he&039;s concerned, she&039;d said Her eyes had rolled back into her head, her knees had buckled and Matthew had caught her just before she fell, as the bedraggled woed frooing to be bad, in the house He had eased Lark to the ground against the tree, and he and Walker had gone inside to find the afterhter&039;s visit Neither one of them had stayed but a moment, in that sunny kitchen with all the food upon the table It appeared that only one person had left the table well-fed

Gone, Lark had said when she could speak again Not more than ten minutes Back of the barn

Walker had told Matthew to stay where he was, that he was not going to do anything stupid but that he was going to find Slaughter&039;s trail across the apple orchard, and he had set off at a cautious trot Matthew had sat down beside Lark to hear the story when she was able to give it Several times Faith Lindsay had asked him if he was Mr Shayne, and once had inquired when Ruth could come to play

Matthew had returned to the house when, after Lark had finished her tale, the girl had begun crying with her hands to her face Just a little at first, as if she feared releasing what she was holding back within; but then, suddenly and terribly, she had broken It had begun as a wail that Slaughter must have heard as he climbed the hillside toward the deeper woods and as Lark had sobbed and trembled her irl voice, "Don&039;t cry, Moet the lace toonized face and stared at her htly, "For the dolls, Momma You know To one into the house for the second ti for the moment the silent co

"Why are you wearing thati" Faith asked of the Indian, as Walker ca around herself as if trying to deter

"I am a Seneca," Walker replied The woman was obviously puzzled, for she frowned and shook her head She returned to her task of s the hem of Lark&039;s dress

Matthew knelt down beside Lark "The hter He&039;s a " She already knew that part about hi a killer, so it was not necessary "Escaped prisoner," he said "Walker In Two Worlds is helping aol in New York"

The girl&039;s ave a bitter twist "You arei Howi"

"I have a pistol in round, eventually"

"Eventually," she repeated "How long is thati"

"as long as it takes"

"He said he&039;s going to Philadelphia We told hi, that it was just a few ht her breath, as if she&039;d suddenly been struck Her eyes again filled with tears "Why did he have to kill themi Why did he have to kill themi"

"Shhhhh, Momma, don&039;t cry," Faith fretted

"Matthew" Walker stood over hiht We can catch him before dark, if we start now"

"Start nowi" Lark&039;s bloodshot eyes widened "You can&039;t leave us here! Not with in there"

"There&039;s no time to bury them" It was a statement of fact, and spoken with the hard truth of the Indian