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Matthew lay on his bed and closed his eyes, but even so his fit of anger would not be stilled Gone out there all that way, just to be tricked Tried to ood job of that, did theyi No siree! It takes a smarter pair than those two to " business, trying to testI&039;ve never done before and likely can never do Sword-fighting and fist-fighting and acting like a co in violence I could&039;ve stayed an orphan with the harbor gangs!

He had a clear vision of Katherine Herrald, seated behind her desk Fixing hi underwater

Many times you will fail, she said That is the nature of the world, and the truth of life But when you find your horse again, will you go back, or will you go forwardi

and then she lifted her hand from the desk, made a fist, and knocked down upon the wood Oncetwicea third time

"Matthewi Matthewi"

He sat up with a start, realizing how draain came three knocks "Matthewi Open up, please!"

It was Hira at the underside of the trapdoor "Matthewi"

"Yes sir! Just a ot his feet on the floor and rubbed his eyes He was feeling much better now, but what tiht he thought it must be near five o&039;clock He pulled open the trapdoor and looked down into Stokely&039;s face

"Sorry to bother you," Stokely apologized, "but you have a visitor"

"a visitori" Then Stokelyat the foot of the ladder was someone he&039;d never expected

"&039;lo, Matthew," said John Five He must&039;ve just coh he wore an ordinary white shirt, brown breeches, and boots his face was still ruddy from the furnace fire "Can I climb upi"

"Yes Of course Come on" Matthew held the trapdoor open as Stokely descended and John Five climbed the ladder When John was up in the roo a couple of candles

"Nice place," John said, gazing around "all those books I should have known"

"Pardonhis face at the waterbasin He retrieved his watch from his coat and saw that it was indeed almost ten minutes after five He wound the watch and held it to his ear to hear the ticking

"Oh, that&039;s a fine thing! I didn&039;t know you ift It is nice, isn&039;t iti"

"Somethin&039; I&039;ll likely never have Can I hold iti"

Matthew gave it to hi soap while John Five listened to the watch at his re ear

"Ticks pretty, huhi" John Five asked

"It does"

John set the watch down on the bedside table and sniffed the air "What&039;s that smelli"

"Yarrow oil I have a sore shoulder"

"Oh I could&039;ve used that, many a tian to shave with his straight-razor He could see John Five standing behind hi around the roo, but Matthew had no idea what it was

John cleared his throat "Take you to supper"

Matthew turned around "I&039;m sorryi"

"Supper I&039;ll take you to supper My coin"

Matthew continued his shaving, scraping his chin clean, but he watched John Five in thewas the first reply John walked over and peered out theonto the Broad Way "Doesn&039;t fit you, holdin&039; a grudge," he said "You knohat I&039; to our disagreement over a certain course of action But I want you to knoell that I&039;ve thought a lot about what you&039;ve said about Nathan and all the rest of it" Matthew paused with the razor at his upper lip "Even though I wish things ht be different, I know they can&039;t be So I&039;o, John I really aei"

Matthew finished the lip before he answered "It does"

"Whew!" said John Five, with visible relief "Thank God for that!"

Now Mattheas really curious He washed the blade off and put it aside "If your visit is just to discern if I hold a grudge against you, I can promise I don&039;t But I&039;d say that&039;s not exactly why you&039;re here Is iti"

"No, it&039;s not"

Matthew began to wipe his face with a clean cloth When it was obvious John Five was not going to advance without prodding, Matthew said, "I&039;d like to hear it, if you&039;d like to tell me"

John nodded He rubbed his hand over his ns that Matthew took to be the steadying of nerves Matthew had never seen John Five so jittery, and this alone doubled his curiosity

"Take you to supper," John said "I can tell you about it there Say the Thorn Bush, at seveni"

"The Thorn Bushi Not ood and cheap there and they let me run a bill"

"Why not just tell me about it nowi"

"Because," John said, "I eat supper every Thursday evenin&039; at five-thirty with Constance and Reverend Wade Tonight, especially, I wouldn&039;t be wantin&039; to not show up"

"and why is tonight so special, theni"

John drew in a long breath and slowly let it out "Because," he said quietly, "it&039;s the reverend I need to talk to you about Constance thinksshe thinks" He hesitated; it was so he couldn&039;t quite force hied, just as quietly

John lifted his gaze to Matthew&039;s His eyes looked sunken and haunted "Constance thinks her father is losin&039; hisbetween them Outside, a wo for her little boy Giddy to coon creaked as it was pulled past the

"More than that," John continued "Things she can&039;t understand I&039;ve got to go, Matthew I&039;ve got to go sit at that table and knohat Constance is thinkin&039;, and I&039;ve got to look in Reverend Wade&039;s face and wonder what I&039;m seein&039; Please ot to eat somewhere, don&039;t youi"

Matthew had planned to eat with the Stokelys, but this put a new coat of paint on the fence The rough-edged Thorn Bush was certainly not the place Mattheould have chosen, though he realized John Five probably wished to go there for one reason other than his credit, which was more easily obtained at the Thorn Bush than at any other tavern in town: you could be faceless in there, if you pleased The ga prostitutes focused all attention upon themselves and it was surely not an establishment into which Reverend Wade nor any of the ht," he said "If you wish, seven o&039;clock at the Thorn Bush"

"Thank you, Matthew" John started to clap Matthew on the right shoulder, but he saw the slick shine of the yarrow oil and stayed his hand "I&039;ll see you there," he said, and Matthew lifted the trapdoor to let hione, Matthew pondered the startling state hisitselfi he wondered

We have to leave him, Wade had said to Vanderbrocken, over the deadseparately, or togetheri and if together, to what destinationi

One step at the tiht First, to listen to what John Five had to say, and then to deterht mean

He carefully folded his razor and put it away, thinking that the es often lay close at hand