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Mark stared for a long er lit hiarette "Here’s the deal, Marky-​boy I am not here exactly by choice--God knows My car broke down and I need a new one Renting one ain’t an option right now Also, I got a friend out there in the cornfield with a busted leg You bozos are going to help et hioing to get the fuck out of this episode of Green Acres in your pop’s Bronco, which, Ito steal"

Mark blinked several tio one of a couple of ways The ideal ould, of course, involve you four helpingup no fuss as I tie you up and drive off in the car I think I speak for all of us when I say that that’s the e’d all like it to go On the other hand, if you folks don’t want to cooperate, then I can just simply pop all four of you, take the car anyway, and still be on my merry way You see, it really doesn’t matter all that much to me except that it would be more work for me if I had to do it alone, and work always makes me kind of cranky"

"‘Pop’ us? You mean you’d shoot us? You’d actually shoot us?"

"Deader’n shit," Ruger agreed

"Holy Jesus"

"Monna be?"

"I can’t believe you’d actually just…shoot us I mean, what have we ever done to you?"

"Mark…" Val whispered

"Toto me If my car hadn’t crashed, you’d have never even known I existed, and vice versa Just luck of the draw, Marky"

"But--shoot us?"

Ruger rolled his eyes "Yes! What part of ‘shoot you’ don’t you understand, farm boy?"

"Why?"

"Mark, be still," Guthrie said in a quiet but very fir all of us"

Guthrie reached over and cla hand on his son’s wrist "Yes, and if you don’t shut your ht! Now be still!"

Mark shut his er nodded in appreciation "Your old man is sharp, Marky-​boy You’re the kind of fella that could let histo understand this," Mark muttered

"What’s not to understand? Don’t you ever watch TV? I’uy on the run, and you all are the innocent saps who get tied up and robbed End of scene There’s nothing to understand There’s noto it"

"What is it you want us to do?" asked Val, trying to steer the conversation back to a straightforward business negotiation She eyed Ruger carefully as he took a long drag on his cigarette, wondering why he was stretching this whole thing out What was he really waiting for? He could have tied theo, but instead he was dragging this out for some reason she could not work out More than once she saw hi to a voice outside, or perhaps inside his head

Ruger licked his lips and said, "Well, two of you are going to be stretcher bearers foron us"

"Where in the field?" asked Guthrie

"By a big post with a scarecrow Good half mile from here"

Guthrie nodded, and to Val he said, "By the new section of fence"

Her stoer and his friend polluting the spot where she and Crow had ht Her mouth was a thin line as she asked, "And then?"

"Then we try to patch hier laughed "Oh yeah Stepped in a hole and broke the living shit out of it He has one of those…whaddya call it when the bones are sticking out?"

"Compound fracture," murmured Val

"Uh-​huh A real motherfucker of a compound fracture I set it, more or less, and splinted it up, but he needs someone else to check it out I don’t suppose any of you are doctors?"

"I know some first aid," said Val

"Well, well That’s handy"

"Just soars can’t be choosers"