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IT TOOK THEM MOST of the reat bear had protected itself, but the going was a little easier along the path of the Beales of underbrush behind theain and they were able to ed froht It had been joined by several smaller streamlets, and its sound was deeper now There were h the woods, going about their daily round - and twice they saw sroups of deer One of them, a buck with a noble rack of antlers on its upraised and questioning head, looked to be at least three hundred pounds The brook bent away froain And, as the afternoon began to slant doard evening, Eddie saw so

"Could we stop here? Rest a minute?"

"What is it?" Susannah asked

"Yes," Roland said "We can stop"

Suddenly Eddie felt Henry&039;s presence again, like a weight settling on his shoulders Oh lookit the sissy Does the sissy see so? Does he? Ohhhh, ain&039;t that CUTE?

"We don&039;t have to stop I ," Roland finished for hiet it"

"It&039;s really nothing" Eddie felt warm blood mount into his face He tried to look away froht his eye

"But it is It&039;s so If you need it, Eddie, we need it What we don&039;t need is a e of his memories"

The war face pointed at hisas if Roland had looked directly into his confused heart with his faded blue bombardier&039;s eyes

"Eddie?" Susannah asked curiously "What is it, dear?"

Her voice gave hiht ash, pulling Roland&039;s knife fro," he muttered, and then forced himself to add: "Maybe a lot If I don&039;t fuck it up, maybe quite a lot"

"The ash is a noble tree, and full of power," Roland remarked fro, hectoring voice was gone; his shaht only of the one branch that had caught his eye It thickened and bulged slightly as it ran into the trunk It was this oddly shaped thickness that Eddie wanted

He thought the shape of the key was buried within it - the key he had seen briefly in the fire before the burning reain and the rose had appeared Three inverted V&039;s, the center V both deeper and wider than the other two And the little s-shape at the end That was the secret

A breath of his dream recurred: Dad-a-chuot the key

Maybe, he thought But this tiet all of it I think that this ti with great care, he cut the branch from the tree and then trimmed the narrow end He was left with a fat chunk of ash about nine inches long It felt heavy and vital in his hand, very ive up its secret shapeto a h to tease it out, that was

Was he that ht the answer to both questions was yes

The gunslinger&039;s good left hand closed over Eddie&039;s right hand "I think you know a secret"