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SOME HOURS LATER ROLAND called a halt and told them to be ready

"For what?" Eddie asked

Roland glanced at hi"

It was perhaps three o&039;clock in the afternoon They were standing at a point where the Great Road crested a long, rolling druonally across the plain like a wrinkle in the world&039;s biggest bed-spread Below and beyond, the road ran through the first real town they had seen It looked deserted, but Eddie had not forgotten the conversa-tion thatbite? - no longer seemed quite so Zenny

"Jake?"

"What?"

Eddie nodded to the butt of the Ruger, which protruded from the waistband of Jake&039;s bluejeans - the extra pair he had tucked into his pack before leaving holanced at Roland The gunslinger only shrugged, as if to say It&039;s your choice

"Okay" Jake handed it over He unshouldered his pack, ruht out the loaded clip He could re files in one of his father&039;s desk drawers to get it, but all that seeo These days, thinking about his life in New York and his career as a student at Piper was like looking into the wrong end of a telescope

Eddie took the clip, examined it, raer in his own belt

"Listen closely and heed me well," Roland said "If there are people, they&039;ll likely be old and er folk will be long gone It&039;s unlikely that those left will have firearuns many of them have ever seen, except maybe for a picture or two in the old books Make no threatening gestures And the childhood rule is a good one: speak only when spoken to"

"What about bows and arrows?" Susannah asked

"Yes, they may have those Spears and clubs, as well"

"Don&039;t forget rocks," Eddie said bleakly, looking down at the cluster of wooden buildings The place looked like a ghost-town, but who knew for sure? "And if they&039;re hard up for rocks, there&039;s always the cobbles fro," Roland agreed "But we&039;ll start no trouble ourselves - is that clear?"

They nodded

"Maybe it would be easier to detour around" Susannah said

Roland nodded, eyes never leaving the siraphy ahead Another road crossed the Great Road at the center of the town, et centered in the telescopic sight of a high-powered rifle "It would, but on&039;t Detouring&039;s a bad habit that&039;s easy to get into It&039;s always better to go straight on, unless there&039;s a good visible reason not to I see no reason not to here And if there are people, well, thatWe could do with a little palaver"

Susannah reflected that Roland seemed different now, and she didn&039;t think it was simply because the voices in his mind had ceased This is the way he hen he still had wars to fight and ht Hoas before the worldthatEe

"They ested

Roland nodded again "Anything they know - particularly about the city - would come in handy, but there&039;s no need to think ahead too much about people who may not even be there"

"Tell you what," Susannah said, "I wouldn&039;t come out if I saw us Four people, three of the of those old-time outlaws in your stories, Roland - what do you call them?"

"Harriers" His left hand dropped to the sandalwood grip of his re revolver and he pulled it a little way out of the holster "But no harrier ever born carried one of these, and if there are old-tio"

Jake glanced behind the in the road with histhem closely "Oy!" Jake called

"Oy!" the bumbler echoed, and scrambled to its feet at once

They started down the shallow knoll toward the toith Oy trot-ting along behind them

4

Two BUILDINGS ON THE outskirts had been burned; the rest of the town appeared dusty but intact They passed an abandoned livery stable on the left, a building that ht, and then they were in the town proper - such as it was There were perhaps a dozen rickety buildings standing on either side of the road Alleys ran between soroith plains grass, ran northeast to southwest

Susannah looked at its northeast ares on the river, and so, and probably another shacky little town, mostly saloons and cribs, built up around it That was the last point of trade before the barges went on down to the city The wagons caain How long ago was that?

She didn&039;t know - but a long time, froe squalled monotonously Somewhere else one shutter clapped lonesomely to and fro in the plains wind

There were hitching rails, s Once there had been board sidewalks, but now h the holes where they had been The signs on the buildings were faded, but solish which was, she supposed, what Roland called the low speech FOOD AND GRAIN, one said, and she guessed that rain On the false front next to it, below a crude drawing of a plains-buffalo lying in the grass, were the words REST EAT DRINK Under the sign, batwing doors hung crookedly,a little in the wind

"Is that a saloon?" She didn&039;t know exactly why she hispering, only that she couldn&039;t have spoken in a nor "Clinch Mountain Breakdown" on the banjo at a funeral

"It was," Roland said He didn&039;t whisper, but his voice was low-pitched and thoughtful Jake alking close by his side, looking around nervously Behind them, Oy had closed up his distance to ten yards He trotted quickly, head swinging fros

Now Susannah began to feel it: that sensation of being watched It was exactly as Roland had said it would be, a feeling sunshine had been replaced by shade