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"There are people, aren&039;t there?" she whispered

Roland nodded

Standing on the northeast corner of the crossroads was a building with another sign she recognized: HOSTEL, it said, and COTTS Except for a church with a tilted steeple up ahead, it was the tallest building in town - three stories She glanced up in time to see a white blur, surely a face, draay froet out of here Roland was setting a slow, deliberate pace, however, and she supposed she knehy Hurrying ive the watchers the impression that they were scaredand that they could be taken All the sa streets widened out, creating a town square which had been overrun by grass and weeds In the center was an eroded stone th of rusty cable

Roland, with Jake by his side, walked toward the marker Eddie pushed Susannah&039;s chair after Grass whispered in its spokes and the wind tickled a lock of hair against her cheek Further along the street, the shutter banged and the hinge squealed She shivered and brushed the hair away

"I wish he&039;d hurry up," Eddie said in a low voice "This place gives me the creeps"

Susannah nodded She looked around the square and again she could almost see how it ed with people, a few of them town ladies with their baskets over their arees and bargeh the town square, the ones on the unpaved road raising choking clouds of yellow dust as the drivers flogged their carthorses

(oxen they were oxen)

along She could see those carts, dusty swatches of canvas tied down over bales of cloth on some and pyramids of tarred barrels on others; could see the oxen, double-yoked and straining patiently, flicking their ears at the flies buzzing around their huge heads; could hear voices, and laughter, and the piano in the saloon pounding out a lively tune like "Buffalo Gals" or "Darlin&039; Katy"

It&039;s as if I lived here in another life, she thought

The gunslinger bent over the inscription on the marker " Great Road," he read "Lud, one hundred and sixty wheels"

"Wheels?" Jake asked

"An old form of measurement"

"Have you heard of Lud?" Eddie asked

"Perhaps," the gunslinger said "When I was very small"

"It rhyn"

Jake was exa the east side of the stone " River RoadIt&039;s written funny, but that&039;s what it says"

Eddie looked at the west side of the marker "It says Jimtown, forty wheels Isn&039;t that the birthplace of Wayne Newton, Roland?"

Roland looked at him blankly

"Shet ma mouf," Eddie said, and rolled his eyes

On the southwest corner of the square was the town&039;s only stone building - a squat, dusty cube with rusty bars on the s Coht She had seen si spaces in front and you wouldn&039;t be able to tell the difference So in fading yellow paint She could read it, and although she couldn&039;t understand it, it et out of this town PUBES DIE, it said

"Roland!" When she had his attention, she pointed at the graffito "What does that mean?"

He read it, then shook his head "Don&039;t know"

She looked around again The square now see over theet out of here?"

"Soon" He bent down and pried a shtfully in his left hand as he looked up at theover the marker He cocked his arm and Susannah realized, an instant too late, what he ed back at the sound of her own horrified voice

He took no notice of her but fired the stone upward His aim was as true as ever, and it struck the box dead center with a hollow,There was a whir of clockwork fro unfolded fro briskly Written in large black letters on the side of the flag was the word GO

"I&039;ll be daht If you hit it again, does it say STOP?"

"We have co Susannah thought of as the county courthouse Athe stone steps You win the kewpie doll, Roland, Susannah thought They&039;re older n God, the both of ee straw sombrero The woman walked with one hand clamped on his naked sunburned shoulder She wore homespun and a poke bonnet, and as they drew closer to the marker, Susannah saw she was blind, and that the accident which had taken her sight ly horrible Where her eyes had been there were now only two shallow sockets filled with scar-tissue She looked both terrified and confused

"Be they harriers, Si?" she cried in a cracked, quavering voice "You&039;ll have us killed yet, I&039;ll warrant!"

"Shut up, Mercy," he replied Like the woman, he spoke with a thick accent Susannah could barely understand "They ain&039;t harriers, not these There&039;s a Pube with em, I told you that - ain&039;t no harrier ever been travellin&039; with a Pube"

Blind or not, she tried to pull away froht her arm "Quit it, Mercy! Quit it, I say! You&039;ll fall down and do y&039;self evil, daer called He used the High Speech, and at the sound of it the man&039;s eyes lit up with incredulity The wo her blind face in their direction

"A gunslinger!" the man cried His voice cracked and wavered with excitement " &039;Fore God! I kneere! I knew!"

He began to run across the square toward the helplessly, and Susannah waited for the inevita-bleheavily to his knees, and she sprawled painfully beside him on the cobbles of the Great Road