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"ALL RIGHT," ROLAND SAID "Tell me his riddle"

"What about all the people out there?" Eddie asked, pointing across the wide, pillared Plaza of the Cradle and toward the city beyond "What can we do for the," Roland said, "but it&039;s still possible that wefor ourselves Noas the riddle?"

Eddie looked toward the streamlined shape of the oing Only his pu to you?"

Roland thought it over carefully, then shook his head He looked down at Jake "Any ideas, Jake?"

Jake shook his head "I don&039;t even see a pump"

"That&039;s probably the easy part," Roland said "We say he and hi being, but he&039;s still a machine - & sophisticated one, but a ines, but it ate and the train doors"

"We better hurry up," Jake said nervously "It&039;s got to be two or three minutes since he last talked to us At least"

"Don&039;t count on it," Eddie said gloomily "Time&039;s weird over here"

"Still - "

"Yeah, yeah" Eddie glanced toward Susannah, but she was sitting astride Roland&039;s hip and looking at the numeric diamond with a day-dreamy expression on her face He looked back at Roland "I&039; a combination - that must be what all those number-pads are for" He raised his voice "Is that it, Blaine ? Have we got at least thatruines

"Roland," Susannah said abruptly "You have to helpreplaced by an expression of led horror, dismay, and determination To Roland&039;s eye, she had never looked more beautifulor more alone She had been on his shoulders when they stood at the edge of the clearing and watched the bear trying to claw Eddie out of the tree, and Roland had not seen her expression when he told her she must be the one to shoot it But he knehat that expression had been, for he was seeing it now Ka was a wheel, its one purpose to turn, and in the end it always came back to the place where it had started So it had ever been and so it was now; Susannah was once again facing the bear, and her face said she knew it

"What?" he asked "What is it, Susannah?"

"I know the answer, but I can&039;t get it It&039;s stuck in et stuck in your throat I need you to help me remember Not his face, but his voice What he said"

Jake glanced down at his wrist and was surprised all over again by a reen eyes when he saw not his watch but only the place where it had been - a white shape outlined by his deeply tanned skin How er did they have? Surely no enerous He looked up and saw that Roland had re it back and forth across the knuckles of his left hand Jake felt his eyelids irow heavy and looked away, fast

"What voice would you re voice His eyes were not fixed on her face but on the cartridge as it did its endless, limber dance across his knuckles and back across and back

He didn&039;t need to look up to know that Jake had looked away froan to speed it up until the cartridge al above the back of his hand

"Help me remember the voice of my father," Susannah Dean said

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FOR A MOMENT THERE was silence except for a distant, cru on the roof of the Cradle, and the fat throb of the ines Then a low-pitched hydraulic hue dancing across the gunslinger&039;s fingers (it took an effort; he realized that in another few moh the iron bars A sli pink surface between Blaine &039;s fors It looked like an antenna of some kind

"Susannah?" Roland asked in that same low voice

"What?" Her eyes were open but her voice was distant and breathy - the voice of so

"Do you remember the voice of your father?"

"Yes but I can&039;t hear it"

"SIX MINUTES, MY FRIENDS"

Eddie and Jake started and looked toward the control-box speaker, but Susannah see cartridge Below it, Roland&039;s knuckles rippled up and down like the heddles of a looed, and suddenly he felt Susannah change within the circle of his right arht, and, in some indefinable way, vitality as well It was as if her essence had soed

And it had

"Why you want to bother wit dot bitch?" the raspy voice of Detta Walker asked

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DETTA SOUNDED BOTH EXASPERATED and aot no better&039;n a C in ot dat widout ly: "An&039; Daddy He he&039;ped some, too I knowed about theot de bigges&039; kick outta dat!" She chuckled "Reason Suze can&039;t remember is &039;cause Odetta never understood &039;bout dem forspecial numbers in de firs&039; place"

"What forspecial numbers?" Eddie asked

"Prime numbahs!" She pronounced the word prime in a way that al to be wholly awake again now except she was not Susannah, nor was she the saone under the nah she sounded the same "She went to Daddy cryin an&039; carryin on &039;cause she was flunkin dat ebra at dat! She could do de woik - if I could, she could - but she din&039; want to Poitry-readin bitch like her too good for a little ars hed, but the poisoned, half-enuinely amused at the foolishness of her oan show you a trick, Odetta I learned it in college It he&039;ped oan he&039;p you, too He&039;p you find mos&039; any prime numbah you want&039; Oh-detta, dumb as ever, she say, &039;Teacher says ain&039;t no forht back, &039;They ain&039;t But you can catch em, Odetta, if you have a net&039; He called it The Net of Eratos-thenes Take oan answer dat honkey cooan th&039;ow you a net and catch you a train-ride"

Roland took her over, closely followed by Eddie, Jake, and Oy

"Gimme dat piece o cha&039;coal you keep in yo&039; poke"

He ruht out a short stub of blackened stick Detta took it and peered at the diarid of numbers "Ain&039;t zackly de way Daddy showed me, but I reckon it comes to de same," she said after a otta be a numbah don&039;t newah divide even &039;ceptin by one and its own-self Two is prime, &039;cause you can divide it by one an&039; two, but it&039;s the only even numbah that&039;s prime You c&039;n take out all the res&039; dat&039;s even"