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Higgins threw the horseshoe into a bucket of water “Your name is James, ain’t it?”

“Yes We’re both Jims”

“No, you’re a Jaainst the anvil and stood his hammer beside it “Come on, James I’ll show you around”

Jiins lumbered off toward the bluff Jains until they had to stop at the bluff’s crue The Pacific Ocean spread as far as they could see, gray and forbidding under a lowering sky Dashwood looked down, and his guts clenched Hundreds of feet below the up spray Had Higgins lured him to this lonely precipice to throw him to his death?

“I have known for soravely “That?

??s why I stopped drinking whiskey But it didn’t help Stopped beer Still going to Hell” He turned to Ja eyes “You turnedScared ”

James Dashondered what he should say What would Isaac Bell do under these circumstances? Try to clamp handcuffs around his thick wrists? Or let him talk?

“Bunch of big shots started this“Lot of theseto live the simple life You knohat one of them told me?”

“ No ”

“Toldexactly like they did in the Bible, except I burn e instead of charcoal They say that working like folks in the Bible is good for our souls”

He turned his back on the cliff and fixed his gaze on the fields andinto rain shrouded the vineyards and the fruit trees

“I figured I was safe here,” he said

He stared for a long tiain

“What I didn’t figure was liking it here I like working outdoors under a tree instead of cooped up with trucks and auto eather I like watching storms …” He whirled around to face the Pacific, which was checkered with dark squalls To the southwest, the sky was turning black as coal “See there?” he asked Dashwood, pointing to the blackness

Dashwood saw a gri precipice at his feet, and rocks far below