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At some point the drums ceased At another, he became aware that the darkness had lifted His eyes were open, staring at a hazy sky In hisfield filled with sheep His head hurt The sun had moved an hour’s worth to the west And when he sat up and looked around, he saw a flock of real sheep-unshorn woollies grazing peacefully, all but one a hundred yards away that was struggling to stand

Bell rubbed his head, then he felt for broken bones and found none He rose unsteadily and walked toward the sheep to see if he had injured it so badly that he would have to shoot it to put it out of its ed to stand on all fours and limp painfully toward the flock “Sorry, pardner,” said Bell “Didn’t ailad I did”

He went looking for his hat

When he heard a train co, he climbed up the embankment and planted hi on his feet, until the train stopped with the tip of its engine pilot pressing between his knees A red-faced engineer stomped to the front of his locomotive and yelled, “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“Van Dorn agent,” Bell answered “On my way to Napa Junction”

“You think that makes you own the railroad?”

Bell unbuttoned the inner breast pocket of his grass-stained coat and presented theof the several railroad passes he carried “In a ered to the ladder that led to the cab and climbed aboard

At Napa Junction, the stationyman and his Chinese missionary took the train north to St Helena”

“When’s your train to St Helena?”

“Northbound leaves at three-oh-three’”

“Wait” Bell steadied himself on the counter “What did you say?” Another field of round sheep was spinning in his head “Clergyman?”

“Reverend J L Skelton”

“Not a writer? A journalist?”

“When’s the last ti one of them white collars?”

“And he went north?” Away from Mare Island