Wolves of the Calla

Dive-down !, always followed by laughter.

He saw Roland speaking with an old man in a blue cloak. The old fellow had the thickest, longest, whitest beard Eddie had ever seen outside of a TV Bible epic. He spoke earnestly, looking up into Roland's weatherbeaten face. Once he touched the gunslinger's arm, pulled it a little. Roland listened, nodded, said nothing—not while Eddie was watching him, anyway. But he's interested , Eddie thought. Oh yeah —old long tall and ugly's hearing something that interests him a lot .

The musicians were trooping back to the bandstand when someone else stepped up to Eddie. It was the fellow who had reminded him of Pa Cartwright.

'George Telford,' he said. 'May you do well, Eddie of New York.' He gave his forehead a perfunctory tap with the side of his fist, then opened the hand and held it out. He wore rancher's headgear—a cowboy hat instead of a farmer's sombrero—but his palm felt remarkably soft, except for a line of callus running along the base of his fingers. That's where he holds the reins , Eddie thought, and when it comes to work, that's probably it .

Eddie gave a little bow. 'Long days and pleasant nights, sai Telford.' It crossed his mind to ask if Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe were back at the Ponderosa, but he decided again to keep his wiseacre mouth shut.

'May'ee have twice the number, son, twice the number.' He looked at the gun on Eddie's hip, then up at Eddie's face. His eyes were shrewd and not particularly friendly. 'Your dinh wears the mate of that, I ken.'

Eddie smiled, said nothing.

'Wayne Overholser says yer ka-babby put on quite a shooting exhibition with another 'un. I believe yer wife's wearing it tonight?'

'I believe she is,' Eddie said, not much caring for that ka-babby thing. He knew very well that Susannah had the Ruger. Roland had decided it would be better if Jake didn't go armed out to Eisenhart's Rocking B.

'Four against forty'd be quite a pull, wouldn't you say?' Telford asked. 'Yar, a hard pull that'd be. Or mayhap there might be sixty come in from the east; no one seems to remember for sure, and why would they? Twenty-three years is a long time of peace, tell God aye and Man Jesus thankya.'

Eddie smiled and said a little more nothing, hoping Telford would move along to another subject. Hoping Telford would go away, actually.

No such luck. Pissheads always hung around: it was almost a law of nature. 'Of course four armed against forty… or sixty… would be a sight better than three armed and one standing by to raise a cheer. Especially four armed with hard calibers, may you hear me.'

'Hear you just fine,' Eddie said. Over by the platform where they had been introduced, Zalia Jaffords was telling Susannah something. Eddie thought Suze also looked interested. She gets the farmer's wife, Roland gets the Lord of the fuckin Rings, Jake gets to make a friend, and what do I get? A guy who looks like Pa Cartwright and cross-examines like Perry Mason .

'Do you have more guns?' Telford asked. 'Surely you must have more, if you think to make a stand against the Wolves. Myself, I think the idea's madness; I've made no secret of it. Vaughn Eisenhart feels the same—'

'Overholser felt that way and changed his mind,' Eddie said in a just-passing-the-time kind of way. He sipped tea and looked at Telford over the rim of his cup, hoping for a frown. Maybe even a brief look of exasperation. He got neither.

'Wayne the Weathervane,' Telford said, and chuckled. 'Yar, yar, swings this way and that. Wouldn't be too sure of him yet, young sai.'

Eddie thought of saying, If you think this is an election you better think again , and then didn't. Mouth shut, see much, say little.

'Do'ee have speed-shooters, p'raps?' Telford asked. 'Or grenados?'

'Oh well,' Eddie said, 'that's as may be.'

' 'I never heard of a woman gunslinger.'

'No?'

'Or a boy, for that matter. Even a 'prentice. How are we to know you are who you say you are? Tell me, I beg.'

'Well, that's a hard one to answer,' Eddie said. He had taken a strong dislike to Telford, who looked too old to have children at risk.

'Yet people will want to know,' Telford said. 'Certainly before they bring the storm.'

Eddie remembered Roland's saying We may be cast on but no man may cast us back . It was clear they didn't understand that yet. Certainly Telford didn't. Of course there were questions that had to be answered, and answered yes; Callahan had mentioned that and Roland had confirmed it. Three of them. The first was something about aid and succor. Eddie didn't think those questions had been asked yet, didn't see how they could have been, but he didn't think they would be asked in the Gathering Hall when the time came. The answers might be given by little people like Posella and Rosario, who didn't even know what they were saying. People who did have children at risk.

'Who are you really?' Telford asked. 'Tell me, I beg.'

'Eddie Dean, of New York. I hope you're not questioning my honesty. I hope to Christ you're not doing that.'

Telford took a step back, suddenly wary. Eddie was grimly glad to see it. Fear wasn't better than respect, but by God it was better than nothing. 'Nay, not at all, my friend! Please! But tell me this—have you ever used the gun you carry? Tell me, I beg.'

Eddie saw that Telford, although nervous of him, didn't really believe it. Perhaps there was still too much of the old Eddie Dean, the one who really had been of New York, in his face and manner for this rancher-sai to believe it, but Eddie didn't think that was it. Not the bottom of it, anyway. Here was a fellow who'd made up his mind to stand by and watch creatures from Thunderclap take the children of his neighbors, and perhaps a man like that simply couldn't believe in the simple, final answers a gun allowed. Eddie had come to know those answers, however. Even to love them. He remembered their single terrible day in Lud, racing Susannah in her wheelchair under a gray sky while the god-drums pounded. He remembered Frank and Luster and Topsy the Sailor; thought of a woman named Maud kneeling to kiss one of the lunatics Eddie had shot to death. What had she said? You shouldn't've shot Winston, for 'twas his birthday . Something like that.

'I've used this one and the other one and the Ruger as well,' he said. 'And don't you ever speak to me that way again, my friend, as if the two of us were on the inside of some funny joke.'

'If I offended in any way, gunslinger, I cry your pardon.'

Eddie relaxed a little. Gunslinger . At least the silver-haired son of a bitch had the wit to say so even if he might not believe so.

The band produced another flourish. The leader slipped his guitar-strap over his head and called, 'Come on now, you all! That's enough food! Time to dance it off and sweat it out, so it is!'

Cheers and yipping cries. There was also a rattle of explosions that caused Eddie to drop his hand, as he had seen Roland drop his on a good many occasions.

'Easy, my friend,' Telford said. 'Only little bangers. Children setting off Reap-crackers, you ken.'

'So it is,' Eddie said. 'Cry your pardon.'

'No need.' Telford smiled. It was a handsome Pa Cartwright smile, and in it Eddie saw one thing clear: this man would never come over to their side. Not that was, until and unless every Wolf out of Thunderclap lay dead for the town's inspection in this very Pavilion. And if that happened, he would claim to have been with them from the very first.

EIGHT

The dancing went on until moonrise, and that night the moon showed clear. Eddie took his turn with several ladies of the town. Twice he waltzed with Susannah in his arms, and when they danced the squares, she turned and crossed—allamand left, allamand right—in her wheelchair with pretty precision. By the ever-changing light of the torches, her face was damp and delighted. Roland also danced, gracefully but (Eddie thought) with no real enjoyment or flair for it. Certainly there was nothing in it to prepare them for what ended the evening. Jake and