The Farm

nearly ten miles out of the way. A car had no trouble with the extra distance, and the state highway depart ment had stuck as close to the lower elevations as possible. But Harmon Smith had ridden in the days before highways, and still marched to the echo of that long-dead era.

Odus had expected some sign, a hoofprint or a broken tree branch or maybe even Old Saint's spoor, whatever that might look like. But all he'd found were crackling leaves, hardwoods damaged by acid rain and insects, and the cold September air at forty-five hundred feet of altitude. He'd spooked a few ravens, and a red hawk had cut an arc in the indigo sky before diving for some un lucky rodent, but the forest had been quiet. He went for the whiskey bottle again, letting the Old Crow warm his tongue.

'Looks like I took us on a wild-goose chase,' he said to the horse. Sister Mary flicked her mane out of her eyes as if nodding in agreement.

A clatter arose, like the sound of wood against stone. Or the clop of a horse's hoof.

'You've come a long way,' came a voice from the thinning trees. 'Seek and you shall find knock and the door shall be opened.'

'I do want something,' Odus said in the general direction of the voice. He could never forget the cold deep tones of the Circuit Rider. Outside, the voice seemed to boom even more than it had done inside the general store. 'I want this to be over. I want you to be over.'

'Come to me, all that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.'

'The folks that are alive today didn't have anything to do with what happened to you. Why don't you just go on and leave us in peace?'

'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'

An unseen horse whinnied. The laurel branches quivered, parted, and the horse stepped out, black with a pure white chest the way the legends described him. He stood a good head taller than Sister Mary, whose ears twitched at the sight of the animal. The Circuit Rider was astride his horse, sitting tall in the saddle, head tilted down. Even looking up at him from below, Odus had a hard time distinguishing his features. The dying sunlight was at the Circuit Rider's back, the sky cast purple with shredded sheets of pink. The shadows of the trees seemed to grow up from the ground and enshroud the mounted figure.

Odus wondered if this was the showdown he'd been seeking. Maybe he was supposed to jump on Sister Mary, ride hell-bent for leather toward the dead preacher, and tangle with him head-on. If he'd brought a firearm, he probably would have faced him down like a tin-star hero. Odus had counted on making up the rules as he went along, forgetting that the Circuit Rider existed under its own set of rules. Odus wasn't that good at reading, but he doubted if there was an instruction manual on taking down a mythical crea ture. Even if that creature showed a jagged arc of grinning teeth be neath the wide brim of its hat.

'We're not the ones who killed you,' Odus said.

'You belong to Solom. That's reason enough.'

'It ain't the place that sinned. It was just a few preachers who did you in, the way I hear it. And they're dead. They faced their judgment long ago, before him that has power over all of us.'

The Circuit Rider's head lifted, and Odus recognized that strong, jowly Smith chin. The hidden eyes suddenly flared like a campfire's embers urged by the wind. 'You think I like making these rounds? You think I have a choice? Did you ever consider maybe something's got power over me? For the Bible says, 'If you are forced to go one mile, go also the second.' '

Odus gripped the dangling reins and held Sister Mary's head tight. The pinto tried to back away, but the terrain was too rough and dangerous. A stench drifted off the Circuit Rider, the smell of a dead skunk in the road, but a whisk of wind carried it off, leaving only the strong, green smell of pine and the earthy aroma of fallen and decaying leaves.

'I've come to stop you,' Odus said.

'I wish you could,' the Circuit Rider said, relaxing his pale hands and patting his horse on the neck. 'Narrow is the gate and hard is the road that leads to life, and there are few who find it.'

'Why don't you just step down off that saddle and let it go?'

'Told you, I got a mission. I didn't ask for it. It was given to me.'

'I don't believe in the devil.'

'Neither do I, Mr. Odus Hampton.' The Circuit Rider leaned to one side and spat, as if ridding himself of two hundred years of bit ter trail dust. 'I knew your daddy. Good man. I could have taken him in the summer of seventy-seven, when he was up on a ladder cleaning out gutters on the Smith house.'

'He worked for Gordon's daddy.'

'And you work for Gordon. Some things don't change in Solom.'

'I reckon one thing's going to have to change.'

'Not tonight. Not here and now, between you and me.'

'I'm afraid so, mister.' Odus's throat was dry, but he wouldn't let his voice weaken or crack.

'Who do you think brought you here? Don't tell me you woke up this morning and it just popped into your head to steal a horse and ride to the top of Lost Ridge.'

'I did some studying on it first.'

'That's the trouble with you folks. You think you're the boss of your arms and legs and mind, you think your soul is separate and free from your flesh. And I'm here to tell you otherwise.'

'You're sounding a lot like Elder David and them Primitives.'

'Elder David is a good man, but not good enough. His faith is weak.'

The chill that had crept over Odus's skin had only a little to do with the day's fading warmth. As the sky grew darker, the shadows around Harmon Smith lessened, as if the man were absorbing the blackness. More of his face was visible, and the meat over his jaws looked to be the texture of crumbling wax. Old Saint had stood stock-still during their conversation, while Sister Mary pawed the ground, shuffled, and snorted in dismay. Odus noted that maybe being dead had its advantages when it came to the equestrian arts. No saddle sores.

'Well, I found you, so that means there's a reason, doesn't it?' Odus ached for a shot of whiskey, but then wondered if the ache was due to his own need or was caused by the whim of some bearded guy behind the clouds. He had little use for religion, but, like most hopeless sinners, he wrapped his hands around it when it was the only rope available for climbing out of a dark pit.

'You're not special, you're just early,' the Circuit Rider said.

Confused, Odus figured he'd best keep the creature talking while he came up with a plan. 'Did you kill them two tourists on the Switchback Trail? You're only supposed to kill one and then be on your way. That's how it's always been, as far back as they re member to tell it.'

'It's not about what you want or what I want. If it was up to me, Old Saint would just haul me off into the mist of a mountain morn ing and that would be that.'

'You're evil, though. How can a man of the cloth go around killing like that?' Odus was casting about for a fallen tree branch or a loose jag of granite. He felt foolish now for not bringing a gun. He still wasn't sure what sort of weapon would work, if any. His was a mission of faith, despite the Circuit Rider's mocking.

The Circuit Rider ran a gaunt, crooked finger through a hole in his jacket. 'Cloth is like flesh, it goes to worms. The spirit is the thing that doesn't die.'

The Circuit Rider lifted his head and glanced above them through a gap in the canopy, his mouth curling up at one corner. A beech leaf spiraled down from the twisted branches and fluttered across his face. The woods were hushed in that moment as the birds and wildlife changed shifts, the daytime animals settling into holes, nests, and protective crooks of tree limbs while the nocturnal creatures roused from their slumber.

The silence was disturbed by a faint buzzing from below, as if a giant nest of hornets had been stirred with a stick. Harmon Smith's cracked lips bent like a snake with a broken spine in something that might have been a smile if seen on a human face.

'I suppose the others got the same idea you did,' he said. 'Funny how you give them a choice and they make the wrong one every single time. Few find the true way.'

The buzz grew louder, changed into a roar. It was a vehicle engine. Somebody was climbing the rough logging roads that crisscrossed the mountain. And those roads led to the top, where Odus stared down his adversary. His brow furrowed in doubt. He was supposed to do this alone, wasn't he?

At that moment, Sister Mary reared, flailing her forelegs in front of her, stripping the leather reins through Odus's palm, cut ting into his flesh. She broke and galloped into the trees, neck stooped low and ears pinned close