Doughty thought about it, and then reached out and held Neil’s arm. “I know what you must be feeling, Neil. I know you’ve been working hard. Maybe you’re feeling even worse now, because of poor Billy going up in smoke. But you’re not going to make anything better if you keep on letting these ghoulies and ghosties scare you so much.”

Neil frowned. “Have you been talking to Susan?”

Doughty kept his eyes steady for a moment, then looked away.

“When did she come down here?” asked Neil.

Doughty shrugged. “Yesterday afternoon, while you was up in Calistoga.”

“And what did she say? That I was crazy?”

“Not at all,” insisted Doughty. “She said she was worried about you, that’s all, and she asked if you’d been working too hard on them boats. I told her no, you seemed fine to me. But she was still worried about some of the things you’d been saying, and some of the things you’d been thinking. She said you were acting like a man with something on his mind. She’s been thinking of getting you down to a shrink, I can tell you.”

Neil rubbed his face with the flat of his hand. “Do you think she’s right?” he asked Doughty. “Do you think I need analysis, too? Do you think I’m a head case?”

Doughty didn’t answer.

Neil said, “Well? Am I sane or insane? Am I dreaming or am I awake? Why don’t you tell me the way you feel?”

Doughty said uncomfortably, “It’s not for me to say, Neil.”

“But what the hell do you think’s going on here? Toby starts seeing ghosts in long white duster coats, the kids in his class start having nightmares about Indian massacres, and now Billy Ritchie gets himself killed in a freak fire, the day after he told me about redskin demons. None of this is normal, Doughty, but it’s happening for real, and it’s no use this town pretending it doesn’t exist.”

“Neil—” began Doughty. Then he changed his mind and shook his head.

“What were you going to say?”

“Oh, dammit, Neil, you’ve got to realize you’re fighting yourself an uphill battle. Everybody’s thinking you’ve lost your marbles. Don’t you think you’d be better off forgetting the whole business?”