“Well, it’s been a pleasure meeting you and talking to you.”

“How long will you be staying here?” asked Cain.

“The way that girl cooks, I could stay forever,” replied Father William. “But I think I’ll be on my way in another two or three days. There are still a lot of souls to be saved out here—and a few that need to be sent on ahead to Satan.”

“But not Santiago’s?”

Father William smiled. “I suppose if I were to bump headfirst into him, I might give some serious thought to it,” he answered. “But I’ve got better things to do than chase all over the galaxy after a will-o’-the-wisp.”

“To each his own,” said Cain, getting to his feet.

Father William extended a chocolate-smeared hand, and Cain took it.

“You’re an interesting man,” said Cain. “I hope I’ll see you again someday.”

“Who knows?” replied the preacher. “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”

Darkness had fallen when Cain walked out into the humid Safe Harbor atmosphere, and it took him a moment to get his bearings. The planet’s three tiny moons were clearly visible but provided very little illumination, nor was there any lighting on the deserted street.

The town, such as it was, was only about five blocks square, and Schussler had been able to set down less than two miles away. Once the bounty hunter ascertained which way he had come, he set about retracing his steps and spent the next ten minutes walking down a dirt road that fronted an enormous field of mutated corn stalks, each some ten to twelve feet high and holding an average of twenty ears apiece.

In the distance he could hear a calf bleating. Logically he knew that imported embryos had to be born and raised before they could be slaughtered, but while Father William’s roast hadn’t seemed out of place to him, somehow the sound of a calf growing up on an alien world untold trillions of miles from where it had been conceived struck him as highly incongruous.

He continued walking, and after another fifteen minutes he came to Schussler, who had recognized him when he was still a few hundred yards away and opened the hatch for him.

“Did Billy Three-Eyes have anything useful to say?” asked the cyborg when Cain had seated himself in the command cabin.

“He’s dead,” said Cain. “Peacemaker MacDougal took him four months ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Schussler. There was a momentary pause. “I’ll bet the Swagman knew it all along!” he exclaimed suddenly.

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Where will we go next?”

“Nowhere,” said Cain. “There’s something funny going on right here.”

“Funny?”

“I ran into Father William.”

“What was he doing?” asked Schussler.

“He said he was taking a vacation.”

“Curious,” murmured Schussler. “Still, I suppose it’s possible.”

“Anything’s possible,” said Cain. “But why here, and why now?”