"I don't guess anybody cares about the old ones anymore," Asa said.

"Let's go back," Raven suggested. As they walked, he observed, "We all end up here. Rich or poor, weak or strong." He kicked a mummy. "But the rich stay in better shape. Asa, what's down the other way?"

"I only ever went about a hundred yards. More of the same." He was trying to open a passage urn.

Raven grunted, took an um, opened it, dumped several coins onto his hand. He held them near the torch. "Uhm. How did you explain their age, Asa?"

"Money has no provenance," Shed said.

Asa nodded. "And I made out like I'd found a buried treasure."

"I see. Lead on."

Soon Asa said, "This is as far as I ever went."

"Keep going."

They wandered till even Raven responded to the oppression of the cavern. "Enough. Back to the surface." Once up top, he said,

"Get the tools. Damn. I'd hoped for better."

Soon they were back with a spade and ropes. "Shed, dig a hole over there. Asa, hang on to this end of the rope. When I yell, start pulling." Raven descended into the Catacombs.

Asa remained rooted, as instructed. Shed dug. After a while, Asa asked, "Shed, what's he doing?"

"You don't know? I thought you knew everything he did."

"I just told Krage that. I couldn't keep up with him all night."

Shed grimaced, turned another spadeful of earth. He could guess how Asa worked. By sleeping somewhere most of the time.

Spying would have interfered with wood-gathering and grave-robbing.

Shed was relieved. Asa didn't know what he and Raven had done. But he would before long.

He looked inside himself and found little self-disgust. Damn! He was accustomed to these crimes already. Raven was making him over in his own image.

Raven shouted. Asa hauled away. He called, "Shed, give me a hand. I can't get this by myself."

Resigned, Shed joined him. Their catch was exactly what he expected, a mummy sliding out of the darkness like some denizen of the deeps of yesteryear. He averted his gaze. "Get his feet, Asa."

Asa gagged. "My God, Shed. My God. What are you doing?"

"Be quiet and do what you're told. That's the best way. Get his feet."

They moved the body into the brush near Shed's pit. A passage urn rolled out of a bundle tied upon its chest. The bundle contained another two dozen urns. So. The hole was for burying empty urns. Why didn't Raven fill his pockets down there?

"Let's get out of here, Shed," Asa whined.

"Back to your rope." Ums took time to empty. And Raven had two men up top with little to do but think. So. They were busy-work. And an incentive, of course. Two dozen urns with each cadaver would build up quite a pile.

"Shed…"

"Where you going to run to, Asa?" The day was clear and unseasonably warm, but it was still winter. There was no way out of Juniper. "He'd find you. Go back to your rope. You're in it now, like it or not." Shed resumed digging.