As they stepped down to the plains, a hush fell over the circus of clowns. The General looked at them with his single good eye and sneered.

“You’re nothing but a bunch of clowns!” he screamed. “Nothing but a bunch of . . . a bunch of . . . !” Words deserted him. The Stranger watched him, and saw him then for what he truly was. Not a man at all, but an embodiment of an idea, just another denizen of the Escapement, re-enacting a role. The Stranger had travelled the Escapement for a long time, and he was destined to travel on it for a little while longer, and he had met those of the Major Arcana before.

“Nobody likes a clown!” the General screamed. “Freaky, creepy, twisted, maddened, evil, strange, other! You awful white-faced, red-nosed monstrosities! You, you . . . !” Words abandoned him again. The General pulled out his guns. His daughters laughed, a maddened shriek of sound that filled the air.

Then the clowns were upon them.

The Stranger watched Hole Manor burn. It burned in white cold flames, and the faces of ghosts from that other place kept emerging out of the billowing fire, mouths open in silent shrieks, but other than that it was strangely peaceful.

The Conjurer had disappeared in the melee. The Kid had gone looking for him but returned empty-handed. When he looked in his pocket, however, he found a short note, scribbled on an ace of spades, the contents of which he kept to himself. And a present: a miniature set of gold linking rings.

“I guess that’s that, then,” the Kid said. He tried to pull the rings apart but they just clanged against each other. He stared at them for a moment longer, then shrugged and put them back in his pocket.

“Did he say where he went?” the Stranger asked.

“Somewhere where there’s an audience,” the Kid said. “Somewhere where they still like magic.”

“I never liked magic,” Temperanza said. “All that pulling coins out of ears and breaking clocks and, you know . . .” She shuddered. “Spoon-bending.”

The Kid shrugged again. “I’m not much of a fan either,” he said.

The clowns had gone. Hole was left abandoned, its treasure piling uselessly where it fell. All that mined substance. It would be best, the Stranger thought, to disperse it widely. So much of it in one place distorted things.

“What will you do now?” he said.

The Kid looked at Temperanza and she smiled. “We thought we might ride together a while.”

“Oh,” the Stranger said, and he smiled too. They looked good together, the bounty hunter and the Kid, he thought. He hoped they wouldn’t get into too much trouble together—though he rather expected they will.

The Stranger bid them farewell as the sun set low over the horizon. He gave the Kid an awkward hug. “I’ll see you, Kid,” he said.

He tipped his hat to Temperanza, who nodded back. “Stranger.”