“Ye must ken we have no way of knowing y’are who you say y’are,” Slightman said, rather apologetically. “My family had no books growing up, and there’s none out at the ranch—I’m foreman of Eisenhart’s Rocking B—except for the stockline books, but growing up I heard as many tales of Gilead and gunslingers and Arthur Eld as any other boy…heard of Jericho Hill and such blood-and-thunder tales of pretend…but I never heard of a gunslinger missing two of his fingers, or a brown-skinned woman gunslinger, or one who won’t be old enough to shave for years yet.”

His son looked shocked, and in an agony of embarrassment as well. Slightman looked rather embarrassed himself, but pushed on.

“I cry your pardon if what I say offends, indeed I do—”

“Hear him, hear him well,” Overholser rumbled. Eddie was starting to think that if the man’s jaw jutted out much further, it would snap clean off.

“—but any decision we make will have long echoes. Ye must see it’s so. If we make the wrong one, it could mean the death of our town, and all in it.”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing!” Tian Jaffords cried indignantly. “Do you think ’ese’re a fraud? Good gods, man, have’ee not looked at him? Do’ee not have—”

His wife grasped his arm hard enough to pinch white marks into his farmer’s tan with the tips of her fingers. Tian looked at her and fell quiet, though his lips were pressed together tightly.

Somewhere in the distance, a crow called and a rustie answered in its slightly shriller voice. Then all was silent. One by one they turned to Roland of Gilead to see how he would reply.

Five

It was always the same, and it made him tired. They wanted help, but they also wanted references. A parade of witnesses, if they could get them. They wanted rescue without risk, just to close their eyes and be saved.

Roland rocked slowly back and forth with his arms wrapped around his knees. Then he nodded to himself and raised his head. “Jake,” he said. “Come to me.”

Jake glanced at Benny, his new friend, then got up and walked across to Roland. Oy walked at his heel, as always.

“Andy,” Roland said.

“Sai?”

“Bring me four of the plates we ate from.” As Andy did this, Roland spoke to Overholser: “You’re going to lose some crockery. When gunslingers come to town, sai, things get broken. It’s a simple fact of life.”

“Roland, I don’t think we need—”

“Hush now,” Roland said, and although his voice was gentle, Overholser hushed at once. “You’ve told your tale; now we tell ours.”