“They’re not mushrooms at all,” Roland said. “More like a kind of ground berry.”

Susannah took one, nibbled, then helped herself to a bigger bite. “You don’t want to skip these, sweetheart,” she said. “My Daddy’s friend, Pop Mose, would have said ‘These are prime. ’ ” She took another of the muffin-balls from Jake and ran a thumb over its silky surface.

“Maybe,” he said, “but there was this book I read for a report back in high school—I think it was called We Have Always Lived in the Castle —where this nutty chick poisoned her whole family with things like that.” He bent toward Jake, raising his eyebrows and stretching the corners of his mouth in what he hoped was a creepy smile. “Poisoned her whole family and they died in AG-o-ny !”

Eddie fell off the log on which he had been sitting and began to roll around on the needles and fallen leaves, making horrible faces and choking sounds. Oy ran around him, yipping Eddie’s name in a series of high-pitched barks.

“Quit it,” Roland said. “Where did you find these, Jake?”

“Back there,” he said. “In a clearing I spotted from the path. It’s full of these things. Also, if you guys are hungry for meat…I know I am…there’s all kinds of sign. A lot of the scat’s fresh.” His eyes searched Roland’s face. “Very…fresh…scat.” He spoke slowly, as if to someone who wasn’t fluent in the language.

A little smile played at the corners of Roland’s mouth. “Speak quiet but speak plain,” he said. “What worries you, Jake?”

When Jake replied, his lips barely made the shapes of the words. “Men watching me while I picked the muffin-balls.” He paused, then added: “They’re watching us now.”

Susannah took one of the muffin-balls, admired it, then dipped her face as if to smell it like a flower. “Back the way we came? To the right of the road?”

“Yes,” Jake said.

Eddie raised a curled fist to his mouth as if to stifle a cough, and said: “How many?”

“I think four.”

“Five,” Roland said. “Possibly as many as six. One’s a woman. Another a boy not much older than Jake.”

Jake looked at him, startled. Eddie said, “How long have they been there?”

“Since yesterday,” Roland said. “Cut in behind us from almost dead east.”

“And you didn’t tell us?” Susannah asked. She spoke rather sternly, not bothering to cover her mouth and obscure the shapes of the words.

Roland looked at her with the barest twinkle in his eye. “I was curious as to which of you would smell them out first. Actually, I had my money on you, Susannah.”

She gave him a cool look and said nothing. Eddie thought there was more than a little Detta Walker in that look, and was glad not to be on the receiving end.