He opened his blanket roll, took off his boots, and settled down against a sidewall, away from both the fire and the rotten sc.r.a.ps of Bynum Hardy"s bed.
He didn"t guess he"d be able to sleep. Bedding down was the best way to keep from showing the fear that would otherwise consume him.
But sleep the cunning man did, looking back toward the settling fire and the crisply illuminated figure standing in front of it.
Old Nathan awoke.
It was nigh about midnight from the fire"s state. The hearth cast a patch of warmth into the air, but only the faintest glow suggested coals were still alive.
Bynum Hardy was walking toward the door, and his boots made no sound.
"Howdy," the cunning man said.
The ghost image turned and looked at him. "Reckon I"ll go off, now," he said in hollow tones. "Thankee fer the fire. I been mighty cold the past while."
Hardy took another step toward the open door.
"I thought there was maybe a message ye wanted t" speak," Old Nathan said, supporting his torso with one arm. "Fer yer brother, it might be."
Bynum Hardy turned again. "Not here," he said. "You foller me t" home, then I"ll give you a word t" take t" Bascom."
"I understood this t" be yer cabin," Old Nathan said. He fetched his left boot forward in the dark and began to draw it onto his foot.
"Hain"t mine now," said Bynum Hardy. "You foller me, and ye"ll git the word ye come fer."
He went out the door. The cunning man hopped after him, pulling on his right boot.
It wasn"t a surprise, not really, to see Bynum Hardy disappear back into the well.
Old Nathan paused at the curb. He gripped the well rope, wishing he were younger; wishing- No. He was where he chose to be, and he was the man he chose to be. He wouldn"t have it otherwise.
Hand over hand, Old Nathan climbed down into darkness.
Old Nathan"s head dropped below the level of the well curb. The world above him became a handful of gray blotches cast on greater blackness: patches where shingles missing from the shelter roof showed the sky. Some hint of light must remain to the heavens, though there had been no sign of it when the cunning man looked up before grasping the well rope.
He waited for the splash that meant Bynum Hardy had reached the surface of the water. He heard nothing but his own breath wheezing in the square stone confines of the well shaft.
He waited for his boots to touch the water. Wondered what he would do then, go on like a blame fool till he was soaked and cold, or haul up again and tell Bascom Hardy that he"d failed. . . .
He didn"t come to a conclusion. The choices kept walking through his mind as his strong old hands lowered him further-until he realized that if this rope led anywhere, it was not to the water from which Old Nathan drank and drew for the horses.
The cunning man"s mouth worked, but he said nothing aloud. He"d not been able to pray since King"s Mountain; and this was no place for a man to curse.
His arms ached. He sweated with the effort of the descent, but the droplets runneling down the troughs beside his spine were cold by the time they soaked the waistband of his trousers.
Abruptly, Old Nathan began to laugh. He wheezed from exhaustion, but the humor was real enough. It wasn"t every durn fool who had time to see what an all-mighty durn fool he"d been for the last time in his life!
There was Zeb Frawley, who thought he could call down lightning, which was maybe right-and thought he could direct that lightning"s path, which was wrong as wrong, and his bloated body to prove it the next morning. There was John Wesley Ives who"d witched Leesha Tazewell into his bed-and forgot that while Rufe Tazewell didn"t know a lick of magic, he could shoot out a squirrel"s eye at thirty paces; or shoot through the bridge of John Wesley Ives" nose at a hundred, as it turned out.
Then there was- The weight came off the cunning man"s arms. The distant echo of his laughter rumbled back to him, as if from the walls of an immense cavern. He felt nothing under his feet to support him, but neither was he falling.
The air around the cunning man was not black but gray, a gray so dense that he could not see his own hands when he raised them to his face. His calloused palms felt rough and loose from the pull of the rope.
"Bynum Hardy!" he called. "I"ve come t" ye. Now show yerself!"
He didn"t know what he expected; only that he was no longer afraid. He"d faced this one till he beat the part of it that was in him; and for the rest, well, every man had his time, and if this was his time-so be it.
The gray cleared like fog streaming in a windstorm. A long tunnel with a figure at the end of it, then up close enough to touch: Bynum Hardy, twisting like a pat of b.u.t.ter across a hot skillet, and nowhere to go however it turns.
"I played yer games," Old Nathan said harshly. "Now I"ll hev my side of the bargain. Give me the word t"
take t" your brother."
"D"ye know where I am, wizard?" Bynum Hardy said. He spoke through tight-clenched lips, like a man tensing against the pain of a gunshot-knowing that his blood and life ran out regardless.
"Thet makes no matter t" me," Old Nathan replied harshly. "Hit"s between you "n whoever it was put ye here. Just answer me where yer brother"s gold is at."
"The gold"s in the pivot log of the well," Hardy said. "But it hain"t Bascom"s gold."
Vague figures reached up from behind the dead man, or they may have been wisps of fog. Something constrained and tortured Bynum Hardy, but there was no sign of it to the cunning man"s eyes.
"Tain"t your"n anyways," Old Nathan snapped. His conscious mind had only loathing for the tortured figure, but the skin of the cunning man"s arms p.r.i.c.ked up in gooseb.u.mps from the sight. It warn"t fright; only the way his body was contending.
But the righteous truth was, he wanted no more part of this wherever place.
"I"ve told you what Bascom wants t" hear," Bynum Hardy said, twitching and grimacing between the words. "Now I"ll tell ye what he must hear. He"s t" take thet gold and give it t" them poor folk I wronged when I was alive. Tell him!"
"If bein" poor meant bein" virtuous," Old Nathan said in sudden anger, "thin there"d be a sight less wickedness in the world. D"ye think scatt"ring money on good folk "n bad alike is going t" buy you out uv this here place?"
"Don"t you be a greater fool "n G.o.d made ye, Nathan Ridgeway," said the dead man, speaking a name Old Nathan thought there wasn"t a soul in the county to remember or care.
Bynum Hardy leaned forward, against the pull of invisible, flamingly-cold bonds. He gasped with pain, then went on, "Hit don"t signify what they were, good men nor bad. Hit"s what I did thet put me here. I squeezed, "n whin they cried out I squeezed the harder, fer thet meant they were weak. Bascom"s to give the gold t" them as I took it from, their crops "n their land . . . and if I could, the very clothes they wore."
The skin of Bynum Hardy"s cheeks drew out to either side, as though men with tongs had gripped him.
He sobbed wordlessly with his eyes closed for a moment. "All the gold, all the prayers on earth, wizard . . ." Hardy managed to whisper.
His eyes opened, filled with pain, as he continued, "None of it"s airy good t" me now. Hit"s all too late. I never done a speck uv good t" airy soul while I was alive-but I"ll do this now fer my brother Bascom, ifen he"ll only listen. Tell him t" give my gold away, and maybe he"ll find a better place whin he follows me."
A spasm of something unendurable dragged a scream from the dead man"s throat. "Tell him thet . . ." he rasped, and the smoke-gray emptiness swept over Old Nathan again.
The cunning man felt movement, but he could not tell how or whither. There were moans, but they might have been the blood soughing in his ears- And the clammy fingers that twice plucked Old Nathan"s garments could have come from his imagination alone. . . .
"Thur"s a couple horses comin" down the trail," called the mule. "Reckon thur"s men with "em too."
It was dawn, thought barely. Old Nathan was wrapped in his blanket, but he felt as stiff and cold as if he"d spent the night in the rain on a barn roof.
He threw his cover back. His feet were bare, and his boots stood upright at the foot of the blanket.
The mule stuck its head in the cabin"s open door. "Wouldn"t turn down some breakfast," it said. "Say, whur was it ye went last night?"
Old Nathan drew his boots on. "Don"t know thet I did," he said as he stood up.
The mule snorted and backed away to allow the cunning man to pa.s.s him. "Don"t give me thet," the beast said. "What d"ye take me fer, a horse? I watched fum the trees whilst you went down the well with thet feller. Didn"t see ye come back, though."
Old Nathan kneaded the mane and neck muscles of his mule. The beast b.u.t.ted him and muttered contrarily, "Naow, thur"s no cause fer this." It was happy for the attention nonetheless.
"If I was down thet place . . ." the cunning man said. He looked toward the well, but he thought about somewhere far more distant. "Thin I"m right glad I did come back, however thet was."
He strode toward the well.
"Hoy!" called the mule. "Ye forgit my breakfast!"
"I forgit nothing!" Old Nathan growled without turning around. "Ifen you come down here, yer majesty, I"ll pull ye some water, though."
He had the third bucketful in the trough and the mule was drinking, when Bascom Hardy and his half-breed companion came around the bend in the trail. The bodyguard led. When Hardy saw that the cunning man was up and about, he pushed his horse past his servant"s and trotted the short distance to the well.
"Waal, what did ye see, old man?" Bascom Hardy demanded.
He wore the same clothes he"d wore yesterday, and he"d slept in them. There was a wild look in his eyes that reminded Old Nathan of Hardy"s brother Bynum; and reminded him also that there was more than hot iron as could torture a man.
"I seen yer brother," the cunning man said simply. "He"s in a right bad place-"
"Told ye he tried t" cheat me of Pappy"s prope"ty, didn"t I?" the rich man crowed. He swung out of the saddle. "But where"s the gold, thin, tell me thet?"
Hardy"s horse, with a patch of mud on its side that hadn"t been curried off, would have b.u.mped Old Nathan on the way to the water if the cunning man hadn"t stepped back. The mule raised its huge, bony head from the trough and said, "Tsk! Watch it, purty boy, er they"ll find yer ribs in the middle uv next week."
"But I"m parched!" the horse whinnied.
"Let the poor feller drink, mule," the cunning man said. "He"s jist the way he was born. Hain"t nothin" he kin help."
"What"s thet?" demanded Bascom Hardy. "What"s thet you say?"
"Hit don"t signify," Old Nathan said tiredly.
He rubbed his eyes, then met the rich man"s nervous glare. Hardy shifted from one leg to the other, ready to bust with frustration.
"Bynum said where the gold was," the cunning man continued, "and ye"ll hev thet in a moment, so don"t git yer bowels in an uproar. But he said you"re t" pay the money out t" all the folk he took it from. You would"ve took his papers off first thing whin he died, so I reckon you kin find a few of them folks, anyways."
Bascom Hardy"s mouth gawped open and let out something between a snort and a hoot of laughter.
"Bynum was a fool airy day he lived," the rich man said. "But he warn"t no sich fool as thet!"
His face hardened into fury. "What I figger," Hardy rasped, "is thet you reckon t" keep the gold fer yerse"f, old man. Well-"
He lifted his left hand and snapped his fingers. The half-breed c.o.c.ked the hammer of his musket, though he kept the muzzle pointed down on the far side of his mare. Hardy"s own walking horse skittered sideways in panic at the metallic warning.
"Oh, yer a fine brave crew," Old Nathan whispered. His voice sounded like a file setting up sawteeth.
"Ye want the gold, d"ye? Well, I reckon you kin hev it."
Anger sluiced the stiffness out of the old man"s joints. He stepped onto the well curb, then gripped the pivot log with both hands as he shouldered the nearer of the support poles aside.
"What"s thet you"re doin"?" Hardy demanded.
The pole gave enough for Old Nathan to spring the turned-down end of the pivot from the auger hole in the support. He pulled the log free, letting the well rope tumble down the shaft.
The pivot log was red oak. A heavy wood in all truth, but this was far heavier than wood.
The cunning man turned. Ned swung his musket over the mare"s neck to half-point in the old man"s direction.
"You do thet, boy," Old Nathan said. "And you better be quick with the way you use it."
"Ned," said Bascom Hardy. "There"s no call . . ."
But the bodyguard had already hidden the weapon again, behind his body and the horse"s.
Old Nathan reached over his head. His fingers touched, gripped . . . came out into open air with the bone-scaled case knife. He stood on the stone curb, smiling coldly and staring at Ned. The half-breed refused to meet his eyes.
The cunning man used the knife"s larger blade to pry at the faint seam in the end of the pivot log. The plug dropped. The cavity within was the diameter of a man"s fist. Bascom Hardy"s breath drew in.
Old Nathan tilted the log and slid out the long leather poke that filled the hollow. It was so heavy that it clanked with a sound more like a smithy than a banker"s till.
Hardy s.n.a.t.c.hed the sack from the trampled dirt. "Ned," he gabbled in a high-pitched voice as he trotted up to the cabin, "you watch the door, ye hear me?"
The cunning man tossed the empty oak cylinder away and stepped to the ground. He didn"t reckon Bascom Hardy meant him to follow to see what was in the poke; but-he smiled grimly at Ned, who twisted his face away to avoid the hard green eyes-he didn"t reckon there"d be anyone try to stop him, neither.
He folded the blade and put his knife away.
The rich man trotted up the trail, but the sack"s weight slowed him. Anyhow, Old Nathan"s long legs had covered more miles in their time than Bascom Hardy had rode over. The two men reached the cabin together.
Hardy reached to close the door. The cunning man held the panel open with an arm as thin and hard as a hickory pole.
"Reckon you"ll want light," Old Nathan said. "Lessen ye brung a tallow dip?"
The fury left the rich man"s face. "No," he said. "I reckon the door kin stay."
The poke was folded three times at the neck, but it had no drawstring tie. Hardy opened the end and gently fed its contents onto the table like a farmer squeezing milk from a cow"s udder.
The contents were gold, all gold but for one thin Spanish dollar.
"Oh . . ." the rich man sighed as he laid a glittering worm of coins across the surface of the rickety table.