Then Amos’s gaze found Sam’s, and the wanderer locked eyes
with him for a long moment. Amos broke the tension with a
chuckle that sounded of rust and dry wells.
“Kid? You want something from me?” His voice easily carried
over the clanging piano and low murmur of conversation in the
rest of the saloon.
“Come here, kid.”
Sam slid along the bar until he was next to Amos.
He doesn’t smell like a man. The thought rose in Sam’s mind,
quick as a striking rattlesnake. He smells like… the d esert. He tried
to squash that line of thinking, in case Amos could read his
thoughts.
On the trail, you shall know the truth and the truth will set you
free.
“How’d you know I wanted something, sir?”
Amos shrugged, the movement fluid and powerful despite his
ragged appearance. “It was plain enough to anyone with eyes.
There’s a question gnawing on you, kid, like a coyote gnawing
on a dry bone.” He laughed that rusty chuckle again. “Go on,
ask it.”
“Sir, there’s—”
But Amos cut him off with a wave of a blunt-fingered hand.
“Don’t call me ‘sir,’ kid. Just ask your question.”
“Alright kid, tell you what. You’re young, got nothing in this
town to hold you here.” He held up his hand as Sam opened
his mouth. “Yes, I know you’ve got nothing here in this town.
I know things, remember? You’ve got a partner who will stick
with you no matter what.” He jerked his thumb at Abe. “So,
why wouldn’t you go?”
Sam opened his mouth, and then closed it again. “If I go, what
will I find? Can you see what will happen?”
Amos studied the whiskey glass in his hands. “The sun will
scorch you,” he said at last, in a deep voice that carried into ev-
ery corner of the saloon. “And the rains will drench you. There
will be thunder, and ice storms. There will be rivers crawling
with snakes and packs of wolves stalking the herd. But you may
find something on the trail that can be found nowhere else.”
Sam waited.
“Truth,” Amos said. “On the trail, you shall know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.” He flipped Bill a coin, gathered
his dusty coat around himself, and was gone before Sam could
say another word.
Abe held out a glass of whiskey. “So, partner, what do you say
now?” For once there was no mockery in his tone. “Yes or no?”
“Let’s take the job,” Sam said.
David Ferranti is a sophomore concentrating in Biology.
Sam took a deep breath and felt a bead of sweat slide down the
back of his neck.
“There’s a cattle drive leaving town in three weeks,” he said.
“The rancher is offering good money. And I want to—”
“You want to know if you should take the job, huh?”
“Yes.” Sam caught himself before he could say “sir” this time.
“Kid like you, asking an old man like me if he should go on a
cattle drive? Most of your lot wouldn’t even bother.”
Sam tried to think of a response to that. “Well I heard—”
“You heard that Amos here knows things, is that right?”
Sam nodded mutely.
Amos laughed again, a real laugh this time, not the rusty chuck-
le from before. The piano in the back of the saloon was silent.
13