At that moment I heard somebody behind me say to somebody else:
“It was Mac—you know, Mr. Willett’s horse—he kicked a man—it was a stranger come to hire a rig; I don’t know his name—he kicked him clear across the stable—”
Suddenly the group of men stirred and parted, and I saw the doctor rising to his feet. One of the men turned to the throng at the door, and before he spoke I knew by the expression on his face what the doctor had said.
Into the sudden silence about the doorway came the whisper:
“He’s dead.”
That evening after I came back from a ride out to old man Hawkins’s farm I sat with Dal Willett in his office. We didn’t talk much; I could see that Dal didn’t want to, though he was glad to have me there. And when I asked a question—forced out of me by curiosity—which I perhaps should not have asked, Dal shook his head.
“Of course I knew,” he said with a certain grimness. “And I sent him back there. But somehow I don’t feel responsible. Those iron-shod hoofs were the heels of fate, that’s all. Anyway, it’s between Mac and me.”
After a long pause he added:
“And God.”
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1997 by Carroll & Graf Publishers
cover design by John Jacobs
978-1-4532-5717-3
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