Chapter 14: The Barn Deed

I walked down the ladder and unlocked the gate myself.

I didn't do it because of the vote.

I did it because I couldn't stand on that platform and watch one lantern go out.

But when I dragged the second gate open, the road in front of it was empty.

The dead were gone from the wall.

Far to the east, a single horn was blowing.

The whole pale crowd was following it down the county road toward the water.

"He's walking them away from us," Hattie said, behind me.

"I see that."

"He could have come in."

"I know that too."

I stood in the open gate until the horn faded.

Nobody on the farm said a word to me for the rest of the night.

Nobody slept either.

At first light I went out to check the wall, and I found a sheet of paper wired to the gatepost.

It was a page torn from a salvage ledger, written in block capitals.

I, CONROY GALLAGHER, GIVE UP EVERY CLAIM TO THE PENDELTON BARN AND THE CORNER I SLEPT IN.

THE FUEL AND GUNS I STORED THERE ARE HERS TOO.

I ASK FOR NOTHING IN RETURN.

His signature sat at the bottom, and under it a second signature in a deputy's looping hand.

"He came at four," the deputy on watch told me.

"He knocked once with his rifle butt and wired that up. He wouldn't come in."

"Did he say anything?"

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