Pale Horse Coming Read Online Free Page A

Mississippi. And while some have had some social structure reduction and considerable population loss, they remain vibrant. So this does seem strange.”
    Earl said nothing.
    Sam continued.
    “Then there’s this business of the road. There was a highway into Thebes for many years and it too supported businesses and life. Gas stations, diners, barbecue places, that sort of thing. But some time ago, the road washed out, effectively sealing the town and that part of the swamp and piney woods off from civilization, well, such civilization as they have in Mississippi. You’d think a civic structure would get busy opening that road up, for the road is the river of opportunity, especially in the poor, rural South. Yet now, all these years later, it remains washed out, and as far as I can learn, no one has made an attempt to open it. The only approach to what remains of Thebes is a long slow trip by boat up that dark river. That’s not a regular business either. The prison launches make the journey for supplies on a weekly basis, and to pick up prisoners, but the place is sealed off. You don’t get there easily, you don’t get back easily, and everybody seems to want it that way. Now doesn’t that seem strange?”
    “Well, sir,” said Earl, “maybe it’s a case of no road, no town, and that’s why it’s all drying up down there.”
    “It would seem so. But the decline of Thebes had already begun three years earlier. It was as if the road was the final ribbon on the package, not what was inside the package.”
    “Hmmm,” said Earl. “If you are that worried, possibly you shouldn’t go.”
    “Well, sir, I can’t not go. I have accepted a retainer and I have a professional obligation I cannot and would not evade.”
    “Would you like me to come along, in case there’s nasty surprises down there?”
    “No, no, Earl, of course not. I just want you to know what is going on. I have here an envelope containing my file on the case, all my findings, my plan of travel and so forth. I leave tomorrow on the ten forty-five out of Memphis, and should reach New Orleans by five. I’ll spend the night there, and have hired a car the next morning to take me to Pascagoula. Presumably I’ll find a boatman, and I’ll reach town late the day after tomorrow. If I can find a telephone, I’ll call you or my wife and leave messages on a daily basis. If I can’t find a telephone, well then, I shall just complete my business and come on home.”
    “Well, let’s pick a date, and if you ain’t home by that time, then I’ll make it my business to figure out what’s happening.”
    “Thank you, Earl. Thank you so much. You saw where I was headed.”
    “Mr. Sam, you can count on me.”
    “Earl, if you say something, I know it’s done.”
    “I’d bring a firearm. Not one of your hunting rifles, but a handgun. You still have an Army forty-five, I believe.”
    “No, Earl. I am a man of reason, not guns. I’m a lawyer. The gun cannot be my way. Logic, fairness, humanity, the rule of the law above all else, those are my guidelines.”
    “Mr. Sam, where you’re going, maybe such things don’t cut no ice. I’ll tell you this, if I have to come, I’ll be bringing a gun.”
    “You have to do it your way, and I have to do it mine. So be it. Now let’s read a story to Bob Lee.”
    “I think he’d like that. He likes the scary ones the best.”
    “You still have that book of Grimm’s?”
    “His favorite.”
    “I know there’s a dark tale or two in there.”
    “A dark tale it will be, then.”

3
     
    T HOUGH Sam loved New Orleans, he was moderate and professional the night he stayed there, avoiding its temptations. He took a room in a tourist home, ate at a diner, went to sleep early after meticulously recording all his expenditures for his client. The next morning, he rendezvoused with his car and driver, and commenced the drive along the gulf coast down U.S. 90, passing quickly from Louisiana into Mississippi.
    It was, at