” Suddenly Tonya burst into tears. I ushered her into the house, while looking to be sure I wasn’t being watched. “Now what is going on?” �...�She called me from Lumberton and asked me to come see her. I said no. She called again when she arrived in town late last night. Since the kid was with her grandmother, I drove over. I thought she wanted to talk about you. I swear Ray she pretty much raped me. I have never been so humiliated in my life.”“So humiliated that you stayed till 5AM?” I. However, Pa had done a great job of teaching me how to use the Colt, so I was pretty fast on the draw and damned accurate with it. The Colt was the old fashioned cap and ball style, so I had a couple of extra fully loaded cylinders to carry in my pockets in case I needed a quick reload.When I walked back outside, Ma saw me and that I was wearing the Colt. She said, "Hiram, you know your pa told you not to wear that gun unless he was with you. Now, you go back inside and put it where it. It’s ... well, there’s only so many of them we take alive, and can then send on.”A guard ran up after a couple of minutes with a chair. “Your pardon, sir, ma’am, but we have nothing warm out here at this time.” The other came running back right after that. “The chief interrogator said he’ll be along with the Nord in just a few minutes.”I sat down in the chair and waited, projecting the air of someone who was being inconvenienced by their actions. The officer tried to make a little small talk,. Still the thing sleeps, but now its slumber is troubled, and it stirs, disturbing the silence that encircles its evil bulk.It is at once a cause, and a result, of nightmares. Of fear. Of insanity.Friend“A what?” Jord sat bolt upright. “A talking wolf?” He looked from Jona to Leana, to Seth, and saw no hint of a jest on any of their faces. “Where, then, is this creature? Where is it caged?”“I hope you would not keep a friend in a cage, Jord.” There was a wry humor in that thought, and the.