Davey's hands trembled. "But what about your folks?"
Biddy shrugged. "Well, I'll be with you and you're an old person so that ought to make it all right."
"Well—"
"Anyhow, let's worry about that later. You make the jeep go real slow and I'll ride beside you. I can make Buck go faster that way."
"All right."
So the strange little cavalcade started slowly off across the desert. Biddy prattled on as she rode the phlegmatic Buck beside the jeep and Davey's heart sang a song within him, a crazy, ecstatic song: We're looking for Joe. We're riding over the night desert hunting for him. And maybe we aren't the only ones. Maybe everybody in the world is stumbling through the darkness looking for Joe. What Davey's heart was saying made little sense to his mind. But he did not question its source. He was only twenty-one and not a wise philosopher so he completely over-looked the wisdom of his instinct....
Cecil Bates sat in the Sage Bend tavern celebrating his luck and preparing for his triumph. This preparation consisted of spreading the word because his very nature demanded witnesses or there would be no triumph at all.
"So you know where this foreign invader is, eh Ceec?"
"Sure do." Cecil emptied his shot glass and tapped his forehead with a knowing finger. "Used my head. Used my head, I did."
"Old blind Haney led you right to the stop, huh?"