He glanced up and found to his considerable surprise that he was alone in the room. The door was still swinging open, and he could hear feet running down the passage outside.
THE REUNION WAS WATCHED with great eagerness by two men in the round tower that Doc and Krysty had noticed a few minutes earlier. One held the focusing knob on a large and costly telescope, his eye pressed to the cold metal. The other stared intently through a large pair of German predark binoculars, fixed on a tripod for easier viewing.
They had been waiting hopefully for this moment for several days, since their spies brought them news of the arrival in Twin Forks of Krysty Wroth, J. B. Dix and the others. They’d been waiting for news of Ryan Cawdor.
They had an interest in Ryan from way back.
The immensely fat man using the telescope was Gert Wolfram. His colleague, skeletally thin, was known by many names, the most common being “the Magus.”
Chapter Nine
Krysty almost exploded through the front door of the Grits and Greetings, turning left, her boots slipping on the dew-wet flags of the sidewalk. She recovered her balance and cut through a narrow alley and onto the dockside.
The oarsman had moored his little boat and climbed up the flight of stone stairs onto the quay, his head emerging into sight just as Krysty appeared.
He saw her immediately, standing still, hands at his sides, a broad grin slowly spreading across his face.
She ran at him, slowing at the last moment, and threw herself into his arms. Ryan was still some way from being his old self, and he staggered backward, fighting for balance, narrowly avoiding going over and taking them both into the water.
Aware that everyone on the docks was watching them, Krysty contented herself with a single slow, lingering kiss, her tongue darting between his lips. She hugged him, feeling the loss of muscle tone as her arms clasped him tight.
She eased herself down, feet back on the cobbles. “Hello, lover.”
They stood a yard apart, smiling and nodding at each other, neither able to believe the wonder of the moment.
“So” Krysty bit her lip to hold back the tears. “You made it.”
“Looks like I did. Yeah. Times I didn’t think I was going to come through.”
“You look tired. All right, but tired.”
“Just rowed half the White to get here. This is Twin Forks, isn’t it?”
“Sure is. Prettiest little pesthole on the frontier. You name it, and they got it. Or if they haven’t got it, then they’ll sure get it.”
Ryan nodded. “Been here years ago. Is everyone here? All of them all right?”
Krysty reached out and squeezed his hand. “All here. J.B. and Jak have jobs as sec men at a gaudy saloon called the Montana Queen. Had to get some jack to pay for our rooms at the rooming house. Been here close on a week.”
“You saw me go over?”
“Yeah. Taking the bitch with you.”
“More like her taking me with her. Railing broke, and over we went.”
Krysty held up a hand. “Look, don’t tell me now. Only have to go through it again when we’re with everyone else. Let’s go get the others, and we can eat.”
“You mean food?”
“Sure.”
He smiled. “Real food. Real, real food?”
“Promise. Hash joint around the corner called Toby’s does the best all-day breakfast in the ville.”
At that moment Doc appeared around the corner of the alley. His sight was notoriously poor, but he’d watched through the window of the bedroom and eventually been rewarded by seeing Krysty’s mane of fiery hair, had seen her throw herself into the arms of the tall stranger who’d been rowing the boat, and realized. He awakened the others, then made his best speed down to join the couple.
“My dear, dear fellow,” he kept repeating, wiping away tears. “So good. We all prayed and we never lost hope. Always said that you would rise again like the phoenix from the flames, though, of course, it was a river and not fire that engulfed you. Oh, my dear, dear fellow!”