“No sir,” said the rifleman, feeling no need at all to elaborate.
“I used to try,” the officer told him, “but it was always a fight I couldn’t win. No point trying now—wounds too deep. If you did believe, I suppose charity might require me to be quiet, but as you don’t, I wonder if I might tell you a tale.”
The question was couched so oddly and so politely that the rifleman was genuinely intrigued, but he hesitated anyway. He knew that he shouldn’t even try to sleep, and that anything that might keep him awake ought to be welcomed, but he had heard as many tales as he could bear from men who had died. The last thing in the world he wanted right now was to hear the beginning of a tale from a voice that had not strength enough to reach the end.
The clouds were clearing now, and the stars
