off his master so long as the Reverend continued to place himself in the company of such blackguards.
"You will smoke with us," the chief said.
It was not a question, and the Reverend did not seem to take it as one. He merely nodded, and the others offered a murmur of approval.
One of the men packed a pipe with a long silver stem and tamped it down with a silver tool. This was a successful band, Ahcho thought, if one could be successful as a nomad. As their guard had led them toward the chieftain's tent, they had passed through a substantial herd of sheep and goats. Ahcho had always understood that nomads traveled in small bands because they fought too often amongst themselves and were forever killing one another over minor slights. Yet he and the Reverend had passed a good number of tents scattered about, and Ahcho wondered if they might even belong to wives and children, although he dared not ask. Nomads were notoriously private and volatile. A simple greeting could be construed as a threat. They would slice off an ear or a hand, steal your horse, and then run you off. He had heard stories.
The men silently smoked, and when the pipe came to the Reverend, he did exactly as the others had done before him. Ahcho marveled at how the American had learned to adapt so quickly to his surroundings in recent months. While he knew that the rumors about the Reverend were unfounded and outrageous, his master was indeed a changed man and not always recognizable anymore.
The chief spoke up again when the pipe returned to him. "We heard you were coming."
The Reverend smiled ever so slightly. He spoke far less often than he used to and seemed to weigh his words more carefully. Ahcho could tell that this gave him the air of a holy man, which was true as well as a good strategy.
A young buck shook his head excitedly, and his loosely twined hair thrashed about his shoulders as he spoke. "We were told you were nearby, and I said we should go out and find you before you left the region again. But our great leader was right that you would come to us. This is a most propitious day!"
The Reverend leaned toward the young man and asked, "And what did you hope for from my arrival?"
"Oh, just to see you, Ghost Man. I will tell my children, and they will tell their children. And maybe if you want to perform a miracle, that would be fine with us." He nudged his friend beside him, and the two men chuckled.
The second said, "We will shoot you and watch you not fall down, yes? That would be something!"
Ahcho clenched the pistol under his robe.
The chieftain cleared his throat, and the men quieted down. The pipe began around the circle again.
After a long moment, the Reverend spoke. "I, too, am in search of a miracle. The miracle of my firstborn son, who was stolen from me."
The chieftain bowed his head in what appeared to be genuine sympathy. "There is no greater loss than this," he said.
"Yes," the Reverend said. "And you can help my miracle come true by telling me if you have seen any signs of a small white boy with hair the color of gold."
The wolf's jaw upon the chief's brow shook slowly from side to side. "I am an old man now, and I know very little."
The men around the circle made polite sounds of disagreement.
"No, it is true," the chieftain said to his people. "I may know how to handle a horse or how to keep my people fed even in lean times such as these." Then his voice rose as he lifted his old shoulders. The wolf hide on his back rose, too. "And I enforce the law! This I must always do!" He lowered his arms, and the animal's long muzzle sagged again. "But I do not know why the Spirits act as they do. I try to keep us safe from their wrath, yet I do not always succeed."
The Reverend let out a long sigh. "That is the problem, is it not? To understand the Lord's wisdom, even when it is more painful than a person can bear."
The two men passed the pipe between only themselves, and the others watched.
"You understand that things are different out here in the border lands?" the chieftain asked him. "Anything but petty thieving is punishable by death. Under our