yours at the ferry."
For a moment his heart leapt within him. "Ta-Kumsaw?" he whispered.
"Goodness no," she said. "He's out west past the Mizzipy for all I know. I was referring to a fellow who once had a tattoo on an unmentionable part of his body, a Mr. Mike Fink."
Alvin rolled his eyes. "I guess the Unmaker's assembling all my enemies in one place."
"On the contrary," said Peggy. "I think he's no enemy. I think he's a friend. He swears he means only to protect you, and I believe him."
He knew she meant him to take that as proof that the man could be trusted, but he was feeling stubborn and said nothing.
"He came to the Wheelwright ferry in order to be close enough to keep an eye on you. There's a conspiracy to get you extradited to Kenituck under the Fugitive Slave Law."
"Po Doggly told me he wasn't going to pay no mind to that."
"Well, Daniel Webster is here precisely to see to it that whether you win or lose here, you get taken to Kenituck to stand trial."
"I won't go," said Alvin. "They'd never let me get to trial."
"No, they never would. That's what Mike Fink came to watch out for."
"Why is he on my side? I took away his hex of protection. It was a strong one. Near perfect."
"And he's suffered a few scars and lost an ear since then. But he's also learned compassion. He values the exchange. And you healed his legs. You left him with a fighting chance."
Alvin thought about that. "Well, you never know, do you. I thought of him as a stone killer."
"I think that a good person can sometimes do wrong out of ignorance or weakness or wrong thinking, but when hard times come, the goodness wins out after all. And a bad person can often seem good and trustworthy for a long time, but when hard times come, the evil in him gets revealed."
"So maybe we're just waiting for hard enough times to come in order to find out just how bad I am."
She smiled thinly. "Modesty is a virtue, but I know you too well to think for a minute you believe you're a bad man."
"I don't think much about whether I'm good or bad. I think a lot about whether I'm going to be worth a damn or not. Right now I reckon myself to be worth about six bits."
"Alvin," she said, "you never used to swear in front of me."
He felt the rebuke but he rather liked the feeling of annoying her. "It's just the bad in me coming out."
"You're very angry with me."
"Yes, well, you know all, you see all."
"I've been busy, Alvin. You've been doing your life's work, and I've been doing mine."
"Once upon a time I hoped it might be the same work," said Alvin.
"It will never be the same work. Though our labors may complement each other. I will never be a Maker. I only see what is there to be seen. While you imagine what might be made, and then make it. Mine is by far the lesser gift, and mostly useless to you."
"That's the purest nonsense I ever heard."
"I don't speak nonsense," she said sharply. "If you don't think my words sound true, then think again until you understand them."
He imagined her as he used to see her, the severe-looking teacher lady at least ten years older than Peggy really was; she still knew how to use her voice like a rap acrossihe knuckles. "It ain't useless to me to know what's coming in the future."
"But I don't know what's coming. I only know what might come. What seems likely to come. There are so many paths the future might take. Most people stumble blindly along, plunging into this or that path that I see in their heartfire, heading for disaster or delight. Few have your power, Alvin, to open up a new path that did not exist. There was no future in which I saw you push that stool through the bars of the cell. And yet it was an almost inevitable act on your part. A simple expression of the impulsiveness of a young man. I see in people's heartfires the futures that are possible for them in the natural course of events. But you can set aside the laws of nature, and so you can't be properly accounted for. Sometimes I can see clearly; but there are deep gaps, dark and wide."
He got up from the cot and came