*

It was after midnight when the doorbell rang. It didn't wake Jerry--he
was sitting in bed, staring into the darkness. There was a pile of books
beside him; he knocked them over getting up to answer the door.

Mike Carver stumbled in. He dropped into a chair, panting. Jerry went
for a bottle and glass. Carver gulped the drink, then held the tumbler
out for another.

"I run all the way down the ridge," he gasped, "till I catched a ride. I
figgered you ought to know what happened. It got my brother Ed."

Jerry's lean face hardened.

"Yeah. It was prowlin' around. We went after it, an' shot it."

"But you said ..."

"I said it killed Ed." The old lips tightened. "We gave it one slug
through the heart and one through the head. They didn't even slow it
down."

"You mean," Jerry asked carefully, "that they didn't have any effect at
all?"

Mike nodded. He tipped the glass, wiped his ragged sleeve across his
face, and rose.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to the cabin."

"Mike, you can't go there!"

"That's where my brother's body is."

"Look," Jerry said evenly, "you can't help him now. Stay here with me,
and we'll go up in the morning."

Carver shook his head. "My brother's there at the cabin. I got to set up
with him." There was no arguing against that tone of simple and utter
finality.

"All right. Wait till I get some clothes on, and I'll drive you back."

A few minutes later they passed through Wide Bend's deserted streets and
started out the road to the valley. Carver rolled down his window and
spat tobacco juice. "Feller was up to see us," he said gloomily. "Told
us people was losin' things all over the county--includin' two kids.
Said crops has shrunk. Said water in the forks is way down."

"He's right."

"Said people were gettin' the idea Dark Valley was livin' off the rest
of the land. Feedin' on it, like a parasite. How crazy you think that
is?"

* * * * *

Slowly, Jerry said, "I'm not sure it's crazy at all."

Carver brooded. "I shot that thing tonight. Should 'a been dead if a
critter ever was. Then I seen it go after Ed."

"You know what all this means, don't you? Witchcraft. Something people
haven't believed in for hundreds of years."

"Mebbe they better get started again."

They were nearing the divide that overlooked Dark Valley. "Mike, I've
been reading up on it, for hours. Everything I could find. And it fits.
It's been the hardest stru