Free The Quest of the DNA Cowboys by Mick Farren Page A

worried.
    ‘How much money have you got left?’
    ‘About eighty, why?’
    Reave looked guilty.
    ‘I don’t have more than that left myself.’
    ‘So? We’ve got a hundred and sixty between us, and the Minstrel Boy must have some more money.’
    There was an awkward silence. Reave walked across to the window and looked down at the street.
    ‘That’s the trouble. I haven’t seen him for hours.’
    ‘You mean he hasn’t been back?’
    ‘There’s not a sign of him, and the stage goes soon. I mean, if he don’t show up in the next few minutes we’re in trouble. We don’t even know where the fucking stage goes to.’
    Billy stuffed the last of his things into the bag and did up the straps.
    ‘We don’t need the Minstrel Boy to nursemaid us.’
    He strapped on his gun belt.
    ‘We’ll go down to the stage, and if he doesn’t get on it, we’ll just ride it down to the next town and see what happens there.’
    Reave slung his own bag over his shoulder. He still looked unhappy.
    ‘I don’t like it, Billy.’
    Billy turned in the doorway.
    ‘What’s the matter with you? We’ve done okay so far. We don’t need anyone to look after us.’
    Reave shrugged, and followed Billy out of the door.
    ‘Maybe you’re right.’
    In the foyer Mohammed stood behind the counter and watched them walk to the door.
    ‘Good luck on your journey, boys.’
    Billy glanced back at him.
    ‘Yeah, right.’
    Whatever Billy and Reave had expected, the stage was a total surprise to them. It was like something out of a legend. Billy had seen pictures of things like it, back in Pleasant Gap. The battered wooden coach with its high spoked wheels, small square windows, three on each side, and the brass rail round the luggage rack on the roof. None of the pictures had shown anything like the four huge green lizards that were harnessed to it, and squatted on their haunches, waiting for the journey to start.
    On the boardwalk, beside where the stage waited, there was a signboard. Overland Hollow City and Dogbreath Stage Co. - Passengers Wait Here. Only one man stood beside the sign. He wore a wide-brimmed bat hat with a band of silver and turquoise links, and an ankle-length, dirty yellow duster coat. His pin-stripe trousers were tucked into high black boots. As Billy and Reave approached, he turned and they saw he had a weather-beaten brown face with a blond drooping moustache and short pointed beard. A strap across his chest, outside his denim work shirt, indicated that he was wearing a shoulder holster. He looked Billy and Reave up and down.
    ‘Well now, two more for the stage. Where you boys headed?’
    Billy shrugged.
    ‘Anywhere, we’re just drifting along.’
    The man stroked his beard.
    ‘You better stay on the stage right through to Hollow City. This here stage only stops at two other places. Sade and Galilee. Galilee is bad, and Sade you don’t even want to talk about in broad daylight.’
    Billy and Reave looked at each other.
    ‘Looks like it’s Hollow City for us.’
    Two men came down the boardwalk. Both wore peaked caps and heavy fur coats. One carried a long whip, while the other cradled a wicked-looking riot gun in the crook of his arm. The one with the gun climbed up on to the driver’s box of the stage, while the other stopped in front of Billy, Reave and the man in the hat and long coat.
    ‘Stage is leaving, let’s have your fares.’
    The man dropped some coins in the driver’s hands and climbed into the coach. Billy was the next in line.
    ‘How much to Hollow City for the two of us?’
    It didn’t look as though the Minstrel Boy was going to show.
    ‘Two hundred.’
    Billy felt an empty feeling hit his stomach.
    ‘How far can we get on seventy-five each?’
    ‘Galilee.’
    Billy thought about what the man in the hat had just said. Then he thought about what the police had said the night before.
    ‘I guess it better be Galilee then.’
    They paid the driver and climbed inside the coach. The man in the