His host answered moodily, "I've seen a passel of wagon roads opened up.
Whenever there was one, people boiled along it like water pours out of a
busted beaver dam."
The specter Ali had seen lurking behind the wagons at Beale's Crossing
was again present and again threatened panic.
"Perhaps," he said doubtfully, "I'd better go somewhere else."
"If you can still find such a place," Hud Perkins replied. "Still, like
I said, it's two years since I come out. I could be wrong. Why not find
out?"
"How?" Ali asked.
"Ride back along the road," Hud Perkins advised him. "See for yourself
if it's what you think it is. It's the one way you'll ever know."