“But he knew well enough that any man in the right circumstances could be dehumanised by panic.”

“Bob was not a young man, and he knew about loss. He knew the quiet that arrived, the blinding force of panic, and he knew that each loss brought with it some odd, barely acknowledged sense of release. He was not an especially contemplative person, and he did not dwell on this. But by October there were many days when the swell of rightness, loose-limbedness, and gentle gravity came to him. It recalled to him being a child, when he found one day he could finally color within the lines.”

“Fortunately, where reason failed, blind panic served well enough.”

“Damen could tell that there was something not right about the whole thing, and he knew that his brother was at the bottom of it. One thousand credits could do a whole lot to help a man forget what he knew.”

“Osby wasn't considered the smartest man in Eads County. But the no one . . . knew him well enough to realize that he wasn't all that far from it either.”

“A man who couldn't make things go right could at least go. He could quit trying to get out of the way of life. Chuck routine. Live the real jeopardy of circumstance. It was a question of dignity.”