Outer Dark: 21. Page 229 Summary & Analysis

In the dappled darkness of a forest road at twilight, the tinker’s wares ring out like bells. He moves as inexorably as if he’s being driven ahead mercilessly by the sound of his own inventory. He enters a clearing that bears the signs of a recent camp—a smoldering fire and three depressions where people must have slept. But the tinker’s wary survey of the surrounding area yields no evidence of anyone else in the vicinity. He sets down his cart and takes the child out of it, then makes his own camp. Later, as he nods off, wrapped in his ancient and holey blanket, the three men (the bearded man, the nameless man, and Harmon) reappear, so soundlessly that they might have simply appeared, like apparitions. The one holding a rifle leers down at him as the tinker says “howdy.”