Chapter 1 Section 7 Summary

The barkeep, whose name is Alice or Allie for short, begins her tale: The man in black comes into Tull in the late afternoon in a worn cart led by a tired horse. He looks like a monk or a priest, since he is dressed in long black robes with a black hood that covers his face. He tethers his horse, takes a saddlebag from the cart and walks into the honky-tonk. Alice is the only one to notice him. The patrons are drunk and do not even see him. It is the night of Nort's wake and Nort is laid out on two tables in the center of the room while the "mourners" carry on around him.

The man in black asks Alice for a good whiskey and then asks her about the dead man. Alice is resentful of the...