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"I learned about them on a National Geographic special on TV."
    "No cows around here, either," Zinc said.
    "The wind carried it here from the next farm," Willis said, "where there's livestock."
    "Long way," Freddy said.
    "It mighta flapped its wings some," Zinc offered. "Or soared like an eagle."
    "Well, us being city boys," Freddy said, "we've got no calluses, so you two'll do most of the digging. There shovels in that barn?"
    "Sure," Willis said. "A pick, too." He didn't see how it would hurt to feign cooperation. Maybe the city cousins would let down their guard and make a mistake.
    Freddy drew an automatic pistol from beneath his suitcoat. He left the coat unbuttoned and it flapped in the breeze, flashing a blue silk lining.
    "Let's go dig," Willis said to Andrew, who was staring wide-eyed at the gun.
    "What's gonna happen after we find the money?" Andrew asked.
    Freddy motioned at the chessboard with the gun barrel. "Me and Zinc'll finish the game."
    "Kid's a thinker, ain't he?" Zinc said, amused.
    "Thinks too hard, though," Freddy said. "He's liable to have chronic headaches when he grows up." He winked at Zinc.
    Andrew sidled over to Willis and gripped his hand. Willis felt something in his throat swell as they trudged toward the barn, with Freddy walking slightly ahead and to the side, half turned to face them so he could keep the gun leveled at Andrew. Zinc was walking behind them. Willis figured he had a gun, too. The only weapon Willis had was a twelve-gauge Ithaca shotgun locked away inside the house.
    Willis squinted into the wind as he noticed several barn swallows wheeling above the open loft door. They tried to enter the barn but the wind had picked up to the point where they couldn't control themselves on the currents of air and they were whisked from sight.
    "I got something in my eye!" Zinc shouted. "I hate this damned part of the country!"
    The dark clouds had moved in over the farm now and seemed very low. Suddenly torrents of rain began to fall. "What next?" Zinc yelled.
    "Shut up!" Freddy shouted, using his free hand to turn up his collar.
    "I'm getting friggin' soaked, Freddy!"
    "Good! The rain'll make the ground softer so we can dig easier."
    Then, just as suddenly, the rain stopped.
    Hail began falling, not evenly like the rain, but erratically, so that it lay in heaps on the ground in golf-ball-size nuggets of ice.
    Freddy had lowered his head, shielding his balding pate with his hand, all the while staring coldly at Willis over the barrel of the gun.
    The hail stopped, and so did the wind.
    "I never seen anything like that," Zinc said uneasily.
    A pale, greenish light lay over everything, as if the dimmed sunlight was reflecting the green of the cornfields. The motionless air seemed thick enough to feel, like silk against flesh. There was no movement, no sound.
    "Grampa!" Andrew cried, and pointed.
    Willis saw a black funnel of swirling wind dip from the low clouds and sweep across the far edge of the cornfield. Dirt and cornstalks flew wildly as it touched down, skipped in a cloud of dust to the other side of the road, then back again. It was moving in their direction.
    "What the hell's that?" Zinc screamed.
    "Cyclone!" Freddy shouted.
    "Tornado!" Willis corrected.
    Zinc had shuffled around to face them, a silver revolver dangling at his side in his right hand. His thick features were knotted in confusion. "Whadda we do?"
    "Let's get in the barn!" Freddy yelled. Fear raised his voice an octave and glittered in his eyes.
    "That'd be suicide," Willis said.
    The wind was with them again, pressing hard against them so they had to lean into it. As they watched, the tractor began to roll, then gained speed as if someone were driving it, and disappeared into the high corn. The big Chrysler the two men arrived in was broadside to the wind and began to rock violently on its soft suspension.
    "There's a storm shelter there by the house," Willis said, holding Andrew tight to him, "but it's only big enough for