The gate, half past eleven, and Ruari is standing where he always stands, which is where he can see both the road and the fire. He has a folded receipt in his hand and he is not looking at it.
"Your friends left at ten,"
he says.
"I wrote the time down. I write everything down."
He puts the receipt in his jacket pocket and looks at you properly for the first time.
"Nobody in this yard is going to ask you why you stayed. I am the treasurer, which means I am the one who asks the question everybody else avoids: what do you want to happen next, and who is paying for it."