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FOUR DAYS AFTER EDDIE had yanked him through the doorway between worlds, minus his original pair of pants and his sneakers but still in possession of his pack and his life, Jake awoke with something warm and wet nuzzling at his face. If he had come around to such a sensation on any of the three previous mornings, he undoubtedly would have wakened his companions with his screams, for he had been feverish and his sleep had been haunted by nightmares of the plaster-man. In these dreams his pants did not slide free, the doorkeeper kept its grip, and it tucked him into its unspeakable mouth, where its teeth came down like the bars guarding a castle keep. Jake awoke from these dreams shuddering and moaning helplessly. The fever had been caused by the spider-bite on the back of his neck. When Roland examined it on the second day and found it worse instead of better, he had conferred briefly with Eddie and had then given Jake a pink pill. "You'll want to take four of these every day for at least a week," he said. Jake had gazed at it doubtfully. "What is it?" "Cheflet," Roland said, then looked disgustedly at Eddie. "You tell him. I still can't say it." "Keflex. You can trust it, Jake; it came from a government-approved pharmacy in good old New York . Roland swallowed a bunch of it, and he's as healthy as a horse. Looks a little like one, too, as you can see." Jake was astonished. "How did you get medicine in New York ?" "That's a long story," the gunslinger said. "You'll hear all of it in time, but for now just take the pill." Jake did. The response was both quick and satisfying. The angry red swelling around the bite began to fade in twenty-four hours, and now the fever was gone as well. The warm thing nuzzled again and Jake sat up with a jerk, his eyes flying open. The creature which had been licking his cheek took two hasty steps backward. It was a billy-bumbler, but Jake didn't know that; he had never seen one before now. It was skinnier than the ones Roland's party had seen earlier, and its black