he did n't know if he was the stuff of which gunslingers were made - the idea seemed fabulously unlikely to him , even though he knew he had managed to hold up his end pretty well during the shootout at balazar 's nightclub - but he did know that part of him liked the coldness that fell over him when he spoke the words of the old , old catechism the gunslinger had taught them ; the coldness and the way things seemed to stand forth with their own breathless clarity .