Natural to the line of work hes in.
I dont know.
They parked a little way off and got out and stood looking at it. You could feel the heat on your face. Bell came around and opened the door and took his wifes hand. She got out and stood with her arms folded in front of her. There was a pickup truck parked a ways down and two men were standing there in the dull red glare. They nodded each in turn and said Sheriff.
Lets just call it square.
He shook his head.
Just keep going.
He hung up the speaker and got up and went down to check on the jail.
He sat up and pulled off his boots and socks and examined the bandages on his heels.
He listened for a while. Then he said: Im goin to finish my supper. Ill meet you there in about forty minutes. Just leave the lights on on your unit.
I will. I got to give her the keys anyways.
I will. Quit worryin about everthing.
When he woke it was late afternoon. He lay there looking at the stained asbestos ceiling.
In the sporting goods store again he asked the same clerk if he had any aluminum tentpoles. He tried to explain that he didnt care what kind of tent it was, he just needed the poles.
Its just a bunch of Mexican drugrunners.
Where they from?
What time do you expect him?
I dont know, Bell said. He put his foot in the stirrup and stood easily up into the saddle and put the little horse forward. I dont know, he said again. But I cant say as Im much lookin forward to it.
He aint here.
Long gone.
So we still aint found the last man, have we?
He spent the night at the Ramada Inn out on the highway and in the morning he went down and ate breakfast in the diningroom and read the paper. Then he just sat there.
I do not know.
It surely wasnt.
I dont know.
What do you make of that?
He had to pay the driver an extra ten dollars to take him across the bridge to Ciudad Acu?a. He walked the streets, looking into the shopwindows. The evening was soft and warm and in the little alameda grackles were settling in the trees and calling to one another. He went into a boot shop and looked at the exotics — crocodile and ostrich and elephant — but the quality of the boots was nothing like the Larry Mahans that he wore.
What is it.
He went to Wal-Mart and bought some clothes and a small nylon zipper bag to put them in. A pair of jeans and a couple of shirts and some socks. In the afternoon he went for a long walk out along the lake, taking the cut-off gunbarrel and the stock with him in the bag. He slung the barrel out into the water as far as he could throw it and he buried the stock under a ledge of shale. There were deer moving away through the desert scrub. He heard them snort and he could see them where they came out on a ridge a hundred yards away to stand looking back at him. He sat on a gravel beach with the empty bag folded in his lap and watched the sun set. Watched the land turn blue and cold. An osprey went down the lake. Then there was just the darkness.
Yeah. Marshmallers.
Them over yonder aint Mexican.
You remember certain things about a thing like that. People didnt know what to wear.
You think this boys a doperunner?
I believe he is.
There was one or two come dressed in black, which I suppose was all right. Some of the men come just in their shirtsleeves and that kindly bothered me. I aint sure I could tell you why.
Why dont I let you out here and we wont argue about it.
Yessir.
They walked among the trucks. These sumbitches are bloody as hogs, Wendell said.
You sell tents, right?
No. Just someplace cheap.
Wendell turned and spat. Wasnt what the old boy had in mind when he left Dallas I dont reckon, was it?
Chigurh looked around at the little plywood office. He looked at the woman.
I dont want to get in some kind of a jackpot here, buddy.
He laid two of the hundred dollar bills on the counter. The tentpoles were in a separate bag and he pulled this out and put it with his other things. The clerk gave him his change and the receipt and Moss gathered up the shotgun and his hardware purchases together with the tentpoles and thanked him and turned and left. What about the tent?
I dont know. He aint called in or nothin so your guess is as good as mine. He leaned his head slightly. As if hed get another look at Chigurh. Is there somethin I can help you with?
Just drive me around. I want to see if somebodys here.
It wasnt his day, was it Sheriff.
The sheriff nodded. Pretty high, he said.
I was looking for Llewelyn.
Its a mess, aint it Sheriff?
Yessir. It was goin real good here about a hour ago. The people that called it in seen it from the road.
Id say it is.
Killer could of took it. Or he might not of had one.
He turned and stood with his back to the trailer and studied the little park. Nothing moved. Not a dog. He turned and put his wrist to the doorlock and shot out the lock cylinder with the cobalt steel plunger of the cattlegun and opened the door and went in and shut the door behind him.
There was a second mix-up out here.
THE BUS PULLED INTO Fort Stockton at quarter to nine and Moss stood and got his bag down from the overhead rack and picked up the document case out of the seat and stood looking down at her.
Its a odd thing when you come to think about it. The opportunities for abuse are just about everwhere. Theres no requirements in the Texas State Constitution for bein a sheriff. Not a one. There is no such thing as a county law. You think about a job where you have pretty much the same authority as God and there is no requirements put upon you and you are charged with preservin nonexistent laws and you tell me if thats peculiar or not. Because I say that it is. Does it work? Yes. Ninety percent of the time. It takes very little to govern good people. Very little. And bad people cant be governed at all. Or if they could I never heard of it.
Yessir.
When he pulled up in front of the garage there were two men sitting with their backs to the wall of the building eating their lunches. He went in. There was a man at the desk drinking coffee and listening to the radio. Yessir, he said.
Wendell squatted and studied the ground under the door. It looks like theres some more here on the ground. Could be that somebody cut into one of the packages. See what was inside.
How the hell do they know when youre eatin? We never eat this late.
Bad way.
Yessir.
Bell didnt answer. He rose and stood looking out over the country.
If it aint itll do till a mess gets here.
It could be.
Where you at?
Do you have a room?
Didnt pass nobody or nothin?
Could of been checkin the quality. Gettin ready to trade.
They said that he had what looked to be a large caliber bullet wound in the forehead and that said wound had penetrated to a distance of approximately two and a half inches through the skull and into the frontal lobe of the brain but that there was not no bullet to be found.
Quite a few people didnt believe in it. Even them that worked on the row. Youd be surprised. Some of em I think had at one time. You see somebody ever day sometimes for years and then one day you walk that man down the hallway and put him to death.
Its one seventy-nine plus tax.
There might not of even been no money.
He brought the tent from the stockroom and laid it on the counter. It came in an orange nylon bag. Moss laid the shotgun and the bag of hardware on the counter and untied the strings and pulled the tent from the bag together with the poles and cords.
Long gone now though, aint it.
Does that look to you like about a 77 Ford, Wendell?
Yep.
When are you goin to call me.
How can they not know? There wasnt no exit wound.
Torbert studied the country out there. The shadows long on the road. Who the hell are these people? he said.
Yep.
The driver put the shifter in gear. What room? he said.
Im looking for Llewelyn Moss.
Except of course that there were probably at least two parties looking for him and whichever one this was it wasnt the other and the other wasnt going away either.
We can do that.
Id say it has. So where do you reckon the driver got to?
Dont be cussin, she said.
He got back to the motel a little after ten and sat in the cab with the motor running while he counted out money for the fare. He handed the bills across the seat and he started to get out but he didnt. He sat there with his hand on the doorhandle. Drive me around to the side, he said.
So where do you think this good old boy is at? Wendell said.
I want you to take me to another motel.
Still they seemed to know what to do and that surprised me. Most of em I know had never been to a execution before. When it was over they pulled this curtain around the gas-chamber with him in there settin slumped over and people just got up and filed out.
What youre sayin dont make no sense, Torbert.
Ill have to sleep on that.
Bell shook his head. I dont know, he said. Supposedly they wont eat a Mexican.
Well, thats true.
He took a cab and went into town and went into a sporting goods store and bought a twelve gauge Winchester pump gun and a box of double ought buckshot shells. The box of shells contained almost exactly the firepower of a claymore mine. He had them wrap the gun and he left with it under his arm and walked up Pecan Street to a hardware store.
Dallas.
Is that your best rate?
They drove out to a place called the Trail Motel and Moss got out with his bag and the document case and paid the driver and went into the office. A woman was sitting watching television. She got up and went around behind the desk.
You could put it that way. You want to clean out a alley thats a pretty good way to go.
No, I believe this ones died of natural causes.
Bell had taken out his kerchief and he held it across his nose and reached in and picked up a number of brass shell-casings out of the floor and looked at the numbers stamped in the base.
He went in and got some change and went to the payphone and dialed the Del Rio number but there was no answer. He called the Odessa number and a woman answered and he asked for Llewelyn. The woman said he wasnt there.
Bell looked down toward the caldera. I think we got some real mischief here.
Why do you reckon they set fire to it?
Thats how you get hurt.
Yes, Bell said. At least that.
The bus pulled into Del Rio in the early afternoon and Moss got his bags and climbed down. He walked down to the cab-stand and opened the rear door of the cab parked there and got in. Take me to a motel, he said.
We got another execution here Sheriff?
In the morning when he got to the office the phone was ringing. Torbert wasnt back yet.
How come do you reckon the coyotes aint been at them?
He drove down and parked in front of the office and went in. Yessir, the woman said.
Call him and tell him to just set tight. Ill come get him this afternoon.
Bell shook his head. No, he said. Id guess it was about the farthest thing from his mind.
Well, I got a good one. So they ought to balance out.
The numbers is on the frame.
He handed Wendell one of the lever action rifles hed brought and swung up into the saddle and pulled his hat down. You ready? he said.
There he bought a hacksaw and a flat millfile and some miscellaneous items. A pair of pliers and a pair of sidecutters. A screwdriver. Flashlight. A roll of duct tape.
He finally called at nine-thirty and Bell sent Wendell to get him. Then he sat with his feet on the desk staring at his boots. He sat that way for some time. Then he picked up the mobile and called Wendell.
He jacked the slide back and chambered a shell and lowered the hammer and then put one more round in the magazine and laid the gun across his lap. It was less than two feet long.
The sheriff tilted forward the Bronco seat and looked in the rear. He wet his finger and pressed it to the carpet and held his finger to the light. Thats been some of that old mexican brown dope in the back of this rig.
He stood, the deputys revolver in his hand. He looked in the kitchen. He walked back into the bedroom. He walked through the bedroom and pushed open the bathroom door and went into the second bedroom. Clothes on the floor. The closet door open. He opened the top dresser drawer and closed it again. He put the gun back in his belt and pulled his shirt over it and walked back out to the kitchen.
You think he was packin the money?
Yes I did.
Well lets just take it one day at a time.
Yeah, Wendell said. I guess you ought to be careful about cussin the dead.
You were right about the plates, Wendell said.
He got the clothes pole out of the closet, sliding the wire hangers off onto the floor, and stood on the dresser again and pushed the case down the duct as far as he could reach. It was a tight fit. He took the pole and pushed it again until he could just reach the end of the rope. He put the grille back with its rack of dust and fastened the screws and climbed down and went into the bathroom and took a shower. When he came out he lay on the bed in his shorts and pulled the chenille spread over himself and over the submachinegun at his side. He pushed the safety off. Then he went to sleep.
I said theyd still be burnin.
Its all there, the clerk said.
What do I owe you.
Oh Im more than sure. Anything happens to Lorettas horse I can tell you right now you damn sure dont want to be the party that was aboard him.
Yeah. Dallas plates.
He got dressed and put the gun under the mattress with the safety still off and smoothed down the dustskirt and sat on the bed and picked up the phone and called a cab.
Turn around and come back.
We could of brought weeners, she said.
I never had to kill nobody and I am very glad of that fact. Some of the old time sheriffs wouldnt even carry a firearm. A lot of folks find that hard to believe but its a fact. Jim Scarborough never carried one. Thats the younger Jim. Gaston Boykins wouldnt wear one. Up in Comanche County. I always liked to hear about the old timers. Never missed a chance to do so. The old time concern that the sheriffs had for their people is been watered down some. You cant help but feel it. Nigger Hoskins over in Bastrop County knowed everbodys phone number in the whole county by heart.
He went into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror and he took off his shirt and examined the back of his arm. It was discolored from shoulder to elbow. He walked back into the room and sat on the bed again. He looked at the gun lying there. After a while he climbed up onto the cheap wooden desk and with the blade of his pocketknife set to unscrewing the airduct grille, putting the screws in his mouth one by one. Then he pulled the grille loose and laid it on the desk and stood on his toes and looked into the duct.
He stood on the sidewalk with his purchases. Then he turned and walked back down the street.
He picked up the phone. Sheriff Bell, he said.
Well Id say hes at work. Did you want to leave a message?
The county dont pay her to use her horse.
I dont know. I used to say they were the same ones weve always had to deal with. Same ones my grandaddy had to deal with. Back then they was rustlin cattle. Now theyre runnin dope. But I dont know as thats true no more. Im like you. I aint sure weve seen these people before. Their kind. I dont know what to do about em even. If you killed em all theyd have to build a annex on to hell.
He stood there with the bag slung across his shoulder. I aint makin no promises, he said.
Deep shadows. Silence. Nothing.
BELL HAD RAISED the first forkful of his supper to his mouth when the phone rang.
Bell glanced at him.
I do too.
Its about a half mile down, Wendell said. Just follow me.
Not much of anything.
They could have found the money and left.
I lied about the tires though.
They rode past the bodies on the ground and stopped and got down and dropped the reins. The horses stepped nervously.
You take care.
Yeah. I dont think thats why they took it.
There was a silence. Then the woman said: I dont know where hes at. Who is this?
Yessir.
He rose and pushed the seat back. This good citizens been shot between the eyes too.
They rode back across the upper end of the caldera. They sat the horses and looked down at Mosss truck.
We got a weekly rate is the reason I ask. Thirty-five dollars plus a dollar seventy-five tax. Thirty-six seventy-five.
Yessir.
the clerk called.
These two aint been dead all that long, he said.
You be sure and rap on the kitchen door and thank Loretta.
Thats been a machinegun, them straight runs yonder.
He rose and got the mail off the floor and sat back down and went through it. He folded three of the envelopes and put them in his shirtpocket and then rose and went out.
Thats possible.
I dont think theyre double ought. More likely number four buck.
Said wound.
Keep going, said Moss. Dont stop.
Bell thought about it. No, he said. Probably I dont.
In a sandwash he got down and walked up and back and then looked away toward the south. Its the same tire tread comin back as was goin down. Made about the same time.
Do you know where Llewelyn is?
You can see the stripes real clear. Which way theyre a goin. Theys two or more trips each way, Id say.
I would take it his whereabouts is pretty high on your worklist.
They didnt trade. They shot each other.
And of course some of them boys was not very bright. Chaplain Pickett told me about one he ministered to and he ate his last meal and hed ordered this dessert, ever what it was. And it come time to go and Pickett he asked him didnt he want his dessert and the old boy told him he was savin it for when he come back. I dont know what to say about that. Pickett didnt neither.
I hope so.
When they reached Mosss truck the sheriff sat and studied it and then rode slowly around it. Both doors were open.
Which one has got the most poles in it?
Chigurh pulled in to the Desert Aire shortly before noon and parked just below Mosss trailer and shut off the engine. He got out and walked across the raw dirt yard and climbed the steps and tapped at the aluminum door. He waited. Then he tapped again.
Id say they have.
The clerk studied him. Whatever kind of tent it is, he said, wed still have to special order poles for it. You need to get the manufacturer and the model number.
Ill call you in a few days.
He pulled in at the cafe and took the envelopes out of his shirtpocket and unfolded them and opened them and read the letters inside. He opened the phone bill and looked at the charges. There were calls to Del Rio and to Odessa.
My mama didnt raise no ignorant children.
You sure?
I got a bad feelin, Llewelyn.
I told em that.
Let me get my coat.
We got three different models.
You wouldnt think a car would burn like that.
I would agree with that.
Go to the house and get the keys to the truck from Loretta and hook up the horsetrailer.
Wendell leaned and spat. Somebodys been here before us.
I tried to reach him in Sanderson but I dont believe hes there anymore.
Id say so.
Hows that.
They drove out toward the highway. Bell told the deputy about the caldera. Torbert listened in silence. He rode looking out the window. After a while he said: I got the report from Austin.
I hear you.
No sir. Just the fire.
They rode side by side. Weve drove all through their tracks but you can still see what it was, Bell said. Big offroad tires.
Moss leaned forward and held a hundred dollar bill across the seat. Youre already in a jackpot, he said. Im tryin to get you out of it. Now take me to a motel.
He went into a farmacia and bought a tin of bandages and sat in the park and patched his raw feet. His socks were already bloody. At the corner a cabdriver asked him if he wanted to go see the girls and Moss held up his hand for him to see the ring he wore and kept on walking.
By the time he got up he knew that he was probably going to have to kill somebody. He just didnt know who it was.
Chigurh hung up the phone and went over to the counter and sat down and ordered a cup of coffee. Has Llewelyn been in? he said.
Yessir. Theres not no discounts on the weekly rate.
Freely admitted?
What.
See there how crooked the track is? Like you can just see far enough ahead to duck the brush in front of you. Or you might leave some paint on a rock like that right yonder.
Thirty-six seventy-five.
Good question. I aint sure I even counted. Eight. Nine with Deputy Haskins.
I can see it.
Yessir.
She studied him. Did you go up to his trailer?
The sheriff shook his head. He got down and walked over to where the dead man lay slumped. He walked over the ground, the rifle yoked across his shoulders. He squatted and studied the grass.
I hear you, Sheriff.
Did you not hear me? We cant give out no information.
The othern didnt have a gun?
All right. What about Torbert?
This other thing I dont know. People will ask me about it ever so often. I cant say as I would rule it out altogether. It aint somethin I would like to have to see again. To witness. The ones that really ought to be on death row will never make it. I believe that.
Tell me.
The driver looked at him in the mirror.
You all right? Bell said.
He ate in a restaurant with white tablecloths and waiters in white jackets. He ordered a glass of red wine and a porterhouse steak. It was early and the restaurant was empty save for him. He sipped the wine and when the steak came he cut into it and chewed slowly and thought about his life.
More buck for your bang.
It dont much stand to reason that the last man never even got hit.
Yessir.
In the room he unwrapped the shotgun and wedged it in an open drawer and held it and sawed the barrel off just in front of the magazine. He squared up the cut with the file and smoothed it and wiped out the muzzle of the barrel with a damp facecloth and set it aside. Then he sawed off the stock in a line that left it with a pistol grip and sat on the bed and dressed the grip smooth with the file. When he had it the way he wanted it he slid the forearm back and slid it forward again and let the hammer down with his thumb and turned it sideways and looked at it. It looked pretty good. He turned it over and opened the box of shells and fed the heavy waxed loads into the magazine one by one.
They wouldnt be in the room when the maids came to clean it.
Just past Sanderson Canyon.
He drank again and then he put the carton back in the refrigerator and shut the door.
Wendell leaned and patted the horse on the neck. The boys name is Moss.
Saddle my horse and Lorettas and load and Ill see you out there in about a hour.
Hes married, aint he.
He opened the refrigerator and took out a carton of milk and opened it and smelled it and drank. He stood there holding the carton in one hand and looking out the window.
I wouldnt either. Lets go down here and look at the rest of this mess.
Sir I aint at liberty to give out no information about our residents.
Id say theres a good chance of it.
I know it. Call me.
The driver looked at him in the mirror. You got one in mind?
No sir.
What calibers you got there, Sheriff?
He got the key and walked down to the room and went in and shut the door and set the bags on the bed. He closed the curtains and stood looking out through them at the squalid little court. Dead quiet. He fastened the chain on the door and sat on the bed. He unzipped the duffel bag and took out the machinepistol and laid it on the bedspread and lay down beside it.
Well what the hell did they say, Torbert?
But you dont believe it.
Yessir.
The sheriff sat looking at the truck. I was just thinkin itd be a curious thing if he was missin two or three days and nobody said nothin about it.
He looked off to the south with the sheriff. What do you reckon it is were fixin to find down here?
I said where does he work.
They drove slowly past his room. There was a gap in the curtains he was pretty sure he hadnt left there. Hard to tell. Not that hard. The cab tolled slowly past. No cars in the lot that hadnt been there. Keep going, he said.
The car sat in what looked like four puddles of tar, the wheels wrapped in blackened skeins of wire. They rode on. Bell pointed at the ground from time to time. You can tell the day tracks from the night ones, he said. They were drivin out here with no lights.
Like out of church or somethin. It just seemed peculiar. Well it was peculiar. Id have to say it was probably the most unusual day I ever spent.
He hung up the phone and came back to his chair and sat and picked up the napkin and put it in his lap and picked up his fork. Somebody called in a car afire, he said. Just this side of Lozier Canyon.
Somebodys pried the inspection plate off the door, he said.
They dont know.
Wendell sat his horse, his hands crossed on the big roping pommel. He leaned and spat.
They didnt respond nothin. Theyre sendin the report FedEx. X-rays and everthing. They said youd have it in your office by in the mornin.
He ate. He drank the last of his coffee. Come go with me, he said.
Nine millimeter. A couple of .45 ACPs.
Yessir. For the week.
He called Torbert on the mobile phone. Im comin to get you, he said. Just set tight.
I dont think so.
Bell rode back around the rear of the truck and turned the horse to the south and looked at Wendell. You know where he lives at?
Wendell looked over the caldera. Well, he said. Somebodys walked away from here.
They drove back to town and the sheriff sent Wendell on to the house with the truck and the horses.
How many bodies is it altogether?
All right.
Bell pulled out onto the interstate. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. He looked at his deputy.
Dont get on a airplane with that thing, she said. Theyll put you under the jail.
All right.
He called the Trail Motel and told the woman to hold his room for him. Then he shoved the gun and the shells and the tools under the mattress and went out again.
Checkout time is eleven oclock.
Its probably one of them layin in the grass yonder.
Sir?
It must of sounded like Vietnam out here.
They walked out between the trucks. Bell picked up a few more casings and looked at them and dropped them again. He picked up a blue plastic speedloader. He stood and looked over the scene. Ill tell you what, he said.
Nothin.
They shook their heads. Chigurh got into the Ramcharger and pulled out and went back toward town.
Well. Thatll take some of the cackle out of just about anybody. I dont care who it is.
What do they say.
Outside he stood on the broken oilstained pavement. He looked at the two men sitting at the end of the building.
When they got to the car it was just a blackened hulk.
Im just sayin that whatever they were the only thing they are now is dead.
I got no idea.
He rose and walked to the window and pulled the curtain back slightly and looked out.
He lowered it again. Shed started to push her chair back but he wiped his mouth with his napkin and rose. Ill get it, he said.
For the week.
He cut a length from the Venetian blind cord at the window and tied the end of the cord to the case. Then he unlatched the case and counted out a thousand dollars and folded the money and put it in his pocket and shut the case and fastened it and fastened the straps.
He dropped the shells back into the floor and stepped back and picked up his rifle from where hed leaned it against the vehicle. Somebodys unloaded on this thing with a shotgun by the look of it.
Then he went out and got in the Ramcharger and left.
No sir.
Hes out on a call.
Yessir. They freely admitted that.
Dont hurt nobody. You hear?
Natural causes?
Bell nodded.
Pretty curious.
They pulled off the road at the gate and drove over the cattleguard and pulled up behind Wendells unit. Wendell walked back and Bell rolled down the window.
Where does he work.
They dont know?
Vietnam, the sheriff said.
I dont know. I wouldnt of thought it.
I would say at the least there probably aint no luck in it.
They were. They aint now.
Nothin. I just wanted to say it. You take care. Llewelyn? What.
No.
They drove through the gate and closed it again and drove down along the fence about a hundred feet andparked. Wendell unlatched the trailer doors and led the horses out. Bell took the reins of his wifes horse. You ride Winston, he said.
Well, I guess that would be our ten foot walltent. You can stand up in it. Well, some people could stand up in it. Its got a six foot clearance at the ridge.
Where does he work?
Why dont we get the horses and just ride up here a ways and look around. Maybe cut for sign a little.
He aint got a gun.
Was that what the old boy was drivin?
They rode down into the caldera carrying the Winchesters upright before them in the saddlebow. I hope this boy aint dead down here, Bell said. He seemed a decent enough boy the time or two I seen him. Pretty wife too.
When he woke it was dark. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and sat listening.
To which they responded?
When he pulled up in front of Lamars office the police tape was still strung across the courthouse lawn. Torbert was sitting on the steps. He got up and walked out to the car.
Wheres Sheriff Lamar?
A toilet flushed somewhere. A doorlatch clicked. Chigurh looked at the woman again.
You think themholes are big enough?
They walked around the truck. Bell pointed.
What are you thinkin, Sheriff?
They rode along in silence. After a while Torbert said: This whole thing is just hell in spectacles, aint it Sheriff.
He went into the livingroom and sat on the sofa. There was a perfectly good twenty-one inch television on the table. He looked at himself in the dead gray screen.
I cant call you except from a payphone.
I DONT KNOW THAT law enforcement benefits all that much from new technology.
The driver took the bill and tucked it into his shirtpocket and turned out of the lot and into the street.
Yessir.
I aint sure what youre sayin.
What was he shot with?
When he came back Bell handed him two billfolds hed taken from the bodies. He looked toward the trucks.
Tools that comes into our hands comes into theirs too. Not that you can go back. Or that youd even want to. We used to have them old Motorola two way radios. Weve had the high-band now for several years. Some things aint changed. Common sense aint changed. Ill tell my deputies sometimes to just follow the breadcrumbs. I still like the old Colts. .44-40. If that wont stop him youd better throw the thing down and take off runnin. I like the old Winchester model 97. I like it that its got a hammer. I dont like havin to hunt the safety on a gun. Of course some things is worse. That cruiser of mine is seven years old. Its got the 454 in it. You cant get that engine no more. I drove one of the new ones. It wouldnt outrun a fatman. I told the man I thought Id stick with what I had. That aint always a good policy. But it aint always a bad one neither.
Yes it is.
Llewelyn?
Let me have one.
No sir.
Bad way to go to a gunfight.
No, you wouldnt. Did you all see anything?
Can you tell me what they wanted with a dog out here?
When they found the dead man in the rocks a mile to the northeast Bell just sat his wifes horse. He sat there for a long time.
I got more than one. How many nights?
I know that truck.
Lets take the horses out yonder a ways, Bell said. They dont need to see this.
He handed Wendell a pistol hed picked up and then he squatted and leaned on the rifle he was carrying. These two is been executed, he said. One of their own, Id say. Old boy never even got the safety off that pistol. Both of em shot between the eyes.
