Before they could agree or disagree he'd hauled the horse around by the hackamore and was pounding off up the track.
He's right, said John Grady. We better get off this damned road.
All right.
They rode out through the brush in the dark, taking the lowest country they could keep to, lying along the necks of their mounts that they not be skylighted.
We're fixin to get the horses snakebit sure as the world, said Rawlins.
It'll be daylight soon.
Then we can get shot.
In a little while they heard horses on the road. Then they heard more horses. Then all was quiet.
We better get somewheres, said Rawlins. It's fixin to get daylight sure enough.
Yeah, I know it.
You think when they come back they'll see where we quit the road?
Not if enough of em has rode over it.
What if they catch him?
John Grady didnt answer.
He wouldnt have no qualms about showin em which way we'd headed.
Probably not.
You know not. All they'd have to do would be look at him crossways.
Then we better keep ridin.
Well I dont know about you but I'm about to run out of horse.
Well tell me what you want to do.
Shit, said Rawlins. We aint got no choice. We'll see what daylight brings. Maybe one of these days we might find some grain somewheres in this country.
Maybe.
They slowed the horses and rode to the crest of the ridge. Nothing moved in all that gray landscape. They dismounted and walked out along the ridge. Small birds were beginning to call from the chaparral.
You know how long it's been since we eat? said Rawlins.
I aint even thought about it.
I aint either till just now. Bein shot at will sure enough cause you to lose your appetite, wont it?
Hold up a minute.
What is it?
Hold up.
They stood listening.
I dont hear nothin.
There's riders out there.
On the road?
I dont know.
Can you see anything?
No.
Let's keep movin.
John Grady spat and stood listening. Then they moved on. At daylight they left the horses standing in a gravel wash and climbed to the top of a rise and sat among the ocotillos and watched the country back to the northeast. Some deer moved out feeding along the ridge opposite. Other than that they saw nothing.
Can you see the road? said Rawlins.
No.
They sat. Rawlins stood the rifle against his knee and took his tobacco from his pocket. I believe I'll smoke, he said.
A long fan of light ran out from the east and the rising sun swelled blood red along the horizon.
Look yonder, said John Grady.
What.
Over yonder.
Two miles away riders had crested a rise. One, two. A third. Then they dropped from sight again.
Which way are they headed?
Well cousin I dont know for sure but I got a pretty good notion.
Rawlins sat holding the cigarette. We're goin to die in this goddamned country, he said.
No we aint.
You think they can track us on this ground?
I dont know. I dont know that they cant.
I'll tell you what, bud. They get us bayed up out here somewheres with the horses give out they're goin to have to come over the barrel of this rifle.
John Grady looked at him and he looked back out where the riders had been. I'd hate to have to shoot my way back to Texas, he said.
Where's your gun at?
In the saddlebag.
Rawlins lit the cigarette. I ever see that little son of a bitch again I'll kill him myself. I'm damned if I wont.
Let's go, said John Grady. They still got a lot of ground to cover. I'd rather to make a good run as a bad stand.
They rode out west with the sun at their back and their shadows horse and rider falling before them tall as trees. The country they found themselves in was old lava country and they kept to the edge of the rolling black gravel plain and kept watch behind them. They saw the riders again, south of where they would have put them. And then once more.
If them horses aint bottomed out I believe they'd be comin harder than that, said Rawlins.
I do too.
Midmorning they rode to the crest of a low volcanic ridge and turned the horses and sat watching.
What do you think? said Rawlins.
Well, they know we aint got the horse. That's for sure. They might not be as anxious to ride this ground as you and me.
You got that right.
They sat for a long time. Nothing moved.
I think they've quit us.
I do too.
Let's keep movin.
By late afternoon the horses were stumbling. They watered them out of their hats and drank the other canteen dry themselves and mounted again and rode on. They saw the riders no more. Toward evening they came upon a band of sheepherders camped on the far side of a deep arroyo that was floored with round white rocks. The sheepherders seemed to have selected the site with an eye to its defense ás did the ancients of that country and they watched with great solemnity the riders making their way along the other side.
What do you think? said John Grady.
I think we ought to keep ridin. I'm kindly soured on the citizens in this part of the country.
I think you're right.
They rode on another mile and descended into the arroyo to look for water. They found none. They dismounted and led the horses, the four of them stumbling along into the deepening darkness, Rawlins still carrying the rifle, following the senseless tracks of birds or wild pigs in the sand.
Nightfall found them sitting on their blankets on the ground with the horses staked a few feet away. Just sitting in the dark with no fire, not speaking. After a while Rawlins said: We should of got water from them herders.
We'll find some water in the mornin.
I wish it was mornin.
John Grady didnt answer.
Goddamn junior is goin to piss and moan and carry on all night. I know how he gets.
They probably think we've gone crazy.
Aint we?
You think they caught him?
I dont know.
I'm goin to turn in.
They lay in their blankets on the ground. The horses shifted uneasily in the dark.
I'll say one thing about him, said Rawlins.
Who?
Blevins.
What's that?
The little son of a bitch wouldnt stand still for nobody highjackin his horse.
In the morning they left the horses in the arroyo and climbed up to watch the sun rise and see what the country afforded. It had been cold in the night in the sink and when the sun came up they turned and sat with their backs to it. To the north a thin spire of smoke stood in the windless air.
You reckon that's the sheepcamp? said Rawlins.
We better hope it is.
You want to ride back up there and see if they'll give us some water and some grub?
No.
I dont either.
They watched the country.
Rawlins rose and walked off with the rifle. After a while he came back with some nopal fruit in his hat and poured them out on a flat rock and sat peeling them with his knife.
You want some of these? he said.
John Grady walked over and squatted and got out his own knife. The nopal was still cool from the night and it stained their fingers blood red and they sat peeling the fruit and eating it and spitting the small hard seeds and picking the spines out of their fingers. Rawlins gestured at the countryside. There aint much happenin out there, is there?
John Grady nodded. Biggest problem we got is we could run into them people and not even know it. We never even got a good look at their horses.
Rawlins spat. They got the same problem. They dont know us neither.
They'd know us.
Yeah, said Rawlins. You got a point.
Course we aint got no problem at all next to Blevins. He'd about as well to paint that horse red and go around blowin a horn.
Aint that the truth.
Rawlins wiped the blade of his knife on his trousers and folded it shut. I believe I'm losin ground with these things.
Peculiar thing is, what he says is true. It is his horse.