第16章

Which it's also a fact that takin' us that time must have been a heap on.lucky for them Greasers.Thar's nine of 'em, an' every last man dies in the next five months; an' never a one, nor yet the Princess, knows what they're ag'inst when they quits; or what breeze blows their light out.I knows, because me an' a party whose name is Tate--Bill Tate--never leaves them hills till the last of that outfit's got his heap of rocks piled up, with its little pine cross stickin'

outen the peak tharof, showin' he's done jumped this earthly game for good."'This Bill Tate an' me breaks camp on them Greasers together while they're tankin' up on mescal, mebby it's two days later; an' they never gets their lariats on us no more."'"You ain't got no dates, nor speshul engagements with nobody in the States, have you?" says Tate to me when we're safe outen them Mexican's hands."'"No,"says I,"whatever makes you ask? "'"Oh, nothin',"says Tate lookin' at the sky sorter black an' ugly, "only since you-all has the leesure, what for a play would it be to make a long camp back in these hills by some water-hole some'ers, an' stand pat ontil we downs these yere Greasers--squaws an' all--who's had us treed? It oughter be did; an' if we-ails don't do it none, it's a heap likely it's goin' to be neglected complete.It's easy as a play; every hoss-thief of 'em lives right in these yere valleys, for I hears 'em talk.All we has to do is sa'nter back in the hills, make a camp; an' by bein' slow an' shore, an' takin' time an' pains, we bushwhacks an' kills the last one." "'The way I feels about Willis makes the prospect mighty allurin,' an' tharupon Tate an' me opens a game with them Mexicans it takes five months to deal."'But it's plumb dealt out, an' we win.When Tate crosses the Rio Grande with the army goin'

back, he shorely has the skelp of every Mexican incloosive of said Princess."'But I wanders from Willis.Where was I at when I bogs down? As I says, this lieutenant nabs a pistol an' goes flutterin' from his limb.But this don't do them Greasers.They puts up a claim that some Americans tracks up on one of their outfit an' kills him off, they says, five days before.

They allows that, breakin' even on the deal, one of us is due to die.Tate offers to let 'em count the lieutenant, but they shakes their heads till the little bells on their sombreros tinkles, an'

declines the lieutenant emphatic."'They p'ints out this yere lieutenant dies in his own game, on his own deal.It's no racket of theirs, an' it don't go to match the man they're shy."`One of us six who's left has to die to count even for this Greaser who's been called in them five days ago.Tate can't move 'em; all he says is no use; so he quits, an' as he's been talkin' Spanish--which the same is too muddy a language for the rest of us--Tate turns in an' tells us how the thing sizes up."`"One of us is shorely elected to trail out after the lieutenant,"says Tate."The rest they holds as pris'ners.Either way it's a hard, deep crossin', an' one's about as rough a toss as the other." "'This last Tate stacks in to mebby win out a little comfort for the one the Mexicans cuts outen our bunch to kill."`After a brief pow-wow the Greaser who's actin' range-boss for the outfit puts six beans in a buckskin bag.Five is white an' one's black.Them Greasers is on the gamble bigger'n wolves, an' they crowds up plenty gleeful to see us take a gambler's chance for our lives.The one of us who draws a black bean is to p'int out after the lieutenant."`Sayin' somethin'

in Spanish which most likely means" Age before beauty,"the Mexicans makes Willis an' me stand back while the four others searches one after the other into the bag for his bean."`Tate goes first an' wins a white bean.

"`Then a shiftless, no-account party whom we-alls calls "Chicken Bill" reaches in.I shorely hopes, seein' it's bound to be somebody, that this Chicken Bill acquires the black bean.But luck's ag'in us;Chicken Bill backs off with a white bean."`When the third gent turns out a white bean the shadow begins to fall across Jim Willis an' me.I looks at Jim; an' I gives it to you straight when I says that I ain't at that time thinkin' of myse'f so much as about Jim.