“Son of a bitch! What is that smell?” Casey asked as they got closer.
“Fargo,” Dagen called. “Do you smell that?”
Fargo nodded.
“You know what it is, don’t you?,” Dagen asked.
“I have an idea,” Fargo answered.
“It means Ponci’s dead and his body has got good’n ripe,” Dagen said.
“You think he’s dead?”
“Hell, yes, he’s dead. What else would give off a stink like that?”
“Then why don’t you go in and have a look around?” Fargo said.
Dagen started toward the cave, then stopped. “Hey, whyn’t we throw a few rounds in there just to be sure?” he said.
Fargo nodded. “Not a bad idea.”
The three men started firing then, the bullets screaming as they ricocheted through the cave, the gunshots echoing back from the hills.
The three emptied their pistols, then stood there as the echoes of the final shots returned from the hillsides.
Dagen poked out the empty shell casings, reloaded, then with his gun ready, stepped into the cave.
Fargo and Casey watched him disappear into the blackness and they waited for a long moment.
“Holy shit!” Dagen shouted from inside the cave and his words, amplified by the megaphone effect of the cave, boomed out.
“What is it?” Fargo called.
“Get in here,” Dagen said. “You ain’t goin’ to believe this!”
Fargo and Casey started into the cave.
“Hope this don’t take long,” Casey said. “That stink’s so bad I can’t hardly breathe.”
“Did you find him?” Fargo called.
“Partly,” Dagen answered mysteriously.
“Partly? What the hell do you mean partly?”
“You’ll see.”
With their eyes accustomed to the darker interior of the cave, they saw Dagen standing about a quarter of the way back, looking down at something. Whatever he was looking at seemed to be the source of the smell.
“Holy shit, what is that?” Casey asked.
“It’s a leg,” Dagen said.
“What?”
“It’s a leg. Ponci’s leg.”
“Where the hell did Ponci find a doctor out here to cut off his leg?” Casey asked.
“He didn’t find no doctor,” Fargo said.
“What do you mean he didn’t? That’s his leg, ain’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Well, how’d it get here if he didn’t have no doctor with him?”
“He cut it off his ownself,” Fargo said.
“Son of a bitch!” Casey said. “Who would do a thing like that?”
“Evidently Ponci did.”
“Who would have figured that Ponci would have the guts?” Dagen said.
“Didn’t nobody ever say he didn’t have guts,” Fargo said. The three men stood there for a moment longer. Then, with a shout of disgust, Fargo kicked the leg. It came apart in stinking, rotting chunks of flesh.
“Let’s go!” he said, storming out of the cave.
“Go where?”
“Back to Mesquite,” he said. “The son of a bitch is there, I know he is.”
“With your sister?”
“I’m sure of it.”
“What if she is hiding him?”
“I’ll kill the bitch,” Fargo said.
