closely, Newt saw why the Captain had not bothered to stop the escape: the mule was hobbled.
The sight of a man so addled as to try and get away on a hobbled mule was too much for Deets. He slapped his leg with his big hand and laughed a deep laugh, resting his rifle for a moment on the low adobe wall.
'You see, it's a poor mule,' the boy said indignantly, springing up. 'Its legs won't work.'
Deets laughed even louder, but the baldheaded man sighed and looked at the Captain in a rather jolly way.
'He's my brother but he ain't smart,' he said quietly. 'The Lord gave him a fine baritone voice and I guess he thought that was enough to do for a poor Irish boy.'
'I'm smarter than yourself at least,' the boy said, kicking dirt at his brother. He seemed quite prepared to take the quarrel farther, but his brother merely smiled.
'You must unhobble the mule if you want his legs to work,' he said. 'It's details like that you're always forgetting, Sean.'
The mule had managed to get to its feet and was standing quietly by the Captain.
'Well, I didn't hobble him,' Sean said. 'I was riding the donkey.'
The baldheaded man hospitably held the bottle out to the Captain.
'It's only a swallow,' he said, 'but if you're thirsty, you're welcome.'
'Much obliged, but I'll pass,' the Captain said. 'Do you men know where you are?'
'We ain't in Ireland,' the boy said. 'I know that much.'
'You wouldn't have a bag of potatoes about you, sir, would you?' the older said. 'We do miss our spuds.'
Call motioned for Deets and Newt to join the group. When they did the bald man stood up.
'Since you've not bothered to murder us, I'll introduce myself,' he said. 'I'm Allen O'Brien and this is young Sean.'
'Are those your only animals?' Call asked. 'Just a donkey and a mule?'
'We had three mules to start with,' Allen said. 'I'm afraid our thirst got the better of us. We traded two mules for a donkey and some liquor.'
'And some beans,' Sean said. 'Only the beans were no good. I broke my tooth trying to eat one.'
It was Call's turn to sigh. He had expected
'How'd you men get here?' he asked.
'That would be a long story,' Allen said. 'Are we far from Galveston? That was our destination.'
'You overshot it by a wide mark,' Call said. 'This hut you're resting in belongs to a man named Pedro Flores. He ain't a gentle man, and if he finds you tomorrow I expect he'll hang you.'
'Oh, he will,' Deets agreed. 'He'll be mad tomorrow.'
'Fine, we'll go with you,' Allen said. He courteously offered the bottle to both Deets and Newt, and when they refused drained it with one gulp and flung it into the darkness.
'Now we're packed,' he said.
'Get the horses,' Call said to Newt, looking at the Irishmen. They were none of his business and he could just ride off and leave them, but the theft he was about to commit would put their lives in considerable danger: Pedro Flores would vent his anger on whatever whites lay to hand.
'I've no time for a long explanation,' he said. 'We've got some horses to the south of here. I'll send a man back with two of them as soon as I can. Be ready-we won't wait for for you.'
'You mean leave tonight?' the boy said. 'What about sleep?'
'Just be ready,' Call said. 'We'll want to move fast when we move, and you'll never make it on that mule and that jackass.'
Newt felt sorry for the two. They seemed friendly. The younger one was holding the sack of dried beans. Newt didn't feel he could leave without a word about the beans.
'You have to soak them beans,' he said. 'Soak them a while and it softens them up.'
The Captain was already loping away, and Newt didn't dare linger any longer.
'There's no water to soak them in,' Sean said. He was very hungry, and inclined to despair at such times.
Deets was the last to leave. Allen O'Brien walked over, as he was mounting.
'I hope you'll not forget us,' he said. 'I do fear we're lost.'
'The Captain said we'll get you, we'll get you,' Deets said.
'Maybe they'll bring a wagon,' Sean said. 'A wagon would suit me best.'
'A cradle would suit you best,' his brother said.
They listened as the sound of loping horses grew faint and was lost in the desert night.
11.
AUGUSTUS SOON FOUND the horse herd in a valley south of the old line camp. Call had predicted its location precisely, but had overestimated its size. A couple of horses whinnied at the sight of riders but didn't seem particularly disturbed.
'Probably all Texas horses anyway,' Augustus said. 'Probably had enough of Mexico.'
'I've had enough of it and I just got here,' Jake said, lighting his smoke. 'I never liked it down here with these chili-bellies.'
'Why, Jake, you should stay and make your home here,' Augustus said. 'That sheriff can't follow you here. Besides, think of the women.'
'I got a woman,' Jake said. 'That one back in Lonesome Dove will do me for a while.'
'She'll do you, all right,' Augustus said. 'That girl's got more spunk than you have.'
'What would you know about it, Gus?' Jake asked. 'I don't suppose you've spent time with her, a man your age.'
'The older the violin, the sweeter the music,' Augustus said. 'You never knowed much about women.'
Jake didn't answer. He had forgotten how much Gus liked argument.
'I guess you think all women want you to marry them and build 'em a house and raise five or six brats,' Augustus said. 'But it's my view that very few women are fools, and only a fool would pick you for a chore like that, Jake. You'll do fine for a barn dance or a cakewalk, or maybe a picnic, but house building and brat raising ain't exactly your line.'
Jake kept quiet. He knew that silence was the best defense once Augustus got wound up. It might take him a while to talk himself out, if left alone, but any response would just encourage him.
'This ain't no hundred horses,' he said, after a bit. 'Maybe we got the wrong herd.'
'Nope, it's right,' Augustus said. 'Pedro just learned not to keep all his remuda in one place. It's almost forty horses here. It won't satisfy Woodrow, but then practically nothing does.'
He had no sooner spoken than he heard three horses coming from the north.
'If that ain't them, we're under attack,' Jake said.
'It's them,' Augustus said. 'A scout like you, who's traveled in Montana, ought to recognize his own men.'
'Gus, you'd exasperate a preacher,' Jake said. 'I don't know what your dern horses sound like.'
It was an old trick of theirs, trying to make him feel incompetent-as if a man was incompetent because he couldn't see in the dark, or identify a local horse by the sound of its trot.
''I god, you're techy, Jake,' Augustus said, just as Call rode up.
'Is this all there is or did you trot in and run the rest off?' he asked.
'Do them horses look nervous?' Augustus asked.
'Dern,' Call said. 'Last time we was through here there was two or three hundred horses.'
'Maybe Pedro's going broke,' Augustus said. 'Mexicans can go broke, same as Texans. What'd you do with the
'We didn't find none. We just found two Irishmen.'
'Irishmen?' Augustus asked.
'They just lost,' Deets said.
