Free Hombre by Elmore Leonard Page A

any trees. I don’t mean to say it was easy to travel over.
    We moved along with Dr. Favor usually ahead of us. Way up ahead you would see Russell. Then you wouldn’t see him. Not because he had hidden, but because of the time of day and just the way that country was, with little dips and rises and wild with all kinds of scrub brush and cactus. The saguaros that were all over didn’t look like fence posts now. They were like grave markers in an Indian burial ground, if there is such a place as that. This wasn’t what scared you though, it was what was coming behind us and trying to keep up with Russell that did.
    He must have known we were following. But he never once ran or tried to hide on us. The McLaren girl wondered out loud why he didn’t. I guess he knew he didn’t have to.
    There was a pass that led through these hills which Russell followed a little ways, then crossed the half mile or so of openness to the other side and headed up through a barranca that rose as a big trough between two ridges. Following him across the openness we kept looking back, but Braden and his men were not close to us yet.
    Russell left the barranca, climbing again up tothe cover of trees. I think that climb was the hardest part and wore us out the most, all of us hurrying, wasting our strength as we tried to keep him in sight. Once up on this ridge, though, there was no sign of him.
    We kept to the trees, moving north because we figured he would. Then after a mile or so there was the end of the trees. This hump of a ridge trailed off into a bare spine and then we were working our way down again into another pass, a darker, more shadowed one, because now it was later. It was here that we sighted Russell again, and here that we almost gave up and said what was the use. He was climbing again, almost up the other side of this pass, way up past the brush to where the slope was steep and rocky, and we knew then that we would never keep up with him.
    Dr. Favor claimed he was deliberately trying to lose us. But the McLaren girl said no, he didn’t care if we followed or sprouted wings and flew; he was thinking of Braden and his men on horseback and he was making it as hard for them as he could, making them get off their horses and walk if they wanted to follow him.
    When she said this and we thought of Braden again, we went on, tired or not, and climbed right up that grade Russell had, skinning ourselves pretty bad because now it was hard to see your footing in the dim light.
    It was up on that slope, in trees again, that we rested and ate some of the dried beef and biscuits from the grainsack. Before we were through it was dark, almost as dark as it would get. This rest, which was our longest one, made it hard to get up and we started arguing about going on.
    Mendez was for staying. He said going on wasn’t worth it. Let Braden catch up for all he cared.
    Dr. Favor said we had to go on, practically ordering us to. Braden would have to stop because he couldn’t follow our trail in the dark. So we should take advantage of this and keep going.
    Keep going, the McLaren girl said. That sounded fine. But which way? How did we know we wouldn’t get turned around and walk right back into Braden’s hands?
    We would head north, Dr. Favor said. And keep heading north. The McLaren girl said she agreed, but which way was it? He pointed off somewhere, but you could tell he wasn’t sure. Or he could go on alone, Dr. Favor suggested, watching us to see our reaction. Go on alone and bring back help. He didn’t insist on it and let it die when nobody said anything.
    Why didn’t he mention his wife then? That’s when I started thinking about what the McLaren girl had said earlier: that he had forgotten about his wife and only the money was important to him.
    Could that be? I tried thinking what I would do if it was my wife. Hole up and ambush them? Try and get her away from them? My gosh, no, I thought then. Just trade them the money for her! Certainly