Free No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy Page A

the other and the other wasnt going away either.
    By the time he got up he knew that he was probably going to have to kill somebody. He just
     didnt know who it was.
    He took a cab and went into town and went into a sporting goods store and bought a twelve
     gauge Winchester pump gun and a box of double ought buckshot shells. The box of shells
     contained almost exactly the firepower of a claymore mine. He had them wrap the gun and he
     left with it under his arm and walked up Pecan Street to a hardware store. There he bought
     a hacksaw and a flat millfile and some miscellaneous items. A pair of pliers and a pair of
     sidecutters. A screwdriver. Flashlight. A roll of duct tape.
    He stood on the sidewalk with his purchases. Then he turned and walked back down the
     street.
    In the sporting goods store again he asked the same clerk if he had any aluminum
     tentpoles. He tried to explain that he didnt care what kind of tent it was, he just needed
     the poles.
    The clerk studied him. Whatever kind of tent it is, he said, we'd still have to special
     order poles for it. You need to get the manufacturer and the model number.
    You sell tents, right?
    We got three different models.
    Which one has got the most poles in it?
    Well, I guess that would be our ten foot walltent. You can stand up in it. Well, some
     people could stand up in it. It's got a six foot clearance at the ridge.
    Let me have one.
    Yessir.
    He brought the tent from the stockroom and laid it on the counter. It came in an orange
     nylon bag. Moss laid the shotgun and the bag of hardware on the counter and untied the
     strings and pulled the tent from the bag together with the poles and cords.
    It's all there, the clerk said.
    What do I owe you.
    It's one seventy-nine plus tax.
    He laid two of the hundred dollar bills on the counter. The tentpoles were in a separate
     bag and he pulled this out and put it with his other things. The clerk gave him his change
     and the receipt and Moss gathered up the shotgun and his hardware purchases together with
     the tentpoles and thanked him and turned and left. What about the tent? the clerk called.
    In the room he unwrapped the shotgun and wedged it in an open drawer and held it and sawed
     the barrel off just in front of the magazine. He squared up the cut with the file and
     smoothed it and wiped out the muzzle of the barrel with a damp facecloth and set it aside.
     Then he sawed off the stock in a line that left it with a pistol grip and sat on the bed
     and dressed the grip smooth with the file. When he had it the way he wanted it he slid the
     forearm back and slid it forward again and let the hammer down with his thumb and turned
     it sideways and looked at it. It looked pretty good. He turned it over and opened the box
     of shells and fed the heavy waxed loads into the magazine one by one. He jacked the slide
     back and chambered a shell and lowered the hammer and then put one more round in the
     magazine and laid the gun across his lap. It was less than two feet long.
    He called the Trail Motel and told the woman to hold his room for him. Then he shoved the
     gun and the shells and the tools under the mattress and went out again.
    He went to Wal-Mart and bought some clothes and a small nylon zipper bag to put them in. A
     pair of jeans and a couple of shirts and some socks. In the afternoon he went for a long
     walk out along the lake, taking the cut-off gunbarrel and the stock with him in the bag.
     He slung the barrel out into the water as far as he could throw it and he buried the stock
     under a ledge of shale. There were deer moving away through the desert scrub. He heard
     them snort and he could see them where they came out on a ridge a hundred yards away to
     stand looking back at him. He sat on a gravel beach with the empty bag folded in his lap
     and watched the sun set. Watched the land turn blue and cold. An osprey went down the
     lake. Then there was just the darkness.
    No