Free Blood Money and Other Stories (1953) by Elmore Leonard Page A

his shirt, sticking to his body with perspiration. The sun was straight overhead and the heat pushed into the canyon without first being deflected by the rimrock.
    The Mexican drew his carbine from his bedroll and moved up next to Rich Miller, and now the four of them were looking down the slope, all thinking pretty much the same thing, though in different ways.
    Eugene Harlan broke the silence. "I shouldn't of fired at them."
    It could have gone unsaid. Deke shrugged.
    "That's under the bridge."
    "I wasn't thinking."
    Deke did not bother to look at him. "Well, you better start."
    "It wasn't my fault. Ford led 'em here!"
    "Nobody's blaming you for anything. They'd a got us anyway, sooner or later. It was on the wall."
    Eugene was silent, and then he said, "What happens if we give ourselves up?"
    Deke glanced at him now. "What do you think?"
    Sonny Navarez grinned. "I think they would invite us to the rope dance."
    "Ford's the one shot that boy in the bank," Eugene protested. "They already got him."
    "How would they know he's the one?" Deke said.
    "We'll tell them."
    Deke shook his head. "Get a drink and you'll be doing your nerves a favor."
    Sonny Navarez and Rich Miller looked at Deke and both of them grinned, but they said nothing and after a moment they looked away again, down the slope, which fell smooth and steep. Slightly to the left, beyond an ore tailing, rose the weathered gray scaffolding over the main shaft; below it, the rickety structure of the crushing mill and, past that, six rusted tanks cradled in a framework of decaying timber. These were roughly three hundred yards down the slope.
    There was another hundred to the clapboard company buildings straggled along the base of the far slope.
    A sign hanging from the veranda of the largest building said sweet mary no. 1 el tesorero mining co. four tanks, arizona terr. Most of the possemen now sat in the shade of this building.
    Deke raised his hat again and passed a hand over his bald head, then down over his face, weathered and beard stubbled, contrasting with the delicate whiteness of his skull. Rich Miller's eyes came back up the slope, hesitating on Ford Harlan's facedown body. Then he removed his hat, passed a sleeve across his forehead, and replaced the curled brim low over his eyes.
    He heard Eugene say, "You can't tell what they'll do."
    "They won't send us back to Yuma," Deke said.
    "That's one thing you can count on. And it costs money to rig a gallows. They'd just as lief do it here, with a gun appeals to the sporting blood."
    Sonny Navarez said, "I once shot a mountain sheep in this same canyon that weighed as much as a man."
    "Right from the start there were signs," Deke said. "I was a fool not to heed them. Now it's too late. Something's brought us to die here all together, and we can't escape it. You can't escape your doom."
    Sonny Navarez said, "I think it was twelve thousand dollars that brought us."
    "Sure it was the money, in a way," Deke said.
    "But we're so busy listening to Ford tell how easy money's restin' in the bank, waitin' to be sent to Yuma, we're not seein' the signs. Things that've never happened before. Like Ford insisting we got to have five so he picks up this kid "
    Rich Miller said, "Wait a minute!" because it didn't sound right.
    Deke held up his hand. "I'm talking about the signs and Ford all of a sudden gettin' the urge to go on scout when he never done anything like that before. It was all working toward this and now there's nothing we can do about it."
    "I ain't going to get shot up just because you got a crazy notion," Eugene said.
    Deke shook his head, wearily. "It's sealed up now.
    After fate shows how it's going, then it's too late."
    "I didn't shoot that man in the bank!"
    "You think they'll bother to ask you?"
    "Damn it, I'll tell 'em and they'll have to prove I did it!"
    "If you can get close enough to 'em without gettin' shot," Deke said quietly. He brought out field glasses from his saddlebags, which were below the