Billy crossed his horse to the far side of the road. So that she must turn her face to the west in the last of the light to answer him if he spoke to her as he rode past. But when she heard the horses on the road behind her she crossed also and when he spoke to her she did not turn at all and if she answered he did not hear it. They rode on. A hundred yards and he stopped and got down into the road.
What are you doin‑ said Boyd.
He looked back at the girl. She had stopped. There was nowhere for her to go. Billy turned and lifted the near stirrup and hung it over the horn and checked the latigo.
It’s gettin dark, said Boyd.
It is dark.
Well let’s go on.
We’re goin.
The girl had begun to walk again. She approached slowly keeping to the farthest edge of the road. As she came abreast of them Billy asked her if she wanted to ride. She didnt answer. She shook her head under the bundle and then she hurried past. Billy watched her go. He stroked the horse and took up the reins and started down the road afoot leading the horse behind. Boyd sat Keno and watched him.
What’s got into you, he said.
What?
Askin her to ride.
What’s wrong with that?
Boyd put his horse forward and rode beside his brother. What are you doin? he said.
Walkin my horse.
What the hell’s wrong with you?
Aint nothin wrong with me.
Well what are you doin?
I’m just walkin my horse. Like you’re ridin yours.
The hell you are.
Are you scared of girls?
Scared of girls?
Yeah.
He looked up at Boyd. But Boyd just shook his head and rode on.
The girl’s small figure receded into the darkness ahead. Doves were still coming into the fields to the west of the road. They could hear them cross overhead even after it was too dark to see. Boyd rode on, he waited in the road. After a while Billy caught him up. He was riding again and they went on side by side.
They passed out of the irrigated land and they passed in a grove of roadside trees a jacal of mud and sticks where the faint orange light of a slutlamp burned. They thought it must be the place where the girl lived and were surprised to come upon her in the road before them once again.
When they overtook her now it was black of night and Billy slowed the horse beside her and asked her if she had far to go and she hesitated for a moment and then said that she did not. He offered that he would carry her bundle behind him on the horse and she could walk beside but she refused politely. She called him sefior. She looked at Boyd. It occurred to him that she could have hidden in the roadside chaparral but she had not done so. They wished her a good evening and rode on and a short while later they encountered two horsemen on the road riding back the way they’d come who spoke to them briefly out of the darkness and passed on. He halted his horse and sat watching after them and Boyd halted beside him.
Are you thinkin what I am? Billy said.
Boyd sat with his forearms crossed on the pommel of his saddle. You want to wait on her?
Yeah.
All right. You think they’ll bother her?
Billy didnt answer. The horses shifted and stood. After a while he said: Let’s just wait here a minute. She’ll be along in a minute. Then we can go.
But she wasnt along in a minute and she wasnt along in ten minutes or in thirty.
Let’s go back, Billy said.
Boyd leaned and spat slowly into the road and turned his horse.
They’d gone no more than a mile when they saw a fire somewhere ahead of them through the iron shapes of the brush. The road turned and the fire swung slowly off to the right. Then it swung back. A half mile further and they halted their horses. The fire was burning in a small grove of oaks off to the east. The light of it was caught under the dark canopy of the leaves and shadows moved and moved back and a horse nickered from the dark beyond.
What do you want to do? said Boyd.
I dont know. Let me think.
They sat their horses in the darkened road.
You thought yet?
I guess there aint nothin to do but just ride on in.
They’ll know we backtracked em.
I know it. It caint be helped.
Boyd sat watching the fire through the trees.
What do you want to do? said Billy.
If we’re goin to go on in there then let’s just do it.
They got down and led the horses. The dog sat in the road and watched them. Then it got up and followed.
When they entered the clear ground under the trees the two men were standing on the far side of the fire watching them approach. Their horses were not in sight. The girl was sitting on the ground with her legs tucked under her and clutching the bundle in her lap. When she saw who it was she looked away and sat staring into the fire.
Buenas noches, called Billy.
Buenas noches, they said.
They stood holding the horses. They had not been invited forward. The dog when it struck the circle of light stopped in its tracks and then backed away slightly and stood waiting. The men were watching them. One of them was smoking a cigarette and he raised it to his lips and sucked thinly at it and blew a thin stream of smoke toward the fire. He made a circling motion with his arm, his finger pointed down. He told them to take their horses around and into the trees behind them. Nuestros caballos están allá, he said.