Hombre by Elmore Leonard Page B

while you sat there obeying Russell’s rule. All right, if they were going to have some, a person would be dumb not to take his share. That’s why I took a drink right after she did. I’m sure she was thinking the same way.
    Dr. Favor was still looking at her, more sure of himself than ever now. He said, “If you want to tell him when he gets back, you just go right ahead.” He was even smiling then.
    What could she say? On the other hand, knowing her, she might have said something at that. But she didn’t.
    Everybody settled down again. For a little while there was peace. Then Dr. Favor came over to me.
    Right away he said, “That’s some Indian chief we got,” meaning Russell of course.
    “Well,” I said, “I guess he knows what he’s doing.”
    “He knows what he wants. That much is sure.”
    If he thought Russell wanted the money, that was his business. But why talk about something you couldn’t prove? I just said, “Maybe he’s the best chief we got,” kind of joking about it.
    “Only we’re not his braves,” Dr. Favor said, and he was serious, his face close to mine and staring right at me.
    “If somebody has another idea,” I said, “I’ll listen.”
    “I’ve got one,” he said. “We leave right now.”
    He’d force you right up against a wall like that; then you’d have to try and wiggle out.
    “Well, I don’t know about that,” I said.
    “Let me have my gun then.”
    He said it all of a sudden and I didn’t have any idea in the world what to say back. What I finally said was something like, “Well, I don’t think I can do that.”
    “Because he said so?”
    “No, not just because of him.”
    “Because of the others?”
    “We’re all in this together.”
    “But not going by his rules anymore.”
    “Just the water.”
    “What’s more important than that?”
    “I’m holding it,” I said. “He’s the one took it.”
    “Now that doesn’t make much sense, does it?” Dr. Favor said. “What you’re doing, you’re keeping something that doesn’t belong to you.”
    I couldn’t tell the man to his face I thought he was a thief. That’s why I had so much trouble thinking of something to say. Even with the gun in my belt, or maybe because it was there, I felt awkward and dumb. He just kept staring at me.
    “Maybe I should take it away from you,” he said.
    When I hesitated, not knowing what to say ordo, the McLaren girl got into it. She said, looking at me, “Are you going to let him?”
    She pushed up to a sitting position, about ten or twelve feet away from us. “You know what he wants,” she said.
    “What’s mine,” Dr. Favor said. “If you think anything else, you’re imagining things.”
    “I know one thing,” the McLaren girl said. “I wouldn’t give you the gun if I had it. And if you tried to take it, I’d shoot you.”
    “For hardly more than a little girl,” Dr. Favor said, “you certainly have strong opinions.”
    “When I know I’m right,” the McLaren girl said.
    Dr. Favor stood up. He lit a cigar and for a while stood there looking out over the slope and smoking. Time crept along. I laid down with one arm on the saddlebags and my head on my arm. I don’t think I have ever been so tired, and it was easy to close my eyes and fall asleep. I fought it for a while, dozing, opening my eyes. Once when I opened them, I saw Dr. Favor sitting by Mendez and Mendez was smoking a cigar too.
    I heard Dr. Favor say, “You did fine. It took more nerve than most have to lie there waiting for them.”
    “He shouldn’t have made me do it,” Mendez said.
    “You didn’t have to, you know.”
    “Listen, he makes sense,” Mendez said. “Whether you agree with him or not.”
    “He makes sense even if it kills you,” Dr. Favor said. “That’s what you’re saying.”
    “It’s just I had never shot at a man before,” Mendez said. “It isn’t an easy thing.”
    “It seems easy to him,” Dr. Favor said. “And if you can kill one person, you