Hombre Read Free Page B

because I was talking up, but he still looked patient. He said, “And who would drive it?”
    “I could do it,” I said. Which just came to me that moment.
    “Do you think the company would put an inexperienced driver on a run like that?”
    “Well,” I said, “how do you get experience?”
    “All of a sudden you want to be a driver.”
    “I’m trying to help Dr. Favor. If he has to be in Bisbee, I think the company should see he gets there.”
    “Within the company’s power,” Mr. Mendez said, still patient. “I think you and I can discuss this another time, uh?”
    “That doesn’t help Dr. Favor any.”
    Dr. Favor said, “What if I’m willing to let him drive?”
    “You might also be willing to bring suit if something happens,” Mr. Mendez said.
    “If I bought the rig?” Dr. Favor said.
    But Mr. Mendez shook his head. “It’s not mine to sell.”
    “Then if I paid more than just our fares.”
    “You’re anxious to get there,” Mr. Mendez said.
    “I thought you understood that.”
    Mr. Mendez nodded his head to the side. “Isn’t that your buggy by the hotel? Use that.”
    “It’s government property,” Dr. Favor said. “There’s a regulation about using it for private matters.”
    “We have regulations too.”
    “How much do you want?” Dr. Favor seemed just as patient as Mr. Mendez.
    “Well, if there was a driver here.”
    “Then it comes down to a driver.”
    “And horses. We would have to get four, six horses.”
    “All right, get them.”
    “But I couldn’t take responsibility for them,” Mr. Mendez said. “Now there are no change stations working. The same horses would have to go all the way.” Mr. Mendez shrugged. “If they don’t make it, who pays for them?”
    “I buy the horses,” Dr. Favor said.
    Mr. Mendez started to nod, very slowly, as if he was just understanding something. “You want to get there pretty bad, uh?”
    “I have a feeling,” Dr. Favor said, “you’re going to find a driver.” He pushed up out of the chair, his eyes on Mr. Mendez. “If I went over to the hotel now and had supper, that would give you about an hour to find a man and get ready. Say six-thirty.”
    “Tonight?”
    “Why not?”
    “I’ll see,” Mr. Mendez said.
    “Do that,” Dr. Favor said. He moved through the gate, taking his hat from the counter.
    “But I won’t promise you,” Mr. Mendez said after him. The Indian agent just walked out, like it was settled.
    I said, soon as he was gone, “Mr. Mendez, I know I can drive it.”
    “Driving a stage isn’t something you know you can do,” Mr. Mendez said.
    “I’ve pulled the teams around from the yard plenty of times. And that mud wagon’s lighter than a Concord.”
    “The horses pull it,” he said. “Not you.”
    We argued some more, and finally I said, “Well, who else do you have?”
    “Don’t worry about it,” he said.
    “Well, I am worrying, because I want to go too.”
    He looked at me closely with those brown-stained eyes not telling anything, and I hoped my face was just as calm and natural.
    “To talk to this Favor, uh? Get to know him?”
    “Why not?”
    “It’s all right, Carl.”
    “I was thinking of some others too,” I said. “An ex-soldier who was in here. And there’s the McLaren girl.”
    Mr. Mendez nodded again as if he was thinking. “The McLaren girl. Sure,” he said. “And maybe John Russell.”
    It was all right with me. “That would be five inside,” I said.
    “Six,” Mr. Mendez said.
    “Not if I’m driving.”
    Mr. Mendez shook his head. “You’re inside like a passenger. How does that sound?”
    “Well,” I said, “could I ask who’s going to drive it then?”
    “I am,” Mr. Mendez said. “Who else?”
    The way Mr. Mendez decided to go all of a sudden didn’t make any sense at all until I thought about it a while. And then I realized it might not have been so all of a sudden at that. He could have seen money in this right off and been leading Dr. Favor on,