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hills. There were roads and rivers and towns on the American side of the map as far south as the Rio Grande and beyond that all was white.
    It dont show nothin down there, does it? said Rawlins.
    No.
    You reckon it aint never been mapped?
    There’s maps. That just aint one of em. I got one in my saddlebag.
    Rawlins came back with the map and sat on the ground and traced their route with his finger. He looked up.
    What? said John Grady.
    There aint shit down there.
    They left the river and followed the dry valley to the west. The country was rolling and grassy and the day was cool under the sun.
    You’d think there’d be more cattle in this country, Rawlins said.
    You’d think so.
    They walked doves and quail up out of the grass along the ridges. Now and then a rabbit. Rawlins stepped down and slid his little 25-20 carbine out of the bootleg scabbard he carried it in and walked out along the ridge. John Grady heard him shoot. In a little while he came back with a rabbit and he reholstered the carbine and took out his knife and walked off a ways and squatted and gutted the rabbit. Then he rose and wiped the blade on his trouserleg and folded shut the knife and came over and took his horse and tied the rabbit by its hind legs to his bedroll strap and mounted up again and they went on.
    Late afternoon they crossed a road that ran to the south and in the evening they reached Johnson’s Run and camped at a pool in the otherwise dry gravel bed of the watercourse and watered the horses and hobbled them and turned them out to graze. They built a fire and skinned out the rabbit and skewered it on a green limb and set it to broil at the edge of the fire. John Grady opened his blackened canvas campbag and took out a small enameled tin coffeepot and went to the creek and filled it. They sat and watched the fire and they watched the thin crescent moon above the black hills to the west.
    Rawlins rolled a cigarette and lit it with a coal and lay back against his saddle. I’m goin to tell you somethin.
    Tell it.
    I could get used to this life.
    He drew on the cigarette and held it out to one side and tapped the ash with a delicate motion of his forefinger. It wouldnt take me no time at all.
    They rode all day the day following through rolling hill country, the low caprock mesas dotted with cedar, the yuccas in white bloom along the eastfacing slopes. They struck the Pandale road in the evening and turned south and followed the road into town.
    Nine buildings including a store and filling station. Theytied their horses in front of the store and went in. They were dusty and Rawlins was unshaven and they smelled of horses and sweat and woodsmoke. Some men sitting in chairs at the back of the store looked up when they entered and then went on talking.
    They stood at the meatcase. The woman came from the counter and walked behind the case and took down an apron and pulled a chain that turned on the overhead lightbulb.
    You do look like some kind of desperado, John Grady said.
    You dont look like no choir director, said Rawlins.
    The woman tied the apron behind her and turned to regard them above the white enameled top of the meatcase. What’ll you boys have? she said.
    They bought baloney and cheese and a loaf of bread and a jar of mayonnaise. They bought a box of crackers and a dozen tins of vienna sausage. They bought a dozen packets of koolaid and a slab end of bacon and some tins of beans and they bought a five pound bag of cornmeal and a bottle of hotsauce. The woman wrapped the meat and cheese separate and she wet a pencil with her tongue and totted up the purchases and then put everything together in a number four grocery bag.
    Where you boys from? she said.
    From up around San Angelo.
    You all ride them horses down here?
    Yes mam.
    Well I’ll declare, she said.
    When they woke in the morning they were in plain view of a small adobe house. A woman had come out of the house and slung a pan of dishwater into the yard. She looked at