The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Chapter 14

Camp was pitched once more. Having had their eats, the partners were loafing about. Sunset was still far off. Yet no one felt like working. The burros were taken from their hiding-place and led down to be watered and then left to return to pasture.

After nightfall, when they sat around the fire smoking and discussing the events of the last forty hours, they found the happenings of the last two days had so exhausted them that they had lost interest in the work which had enabled them to endure all sorts of hardships and privations for so many months. They felt almost as though they had aged overnight.

Curtin gave these feelings words. “I suppose Howard is right in what he said day before yesterday. That is, that the best thing we can do is to close the mine, pack up, and leave. Devil knows how long it will be now before we have soldiers coming up here. We might well make another grand by staying here another two weeks or three. Anyway, I am of the opinion we should be thankful for what we have and go home.”

For a few minutes there was no answer. Then Dobbs said: “I had preferred to stay here a few weeks longer, you know. I said so before. Still, come to think of it, it’s all right with me, brethren. Let’s strike the mine and make ready to toddle off. Fact is, I no longer have the slightest ambition to hold on. It’s all gone.”

Howard nodded without saying a word.

Lacaud was smoking. He did not even remind them that they had closed a deal with him to stay for another week at least so as to assist him in trying out his ideas. He seemed to be more concerned about keeping up a good fire than anything else.

Finally Howard looked at him. “Nervous? What for? It seems to be all over now.”

“Oh, I’m not nervous, partner. Not exactly. I don’t know why I should be.” After this he again fell silent.

Perhaps he had been thinking how to arouse their interest once more, so they would stay and help him for a few days. He didn’t wish to come out directly with what he wanted, so he tried another way.

“Did you ever hear the story about the old Ciniega Mine?” He asked this rather suddenly, perhaps too suddenly, for the partners seemed to feel that he was not being straightforward.

Slightly bored, Howard said slowly: “We know so many stories about old mines that we don’t know what to do about.” He had been interrupted in his thoughts of how he would use the money he had earned to live a quiet life in a small town, sitting on the porch smoking and reading the papers, the comic strips, and bunk adventure stories, concerned about his health and about his meals, and going to bed early, with funds to get well soaked at least once a month.

As if he were awakening, he looked up at Lacaud. “The truth is I had forgotten all about you, Laky,” he said.

Curtin laughed. “You see, Laky, we have our own thoughts, and you are not in them. We three have become so accustomed to speaking to each other that we sometimes forget you are here. No harm.”

Dobbs butted in. “It’s only to let you see how unimportant you are, brother. We’ve eaten together, we’ve fought together, we’ve even been very close to going to hell together, but you are still outside of the community, if you get what we mean. We might have come to like each other. But now, I reckon, it’s too late.”

“I get what you mean, Dobbs.”

“That reminds me,” Howard addressed him; “didn’t you say something about a plan?”

“Yes, your plan.” Dobbs spoke up. “Yes, that plan of yours. Well, you may keep it as your well-earned property. I’m not interested a bit. I’ve got the same idea old man Curtin has; to be more exact, I’d like to see a girl and see how she looks underneath, you know, and I have the funny desire to sit once more at a real table in a restaurant with wellcooked food set before me.”

“But can’t you see? Here are tens of thousands of dollars lying about ready to be picked up!”

Curtin yawned. “All right, sweety, pick them up and be happy. Don’t let them lie around here, somebody might come and carry them away. Well, partners, should somebody ask me how I feel right now, I’d say: I’m going to hit the hay in the old barn. Good night.”

Howard and Dobbs rose also, stretched their limbs, yawned with mouths wide open, and walked to the tent.

Curtin, already standing by the tent, called: “Hey, Laky, if you want to bunk with us, the apartment we have here is big enough to house you too. Just step in and don’t slam the door.”

“If you don’t mind, I prefer to sleep here by the fire. I have to think a few schemes over, and I can do it best with the stars above me. Thanks just the same.” Lacaud carried his packs and blankets near the fire. “Only I’d like to put my packs in your tent, in case it should rain.”

“Bring them in,” Howard invited him. “Room enough; no storage charged.”

When the three partners were alone in the tent, Curtin said: “I still can’t see what is wrong about that guy. Sometimes he seems perfectly all right, and then again he seems to be all nuts.”

“Poor feller, he is,” Howard said. “He’s cracked somehow. He hasn’t got all his screws tight. That much is sure. I think he is an eternal.”

“An eternal? What do you mean?” Curtin was curious.

“An eternal prospector. He can stay for ten years at the same place digging and digging, convinced that he is on the right spot and that there can be no mistake about it and that all he needs is patience. He is sure that some day he will make the big hit. He is of the same family as were men in bygone centuries who spent their whole lives and all their money trying to find the formula for producing gold by mixing metals and chemicals—smelting them, cooking them, and brewing them until they themselves turned insane. He is the more modern sort. He is working day in and day out over plans and schemes just as men do who want to bust the banks in a gambling-resort.”

“Tomorrow he will see our mine,” Dobbs said.

“Let him. It doesn’t matter, since we are leaving. We close it properly, and if he should open it again, that’s his affair, not ours. I really feel sorry for that guy.” Howard admitted this. “Really sorry for him. But you can’t cure these fellers, and I suppose if somebody could cure them they wouldn’t like it. They prefer to stay this way. It’s their whole excuse for being alive.”

Dobbs was not fully convinced. He said: “I’m not sure there isn’t something else behind that guy. He doesn’t seem to be all cracked up.”

Howard waved his hands and shrugged. “Have it your way. I’ve met this sort before. Good night.”