3 Godfathers Page #4

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nothing but condensed milk.

- We got some right here.

- Six cans.

Looks like you're going to

get some chow, Robert boy.

All right, Robert William Pedro,

but you're going to get fed.

You better get a can of

that condensed milk and some matches...

- Bob!

- Yeah, Kid.

Let me hold him.

Gosh, Kid, you think you ought to,

with that arm and all?

Let me hold my godson.

Just for a little while.

Thanks, Bob, for taking me along and all.

That is pretty, what the Kid is singing.

It's what the folks back home

would call a lullaby.

- Pete, what...

- It's all right!

Okay, Pedrito. It's time to eat.

Go ahead. Come on, man.

Take it. It's good for you. Come on.

Boy, he hops to it like a drunkard

at a Fourth of July barbecue.

A couple hours, and we'll have to

set them up again for little Robert boy.

I'm for moving on now, Bob. Honest, I'm...

Just lie back

and take it easy while you can.

That's the last of the gringo-head cactus.

She is finished.

I've been figuring. There ain't more than

three shots apiece in these six cans.

That's 18 shots. We've used two already.

Leaves 16.

That little Pedro has enough for four days.

That's right. The Doc says little William

is to get a slug every six hours.

Which doesn't leave much water

for us godfathers.

There's always enough for you, Kid.

Here, have one on the house.

I've done a heap of ornery things...

but I ain't stealing the water

that belongs to my godson.

Too bad the doc didn't tell us

where to get water in the Arizona desert.

Wrong book for that. Just a minute.

Maybe Nuestro Seor has put here

what to do in the Bible book.

Don't! It's bad luck!

I can see it all mapped out: Where to find

our next water, where to head.

Maybe it says we should head back

for Mojave and that reception committee.

Or over to Apache Wells,

where old Perley is sitting.

Don't be too sure

Buck Sweet is twiddling his thumbs.

I think we ought to

get out of here quick, now!

Where? Where, you jughead?

North to Cairo? Northeast to Damascus?

Or east to New Jerusalem?

60 miles or more

with the Kid in the shape he's in?

And this punk?

Don't give me any more of your Bible talk.

I'd have outfoxed that marshal

if they hadn't saddled this kid on us.

Why didn't somebody stop me

before I promised that woman?

I don't want to grow no long white beard

in the Yuma penitentiary.

May my beard grow clear

till it gets down to my foots...

may it get a nest of prison rats...

before I break my promise

to a dying woman!

- Who said I was breaking my promise?

- Why don't you kill the little fellow?

- Feed him to the coyotes!

- Why, you chili-dipping horse thief!

- Horse thief?

- Yes, horse thief!

Stop talking Spanish in front of the kid!

Now you see what you did?

You make cries the baby!

You waked the baby! Don't blame me!

Sure, nothing!

It says right here where we're to go,

just like it's told everything about all this.

You fellas don't understand.

You think this is all just chance?

Just accidental,

like us coming here this way?

Finding the mother, helping her...

The infant in the manger.

The star so bright last night.

I ain't talking out of no fever sweat,

Bob, honest I ain't.

You think we had anything to do

with what's happened?

No, sir, we didn't.

No more than you had anything to do

with throwing the book...

so it would open in the place

where I've been reading.

Where it tells where we're going to next.

- Listen, I'll read it.

- No, Kid.

Go ahead, Kid,

if it makes you feel any better.

"And when the days...

"of her purification were accomplished...

"according to the law of Moses...

"they lifted up the child

and brought him to Jerusalem...

"to present him to the Lord. "

It says Jerusalem right here in the book.

New Jerusalem.

Look, Bob, maybe Nuestro Seor...

he no care very much

what happens to a simple cattle thief.

But if I was in a gambling house,

I would play the Kid's number.

You would?

All right, let's get cracking along.

Kid, me and Pete will spell each other

carrying the infant.

I'm toting my godson my share of the way.

That's part of it.

That's in the book, too.

There was three wise men

come from the East, wasn't there?

Three wise men. I'm one of them.

I'm betting on you, Kid.

All right, Pete, which way's Jerusalem?

Why, that way, Bob.

Can't you see the star?

Look, water.

- That ain't water, Kid.

- Salt.

It's a salt lake. We got to cross it.

- No.

- Just a little bit, Kid.

Don't be a fool, Kid. Drink it.

- You got to.

- No!

He shouldn't have

made me swallow that, Bob.

- That's all right.

- You shouldn't have done it, Pete.

Once we're across the flats,

we're through the worst of it.

Here.

- What are you doing?

- It will be easier crossing the sand.

There's plenty of rough country

over there, Kid.

I ain't figuring on going that far.

No, sir.

I ain't figuring on that at all.

Take your horses down to the tanks, boys.

Fill up your kegs first.

- Sure need it, Marshal.

- They'll drink her dry, Buck.

Curly, take a look in that wagon.

Gosh, Buck, there's been a woman here.

Left her dresses all this and that way.

What are they like?

One's real nice, sort of faded,

but soft, like silk.

- Is it red?

- Yeah, it's red with a...

Has the top got all little white ribbons

all around the rim?

It sure has, Buck.

That was her wedding dress.

Fourth of July.

Red and white, carrying a little blue fan.

Come on, Curly.

Those fellas have done watered up...

and then dynamited our tanks, left us dry.

Lot of boys stick up stagecoaches,

and banks, and one thing or another.

But a man that would dynamite

a water hole in this kind of country...

is downright criminal.

- How about giving the stock...

- Can't.

- Can't we just wet our whistle?

- Can't.

You heard Mr. Latham when he said $100,

dead or alive.

I'll add $50 to it. I'd like 'em dead.

It's time. Water.

If I whimper for water, Pete...

don't give it to me. Promise.

- Promise.

- It's a promise, Kid.

137th psalm.

One-three-seven. Read, please.

"By the rivers of Babylon...

"there we sat down...

"yea, and we wept...

"when we remembered Zion. "

"We hanged our harps upon the willows. "

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem...

"let my right hand forget her cunning.

"How shall we sing the Lord's song...

"in a strange land?"

"Our Father, who art in heaven... "

"Our Father... "

"Now I lay me down to sleep.

"I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

"If I should die...

"before I wake...

"pray the Lord...

"my soul to take. "

God bless Mom and Pop...

and sister.

Make me a good boy.

Amen.

When do we set up the drinks again...

for Robert William?

I think about 50 minutes.

They're slipping it easy

to the Kid up there.

Poor boy.

Made him a little boy again.

It's broke.

Your leg?

- She's busted. I'm ashamed.

- Maybe I can fix it.

- Waste time.

- I can make a travois Comanche-style...

- and drag you.

- Waste time.

On the other side of the mountain,

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