The deputy left Chigurh standing in the corner of the…
Moss sat with the heels of his boots dug into…
II
Bell climbed the rear steps of the courthouse and went…
When they pulled up in front of the cafe it…
He crossed the Pecos River just north of Sheffield Texas…
III
The bus pulled into Fort Stockton at quarter to nine…
Bell had raised the first forkful of his supper to…
IV
When Bell walked into the cafe on Tuesday morning it…
V
It was almost a three hour drive to Odessa and…
The office was on the seventeenth floor with a view…
VI
Chigurh pulled off of the highway at the junction of…
VII
Chigurh limped up the seventeen flights of concrete steps in…
VIII
Moss set the case in the booth and eased himself…
IX
Chigurh stood at the receptionist’s desk dressed in suit and…
He climbed the three wooden steps to the porch and…
X
When he walked in the house the phone was ringing….
XI
When he got home she wasnt there but her car…
XII
It was a cold blustery day when he walked out…
XIII
About the Author
Also by Cormac McCarthy
Acclaim for Cormac McCarthy’s
Copyright
The author would like to express his appreciation to the Santa Fe Institute for his long association and his four-year residence. He would also like to thank Amanda Urban.
I
I sent one boy to the gaschamber at Huntsville. One and only one. My arrest and my testimony. I went up there and visited with him two or three times. Three times. The last time was the day of his execution. I didnt have to go but I did. I sure didnt want to. He’d killed a fourteen year old girl and I can tell you right now I never did have no great desire to visit with him let alone go to his execution but I done it. The papers said it was a crime of passion and he told me there wasnt no passion to it. He’d been datin this girl, young as she was. He was nineteen. And he told me that he had been plannin to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he’d do it again. Said he knew he was goin to hell. Told it to me out of his own mouth. I dont know what to make of that. I surely dont. I thought I’d never seen a person like that and it got me to wonderin if maybe he was some new kind. I watched them strap him into the seat and shut the door. He might of looked a bit nervous about it but that was about all. I really believe that he knew he was goin to be in hell in fifteen minutes. I believe that. And I’ve thought about that a lot. He was not hard to talk to. Called me Sheriff. But I didnt know what to say to him. What do you say to a man that by his own admission has no soul? Why would you say anything? I’ve thought about it a good deal. But he wasnt nothin compared to what was comin down the pike.
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I dont know what them eyes was the windows to and I guess I’d as soon not know. But there is another view of the world out there and other eyes to see it and that’s where this is goin. It has done brought me to a place in my life I would not of thought I’d of come to. Somewhere out there is a true and living prophet of destruction and I dont want to confront him. I know he’s real. I have seen his work. I walked in front of those eyes once. I wont do it again. I wont push my chips forward and stand up and go out to meet him. It aint just bein older. I wish that it was. I cant say that it’s even what you are willin to do. Because I always knew that you had to be willin to die to even do this job. That was always true. Not to sound glorious about it or nothin but you do. If you aint they’ll know it. They’ll see it in a heartbeat. I think it is more like what you are willin to become. And I think a man would have to put his soul at hazard. And I wont do that. I think now that maybe I never would.
The deputy left Chigurh standing in the corner of the office with his hands