Clete sat his horse and looked at me real curious, smiling almost. "You mean that? You sure you want to split up now? That's what you want?"
"Yes it is. I ain't so hot on Deadwood, but I can think of nowheres else to go, and I ain't going back to Two Scalp with you, that's for sure."
Clete looked angry for a minute right after I said that, but then he drew a deep breath and let it out slow. "You're making a mistake, Willie. Chances are good I can find the $30,000 Wilson stole. We could have a nice spread down in Texas on that … two nice spreads … fifty-fifty. You better think on it."
He waited for me to say something, but I just shook my head no.
The rain commenced to drip off Clete's hat brim and it was getting colder by the minute. Night was coming on. "You're not so young anymore, Pardner. Before too long you'll be getting too old to just drift around like you've been doing."
"I know."
He pulled the collar of his slicker up and inspected the sky. "It's not that mixed-blood girl, is it? Mandy?"
"Oh, I hope to see her again, though she don't want me. I know that. No, that's no part of it, I don't guess."
"Well, that's smart of you, anyway. She's little better than a whore, you know. Jumped right in my bedroll with me the night after I caught up with you two. I didn't even ask her. In bed with you one night, me the next."
I couldn't see his face real good, dark as it was getting. I thought for a minute he might be lying to me, just to get me to go along. But after I thought on it a minute, remembering how she was with that Thebideaux fellow, I figgered he was probly telling the truth, much as it pained me to think so.
"Well, it's getting dark," Clete said. "No sense sitting here jawing all night. Sure you won't change your mind?"
"No, I'll be going my own way from here." I rode my horse up close and offered him my hand.
He took it and give a hard shake. "You're a strange one, Willie, and probably the best friend I ever had."
"Thank you kindly," I said. It was a dumb thing to say, I see now, but it just come out of my mouth.
Clete backed the gray up a few steps and started off. "If you change your mind, I'll be in Two Scalp for a month or so and then down along the Rio Grande. Hear that's some of the best cattle country there is."
"I'll remember if I do, though I don't think I will." I sat the bay and watched him walk his horse part way up a little hill on the trail. He stopped and turned back, just looking at me. I burned him into my memory right then, just like Mandy done with me a few days before, him sitting there on that big gray stallion and smiling at me in the rain.
"Goodbye, my friend," I called to him.
"Goodbye, you old fart," he yelled back. He nudged Whatever, topped the hill and was gone.