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.
Hed killed a fourteen year old girl and I tell yht now I never did have no great desire to visit with him let alone go to his execution but I do. The papers said it was a crime of passion aold me there wasnt no passion to it. Hed been datin this girl, young as she was. He was een. Aold me that he had been plannin to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out hed 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 Id 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 Ive 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? Ive thought about it a good deal. But he wasnt nothin pared to what was in 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 Id as soon not know. But there is another view of the world out there and other eyes to see it and thats where this is goin. It has done brought me to a pla my life I would not of thought Id of e to. Somewhere out there is a true and living prophet of destru and I dont want to front him. I know hes 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 t say that its even what you are willin to do. Because I always khat 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 theyll know it. Theyll see it in a heartbeat. I think it is more like what you are willin to bee. 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 er of the office with his hands cuffed behind him while he sat in the swivelchair and took off his hat and put his feet up and called Lamar on the mobile.
Just walked in the door. Sheriff he had some sort of thing on him like one of them oxygen tanks for emphysema or whatever. Then he had a hose that run down the inside of his sleeve ao one of them stunguns like they use at the slaughterhouse.
Yessir. Well thats what it looks like. You see it when you get in. Yessir. I got it covered. Yessir.
Wheood up out of the chair he swung the keys off his belt and opehe locked desk drawer to get the keys to the jail. He was slightly bent over when Chigurh squatted and scooted his manacled hands beh him to the back of his knees. In the same motio and rocked backward and passed the under his feet and then stood instantly and effortlessly. If it looked like a thing hed practiced many times it was. He dropped his cuffed hands over the depu