Besides, he did not care.

A million Mexicans might be beating up those thickets for him, and they would be sure to find him.

Well, what of it?
They would shoot him, and he would merely go at once to some other planet, where he would be better off than he was now.
It seems that fate reserves her severest ordeals for the strong and the daring, as if she would respond to the challenges they give.

It seems also that often she brings them through the test, as if she likes the courage and enterprise that dare her, the all-powerful, to combat.

Ned's intense chill abated.