Jim Kane - J P S Brown (17 page)

"
To this man, Jim Kane, with destination
Hermosillo," the Lion said.

They walked to the shade of the portal and the old
man told his woman to bring his forms.

"
I am also the cattle inspector of this region,"
he said. As Kane and the Lion sipped heavy coffee he filled out the
factura
, the bill of
sale with its appropriate levy stamps, in Kane's name. Then he
laboriously printed each brand with its number on the inspection
papers. When Kane signed the inspection paper as buyer the old man
admonished him to press hard with the pencil so that the weight of
the signature would pass through the frayed carbons. Then he slowly,
carefully, tore out the original white form and a yellow copy and a
white copy for Kane. He left a blue copy in the book.

Kane went to the truck and brought back 1800 pesos in
bills and paid the old man. The truck was backed up to the gate and
while sons and grandsons held the animals by
reatas
around their horns from the bed of the truck,
Kane and the Lion lifted them into the truck. When the cattle were
all loaded Kane and the Lion drove the truck to another ranch to woo
another rancher into gathering his cattle and the formal procedure of
another trade began.
 

14
A
Man From the Monte

Kane and the Lion were in Teresita's one evening
drinking-beer and waiting for phone calls. A man came in and looked
around the kitchen. He was a tall man and graceful as he walked in
huaraches
toward the
table where Kane and the Lion were sitting. He stopped at the table
and took a long look at the two men.

"
Who is the one they call the Lion?" he
asked.

"
Andres Celaya at your service," the Lion
rumbled politely. "Sit and have a beer with us. " The Lion
used the familiar tú as he did with all the
rancheritos
when he first met them. The man stared at the Lion as
though trying to see what there was about him that made people call
him Lion. He barely glanced at the full bottles of beer on the table.
He had no time for beer. Kane doubted he could hold a whole bottle of
beer in his lank belly.

"Do you buy cattle?" the tall man demanded.
"I have cattle to sell." He did not sit down with them.

"Yes, we do," the Lion said. "How many
do you have?"

"
I have fifteen head to sell."

"What kind of cattle?"

"Good cattle."

"
How many two-year-old male cattle?"

"
Fifteen."

"
Where are they?"

"
At my ranch, Los Cerros."

"
I know the place. When can we see them?"

"
Tomorrow morning."

"
You have them all together?"

"
Yes."

"
What kind are they?"

"
Cíbulo
, Brahma.
What price does the American give?"

"
He is not buying Brahma. He wants
corriente
.
I buy the Brahmas."

"
What price do you give?"

"
Depends on the cattle."

"Good cattle."

"
I want to see them before I talk price."

"
More or less what price?"

"I'll tell you tomorrow. "

"Until tomorrow morning then. Early."

"
Early," the Lion said and the man turned
and headed toward the door."

"
Your name?" the Lion asked.

The man stopped, turned back, and looked at the Lion.

"
Nieblas," he said. "Here or
anywhere," and walked out.

The house Nieblas and his brother and their families
lived in was old adobe with a brush roof covered by dirt. The house
had been washed by rain so that the bottoms of the walls flowed into
the ground. The house was fused with the ground. The earth might have
only recently popped up here in the barest form of a house and was
now slowly assimilating the house again.

Kane and the Lion stopped at the
portal
to wait. The Nieblas women were busy making cheeses.
They were squeezing water out of whey and patting the whey into
white, salted cakes, the
panelas
.
They told the buyers that their men were in the brush gathering more
cattle. The Lion asked for coffee.

One of the women handed them chairs. She brought them
coffee and sugar and fresh slices of
panela
.
The earthen floor of the
portal
was
swept clean and sprinkled down with water. A baby lay in a crib that
was covered over by a wire screen and hanging from the ceiling of the
portal
by hairy
rawhide strings. The Nieblas men rode up to the corral leading two
bulls when Kane and the Lion finished their coffee and got up from
the table. The Lion had asked for the coffee so he asked how much he
owed and one of the women took four pesos from him. The buyers walked
through a shady
mezquital
,
an arbor of giant mesquites. A new pickup shone under one of the
trees.

"This is the only tool I've seen here that isn't
rawhide, wood, mud, or rusty steel fifty years old," Kane said.

"
These people don't spend their money," the
Lion said. "They never kill a beef for themselves. They eat
beans and
panelas
. The
truck is for marketing their beef and
panelas
.
They get the
panelas
from
the milk they rob from the little calves. They don't believe in
banks. Every penny they have ever made except for the very little
they use for necessities, which for them are few, is probably hidden
somewhere in the brush."

"
What do they do with their money if they don't
know how to enjoy life?" Kane asked.

"Look at them, Jim! They have a ranch and
cattle, don't they? They probably sell three hundred cattle a year.
Every time you and I get drunk and spend money (enjoying life, these
men have saved the money for one calf or one cow instead of enjoying
life. When you and I get enough money to buy a cow we get drunk.
These men buy the cow instead." The Nieblas brothers were
leading the bulls into the corral and did not look up to greet the
buyers. They wore homemade bullhide brush jackets and
chaparreras
,
chaps. The leathers they wore were stiff and coarsely stitched with
rawhide. The big Sonora spurs strapped on their naked heels rolled on
the ground behind their
huaraches
.
The small ponies they had ridden after the bulls were dwarfed by the
quantity of leather they carried: the goose-necked, armchair-cantled
saddles and the broad
armas
that
covered the shoulders of the horses. The ponies' legs below the knees
and hocks were clustered with wicked cholla stalks.

The Nieblas brothers did not wait for Kane and the
Lion to enter the corral through the gate but barred it in their
faces and tied each pole into its holes in the gateposts with pieces
of old
reata
. After
they had released the two bulls they stood talking and coiling their
alive-looking, well-made, well-tallowed
reatas
,
their backs to the buyers. Then they began to work the cattle afoot.
One of them roped a red bull and snubbed him to a post in the center
of the corral. They tied him to the post by his horns.

The Nieblas that had talked to the Lion at Teresita's
turned then to the buyers and said, "
Ah
í
estan
, there they are. The sixteen head in
the corral were all Brahmas crossbred with native
corriente
.
They were in good flesh. All were younger and lighter than the red
bull the brothers had snubbed to the post.

"
Why is the
enchilado
,
the chili red bull, tied up?" the Lion asked.

"
He is not for sale. We do not sell him."

"
But why not? He is the best of the lot. He
would give a better price to the rest of the cattle. If you don't
sell him you lower the price of the rest." The Lion said this
only as a point from which to begin trading since no price had yet
been mentioned. He was only following the standard procedure of
trades of the region.

The tall Nieblas stared at the Lion. Kane could see
he almost hated the Lion and had contempt for buyers who came to pay
cheaply for cattle he had carefully husbanded. Nieblas knew a buyer
bought for profit and he could not stand the thought of anyone else's
making money on his cattle.

"The e
nchilado
is not for sale," he said and turned away from the
Lion and pointed to the other cattle. "How much will you give
for these?"

The Lion climbed into the corral. The cattle were
restless and trotty. He let them go by him so he could get a good
look at both sides of them. He pointed to a brown bull that showed
less Brahma, more
corriente
blood.

"
This one is not as much a Brahma as the rest,"
he said. Without a word the tall Nieblas roped the brown and he and
the brother led the bounding and kicking bull through the gate and
released him.

The Lion watched longingly as the brown trotted into
the brush. The bull had been smooth-backed and in good flesh. The
Lion knew that the Greek he was buying for would have been happy with
the bull. The Lion had only been trying to make a trading point.

"
Bueno," he said to the tall Nieblas when
the bars in the gate were back in place. "Are you going to trade
or are you going to let all the cattle out one by one before we can
come to an agreement on` price?".

"
You don't take anything you don't like,"
the tall Nieblas said. "Tell me which ones you don't like and we
will remove them."

"I like them. I liked the brown you turned out.
But I have to know how much you want for them. I can give more for
some of them, less for others, but give me a basis for a trade."

"
We want seven hundred fifty pesos per head.
Take any you want at that price."

Kane guessed the cattle would weigh over six hundred
pounds. At 750 pesos or $60 they would cost less than ten cents
American money per pound. They would work for the Greek at that price
but the Greek would not want to give more. The Lion had to get his
share.

"
I was thinking of offering five hundred pesos,"
the Lion said.

"
These cattle are worth more money than that to
the Americans. They are going to be sold for seven hundred fifty
pesos here in this corral," Nieblas said.

"
I am not an American. I am a Mexican," the
Lion said. "Disgraceful fact. I am buying the cattle. I'll find
the American for you."

"What will the American give?"

"
That one on the fence is an American. Ask him.
How much will you give for these cattle?" the Lion asked Kane.

"
Leave me out of it. I don't buy Brahmas,"
Kane said.

"
I am not fooled, " the tall Nieblas said
to the Lion. "You are together. You have bought everything in
this region with American money. "

"
Come down a little on your price and I, a
Mexican, will come up a little on my price and pay you with American
money," the Lion said.

"
I want seven hundred fifty pesos, no more, no
less," Nieblas said. He walked over to Kane. "How much you
give . . . cattle?" he shouted belligerently in pidgin Spanish
at Kane, making wide gestures as though he might be talking to a deaf
mute, and using the familiar tú.

'`I am only here to keep the Lion company today. I am
not in the Brahma business with him," Kane said.

"
You American?"

"
Yes."

"
You buy! Lion no buy! You buy! You pay me
cattle! No Lion win money my cattle."

"
No," Kane said, shaking his head.

The tall Nieblas stared at Kane. He believed Kane was
lying. He wanted Kane to admit that he was the buyer. He whipped his
leggings with the loop of the
reata
.

"
You see? He does not buy Brahmas," the
Lion said. "I am the one you must trade with. Come down one
hundred twenty-five pesos on your price and I will come up one
hundred twenty-five pesos and we'll trade for six hundred twenty-five
pesos. That is a difference of ten dollars American which I will make
on the trade for myself. This will be my fee for finding a market for
your cattle."

"
Where are you going to take them?" Nieblas
asked.

"
To Rio Alamos to Chavarin's corral. You know
where it is?"

"
I will take them in my pickup for you."

"
How much will you charge me?" the Lion
asked him.