Jim Kane - J P S Brown (64 page)

"
Garrett woke up this morning swearing off the
party," Santiago said.

"
Garrett likes to leave his partners hanging. He
has been leaving me hanging for a month now. A month hanging in
Chihuahua is too long to hang. He should swear off the party,"
Kane said.

Garrett ignored Kane. He felt the back of his head.
"All I know is that I've got too many bumps on the back of my
head," he said. "You are a line pair of friends. I have
more bumps than I have friends. How did I get the bumps?"

"
I don't know," Kane said. "We carried
you like a baby and put you to bed. Do you suppose you fell out of
bed?"

"
That could have happened," Santiago said.
"He didn't have his sleeping partner to watch over him last
night. Have a drink, Terry.

"
No more drinks," Terry Garrett said. "How
many cattle did you bring me, Jim Kane?"

"
Two hundred sixty-three head. I told you last
night."

"
You might as well forget about anything you
told me last night. I don't remember any of it. When are the cattle
going to be able to cross the border?"

"
Didn't Herb Kane tell you when you saw him in
El Paso? Don't you remember seeing him either?"

"I remember seeing him. I don't remember what he
said. What about the cattle? Are they in good enough shape to cross.

"
They will be when the government lets them out
of quarantine in sixty days."

"
Quarantine? I thought you said they were coming
out of the clean zone, Jim Kane. You said the whole state of
Chihuahua was clean."

"
I never said that. You told me the whole state
was clean and to bring the cattle out this way."

"Well, Ira March told me we could bring them
this way without a quarantine. Ira March is to blame then."

"Blame him if you feel you should blame someone,
" Kane said.

A "I'm not blaming anybody. It's just another
thousand dollars or more expense on cattle I won't be able to sell.
The rodeo market will be dead when they finally cross and this deal
is just one more to add to all the deals that lost me money this
year, " Garrett complained.

"
You do have a hangover, don't you? And a
bellyache," Kane said.

"
How much do I owe you besides what the cattle
have already cost me and will continue to cost me`?"

"
I've got two dollars a head for five hundred
fifteen head coming, plus my hotel bill here in Chihuahua. You owe
Uncle Herb the freight from Creel and other expenses he gave me for
the cattle since I've been here."

"
Why five hundred fifteen head? We commissioned
you to buy five hundred head."

"
I took the additional fifteen head because I
made commitments in the Sierra to buy cattle and I had to take all
the cattle delivered to me. Call it public relations. I still owe for
fifteen head. I didn't have enough money to pay for them. The man let
me bring them in on credit. Of course, two of them died on me between
Cuiteco and Creel."

"
I can't pay for them," Terry Garrett said.
"My bank only allowed me credit for five hundred cattle in
Mexico. I don't have the money for fifteen more."

"
You would have the money if the cattle could
cross to the States today, wouldn't you?" Kane asked.

"Of course. I would have a buyer standing in El
Paso waiting for the cattle if they could cross today too. The money
from the sale would be in my bank long before the draft for the
fifteen head would clear out of Mexico. I could pay for them in that
case."

"Terry, it is not my fault the cattle have to be
quarantined."

"
I know that, Jim. But that doesn't change the
fact that I can't write you a draft for fifteen head of cattle in
Mexico right now.

"Give me your personal check for the cattle
then."

"
I can't. I don't have six hundred dollars. I've
lost too much money this year and I've had too many expenses lately.
I just haven't got it in my personal account. "

"
Make me out a draft for my commission and I'll
go over to the hotel and bring you back the papers on the cattle,"
Kane said and walked out of the room.

He walked down the street hungover and disappointed
in Terry Garrett and surprised at how firmly and strongly his feet
struck the pavement. He thought, I guess I'm not the first cowpuncher
who had to pay for part of the boss' one-eyed stripper and his
Indianapolis 500. Kane got his papers and went downstairs and paid
the clerk his hotel bill with the last of the money his Uncle Herb
had given him.

In 408 Kane gave the hotel receipt to Terry Garrett
and Garrett paid him in cash. Garrett then handed Kane a draft for
$1,000, his commission on the 500 head.

"
As I understand it, you still own thirteen head
of the rodeos you bought, Jim," Garrett said.

"
Fifteen head," Kane said.

"
I thought you said two died. Were they two of
yours or two of mine?"

"
Two of yours died. I was working for you,
wasn't I? That was the reason I made that flight out of Egypt with
the cattle, wasn't it?"

"
Yeah, but I never saw the cattle, Jim."

"
You mean you entrusted me with twenty thousand
dollars to buy cattle for you and I bought all the cattle and
accounted for every penny and now you could believe I invented two
cattle so I can get eighty dollars out of you?"

"
Well, I'm not paying for them. You can do what
you want with the thirteen head. Cut them out and take them away or
I'll take them with mine and sell them for you."

"
Keep them and sell them for me. What can I do
with them? I'll just have to trust you with the six hundred dollars I
have in them, won't I?" Kane said angrily.

"
Now listen. I'll sell them and give you top
price for them, Jim."

"
You'd better, Garrett, and none of them had
better die."

"
Come on, Jim. Have a drink, " Garrett
said. "I'll make us both one." Garrett got up from his easy
chair and walked over to the dresser where the liquor was. "You
might as well come on out to Arizona with me. I can give you a job in
the feedlot. I sure can use you," he said while he was pouring
drinks.

"
No, thanks. I left my horse and saddle in
Chinipas." Kane got up to leave.

"
Well, stay a while and we'll have supper. You
don't have to take off right this minute," Garrett said. He
didn't hand Kane the Scotch he had mixed. Kane walked over, picked up
the strong drink, and drank it down.

"Thanks," he said, and left the room.
 

38
Big
Country

Get down off the big sorrel. I have the food
prepared. I expected you today or tomorrow, " Don Marcos
Aguilera said when Jim Kane rode up to his door at La Haciendita.
Kane got stiffly down, loosened Pajaro's cinches, and tied him to a
post in the yard. Don Marcos untied Kane's new blanket from behind
the saddle and carried it to a chair by the kitchen door.

"I can't stay, Don Marcos. I only stop to pay
you for your cattle. I must go on to San Bemardo this afternoon."

"But you will arrive there in the night., You
must eat and have a drink with me to rest your horse.—You can go on
refreshed," Don Marcos said. He went inside the house and
brought back to cups full of the clear
lechuguilla
and the two men tipped their cups and drank. "To
the
corriente
, the
common," Don Marcos said, and they drank again.

Kane took an envelope that was folded in his chaps
pocket and handed it to Don Marcos. Don Marcos sat down at a table
under the ramada. He took off his hat and smoothed his thick, coarse,
gray hair with a heavy, callused, brown hand. He unfolded the
envelope and pressed it down flat on the table. He opened the flap of
the envelope and took the money out. He laid the empty envelope
carefully on the table while he looked at the bills in his hand. Then
he slowly counted the money.

"
Correcto
," he
said. "Thank you, young man." He picked up the envelope,
put the money back into it, and went into his house and put it away.
He brought back a bottle of
lechuguilla
and poured the cups full again. He brought out two
plates of fried jerky, fried potatoes, and
garbanzo
,
and two small cups heavy with thick coffee. "Eat," he said.
"I will bring tortillas."

When he returned he laid the dish of tortillas on the
table and carefully unfolded the clean, warm flour sack that covered
the dish. "Tortillas," he said, showing them to Kane. He
folded the flour sack back over the dish.

"
I will eat with you now. With your permission,"
Don Marcos said, and sat down with Kane. "But first, we drink
our
mezcal.
Not the
best but very good."

"
Very good
mezcal
,
Don Marcos," Kane said.

"
What will you do now, young man?" the
eagle-faced old man asked Jim Kane while they were eating.

"
I don't know, Don Marcos. I'm going back to Rio
Alamos. My car is there."

"
Stay in Rio Alamos. Stay in Mexico."

"
I'm not sure. I would like to stay if I could
win my living. Do you know anyone who needs a cowboy?"

"Yes. All of us in the Sierra need a man like
you to help us market our cattle. You have the connections we need.
You have the grace we need."

"
Yes, but I don't have the money you need."

"
Money? Do you need money? I'll give you back
the money you brought me. I'll make you a gift of it."

"
No. I don't want your money, thank you."

"Now you see? You don't need money. You already
have the qualifications necessary for you to stay."

"
I own a bed and a saddle."

"
You see? This requires no money. It requires
men. Do you know that one hundred years from now men will continue to
live on La Haciendita and I will be dead and forgotten? When I die,
La Haciendita will continue unchanged. I hope whoever is here will
live as well as I have. If you stay and work here and help La
Haciendita the life will be better in the next generation for La
Haciendita."

"
Don Marcos, that would be true if I owned land
and had my own cattle and a way to prosper. But I own nothing. I have
no roots here as you have."

"
This is foolishness. No one owns La Haciendita
or the Sierra or any big country like the Sierra. The eagle lives a
full a life in the big country. Does he own it? Does he have money?"

"
No, Don Marcos. But he is not a man."

"
Ah, you see? If the eagle lives well, how much
better must a man live who is not an animal, not a brute. If an eagle
is free to fiercely live as he does, how much more free is not a man
to live with his reason?"

"
What you say is true but a difficult way for a
man to live."

"
Difficult? Yes. For you to have to be a man in
order to make a better life than the eagle, a man, not pig slop."

"
I believe as you do, Don Marcos. I hope I can
stay. I will need luck, though."

"
Oh, I believe in luck. You will need luck. Each
new day is a new venture. If the eagle is unlucky enough to sleep he
will miss the early hunt. If the fish is unlucky enough to sleep, the
current will take him away. But the true eagle does not sleep nor
does the true fish always allow the current to happen to him, or if
he does he swims back, no matter how swift the current, to his
favorite hole where all the
campañero
fishes will sing and dance on his return."

"
Sometimes they sing and dance if he doesn't
return."

"
Then he should have been a true fish and lived
as a fish, not as an oyster. Only an oyster or an angel has no drives
and is in firm possession of all God's answers. Only an angel or an
oyster can live without knowledge of song and dance. They have no
drives, no desires, no questions, and no luck."

"
I've heard men say that a man makes his own
luck, Don Marcos."

"
A person who says he makes his own luck has
never sought his fortune, has never ventured, has never questioned
his own talents or been driven by what was inside his manhood. Such a
person was not given life by Cod to be an angel. He is a
fantoche
,
a person who wants to be, makes signs to be, what he is not and will
never be. He is less_than a man, less than an oyster, he is even less
than an angel."

Kane rose from the table. "I must go, Don
Marcos. Pardon me."

"
This is certain and I am keeping you. I am the
current that is keeping you away from what you must do. Be gone but
come back."

"
I will, Don Marcos."

Kane shook hands with Don Marcos and got his blanket.
He tied it behind his saddle. He tightened the horse's cinches and
mounted.