Jim Kane - J P S Brown

by J P S Brown

  "And bad act all the mothers of all the traitors to the revolution and Benito Juarez and Tino Sierra!" a powerful voice shouted from the cliff of Macarena above the deputies, heads.

  The second deputy looked down and saw that the new boots lay on the sand near them. They had been slashed by a knife in the freeing of the toes of Tino Sierra.

  "See? He hasn't forgotten, compadre," the second deputy said. "I told you. Nor will he forget. Did the boot hit you?"

  "Sí."

  "What a vicious man! Where did it hit you?"

  "Exactly on my calabaza, my gourd."

  "Are you all right?"

  "I'm better now, " the first deputy said, picking up one of the boots. "I'll wager the new boots are beyond repair."

  "¡Lastima! It was not the fault of the boots," the second deputy said. "Do you think you could swallow a little drink now.

  "Yes. I think so now," the injured deputy said.

  25

  The Eagle

  Kane traded for the Macarena cattle the morning after Tino Sierra's party. He would receive the cattle and pay for them in Chinipas. He and Juan Vogel rode across the mountains as far as Tetamoa that evening.

  Tetamoa was a camp on the ranch of Don Marcos Aguilera. Don Marcos had sent word to Kane and Vogel that he had fifteen head of young bulls for them. The camp was at the base of a mountain on the Chihuahua-Sonora Divide. They arrived at Tetamoa at dark. Vogel did not want to go up the long climb over a trail of sheer rock to Don Marcos' headquarters at the top of the mountain in the dark. The two men unsaddled their horses, fed them, ate supper with Don Marcos' goat herd, and bedded down at Tetamoa for the night.

  Late in the night when he had long been asleep a drunken voice calling Vogel awakened Kane.

  "Get up, Juanito. Get up," the voice demanded.

  "Get up, Juanito," another voice said in a copy of the first voice's tone.

  "What is it?" Juan Vogel answered from deep in his blankets.

  "You must get up and come with us to La Haciendita. My patron is waiting for you to come and see his cattle. He is impatient?

  "Our patron is impatient, " the second voice demanded.

  "Where do you come from so late at night, Beto?" Juan Vogel asked.

  "From Macarena and Tino Sierra's wine barrel," the voice called Beto answered.

  "We are drunk," the second voice said. "You want a trago, Juanito?"

  "Find a place to sleep and we'll go up together in the morning," Juan Vogel said.

  "No. Now. Right now. At this very moment we are going up," Beto said.

  "Ahorita, no mañana," Beto's echo bragged.

  "In the morning," Juan Vogel said.

  "What's wrong? Are you afraid? I know you have ridden this trail in the dark many times before. Will your companion fall off the big, fat sorrel? Are you afraid for your companion?"

  Beto's voice taunted.

  "Go to bed. We'll go up in the morning," Juan Vogel said.

  '`No. I'm going to La Haciendita to my patron who needs me. I am a horseman. I'm riding a good horse, not a pig's slop," Beto said.

  "Tomorrow we'll be waiting for you at La Haciendita. We'll wake up in the morning in La Haciendita ready to help our patrón," Beto's companion boasted.

  "Go on then and stop bothering me," Juan Vogel said.

  The two horsemen screamed the Mexican grito which is part song; part triumphant exultation in an ability to survive the here and now; part challenge to man, beast, and natural barriers; and part weak mewing for their humble state on God's earth. Kane heard them spurring their horses up the mountain; heard the horses sliding and recovering under the spurs; and heard rocks rolling long after the sounds of the horsemen had gone on.

  Kane and Vogel were three hours riding to the top of the Divide in the morning. They could see hundreds of miles in the two states from the top. The top was called "El Durazno" because of a grove of peach trees English miners had planted there. The puncture that had been the mine of the Englishmen on the side of a canyon below the summit was healing now. The beams in the entrance had fallen. Cattle were using the entrance for shelter. They were using the rusty mill to rub themselves on and the open yard of the mill for an hechadero, bed ground.

  Around the crest of the mountain on the Sonora side they came to the buildings of La Haciendita perched thousands of feet above the Arroyo de los Mezcales like an aerie.

  Don Marcos Aguilera came across the terraced patio of his front yard to meet them. The patio had been leveled against the precipice so that horsemen would have a place to dismount.

  Don Marcos was a heavy man. His long, hook-roweled spurs dragged the ground behind his scuffed boots. He wore a bandanna across his brow. His straight-brimmed hat was tied by a string behind his head. He had the eye and the nose of an eagle. He didn't look at Kane and Vogel as though they were his prey. He was happy to see them, if that is possible for an eagle. He smiled through his short, thick, white beard.

  "Get down and come over to the coffee. I built a fire under it when I heard you riding over Durazno," he said. Kane and Vogel dismounted, tied their horses, and loosened their cinches. Don Marcos swung two chairs around and set them down for Kane and Vogel. He brought three cups of the syrupy black coffee.

  "I hope you like my ‘coffee," he said to Kane. "I have no woman to make the coffee here at La Haciendita. This is the coffee I made early before I rode this morning. I just returned and haven't had time to make fresh coffee."

  "Where did you ride this morning?" Vogel asked him. "I went below to Mezcales looking for the rest of the bulls I promised you."

  "How many have you gathered, Don Marcos?" Juan Vogel asked.

  "I gathered fifteen head of the good toretes. I didn't have anyone to help me. The boys left me three days ago for the fiesta of Tino Sierra in Macarena and returned only last night. Look at them and you will imagine the condition in which they arrived." Don Marcos pointed to the ground by one of the houses. Two forms lay between a lime and a banana tree in the shade, their heads resting on their arms.

  "Tino Sierra's fiesta ended yesterday morning," Juan Vogel said.

  "Ah, the boys had reason to stay away so long," Don Marcos said. "But now I have only fifteen head for you. All the cattle had been running in this canyon below us, but I found nothing this morning. Most of the cattle have relocated toward Agua Zarca, the old watering place in the canyon north of here. All tracks go that way. I'll be unable to deliver the cattle I promised."

  "How many cattle in all did you hope to deliver, Don Marcos?" Jim Kane asked.

  "Forty or fifty head," the old man answered.

  "I only expected you to have fifteen head anyway. It is lucky that you only gathered that many," Kane said.

  "A misunderstanding," Don Marcos said. "Juanito Vogel told me you would receive all the two-year-old bulls with good ' horns I had." .

  "I didn't know you had so many," Juan Vogel said. "You remember? I only got fifteen from you last year."

  "Yes, Juanito, but I had sold last year before you took the fifteen. I haven't sold any cattle yet this year. You will take the fifteen head if you like them, will you not?"

  "Of course," Jim Kane said.

  "Let's go see the fifteen head," Juan Vogel said. "Jim and I must go on to Chinipas today. He will begin to receive all the cattle he has bought in the Sierra in Chinipas tomorrow.

  The cattle were in a rock corral in the canyon below La Haciendita. A stream seeped into a rock-and-mortar trough in the corral. The cattle had been well cared for during their confinement. They were full. The corral was matted with cornstalks under their feet. Plenty of feed was still before them and they looked gorged as they chewed their cuds, lumbered about, or lay grunting on their stomachs. These were the first cattle Kane had seen in the Sierra Madre that were able to lumber.

  They were at least a hundred pounds heavier than any he had traded for. Their horns were long and symmetrical and shone as though buffed and polished. These cattle were worth more money than
the best cattle Kane had bought in the Sierra. He was sure Don Marcos would ask at least $60 a head for them, if not more, and they were worth it. The trouble was going to be that Kane wasn't authorized by March and Garrett . to pay more than $40 per head for the cattle.

  "How much money do you want for your cattle, Don Marcos?" Kane ventured.

  "How much are they worth?" Don Marcos asked. "They are only corrientes. Juanito said you wanted corriente, and corriente is all I have."

  "Don Marcos, these are very good toretes," Kane said. "That I know. They are good as far as corriente can be good.

  "To tell the truth, I don't know if I can pay you what they are worth."

  "I don't believe you are that poor a man," Don Marcos said, narrowing the eagle eye, an eye that saw eight times more than the normal human eye, an eye that now was reappraising Kane.

  Kane would have liked to draw Mr. Juan Vogel aside at that moment to ask him how generous he, Juan Vogel, had been with Terry Garrett's money, but being under the fierce eye of an eagle made such a move impossible.

  "Don Marcos, let me ask you one question," Kane said.

  "Speak," Don Marcos said quietly.

  "How much money did Juan Vogel say I would give?"

  "Juanito Vogel didn't speak for you. He said he would give four hundred seventy-five pesos per head. How much is that, Senor Kane?"

  "That is thirty-eight dollars American. Not enough money for these cattle."

  "No, no, no. Don't try to spoil the serrano, Senor Kane. I buy cattle in the Sierra too. If you have paid more money for this class of cattle you have paid too much. You will spoil us with your American money. "

  `Tll give you five hundred pesos, forty dollars, for the cattle delivered in Chinipas," Jim Kane said.

  "I told Juan Vogel I would deliver in Chinipas for four hundred seventy-five and I will do so. I want no more money and no less."

  "I'll give the five hundred pesos to Juan Vogel then," Kane said.

  "You will do right if you do so," Don Marcos said. "This is the generous way. "

  "Not generous enough, but as generous as I am authorized to be," Kane said.

  "We should all do the best we are able to do in these operations," Don Marcos said.

  The three men rode back up to La Haciendita. Kane and Vogel stayed aboard their horses. They would have to ride on in order to get to Chinipas before dark. Don Marcos quickly wrapped a lunch of jerky and cheese in a clean flour sack and put it into the morral on Vogel's saddlehorn. He added a pint bottle of lechuguilla, "For when your horse tires," he said. The two men reined their horses to leave.

  "How many days before you start your drive from Chinipas?" Don Marcos asked Kane.

  "We should start in a week," Kane said.

  "This will give me a few days to look for more cattle before I drive to Chinipas," Don Marcos said.

  "Don Marcos, I am committed to receive about one hundred head from Ezequiel Graf in Chinipas. This hundred head plus fifty head that will arrive from Arce's ranch, fifty head from Macarena, thirty-five from Vogel's ranch, and your fifteen will make two hundred and fifty head. I've been authorized only enough money for two hundred and fifty. I won't have enough money to pay for more." ;

  "I'll look in Agua Zarca canyon," Don Marcos said. "I may I find more cattle there."

  ''Don Marcos, if Graf has a hundred head I won't be able to pay for any more cattle from you."

  "I'll bring them anyway. I'm sure you'll find a way to pay for them, tarde o temprano, sooner or later," Don Marcos said and walked away, relinquishing Kane and Vogel to the trail.

  26

  Chinipas

  "Adiós," Juan Vogel would say to the women as he and Kane rode down the street in Chinipas in the late afternoon.

  "Adiós," the women would say and turn back into their homes.

  Cattle were raising dust in a corral down the main street from the town plaza. A crowd of men and boys in the street by the corral moved toward Kane and Vogel when they dismounted in front of the store of Ezsequiel Graf.

  Ezequiel was behind his counter when Kane and Vogel walked into the store. He was a young man with tight, curly hair. He talked fast and moved fast. He had an unusually long stride for a medium-sized man, the stride of a man used to walking in the mountains. He strode from one end of the counter to the other, tending to his customers as he carried on his business talk with Kane and Vogel. Men of the town came in to make small purchases so they could listen to the talk about the cattle Kane was buying.

  Ezequiel would serve a man a pack of cigarettes or a peso's worth of panocha in a whirlwind of unwasted motion and then stand before him looking him in the eye like a good retriever and ask, "¿Qué más, what more?" The customer, loath to see the Graf machine stop, would ask for a box of matches. The matches would appear almost instantly on the counter before him. "¿Qué más?" Graf would ask again. Unless the customer was exceedingly strong of character he would be compelled to ask for another small article and this rhythmic working of the machinery would continue until a small gear would engage a slot in Graf 's memory of the customers line of credit and he would not ask "¿Qué más?" again but would bring out a ledger and enter the new purchase and thus dismiss the man. The customer's time would be up in the store and he would feel compelled to leave. He would say "Until later" to Vogel and step outside and wait nearby to watch for another chance to speak to Vogel. `

  Graf said he had one hundred and ten head of bulls in the corral but he was not sure Kane would want them all. He said another man had eighteen head for sale but he had not brought them to Graf. Kane might be able to come to terms with this other man and use the eighteen head to replace any cattle he did not want among those in the corral. Graf said he would take Kane to see the eighteen head as soon as he could get away from the store.

  Kane went next door to a telegraph office and wired Terry Garrett in El Paso telling him to send $10,000 in cash in Mexican pesos by airplane to Chinipas. When Graf was ready to go, Kane mounted Pajaro and waited in the street. Men and boys loitered there watching Kane and admiring his horse and gear. Graf came down the narrow alley from behind his store riding a brown mare mule. The mule skimmed over the cobblestones in a running walk. Graf rode a well-made vaquero saddle with new armas. His hat, a stiff, plastic, imitation straw, perched high on top of his head above his long forehead.

  The street became a trail at the edge of town. The two men rode along an old, narrow-gauge railroad. They passed a large mill in good repair. The mill had served the Palmarejo mine, a rich mine that had been run by a British firm. They crossed the Otero River, shallow that time of the year, and came to a small green pasture on the edge of the river. A short, swarthy Indian wearing a high-crowned palm hat was waiting for them at the pasture gate.

  "You are very late," the man said petulantly. "I was about to release the cattle."

  "Here is the man, the buyer," Graf said, not bothering to explain his tardiness.

  "How much for my cattle?" the swarthy man, whose name was Felizardo Trigueno, said.

  "How do I know? I haven't seen them yet," Kane said.

  The man took a long look at Kane. He was dissatisfied with Kane.

  "They are in the pasture. You would have to ride through the pasture," Felizardo said.

  "That is what we are here for, to ride across the pasture and see the cattle," Kane said.

  Felizardo the Swarthy still did not budge from the gate. '"The cattle are loose in the pasture. They are not together," he said.

  "We aren't afoot," Kane said. "We'll ride around the pasture and look at them."

  "But I am afoot," Felizardo said.

  "You don't need to accompany us, Felizardo, " Graf said. "I can show Señor Kane the cattle. I know which ones you wish to sell."

  "He doesn't need to see the cattle. They are all good cattle. I'll tell him what they are worth and he will see the cattle when I bring them to Chinipas and he pays me for

  them."

  "If you thought I didn't
need to see the cattle why did you wait here for us?" Kane asked impatiently. The trail had been long that day and he was short-tempered. "I didn't ride over here on a tired horse to buy cattle I couldn't see or to talk nonsense with you when I could have stayed in Chinipas having a drink and feeding and resting my horse. I'll have to see the cattle if I am to buy them and that is my last, bad-acting word."

  Felizardo untied the rawhide on the gate and slid the poles out of the holes on one side and let the ends down on the ground. Graf and Kane stepped their horses over the poles and entered the pasture.

  "Wait until I close the gate and I will accompany you as best I can," Felizardo said. He closed and tied the gate and followed them. He kept pace with them very well in his huaraches. Kane thought he could probably outwalk Pajaro on a day the horse was fresh. They walked over a rise. The cattle were grazing in an open meadow that had been out of sight of the gate."

  "Are these the cattle?" Kane asked Graf.

  "Yes," Graf said. He turned to Felizardo. "I thought you said the cattle were not together?" he said.

  "Of course they are together," Felizardo said.

  Kane counted the bulls. "Are these eighteen the cattle you have for sale?" he asked Felizardo.

  "You see eighteen toretes, don't you? Do you see more? Do you see less?"

  "Señor, I have never been here before in my life," Kane said. "I don't know how large this pasture is or how many cattle you might be running in it besides these. Kindly tell me how many cattle you have for sale."

  "Don"t you see? Eighteen head. Look at them. You came to look, did you not? Look at them and satisfy yourself."

  Kane rode around the cattle. Three head were line bulls like those of Don Marcos Aguilera. Twelve head were cattle in thin condition, but strong enough for Kane's purposes and they had good horns. Three head would not work for Kane in any way. One of these was a short yearling with little, spike horns. One was a good-horned, red, four-year-old, but he was thin, dead-haired, and hollow-eyed. One was cow-horned and bob-tailed. Kane rode back to Graf and Felizardo the Swarthy.

  "I'll buy fifteen head of them if your price is right," he said to Felizardo.