Jim Kane - J P S Brown

by J P S Brown

  The black-and-white bull had small, weak, cowlike horns that pointed toward each other. His horns were no good for rodeo. He had the sunken eye that blinked when the other did but did not see. He was so swaybacked his hind end seemed disconnected from his front end. When he walked his hind legs were pulled along aimlessly by the front legs. The hind legs headed first one way and then another like an old-fashioned child's cart that had a hinge in the middle and rear wheels that would not roll.

  "We cannot use the black-and-white," Kane said.

  "Why not? He is a good animal," the patriarch said.

  "He is blind in the left eye."

  "He will look better when you have fattened him. You said you bought black-and-whites."

  "We said we bought black-and-whites with good horns. We said we did not buy cow-horns, which he has, blind cattle, which he is, and swaybacks which he also certainly is."

  "What will you give for him?"

  "Nothing. We won't buy him. We are interested only in the merchantable cattle."

  "What are you going to give me for the other four head?"

  "We will give four hundred pesos for the cattle."

  "No, no, no! You said you were going to give five hundred pesos per head for all of them and now you say you only give four hundred pesos and you are turning down one of them, to finish me off."

  "I'm sorry you misunderstood me. I told you we would come and look and if the cattle were worth five hundred pesos we would give it. These cattle are not worth five hundred. We are offering what they are worth," Kane said.

  "They are worth more," the old man said.

  "How much do you think they are worth?"

  "You said five hundred pesos."

  "No," Kane said.

  "Give me six hundred for the red steer and five hundred for the rest and you don't have to take the black-and-white."

  "We can't do it. Besides, you said you didn't believe steers were as good as bulls. How can you ask more money for the steer?"

  The patriarch only looked at Kane. He knew the value of his steer as well as Kane did. The truth was that he had more bulls to sell than steers. He ignored Kane's question. He was not going to allow any reason but his own to enter into the trade.

  "Well, as I told you, I have no necessity to sell. I can wait until after the rains when the cattle will be worth more. What is your ultimate price?"

  "We'll give you four hundred twenty-five for the three head and five hundred for the red-steer."`

  "Give me four hundred seventy-five for all four and take them."

  "We cannot do that. Five hundred pesos and four hundred twenty-five, you asked for our ultimate price."

  "I won't sell for that price. Give me four hundred fifty pesos for four head, take the black-and-white too, and I will keep the red steer. "

  "We will not take the black-and-white at any price. If the red steer doesn't go we won't trade. He is the one that is making the price on the other three cattle. We'll give four hundred fifty pesos for the four good cattle and leave the black-and-white," the Lion said.

  "No. Give me six hundred for the red steer and four hundred seventy-five for the three and four hundred fifty for the black-and-white."

  "Let's go, Lion," Kane said and turned and walked out of the corral.

  "I guess we don't trade," the Lion said to the rancher.

  "You evidently have no need to sell."

  "I don't have the necessity to sell. I will do better if I wait after the rains as is my custom."

  "You will at that," the Lion said. He joined Kane by the truck. He winked. "He'll fall," he whispered to Kane;

  "The mierda," Kane said.

  "Wait a minute. Just a minute. Those cattle are not all his. His brand is only on the red steer. The others belong to the relatives," the Lion said.

  The patriarch was discussing the trade with his brothers, sons, grandsons, and nephews. He would probably get his six hundred pesos for his red steer but he would have to give them less money for the other three cattle to do it.

  At last he came to Kane and the Lion. He walked with straight, serious dignity. He turned and spoke an order to his sons, brothers, grandsons, and nephews. The brothers and sons in turn spoke orders to the grandsons and nephews and put reatas into their hands. The grandsons and nephews went into the corral and roped cattle. The black was untied and held. The trancas were lowered and the black-and-white ambled out into the brush in search of a meal.

  "You said four hundred fifty pesos a head?" the old man asked the Lion. "Is that your ultimate price?"

  "It was a minute ago. Now it is four hundred pesos," the Lion said and winked at Kane and showed his broken teeth.

  "Now stop flogging me, Lion!" the old man said, smiling good-naturedly.

  "Yes, we'll give the four hundred fifty," Kane said.

  "Who pays the inspection papers?" the rancher asked.

  "You do. The seller pays," the Lion said.

  ‘'I think you should pay it. It is only six pesos a head," the rancher said.

  "Listen," the Lion said. "We are giving you more money than the cattle should cost. The cattle are not worth anything here on this ranch. We are paying for them here. We put a value, a price, on your cattle for you. Your cattle are going to market at no expense to you. You will be standing here with the money in your hand when we leave. We are taking all the risks you would ordinarily have to take if you had to take your cattle to market. All this is costing you nothing. The least you can do is pay your own tax and expenses on the cattle."

  "Who do I make the guías, the brand inspection passes, to."

  "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 kno
w 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, "Ahí 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 enchilado 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.

  "Three trips, three hundred pesos," Nieblas said.

  "Take them then."

  "Pay me now."

  "I'll give you my check when you give me the guía," the Lion said.

  "No checks. Cash. I want a rigorous accounting, " Nieblas said.

  "When you give me the guía."

  "I have to go all the way to San Luis to get the guía."

  "Fine. Stop and get the guía on the way to Rio Alamos. San Luis is right on your way. I'll pay you as you deliver the cattle and the guías," the Lion said.

  The tall man said no more. He turned and he and his brother set about releasing the red bull. They had made a sale and had kept their best bull. The deal was finished.

  "When shall I expect you?" the Lion asked.

  "Maybe tonight. Maybe tomorrow, " Nieblas muttered.

  He and his brother were busy now. They paid no more attention to the buyers. They got on their horses and rode into the brush.

  Kane and the Lion went back to Rio Alamos. Nieblas did not come with the cattle that night. He did not come the next day. He did not ever come.

  15

  The Weaning

  Crudo means raw, but when applied to the state of one's health, it means hangover. Mexicans safer monumental crudas, both physically and morally. They are inclined to give their crudas the utmost respect and solicitousness. A man will excuse himself from work because of a cruda in the same way he would excuse himself because of a case of pneumonia. He will get away with this excuse certainly, his employer was on the same party. Mothers dote on their crudo sons. Wives forget the smell of the foreign perfume the unfortunate brought with him when he came home at four in the morning until after they have doctored him back to good, sane existence.