by H. V. Elkin
‘Yeah, I see that. Gonna rope her, were you?”
“Yes, I was.”
“Then just sort of lead her back here?”
“No, I intended to tie her up and come back for the cage. You didn’t expect me to take the cage with me, did you?”
“Guess I wouldn’t expect that, all right. And like I say, I’m ignorant of such things. Maybe you can rope a tiger by yourself. And maybe you can leave it to come back for a cage and she’ll be just waitin’ for you until you get back for her. That may be. But you got to understand my ignorance. If I went out after a cougar or jaguar like you went out after that tiger, another trapper would figure I didn’t want to catch her at all. I ain’t sayin’ that’s true in your case. I’m just tryin’ to show you how a trapper would see it.”
Hansen folded his arms over his chest and smiled. “I accept your ignorance for what it is then, and no hard feelings.”
“Gentlemen!” Maroney held up his hands, then inclined his head toward the mess tent. “Why don’t the three of us sit down and talk this over ... in the cookhouse.”
“I’ve had a long day,” Hansen said, “and I’m tired and I have to get an early start tomorrow.”
“Eric,” Maroney said softly, “please.”
Hansen sighed. “Very well, but let’s make it quick.”
“Good. And John, you will join us?”
Cutler shrugged. “Sure.”
They started into the mess tent where a lantern burned on a long table. Sam followed. Maroney turned to him and said, “There is no need for you to stay longer, Mr. Bean . . . unless, of course, you wish to.”
“I wish to,” Sam said.
“I’ll bring you some coffee,” Molly said, and disappeared into the growing darkness.
In a moment the four men were seated around the lantern, like generals the night before a battle. But unlike generals, their attitudes seemed to indicate that each man was preparing for a different battle. Maroney was the only one who looked worried, not just about the tiger but about somehow dealing with the other three very different and somewhat antagonistic personalities so that the tiger might be caught and his circus saved. Eric was sullen, knowing someone was going to try to convince him to do something he did not want to do, and he sat with his arms on the table, hunched over to withstand the arguments to come, suggesting in his attitude that he was tolerating the meeting until he could go to bed and prepare for the next day. At the same time, he seemed to have antennae out, one turned in to Cutler, the other to Sam. Sam acted like an audience of one; the other three men were sitting there exclusively for his amusement. Cutler was tuned in to all that, although it did not show on the surface, and he looked merely deadpan and patient.
Molly brought the coffee, and she joined them. As soon as she sat, she felt uncomfortable and cast a questioning look at Maroney. He nodded solemnly to tell her to stay. She folded her hands on the table and bent her head slightly as if praying. But he eyes were wide and darted from one man to another.
Maroney took a swallow of coffee and made a face. “As the day dies, the coffee comes to life,” he said, but no one laughed. “Okay, then we will be serious. We cannot leave here as long as the tiger is free. We have no income as long as we stay here. The more days without income, the closer we are to losing the circus. It is already an uncomfortable situation. If the tiger can be caught tomorrow, we may survive. If it is not caught tomorrow, we may not. Therefore, the tiger must be caught tomorrow. It is important enough that we take any measures possible.”
“I’m already doing that,” Hansen said.
“You are already doing what you think best, Eric, and I’m sure we all appreciate that fact. If the situation was not so desperate, we could afford the luxury of letting you handle this your way. And eventually your way would prove to be best, I know. But we have no time for eventual things. We must have results now. I am wondering if there are other things we can do to improve our chances of winning.”
“I’m doing everything that can be done,” Hansen said.
“I am asking you,” Maroney said, “to accept help.”
Hansen nodded as though that was what he had been waiting for and dreading. “You changing your attitude about letting the professionals handle things, Fred? Are you going to turn into a different kind of man from the one I went to work for?”
“Right now, I am turning into a man who wants to protect the livelihood of forty people. I don’t want to offend you, Eric, but if I must, I must. I have the utmost confidence in your ability to handle cats in a ring. But when it comes to open country instead, I believe we must turn to another kind of professional for help.”
“Meaning Cutler.”
“Yes.”
Hansen sighed. “I’m listening with bated breath.”
Maroney turned to Cutler. “Forgive me if I am presumptuous, John. But can you help us?”
Sam cut in. “No, he can’t. Pa said Cutler was to stay on the lot and make sure none of you cut out before the tiger was caught. Now that’s what he better do, if everybody knows what’s good for ‘em.”
Hansen shrugged to Maroney. “You see?”
“Mr. Bean,” Maroney said, “this circus will not move until the tiger is captured.”
“That’s what Pa wants to be sure of.”
“It seems to me that, if the judge is concerned about our conscientiousness, he has other means at his disposal for keeping us here, better ones than shackling the one man who could help us.”
“Like what?”
“Well, does your father not have the great control over the railroad? Is the railroad not beholden to your father for the law he brought to these parts when the tracks were being laid? How can anyone leave Langtry by rail if the judge does not wish it?”
Sam shook his head. “That’s not for me to say. I’m just upholdin’ the law the way it was laid down, and that includes keepin’ Cutler where he is.”
Maroney looked helplessly at Cutler.
Cutler looked at Sam. “I think I can bow to the spirit of the law, Sam.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I’m not about to be jailed on a circus lot. Even the judge would agree, to be jailed, a man’s got to commit a crime. Have I committed a crime, Sam?”
“It ain’t that. You’re a deputy, so you take orders.”
“Well, I’m a funny kind of deputy then, ain’t I? I was never swore in, and I ain’t got a badge on my brisket.”
“If Pa says you’re a deputy, then you are.”
“And if I say I’m not, then I’m not.”
“Well, if you ain’t,” Sam grinned, “you better be damn careful what you do around here.”
“Sure,” Cutler said, “if I ain’t, then I just cut my sticks and ride out of Bean’s jurisdiction. Ain’t that right?”
“Well, I guess he wouldn’t try to stop you if you wanted to ride out of Pecos country. Course, you might have to go without your mules. They mighta got lost, and you’d have to pay a fine to get ’em back.”
“I was figurin’ I’d just take my horse and go back to El Paso. Kinda disappointed a newspaper there last time, and maybe I oughta go back and make it up to ‘em. Give ’em more of an interview, maybe. Tell ’em about my adventures here, maybe.”
“What adventures?”
“Oh, about how funny it all is. The way there’s a tiger loose and Judge Bean seems to want it to stay that way, even though it’s cost him some sheep. Least I could do. Maybe the judge don’t care about sheep or loose tigers or whether or not a circus folds, but I figure if there’s one thing he does care about it’s publicity. So I’d just give him some. Make him happy.”
“What does he care about publicity?”
“Well, he’s sacrificin’ a lot of precious beer and all to keep that writer McKay on the premises, ain’t he? Wants to see pages written about himself so bad, he threatened to hang McKay if he didn’t produce by tomorrow, didn’t he? Wanted to shoot that man Torres just because Torre
s said something bad about him usin’ his office to beat the saloon competition in Langtry, didn’t he? Now don’t that sound to you like a man who cares about publicity?”
“Well, you can’t go sayin’ that Pa don’t want that tiger caught.”
“No, just how funny it is it seems that way.” Cutler avoided looking at Hansen. “Way things are around here, it seems like there’s more work goin’ on not to catch the tiger than there is to catch her. Don’t see how that could be true, but if it was, I’d have to figure— maybe the newspaper would—that some folks just want this circus to fold for some reason.”
Sam got up suddenly, his gun hand out and ready. A small, frightened noise came out of Molly. Cutler held a hand up to keep her still, and he kept his eyes on Sam.
“If you’re makin’ an accusation, Cutler,” Sam said, “you’d better make it straight out.”
“What accusation?” Cutler asked and kept his hands above the table, though he shifted his weight on the bench, hitching his right leg forward, giving himself extra clearance for his six-gun. “I was just augurin’ about how things seemed, that’s all. Then there’s that funny coincidence.”
“What coincidence? Talk plain!”
“Oh, just think about it, Sam. Why, this circus might’ve been gone with its tiger in tow by now, except the judge loved it so much he wanted to see it stay another day. Then the tiger gettin’ loose so there wouldn’t be an audience the second day. Sure it’s just a coincidence, but it ought to make an interestin’ newspaper story. McKay tells me them writers are always lookin’ for stuff to fill their pages.”
Then there was a long silence as Sam glared at Cutler, trying to decide whether or not he would make his move.
“You won’t do it, Sam,” Cutler told him. “If you was gonna do it, it would’ve happened by now. And the longer you stand there like that, the worse you make it look. Why don’t you just go tell your pa how things seem to me. See if they don’t seem that way to him, too.”
Sam relaxed his gun arm, then used it to pull his hat down a little more over his forehead, putting a shadow over the confusion in his eyes. “Well, we’ll just see about that.”
“Sure,” Cutler said. “And knowin’ the judge to be a reasonable man, I’ll figure he’s gonna want the tiger first and publicity after. Unless I hear different, that’s what I’m figurin’.”
“Be careful you don’t figure yourself into an early grave,” Sam said and stalked out. Cutler let him have the last word because a word, even the last one, never killed anybody. In a moment they heard him riding out.
Hansen put his whip on the table.
“What’s that for?” Cutler asked him.
“Thought I might have to use it to stop a gun from shooting somebody.”
Cutler wondered which gun Hansen would have whipped and whose life he would be trying to save.
“I’ve got one last piece of advice for you, Cutler,” Hansen said. “I saw the look on that boy’s face. Just like one I’ve seen on Anna these last few weeks. If I were you, I’d ride on to El Paso like you said.”
“Appreciate the advice,” Cutler said and turned to Maroney. “You want me to take it?”
“No, John, I don’t. Not if you’re willing to help us and think you can.”
“I think I can,” Cutler said. “Whether or not I will depends on Eric here. He knows tigers and I know the land. It’ll take both of us the next time. No sense in me startin’ out with him if he’s gonna resent me bein’ there. If he does, he’ll be workin’ against me whether he wants to or not.”
Maroney asked Hansen, “What about it?”
“I don’t want anybody thinking I’m working against the circus,” Hansen said.
“Then how about it?”
“You’re the boss, Fred. Whatever you say.”
“That good enough for you, John?”
“No,” Cutler said. “It ain’t.”
Hansen yelled, “What the hell do you want from me, Cutler?”
“Your word that we’ll be a team. Now, I don’t like teams any more than you do. I usually work alone. But if I got to work with somebody else, I got to know we’re workin’ together. Otherwise, I might just as well take my chances by myself. I can do that, but it’d be better to have a tiger man along like you.”
“Okay,” Hansen said. “Then we’re a team. I’ll do my best.”
“Good. So will I.”
Maroney smiled broadly. “Now I am happier. Thank you, gentlemen! But, John, about your fee . . . ?”
“What about it?”
“Well ... how much?”
“A thousand dollars.”
Maroney let out a big breath. “I cannot . . .”
“There are two reasons I get that much,” Cutler said. “One is I’m worth it. I guarantee results, or you don’t pay me.”
“And the other reason?”
“I find people don’t take you seriously enough and let you do your job without interferin’ unless they pay. A big fee gets you the kind of respect you need to get the job done.”
“It is true,” Maroney admitted. “People would not enjoy the circus as much if it were free. But a thousand dollars—?”
“Listen, Fred,” Cutler said. “I’m goin’ after this tiger because I don’t want you to have to go out of business. I don’t want to catch the tiger, then slap you with a fee that’s gonna put you out of business, either. I just mention my fee ‘cause I want you to take it seriously. But whatever happens, I’m not gonna be the one to put you out of business. We’ll work it out later, after we get the tiger. I’m willin’ to trust your good will if you’ll trust mine.”
“Here is my thousand dollar handshake then,” Maroney said, reaching across the table.
“And here’s my guarantee,” Cutler said, shaking Maroney’s hand.
In a moment, Maroney left with Molly. “I will take the lady,” he said, “and you two can have the tiger.”
When they were alone, Cutler asked Hansen, “There anything you want to lay on the table now before we get started?”
“Like what?” Hansen was still forcing himself to look directly into Cutler’s eyes.
“You can’t learn everything about trappin’ out of a book. Part of it’s got to be inside you to begin with. And something inside me is tellin’ me there’s something wrong with this setup.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You never had a showdown with a man, I reckon. And since there ain’t many gunfighters left, you’re not likely to see one. But let me tell you, when two men get near each other and they know that in a minute one of ‘em’s gonna be dead, they don’t watch the gunhand, they watch the eyes. When a man’s gonna draw, something happens in the eyes. It’s nothin’ you can explain, you just see it, and you know it. Probably something like that happens between you and the cats.”
Hansen looked away. “Yes.”
“So I’m tellin’ you, I look at you and I get the feelin’ you got your gun out, but you ain’t.”
“It is loaded with blanks, anyway.”
“I’m tellin’ you something’s wrong here, and I know you know it. Our chances’ll be a hell of a lot better tomorrow if you let me in on it.”
Hansen hesitated, long enough that when he spoke, Cutler figured he was not telling what Cutler had been digging for.
“I do not want to kill Anna,” Hansen said. “That must be it. No one has said I should, but I believe that’s what’s expected.”
Cutler sighed. “Okay.”
“I don’t think she’s really a bad tiger. I think she can be saved and retrained if she has a chance.”
“Okay, I’m with you on that. I don’t want to see her killed, either. But if it comes to it, that’s what we’ll have to do, ain’t that right?”
“Yes, that’s right, if we must. I will put bullets in my gun.”
“Not in that peashooter. Don’t bother. I got a rifle in my saddle boot. It’s a Krag so it’s got a good reach. Now, how are we gonna get th
is tiger of yours, alive if we can? How’d she get caught in the first place?”
“You mean in India?”
“Yeah. She’s wild again, so we better think in terms of gettin’ a wild tiger, not a tame one.”
“I imagine they beat the bushes for her.”
“How does that work?”
“Men spread themselves out over a large area with drums, or they beat brush on brush. It makes sound the tiger tries to escape from. By bringing in the sound around the tiger, it can be led to a trap that’s waiting somewhere.”
“Yeah, that’s okay in a jungle where a lot of stuff grows. Pecos country’s about as far as you can get from a jungle.”
“Yes.”
“Any other way?”
“Sometimes they tether another animal for bait, perhaps with a net strung above in trees. When the tiger goes for the bait, they drop the net.”
Cutler shook his head. “We’re short on trees, too.”
“Yes. Hopeless.”
“Nothin’s hopeless. We’ll just have to figure another way of doin’ it. How does a tiger know it’s bein’ hunted?”
“If it see you or hears you.”
“Not smell?”
“No, not very much. That’s why they beat the bushes.”
“Well, we can’t put a lot of drum beaters out there in the open country like you can in the jungle. They’d be seen too easy. Does a tiger avoid anything besides a man?”
“What do you mean?”
“This year we got a herd of mustangs by diggin’ two trenches of dirt like ditches for a road. Wild horses won’t run over fresh turned earth, so they ran between the two furrows, and that led them into our corral. That’s what I mean.”
“Oh yes. A tiger won’t jump over a strip of cloth ...” Hansen stretched his hands about three feet apart. “... this high.”
Cutler looked up at the top of the tent where bugs and moths were circling in the lantern light. “There some rolls of canvas around here anywhere?”
“Yes, we use it for repairs.”
“Okay, come sunup, you and me’ll ride out with a couple of shovels, some canvas and a lot of hope.”
Hansen nodded and got up. “I’ll be ready.”