Cherokee (6 page)

“Nothing.” But his voice was weak.

“What did he come to get back from you? What of his did you have?”

He wouldn't answer me, just looked away.

“Howard, what did you really steal off the man that you're trying to repay with twenty-five thousand dollars? You know it ain't the five hundred, no matter what kind of interest you want to add. Or the arm; that was Buttercup's doing. What is it you stole that you don't even feel twenty-five thousand dollars covers?”

He suddenly turned around and faced me. “I'm not going to tell you. He probably will and I think you got a right to know. I ain't got the nerve to tell you. That's why I want you to find Charlie Stevens. It's as much for your sake and the sake of your brothers as it is for me.”

Well, that made me blink. I said slowly, “I don't exactly know how to take that.”

“Take it for the gospel. It's been eatin' away at me for better than thirty years. I'd like the truth to get out, but I ain't going to say it. I ain't got the stomach for it. And I ain't right sure I'm doing the right thing. I couldn't be sure if I told you. This matter has got me all balled up. I finally decided I'd just leave it to Providence and the Good Lord. If you go and if you find Charlie and if he tells you, why then, I'll figure you was supposed to find out. That's said and I'm not gonna open my mouth about the subject again. You can go or not go. Please yourself.”

I thought about it for a long couple of moments. Then I said, “And you want me to ride horseback all the way to Oklahoma.”

“Yep.”

“You know how far it is to Oklahoma horseback?”

“Ought to. I done it twice. I don't reckon it's got no further away in thirty years.”

“With trains running up there every day you want me to load a horse with twenty-five thousand dollars in gold and waste all that time on a damn fool trip?”

He gave me a look. “You may not think it was a damn fool trip when you get back.”

“But how come it has to be in gold and how come I got to go horseback?”

“It's a thing I can't explain. It's just fitten, that's all. Fitten. I can't explain it no other way. I brung Charlie's gold down here on horseback, gold that was the making of this place. Without that gold there wouldn't be no Half-Moon ranch. And Charlie come down here on horseback. And went back on horseback, left his arm here. Most of it.”

“Got to be gold? Bank draft won't do?”

He shook his head. “I told you, no. Now if you don't want to do it, why, I'll find some other way.”

“If I go I'm taking Ben with me. That much gold is just too much temptation. All the road agents ain't in jail.”

Well, a look of plumb horror came over his face. “No! Not Ben! My Lord, no! You can't take Ben.”

It perplexed the hell out of me, him taking on like that. “Hell, Howard, keep your hat on. I only said I wanted to take Ben because I want a good gun with me and Ben's the best.”

He was shaking his head vigorously. “No. Not Ben. And not Norris.”

I laughed. “I said I wanted help, not hindrance. I guess I'll take Ray Hays.”

“Ray is fine.” he said. He nodded. “Just no family.”

Ray Hays was a kind of special case. Several years back he'd pretty well saved my life by helping me get out of some trouble I was in up in the hill country of Texas around the town of Bandera. In gratitude I'd brought him back to the ranch and put him to work. Supposedly he was assistant to Ben in managing the horse herd, but he and Ben had got to be close friends and there was some question as to just how much work he actually got done. He drew wages, but he pretty much considered himself a member of the family. But for all of that, he was worth having around because he was a mighty good man to have on your side in a fight. Next to Ben I calculated him to be about the best gun in the county. He was also good company. He had a nice, easy way about him and was generally good for a laugh. You could josh him until you ran out of things to say and he never took offense.

So I sat there thinking about the trip as the time ran on toward noon. And noon meant lunch and lunch meant Nora, and I didn't have the slightest idea how I was going to go about telling her the details of such a damn fool trip, a trip that would take me away from home for at least two or three weeks. Hell, if it didn't make sense to me how was I going to explain it to Nora?

I got up. “Dad, I got work to do. I got to see Harley about cutting the herd, shipping some cows.”

He said anxiously, “But you'll do it?”

“Howard, how come you didn't pay the man back thirty years ago? How come you waited all this time, and for me to do it?”

He was silent for a moment. Then he said, “There were reasons.”

“Like what? Didn't want to ride all that way to Oklahoma?”

“I said there were reasons. I was ashamed to face the man again.” He looked away.

“On account of his arm?”

He didn't answer me.

I went halfway down the steps. I stopped and turned back to him. “Well, I reckon I'll do it. Though I hope you know what you're asking with a herd to cut and this trouble with the Jordans.”

“I know,” he said.

“And I don't know if I'm doing it because you asked me and you're my pa, or because you got my curiosity up about what I might find out from this Charlie Stevens. That is, if I can find him.”

“You'll find him,” he said.

“How do you know? How do you know he ain't dead?”

He shrugged. “I don't. I just got a feeling. But either way, I need you to try.”

“Shit!” I said. I gathered up my horse's reins and swung aboard. “Howard Williams, you have got a nerve, I'll say that for you. You want to come help me explain to Nora why I got to be gone for all the time this trip will take?”

He shook his head. “No, sir. I don't think I'd care to do that.”

Neither did I. But I turned my horse and started for my home. Lunch would be just about ready. Maybe I'd have time for a couple of drinks before I set to work on Nora.

“When are you going?” We were laying in bed. I hadn't told her all about it until after supper and after J.D. was in bed asleep. She'd agreed with me that it was a strange request and a strange errand, but she'd found it perfectly understandable that Howard had considered he'd stolen the money. I'd said, “How the hell can you figure that? It was a loan. Just because Howard has let hell's own kind of time pass before paying it back don't mean he stole it. He made it sound like he'd either robbed it out of the man's strongbox or thrown down on him with a gun and took it off of him.”

Nora had said, “It was an honorable debt and Howard would think he had not treated it in an honorable fashion.”

I'd said, “Well, I wish to hell he had. I guarantee you I ain't looking for no long trip to Oklahoma. I'm about halfway tempted to take the train.”

She'd said, “But you promised him you'd take it on horseback. I think it's important to him that it be done in a certain manner.”

I'd said, “Well, I wish the damn gold had come down on the train. No, I can't take the damn train because I'd get back too soon. I could do the whole deal in four or five days on the train. And if we done it sensible it could be done in half a day by wiring a bank draft.”

Now she said, “How are you going to find this Charlie Stevens?”

There was a good moon out and the room was kind of half glowing. I shook my head against the pillow. “Beats the hell out of me. Go up to that town, Anadarko, and go to asking around. Bet you doughnuts to dollars I'm going to spend a week and come up with nothing. I'll bet this Charlie Stevens is either dead or disappeared and left no forwarding address.”

“You haven't said when you're going.”

I said grumpily, “Not any sooner than I have to. Damn, Nora, there's a hundred matters need tending to around here. And I don't want to go off and sleep by myself for three weeks.”

She was laying right beside me, wearing a small light cotton sleeping gown. She moved her hip harder against mine. I had my left arm around her with her head kind of tucked into my neck.

She said, “Justa, you've got to do it. You promised.”

I turned my head a little in her direction. It didn't allow me to look into her eyes, but she got the idea. I said, “What is this? Near as I can recall, this is the first time you've ever wanted me to go off on a trip. Always before you had about ten different reasons I couldn't go. How come the big switch? You got you another Kansas City drummer waiting at the hotel in Blessing?”

She gave me a punch in the ribs. I said, “Owww.”

She said, “Justa, this trip is a little different, don't you think? I objected, and still object to those trips you took where there was every chance you'd be coming home with a bullet in you. Now all you're doing is running an errand for your daddy.”

I gave a dry little laugh. “Darling girl, a saddlebag with twenty-five thousand dollars can draw more attention than a hundred-dollar bill in a whorehouse. And if you think this part of the country ain't civilized, you ought to see Oklahoma.”

“Nobody will know you have it if you don't go to flashing it around. That seems like a simple enough thing to do.”

“You know how much that much gold weighs? Right around sixty pounds. How are you suppose to lug it around? Put it in a sack and tell folks it's hymnals?”

She ignored that. “What do you suppose Howard means about what Charlie Stevens can tell you that he won't?”

“That's got my curiosity up also.” I turned toward her. “Probably the main reason I'm going.”

“Well, I suppose if you have to ... Justa, what are you doing?”

“You don't know by now?”

“Mister, you certainly have your nerve going around . . . Ooooooh!”

 

I went into town the next morning, going straight over to the bank. Bill Simms was the president. I eased into his office and as soon as we got the necessary remarks out of the way I told him what I wanted. It kind of took him by surprise. He took off his glasses and wiped them and said, “Mister Williams, let me get this straight. You want twenty-five thousand dollars in gold coins or bullion by day after tomorrow?”

I nodded. “Yes, Bill. And I want you to do it yourself. I'll pick it up after the bank closes. What I'm trying to say is that the fewer people know about this the better.”

He put his glasses back on. He was a small fussy man in his early forties who'd been running the bank for at least ten years. “Mister Williams, I'm not even sure we've got that much in gold coins. We don't have any bullion. You couldn't take part of it in paper money?”

I shook my head. “Bill, I know you feel like you ought to get an explanation and I'd like to give you one. But I can't. The business I'm going to be doing has got to be done in gold. Let's just say the parties don't trust paper money.”

He looked perplexed. “Who wouldn't take U.S. government currency? It's recognized all over the world. I—”

“Bill,” I said, “don't worry your mind about it. Just get it. Today is Wednesday. I'll come in after three o'clock on Friday and pick the money up. I'll bring my own containers.”

He looked as disapproving as a banker could. “You plan to go riding around with that amount of money? In gold?”

I looked at him.

“Well, of course, Mister Williams. It is your money. Far as that goes, it's your bank. What, ah, what account do you want it debited against?”

I hadn't thought about that part of it. By rights I should have talked to Norris first, but I hadn't. I gave it a moment's consideration. Ben wanted some blooded Thoroughbred stock. Animals like that ran high. I said, “Charge it to the horse herd account. If there's not enough in it, bleed off the rest out of the general funds account.”

He said, “Yes, sir.” I got up and went up to the second floor to Norris's office.

Norris was behind his desk wearing a gray summer seersucker suit. Even though it was fall, it was ninety degrees outside and not a hell of a lot cooler in the building. I pulled up a chair, and Norris obliged me by looking up from his work and giving me his attention. I said, “I'm taking twenty-five thousand dollars out of the bank. Out of the horse account if it'll stand it. The money is coming out after banking hours on Friday. I'm taking it out in cash.”

He leaned back in his chair. “Why?”

“Norris, I didn't come up here to explain but to let you know for your book work.”

“Is it for those Thoroughbred studs that Ben wants?”

“No.”

We looked at each other.

“I see,” he said. Then he made a half smile. “No, I guess I don't see. You're taking money but you don't want to tell me what it's for.”

“Can't tell you.”

“You mean you won't. Justa, you know as well as I do I've got to record this money some way. Don't you agree it's a little too large of a sum to account for as coming out of petty cash?”

I sighed. I'd seen this coming when Howard had first laid out the situation. I said, “It's personal. How's that?”

“In other words you are making a loan from the company for twenty-five thousand dollars?”

I pulled a face. Now Howard was going to owe me some money. I wondered if he'd take thirty years paying me back as he had Charlie Stevens. I said, “Yes, I guess you could say I'm borrowing it from the company.”

We were a company, the Half-Moon Land and Cattle Company. I was the president, Howard was the chairman of the board, Ben was the vice president, and Norris was the secretary and treasurer. We paid ourselves salaries. I got two hundred a month, Ben a hundred and fifty, and Norris a hundred and seventy-five. Howard didn't get anything. Of course we all got a bonus at the end of the year that Norris carefully figured out, depending on profits. All told, not counting the actual land of the Half-Moon ranch, which was willed personally and separately in whole to us boys, the Half-Moon Land and Cattle Company was worth about two and a half million dollars. Of course that included the hotel and the bank and various parcels of land and different securities and stocks.

And of course, it was Norris's business to keep up with all that, but it still kind of irritated me, him asking me so close what I wanted the money for and pressing me like he had. Hell, it wasn't as if we were broke.

He said, “So you want me to treat this like a personal loan from the company? What account do you want me to charge it to?”

It made me angry. “Charge it to the same account for the money we spent when me and Ben and Lew Vara had to come down and get you out of jail in Monterrey all because you was too damn stubborn to pay a Mexican official a hundred-dollar bribe. I believe that bribe cost the company around five thousand dollars. How'd you chalk that one up? What heading did you put that one under, muleheadedness?”

He picked up a pen and fiddled with it for a second. Then he said, “No call to bring that up, Justa. I'm simply trying to keep the books straight. Tell me, will this benefit the company in any way?”

I got up. I was tired of the conversation. Norris was my brother, but his accountant's ways could make me mad as hell. I said, “Yes, I expect it will benefit the company. I know damn well it ain't going to benefit
me.”

He said, “Fine. I'll enter it under General Maintenance.”

“You can enter it under General Custer for all I care.” I turned and walked out the door. But just before I started down the stairs I stopped and turned back. I was going to have to find a way, somehow, to get along better with Norris. I went back to his door and stuck my head inside. I said, “Norris, I'm going to cut out all the crossbred steers over four. I figure to get around eleven hundred head. So you can figure whatever they bring to buy those Treasury bills or whatever it was you wanted to do.”

“When you starting the cut?”

“Harley should be bunching them right now.” I hesitated. “I can't be here for the work, but it ought not to take more than ten days, two weeks to get them to market.”

“You going somewhere?”

“Yeah. I'll have to be gone about two or three weeks.”

“Any of my business where?”

I hesitated and gave Howard a good cussing in my mind. He was always wanting me to make a better effort to get along with Norris. And then he puts me in a position where I've got to hold out on my own brother. I said, “It's that personal matter.”

“That's going to benefit the company?”

I gave a little half smile. “Yeah. Let's hope so.”

He suddenly stood up. “Justa, I want to ask you something and I want a straight answer.”

I looked at him. He was being firm. I said, “If I can.”

“Is this some dangerous project that you are shutting me out of because you don't think I can handle myself? The way you always do?”

I wanted to laugh, but I knew better. “No, no, it isn't. And I have never felt like you couldn't handle yourself. And I have never held you out of a dangerous situation for that reason. The few times . . . the very few times I've sent you home when there was threat of gunfire was because you are the only one can do your job. Ben and I can be replaced. You can't.”

He was not mollified. Mainly because what he'd said was true. I didn't want Norris around in a gunfight because he'd be someone else I'd have to watch out for. He said, “Is Ben going? On this trip?”

“No,” I said. Then I decided to hell with it. I'd tell Norris just enough to salvage his feelings and let Howard do the lying. I said, “This trip is for Howard. It's one of his last pieces of business. Probably the last he'll ever handle. I'm just the errand boy. But I'm breaking a confidence by telling you this. Anything else you want to know you go and ask him, but that will hurt him because he told me flat out that he didn't want another soul to know about it until it was over.”

He looked down at his desk for a second. Then he looked back up. “I'm sorry, Justa. I shouldn't have asked so damn many questions.”

“It's your job,” I said. “Just keep in mind I told you this in confidence. Howard would hold me responsible if he knew I'd told anyone else.”

“I understand,” he said. “What are you going to tell Nora?”

“Oh,” I said, lying, “some kind of cattle trip. Looking at a ranch. It doesn't make much difference. She never believes me anyway.”

He said, “Thanks for moving so quick on the steers. We'll make some nice short-term money on these bonds.”

I started to leave again, and then stopped. “Oh, in case the mercantile delivers something up here you think ain't supposed to come to your office, don't think anything about it. Just have them set it out of the way. In a corner or something.”

His eyes narrowed. “What would the mercantile be delivering up here that I wouldn't think belonged up here?”

“Kegs of nails,” I said.

“Kegs of . . .” Then he stopped. “I'm asking too many questions again. I guess I can't help it.”

I guessed he couldn't either. Just as he couldn't help himself about every little detail he had to know about. He was worse about details than a drunk about how many drinks were left in the bottle. But I was trying to get along with him. He'd asked if I was taking Ben because he knew I always took Ben if I was going into a serious situation. I didn't tell him I would have been taking Ben if Howard would have let me. Me taking Ray Hays wouldn't tell him anything because I used Ray for all sorts of errands. I said, “You still be here late Friday?”