I reckon that I am goin' to take a look around at Paulette's hacienda, an' I reckon I ain't goin' to tell her either. I am just goin' to do a little quiet house-bustin' just to see if I can get my claws on somethin' that I would like very much to find.
I pull the gun outa my pocket an' lay it right by me. I reckon that if anybody else tries anything on me tonight they are goin' to get it where they won't like it.
The moon has come out again. It is a swell night. Drivin' along back on the Sonoyta road I get thinkin' about dames an' what they do when they are in a jam.
Did I tell you that dames get ideas to do things that a guy would never even think of?
You're tellin' me!
CHAPTER 11
I DON'T drive up to the Hacienda. When I get to within a quarter of a mile of it I pull off the road an' start drivin' round over the scrub. I make a vvide circle, drivin' the car slow an' keepin' in top gear so as I don't make too much noise, an' I come up two-three hundred yards behind the house.
I stick the car behind a cactus clump an' I start workin' towards the house keepin' well under cover. I work right round the house in a circle but I can't see anybody or hear anythin' at all.
Then I get a hunch. Keepin' well in the scrub, I start workin' along the side of the road that leads from the hacienda to the State road intersection, an' I keep my eyes well skinned. After about five minutes I hear a horse neigh. I work up towards this sound an' I find a black horse tied up to a joshua tree about fifty yards off the road.
It is a good horse an' on it there is a Mexican leather an' wood saddle with silver trimmin's. There is a little silver plate just behind the saddle horn an' on this plate are the initials L.D.
When I see these initials I know that my hunch is right an' that Senor Luis Daredo is stickin' around waitin' for me some-where. Way down on the edge of the road about a hundred yards away there is a patch of scrub an' cactus, an' I reckon I'll find him down there. I start crawlin' that way, an' when I get there I see I am right.
Luis has picked himself a good place. He has picked a place where the road is very bad an' narrow an' full of cart ruts. He is sittin' way back twenty yards off the road behind a big cactus. He is smokin' an' he is nursin' a 30.30 rifle across his knees.
I come up behind him an' I bust him a good one in the ear. He goes over sideways. I pull the Luger on him an' pick up his rifle.
He sits up. He is smilin' a sorta sickly smile an' he is lookin' at the Luger. I reckon he thinks that I am goin' to give him the works.
I sit down on a rock an' look at him.
"You know, Luis," I tell him, "you ain't got no sense, an' I'm surprised at you because Mexicans are about the only people in the world who can keep themselves one jump ahead of a very clever dame like Paulette Benito. An' I'm surprised at you because you didn't tell that guy that smacked me over the head when I was drivin' to Zoni to finish me off pronto, because I reckon it woulda saved a lotta trouble for you guys. When that old battle-axe started tellin' me that somebody had spotted me down at the Casa de Oro as the guy who took in Caldesa Martinguez, an' that she was his mother, I knew that she was talkin' a lotta hooey because I happen to know that Martinguez's mother was dead years before. I knew that you was behind the job all right, an' it's goin' to annoy you plenty before I'm through."
He gets up an' he lights a cigarette.
"Senor Caution," he says, "believe me you got what they call theese wrong ideas. Sabe? I don' know nothin' about some peoples who do sometheeng to you. I am jus' sittin' here waitin' for a gringo who work for me, see? I don' know what the hell you theenk you are talkin'. Sabe?"
"You don't say," I tell him. "Just fancy that now. OK. Well you just listen to my renderin' of this little piece. I reckon that you're stringin' along with Paulette Benito. I reckon that Granworth Aymes wasn't the only guy that she took Rudy Benito for a ride over. I reckon you're number two. I gotta hunch that you two are just waitin' around for Rudy to die off an' then you an' Paulette was goin' to get hitched up. Well, you ain't - savvy?"
I think I will try this guy out. I get up off the rock an' I put my gun in the pocket, an' I make out that I am goin' to get myself a cigarette outa my pocket, an' he tries it. He takes a flyin' kick at my guts an' I am waitin' for him. I do a quick side step, smack up his foot as it shoots at me an' bust him as he goes down.
We mix it, an' I get goin' on this guy. I am rememberin' that old sour-puss of a Mexican dame kickin' me in the face an' throwin' the lantern at me, an' I am also rememberin' just what the guy who came down to the cellar to fix me woulda done if he'd got the chance.
I bust this Luis like hell. I close both his eyes an' crack some teeth out. I twist his nose till it looks like it is as tender as mine is, an' generally I give him more short arm stuff than I have ever issued any guy with for a helluva long time.
Then I chuck him in the cactus. He is all washed up an' he don't even care that a cactus spine is stickin' in his leg. He just ain't got any interest in life at all. I go over an' take a look at him an' it looks to me like I won't have any more trouble with him for quite a little while. So I go back to where his horse is, take off the bridle, the bellyband an' the stirrup leathers, an' I come back an' I make a nice job of Luis. I tie him up so neat that I think it will take him about a coupla years to get outa this tie-up.
I take a knife off him which he has got an' his rifle an' I chuck 'em in a hole an' bury 'em. I take his pants off him an' bury 'em too. I do this because I reckon that even if he managed to get outa this tie-up he wouldn't be much good without pants - it would sort of affect his morale.
Then I go back to the Hacienda. I work round the back an' I bust in through a window that is easy. I reckon that Paulette an' the Mexican jane will be sleepin' upstairs, but I am still careful not to make any noise. The light is good an' I can see plenty. I am in a sorta kitchen at the back an' I get outa this an' gumshoe along the passage openin' doors an' lookin' in as I pass rooms. One is a bedroom that ain't bein' used an' one is a sorta storeroom.
After a bit I get into the room where I was talkin' with Paulette before I went to Zoni, an' I look around. I am lookin' for somethin' that looks like a safe or a place where papers would be kept.
After a bit I find it. It is a wall safe behind a picture on the wall. It is let into the wall an' it has got a combination lock. I don't worry about the lock because after all the wall is only wood. So I get back to the kitchen an' get myself a canopener an' a strong carvin' knife that I find there an' I start diggin' around the hinges of this safe until I have burst them off. After about a quarter of an hour I fix it. I get the safe open.
Inside there are two-three boxes with some jewellery in them an' a lotta papers. I leave the boxes an' I take the papers over to the veranda an' I start lookin' through 'em. After a bit I find what I want. It is a share transfer authorising the transfer of some shares in a railway company from Rudy Benito to Granworth Aymes. It is witnessed by Paulette.
I look through this pretty carefully, then I stick it in my pocket. I take the rest of the papers back to the safe an' I put 'em back like they was before an' fix the safe as well as I can, an' I put the picture back in front of it.
I am pretty pleased with the night's work one way an' another I reckon I'll get this job cleaned up pretty soon. I look out over the mesa. It is near time that dawn was breakin' an' there's that peculiar sorta half light that comes between night an' mornin'.
On the table there is a box of cigarettes. I take one out an' light it. Then I go over to the sideboard. I give myself a drink.
I have just sunk half the liquor when a light is snapped on.
I turn around an' standin' in the doorway I see Paulette.