He pushed the money back to Jasper White. “Put it in your pocket, I said. I’m nearly sorry I pulled a gun on you. And I’m nearly sorry you caused me to do it. But that’s all over and done with. I still got business with you, and that is what we are doing standing out here on the street.”
Pushing the money forward again, White said doggedly, “I don’t want no part of you, mister. You look like trouble to me.”
Longarm looked at him intently. “Did that Mex tip you a wink on the way out? He give you some kind of sign not to fool with me or not to do no business with me?” He paused, waiting for some reply, but Jasper White just looked steadily away, staring out toward the river. Longarm tried again. “There’s something between You and that Mex. You two are in cahoots about something. Yesterday I was in the cafe and asked after you and he the same as said your business was his. What are y’all up to—a little smuggling? Or are you part of passing cattle over the river?”
White swiveled his eyes around to Longarm. “Mister,” he said, “you better get on back to Oklahoma. You ain’t going to last long on this border.”
“What’s that fancy gent’s name? San Diego? Raymond San Diego? That’s a hell of a lot of name for a man runs a Mexican greasy spoon. And dresses like he owns the county. Where does a man like that get money for them kind of clothes?”
Jasper White made an attempt at a fierce look. It did not come off as much more than a sneer. “I’ll tell you this much, an’ I’ll tell it to you for nuthin’. Was I you, I’d leave Raymond San Diego the hell alone. He ain’t a man to be foxed around with. And he’s got a brother that is triple trouble. You do any business with Jay Caster and you’ll have his brother looking over your shoulder. His name is Raoul San Diego, and the last thing in this world you want is trouble with him!”
Longarm smiled slowly. “So the customs man I want is Jay Caster.” He gave a little laugh. “You earned your money after all, Mister White.”
Jasper White looked sullen. “Don’t think you be so smart. You could have gone in any saloon and found that out in five minutes. He don’t make no secret out of it.”
“Pushing cattle through quarantine? He better start making a secret out of it. The way I understand the matter, it’s against the law.”
White shrugged. “Is it? You’ll have to find out how he does it before the law can step in.”
Longarm said, “I ain’t interested in the law stepping in. I’m just interested in getting some cattle across the border fast.”
“Well, now you know, don’t you?”
“Yes, and I’m much obliged. Mind telling me how I go about it?”
“You be so damn smart, you figure it out.”
“How about you approaching him for me? I got a feeling you already know how.”
White glared at Longarm with his close-set eyes. “Mister,” he said, “I ain’t sayin’ nothin’ except I don’t want to do no bid’ness with you. Not no more, not the way you do bid’ness.” He lifted his injured hand and looked at it as if in silent accusation.
“Now, c’mon,” Longarm said. “You brought that on yourself, and if you’re fair about it, you’ll admit as much.”
But Jasper White shook his head. “I don’t know nothin’ about you, feller. You could be the law for all I know.”
Longarm gave a short laugh. “That’s a hot one. I’m standing here talking to you about rushing some cattle, and you think I might be the law. Look, there’s nothing to know about me. I got a herd due up from the interior of Mexico in the next couple of days. I want to get them on the road to market as quick as I can. I ain’t going to make any money with them standing around in cattle pens waiting to see if they got tick fever.”
White pursed his mouth and seemed to be contemplating. “I don’t know,” he finally said.
Longarm gestured at the forty dollars he was holding, “I got the balance of that would make a hundred-dollar bill in your pocket was you to introduce me to Jay Caster.”
White looked interested. “Sixty dollars more?”
Longarm put his hand in his pocket. “Cash money. On the spot. All you got to do is walk up with me to the man and give him my name. Give me a howdy and a handshake to him. Nothing more.”
“You don’t want me to tell him what you be looking for?”
Longarm shook his head. “Nosir. Not at all. Wouldn’t ask you to do a thing that might seem like trouble. Ain’t no law against introducing one man to another, now, is there?”
White glanced toward the cafe, looking thoughtful for a moment. “I reckon not,” he said at last. “But I want the money in advance.”
“When you want to do it?”
White spit on the ground and scratched his head. “Well, I don’t exactly know. I don’t know if Mister Caster is in his office right now or not.”
Longarm pulled a look. “You mean you don’t know if you ought to go in the cafe and check with your partner first. Ain’t that about it?”
White raised his head. “I don’t got to ask Raymond nothing about this kind of bid’ness. He ain’t my boss.”
“No, but you two are in some kind of business together, ain’t you.”
“That wouldn’t be none of yore affair.”
“Well, while we’re at it, seeing as you’re a man knows his way around the town, can you tell me where I can scare up some drovers? I’d be willing to pay you for your help on that score.”
Longarm could see the greed starting to build in White’s eyes. He had counted on it.
“How many men you looking for?” White asked.
“Enough to handle a thousand steers. Say eight drovers and a cook. You find me good men and I’ll pay you ten dollars a head.”
White hesitated only a beat. He said, “I reckon I could handle that. Let’s see, that would bring it up to a hunnert and fifty dollars what you’d owe me. That right?”
Longarm said, “Only if I can make a deal with Caster. I’ll pay you the sixty for that as soon as you can get me met up with him. But I can’t pay for no drovers until I get a herd through. Now, what about it? Reckon you can make time to get me within handshaking distance of the customs man?”
The lure of money was proving irresistible to Jasper White. He glanced at the cafe and then over his shoulder toward the river. “Well,” he said, “I don’t see nothing wrong with us walking down to the pens and seeing if Mister Caster ain’t handy.”
“Let’s go,” Longarm said. “Ain’t me holding us UP.”
Still Jasper hesitated. He looked down at the money in his hand, slowly folded it, and slipped it into his pocket. “When was you thinkin’ ‘bout payin’ me that other sixty?”
Longarm gave him an impatient look and jerked out his roll. He peeled off four tens and a twenty. “Hell,” he said. “How about right now? One of us has got to start trusting the other. I guess it might as well be me.”
“What if Mister Caster ain’t there?”
Longarm took White by the shoulder and turned him toward the river and the holding pens. “Then you’ll make me acquainted with the gent at some other time. Hell, Jasper, quit acting like you ain’t already done this a hundred times before.”
Jasper White looked at him. “You been talkin’ to folks about me.”
Longarm shook his head. “No, I’ve been talking to you about you. That’s been enough.”
Chapter 5
They stood in front of the whitewashed lumber-and-adobe building. A sign hung from the porch announcing the place as the offices of the United States Customs and Tariff Service. The building, about the size of a small house, wasn’t near as grand as its title. Off to their left stretched the holding pens, crowded with cattle. Longarm could see half a dozen hired hands working in among the steers, feeding, watering, haying, moving the steers, slapping paint on some. Not too far from where he and White stood was a slim man in a brown uniform. “Which one is that?” Longarm asked.