“So how does it work? I’ve seen the big corrals around the bridge. Here and down at Brownsville. I guess there’s one up at Eagle Pass also.”
Davis took another drink of whiskey. “Yeah, they get put in the holding corrals. They got a system the way they handle the situation. As you can well imagine they is one hell of a lot of cattle comes in to the quarantine stations. I mean in the thousands. What they do, when a fresh herd comes in, is slap a daub of paint on the side of each head of beef. It’s red paint for them coming in new and getting ready to be penned up for ninety days. After that, they stage the herds. The ones moving up, getting ready to go out in another thirty days, gets a daub of white paint. Then, when those cattle are free and done their time, they get slapped with a swipe of green paint. Maybe you’ve seen that on herds down here in South Texas. It wears off pretty quick, but some of it can still be seen after a time.”
Longarm scratched his chin. He’d shaved while in the bath and the razor had nicked the point of his jaw. “Yeah, I’ve seen that,” he said. “What’s that got to do with us? Looks like a good way of keeping up with the inventory.”
Davis shrugged. “There’s a lot of folks around, watching those herds. Caster can’t just run a herd in, slap it with green paint, and then run it across the bridge. Too many interested parties.”
Longarm stepped out of the bath, picked up a towel, and began drying himself. “So he’s got some sly way of going about it, is that what you’re saying?”
Davis nodded and exhaled a cloud of blue smoke. “Oh, yes. And he does it right under folks’ noses, too. You’re getting the floor wet.”
Longarm gave him a look. “How the hell am I supposed to get out of a bathtub without dripping on the floor? Hell, they expect such things. What is this cute way Caster’s got?”
Davis pondered for a moment, studying the tip of his cigarillo. “I don’t know,” he admitted.
Longarm threw his towel down, took a clean pair of jeans off a chair, sat down, and began pulling them on. “You what?”
“I said I don’t know.” Davis gestured with the glass in his hand. “Don’t you wear no underclothes?”
“Naw.”
“How come?”
Longarm glared at him. “How come? What the hell business is that of yours? I never wore underwear because I never seen the need. Besides, it gets crosswise and rides up on you. But what the hell has that got to do with a bribe-taking custom inspector? I thought you had this play all figured out. How come you don’t know how he does it?”
Davis stood up and walked to the bedside table where there was another bottle of whiskey. He poured a little more liquor in his glass, then said, “Because I just don’t. He’s slick, damn slick. And there are an awful lot of cattle in an awful lot of pens and they get moved around. One day a bunch is in one pen with white paint on ‘em, and the next day they’ve moved clear on around to a pen at the bridge and are wearing green paint and getting their papers. I’ve watched for two weeks, and I still can’t see how he’s been doing it.”
“You sure somebody hasn’t made you for the law?”
Davis shook his head. “No. I ain’t showed a badge around here in two months. Anybody I’ve run into that knowed me before don’t know I’m a federal officer. Caster puts this show on for everybody. I think he naturally expects the law to be watching him and he goes along under that assumption. I know he’s moving cattle out of here illegally, because I’ve seen it done. I’ve picked me out a few steers from a fresh herd that I was pretty sure would be bribed through. Knew it from what I’d heard. And I’ve watched those steers as close as I could, allowing for a few hours of sleep and eating, you understand. Somehow they got from the red paint to the green in a week and were on their way. But I still don’t know how it happened. Thousand head.” He put his head back and took a long drink.
“Huh!” Longarm said. “This is sounding more like it. But you said there wouldn’t be no problem proving this Caster is crooked. You said your big worry was how far up the tree we could reach. Now it sounds like you ain’t even got anything on Caster.”
Austin Davis laughed. “Oh, hell, he’ll be easy. I got a herd being put together about fifty miles south of Laredo. When I bring them up I’ll simply bribe the sonofabitch and arrest him at the same time. But that’s just Caster. I’d like to get his boss in Brownsville.”
Longarm was pulling on his boots. “I can’t believe that man can get a thousand head of cattle past me without me seeing how he’s doing it. Like you said, it ain’t like palming an ace.”
Davis said patiently, “We don’t have to know how he’s doing it. All I got to do is catch him in an illegal act, like taking a bribe. Or we could follow one steer and see how he manages to move up to the green corral so quick. I’ll tell you one thing it ain’t hard to tell the cattle that ain’t being bribed through. They stand around and stand around and stand around. Get damn little feed and less water. You can watch them losing flesh in the course of one afternoon. I think Caster does it to drum up business. It’s the same as saying, Hand over the cash or sit and watch your cattle wilt away.”
Longarm stood up and stomped his boots on the floor, settling them to his feet. “This still an all night town?” he asked.
“Oh, yes,” Davis replied, “You can get anything at midnight that you can get at noon. Why?”
Longarm picked up a clean shirt and started putting it on. “I reckoned we’d go out and play a few hands of poker. Kind of put our ear to the ground. I don’t know about you, Austin, but damned if I’m content to just arrest that man. If he’s stacking the deck, I want to find out how. And I intend to do so before we put his ass in jail. Ain’t a sonofabitch alive can slip a herd by me.”
“You do know it’s after midnight?” Austin Davis yawned. “A good bit past midnight.”
“You ain’t got to go. Where you bunking?”
Austin jerked his thumb. “Next room. How we going to play this? Do we know each other?”
Longarm thought a moment. “Hell yes, I don’t see why not. You’re the man bringing in the herd. I’m the fellow what is buying them. Gives me a reason to be in on all the transactions. You coming?”
“Not without it’s an order. I been up since four this morning. I don’t hanker for no night life right now.”
“Then I reckon I’ll see you for breakfast. We can talk it over a bit more then. What time?”
Davis shrugged. “You’re going to be out late. Say eight o’clock?”
“I’ll be too hungry by then. Say seven.”
Davis yawned again and stood up. “Well,” he said, “you try not to get into no trouble before I’m up good and had my coffee. We still got a few things to talk about.”
“Seems to me the main thing is how we’re going to reach up the tree and get one more branch.”
“That would be it.” Davis stretched his hands over his head. “Hell, I’m plumb give out. I’d of thought you’d be the same.”
“I been cooped up on a damn train all day. I got to get out and see a little of the world up close before I can unwind. Besides, I ain’t been in South Texas in a time. I need to get used to the place again, even if this is just San Antonio.”
Austin Davis was at the door. He turned the knob and shook his head. “That,” he said, “ain’t going to happen. I been in this country on and off for twenty-five years and I ain’t got used to it yet. You don’t understand this place, you just try and survive it. Wear your eyes and ears out there. They is folks walking around will kill you for the boots on your feet, let alone your revolver and what change they think might be in your pockets. And we’re still a hundred and eighty miles from the bad part.”