Read Online Cherokee by Giles Tippette - Free Book Online Page B

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?”
    â€œNorris, I didn’t come up here to explain but to let you know for your book work.”
    â€œIs it for those Thoroughbred studs that Ben wants?”
    â€œNo.”
    We looked at each other.
    â€œI 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.”
    â€œCan’t tell you.”
    â€œYou 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?”
    â€œIn 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.”
    â€œYou 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