Read Online One Step Over the Border by Stephen Bly - Free Book Online Page B

eatin’ that stuff again. Do you remember that cook at the Circle YP? What
     was his name?”
    “Elmo Polly.”
    “Yeah, you, me, Blackie, and Thumper went out with the wagon and had to eat his cookin’ for twenty-one days. I lost eighteen
     pounds.”
    Laramie stabbed a canned peach and sucked it into his mouth like a raw oyster. Truck headlights bounced down the dirt road
     toward them. “Here comes Greene. Looks like you can complain to the boss.”
    “I was hopin’ it was a pizza delivery guy.”
    E. A. Greene glanced at the cattle milling in the brush corral. “I knew you boys could do it. I’m a fine judge of cowboy skills.
     You’re as good a hand as your uncle Jake.”
    “It’s my uncle Mike that knows you,” Hap corrected. “And he’s an accountant, not a cowboy.”
    “Speaking of accounts,” Laramie pressed. “We need some of our pay.”
    “What are you going to spend it on?” Greene pressed.
    “Groceries,” Hap said. “All that stuff in the larder came over on a covered wagon.”
    “Them kids with the main herd must have scarfed the fresh stuff. But I have a solution for that. Scoot over here.” He motioned
     them to the back of his truck. E.A. pulled off his black-rimmed glasses and they hung tethered around his neck. “You boys
     want free fine meals and make a hundred-dollar bonus tonight?”
    “Tonight?” Laramie groaned. “We had a tough, hot day. We planned to shoot some pool, watch TV, and soak in the sauna.”
    “That’s a little trail humor,” Hap explained. “It means we’re tuckered out. It’s been a long day. What kind of work do you
     have at night?”
    “Here’s the deal… now I ain’t sayin’ anyone rustled my cattle, but them dang kids with the herd let fifty head or so disappear.
     I’m guessing they crossed the river about four miles up the road.”
    “Across the Rio Grande?” Hap asked.
    “I can’t officially claim someone stole them, if I didn’t see it happen. The Mexican government will report the cattle crossed
     over on their own. There’s no extradition of cows. If I find some over there with my brand on it, they will sell them back
     to me, at a tidy profit.”
    Laramie rubbed his thin, chapped lips. “That sounds like quite a rip-off. But a border is a border. Not much we can do about
     that, right?”
    “There is only one way to handle this. I need you to ride with me over the river and convince that fifty head of cattle to
     wander back into Texas before daylight. On their own, of course. But with the right argument, bovines can be reasonable. If
     I don’t, the ol’ boys on the other side will round them up by tomorrow and pen them in the corrals at Camargo, waitin’ for
     a buyer.”
    Hap patted the side of Greene’s pickup, then tried to rub the stiffness out of his temples. “You want us to find your cattle
     in the dark?”
    “He wants us to go to Mexico and steal cattle,” Laramie huffed.
    “It ain’t stealin’ if the cows belong to you in the first place. Boys, if this was the border between Texas and Oklahoma,
     you’d just ride across, make a gather, and bring your branded cattle home.”
    Laramie folded his hands behind his head and narrowed his eyes. “Mexico is a foreign country.”
    “At times, so is Oklahoma,” Greene said. “Don’t worry. I’m ridin’ with you. That other crew doesn’t have the horse sense to
     run cattle across the river, much less gather at night. I’d rather you get the bonus than them.”
    “You payin’ in advance?” Laramie asked.
    “You need the money tonight?”
    “No,” Hap mumbled.
    “Yes,” Laramie corrected. “We might find something in Mexico we want to buy.”
    “He might be right about that.” Hap dragged his boot heel across the dry yellow dirt. “Laramie’s a little worried we’ll wind
     up in a Mexican jail.”
    “Trust me, boys. This is just the custom along the border. They run a few head over the river, and we go get ’em and bring
     ’em