6
In the morning, right after breakfast, I made my way over to the jail. The others of our party were bent on their chores, but I was on a more delicate errand. I had no trouble getting back to Norris. Lord, I’d spread enough grease around that jail I could have slid back to his cell on my boot heels. But just to keep everyone sweet on me I laid a few more twenty-peso notes around. It was “
Gracias
” this and “
Gracias
” that and Lord knows what else. Going into the jail I took note that even though it was as late as eight in the morning nearly everyone looked asleep. It made me wonder if we were setting the hour for the jailbreak at the right time. But it was too late to reconsider. Plans were afoot.
As I made my way down the hall of cells the
caballero,
Elizandro, noticed me first and came to the front of his cell. I just tipped him a wink and kept on walking. Behind me were the two jailers, both yawning, both having just come on duty. They’d given me no more than the perfunctory shakedown I’d had on my last couple of visits.
When I got down to Norris’s cell he was laying on his back staring up at the ceiling. After a moment he rised up and gave me a look and sort of grunted. He was continuing to look better. On his little table I could see a basin of fresh water, the steam still rising from it, and he was shaven and dressed except for his tie. His clothes appeared clean but wrinkled. I just stood there looking at him, waiting for him to quit feeling sorry for himself and get up and face me.
Finally he stood up. I said, “Norris, if it wouldn’t trouble you too much, how about you coming over here and us talking?”
He walked slowly toward the bars. He said, almost defiantly, “Well, have you made any progress in your way?”
I said, “That ain’t the point of why I’m here.”
He put his chin up. “Then what is?”
I said, “Have you got the metes and boundaries of that property?”
“What property?”
Hell, if he’d of been close enough I’d of reached through the bars and punched him. But I said, as calmly as I could, “Why, that property across the river in Laredo. What else? Do you have those metes and bounds?”
He said, looking like I didn’t know what I was talking about, “You mean the survey?”
“Yes, dammit!” I was getting a little impatient.
“Well, yes,” he said. “I have them here. I have the title.”
“Where?”
“Why, in my valise.” His chin went up again. “Rightful property that was returned to me, no doubt, because of your bribe money.”
I was getting tired of it. I said, “Goddammit, Norris, if you have the title just give it to me.”
He give me a long look and then finally turned back to that sagging bunk of his. Reaching under he pulled out the scarred remains of what had once been a fine piece of pigskin luggage. He opened it, sitting on his bunk, and rummaged around for a moment. Finally he come out with a piece of paper and handed it to me through the bars. Without unfolding it I could see it was a title of some kind. I said, “This the whole thing? This do it?”
He got that look on his face again. He said, “Yes, if you know what to do about it.”
I just gave him a long gaze and started to turn away. He said, “What about me? What are you doing about me?”
I said, “Well, Norris, what do you want me to do?”
He said, “Get me some qualified representation. Some legal counsel. Somebody who can make these courts work!”
He was gripping the bars with both hands so hard the white was showing in his knuckles. I said, “We have sent to Washington, D.C., for the best legal counsel we can gent.”
And then, for maybe one of the first times, I heard my brother swear. He said, “Goddammit, you better get me out of here!”
I looked at him. I said, “I am. Be ready.”
His face got molten. He said, “Not that way! Not that way! No bribes!”
I turned and walked away.
As I passed down the line of cells, the jailers still in tow, keys jangling, Señor Elizandro was still at the front of his cage. I stopped and took out a cigarillo and offered it to him. I struck a match and lit it for him. As he got it drawing I made little shooing motions to the jailers. They withdrew toward the main door. I said to Elizandro, “I bring you greetings from Benito.”
His face lit up. He said, “Aaah, yes. A good man.”
“In some ways a very good man.”
“A leetle hard to handle, perhaps?”
“Yes, but we reached an agreement.”
“That is good.”
“Perhaps we will see you this afternoon.”
“At
seis
?
Perdone usted.
Six?”
“Earlier, I think. Maybe siesta?”
“Aaah,” he said, understanding. “Yes.”
“You will be ready?”
“But of course.”
“Will you do as I ask?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Must you ask?”
“No. But I wonder which way do you ride from here.”
“Which way do you suggest?”
“We will go northwest. If you went the other way it might confuse our enemy.”
The
caballero
smiled. He said, “Yes, it is hard to chase two coyotes at the same time.”
I said, “That’s what I was thinking.”
The guards were making motions at me. I gave the
caballero
the pack of cigarillos and the remains of my matches and said, “Until later.”
He said, “Yes. And tell Benito I will kill him if he doesn’t do as you direct.”
“I already did.”
After I got out of the jail I sauntered over to lawyer Obregon’s office. Luís was on duty at his accustomed post in the outer office. It was going on for ten o’clock, but I wasn’t certain the señor would be in. By a lucky chance he was, and by the slick transfer of a fifty-peso note from my hand to Luís’s I was able to get in to see him right away.
He was about the same—sitting behind his desk, looking well satisfied with himself and eyeing his pigeon with relish. He bade me sit down and offered me coffee. I said that I reckoned I was about coffeed out and sat down across from him. Luís stayed in the room to translate. I brought out the title to the land in Laredo and explained, as best I could, what the problem was. I asked if there was anything he could do about it that might be handled quickly. I didn’t have much hope but he surprised me by laughing and saying that it was a matter of the slightest effort. In fact his clerk could bring me the necessary document from the courthouse.
Well, I wasn’t that surprised. I asked him what he reckoned the cost would be. He pulled a face and said, through Luís, that he would gladly do it for me as a favor, but, unfortunately, the people at the courthouse were not quite so generously disposed and if I wanted the matter handled quickly and with dispatch he thought a small fee—for the clerks, of course—might speed matters along. I asked how much and he said he thought about five hundred pesos would do the job. I done a little quick arithmetic in my head, knowing the peso was running about eight to the dollar, and come up with about fifty-five dollars. That was pretty good pay for a small favor from some clerk who probably never saw that much money in two months.
But I outed with my wad and slid the money across to him. Then I sat back in my chair and waited to see what he’d do with it. On a past occasion, just as we’d been leaving the office, I’d chanced to glance back to see him turning toward a little curtain that hung down in the corner. He’d had my wad of bills in his hand and had been bending over as I passed through the door and lost sight of him.
Now he did nothing, just let the bills lay there. He said, through Luís, that if I cared to come back in an hour he would have the Spanish grant title all ready for me. I got up. I said, “No, I don’t reckon. I’ve got some business around town. How about if I return around two o’clock?”
He rose, formally, with me and came around his desk to shake my hand. He said that the hour would suit him perfectly and he also wished to add that he was very sorry about the difficulty about my brother but he was sure I, a man of the world, understood and he hoped I realized he was doing everything in his power.
Luís said, formally, “Señor Obregon is much troubled by this business and regrets with extreme the sorrow it has caused you. But he hopes that you have been somewhat comforted by the freedom of access to your brother that he has personally arranged.”
I said, just as seriously, “Yes. Tell Senor Obregon that I am in his debt but expect not to be for too much longer.”
They bowed me out formally, Senor Obregon even going so far as to pat me on the shoulder. He assured me once again that the document would be ready at two o’clock.
I left there cursing Obregon and cursing Norris. I had no doubt the clear title would be ready by that afternoon. Hell, that was a very small bone to throw to a dog you were trying to take the hind leg off of. He’d do that little favor just to keep me well hooked, keep the cow up at the trough for milking. And if that damn Norris hadn’t been so pigheaded the matter could have been handled with just as much ease.
Back at the hotel I found Ben and Hays. Jack and Lew hadn’t come back so we settled down to wait for them before making a noonday meal.
I asked after the work they was supposed to have done that day. Ben said the horses were standing saddled, loose-cinched and ready. Hays said he’d laid in just about all the grub he figured the packhorse could handle along with about six gallons of water. He said, “It’s all done, boss. All we got to do is skedaddle.”
About a half an hour later Lew and Jack came in looking sweaty and dusty. They sat down and we poured a drink out all around and then knocked them back “for luck.”
I let the whiskey get settled and then looked at Lew. He shrugged, and said, “Don’t look too tough, Justa. Best sight I had of Mr. Davilla—pardon me,
Capitán
Davilla—was him sitting out in his front yard with his shirt off and a bottle of tequila in his hand. Didn’t see nobody about the place except a couple of peons and a few women. I figure he ought to come along pretty easy.”
“What about his horses?”
He made a face. “Didn’t see nothing worth bothering with. If he’s got any good stock he’s got ’em hid somewheres else.”
“All right. That horse Ben got you, what do you think?”
He took a moment to answer, glancing over at Ben first. He said, “Well, he wouldn’t be my first choice in horseflesh, but I ain’t seen nothing better around here. I reckon Ben knows as much about horses as anybody, and I reckon he got the best he could find.”
“But will he last the distance?”
Lew said, “Depends on how hard we have to push. Hell, Justa, they ain’t going to be exactly chasing us on no purebred stock, you know. You got some idea they issue racehorses to them ordinary
federales?”
I stood up. “All right,” I said. “Let’s go down and make a meal. Liable to get a little busy around here before long.”
We made the best we could out of the poor fare in the hotel dining room. I urged everyone to just keep on chewing and swallowing. I said, “Likely to be a good little bit before the next meal and that will be out of a can.”
After that we went back upstairs. Wasn’t too long before we were going to have to meet Benito and his men but I wanted to be sure everyone knew his job exactly. On a piece of foolscap I drew up a rough sketch of the town, where the jail was, our escape route and where I wanted each man positioned.
The jail sat at a sort of a Y in the middle of the main street. One road ran off to its southeast. That was the road I expected Elizandro and his men to take. Directly across from the jail was a line of shops and cantinas and the usual scuffle of businesses you’ll find in most of the larger Mexican towns. I had scouted the area right across from the jail and I liked it. It wasn’t but about ten yards from the front of the buildings to the front of the jail. And there were some nice concrete columns in front of one store that would make good cover. That was where I wanted Ben to position Benito’s men. I said, “You can have them hold their horses just right around the corner here. My deal with Elizandro is that he is going to give us plenty of covering fire in return for me breaking him out. Ben, you and Jack will have the horses. You’ll both be mounted.” I pointed to a location a little behind the block of buildings that faced the jail, back toward our hotel. I said, “Jack, here is where I want you to pull up with the horses. Just enough behind the corner of that building to be out of sight.” To save his feelings I said, “I don’t want to take a chance of any of the horses catching a stray shot. But as soon as you see me and Norris and Hays come running across the street you get there right smart with our mounts. We ain’t going to much want to hang around that area any longer than we have to.”
Ben said, “What are you going to do about your handgun, Justa?”
“You’ll have it,” I said. “Soon as I get near enough pitch it to me and hope like hell I catch it.”
Lew said, “Sounds like I drawed the easy job.”
“Not so as you’d notice,” I said. I made a mark on the paper about a block from where I’d told Jack I wanted him and the horses stationed. “I want you and the good
capitán
about right here. I want you to tie him on his horse. I don’t want his hands free, I want them tied down to the saddle horn. As we come by you take his horse on lead so he’s the last member of the parade. If they come after us shooting I want him to be the first one hit.” I glanced up at him and give him one of his own crooked smiles. “Of course, then, you’ll be next. You’ll be the rear guard, so to speak. Still think you got the easy end of it?”
He said, “Well, since you put it like that, I’d just as soon swap out with Hays.”
Hays made a little gulp. “And I’d just as soon swap out. You go in that jail with the boss. Hell, I’ll get that Mex and dress him up in rope.”