End of the Tiger and Other Stories by John D. MacDonald

Author:John D. MacDonald [MacDonald, John D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

A Romantic Courtesy

When the port engine developed oil pressure trouble, John Raney’s pilot, Sammy Dowd, informed Raney he was going to alter course and set the Twin Beech down at San Antonio to get it checked. Raney felt irritated by the delay. He was anxious to get back to his ranch, north of Fort Worth, early enough to take a long swim in the pool and horse around with the kids and relax from the tensions of the past few days.

It had been a business trip, one of the important ones. The two days in Corpus dickering with the bankers on the new oil deal had been wearing, but he had the satisfaction of getting the terms he had hoped to get. On the way back yesterday morning he had stopped off at Lee Guthrie’s spread near Charco to select some new breeding stock for Lee to ship up.

He had changed to khakis, and Lee had taken him on a jeep tour of the ranch after they’d dickered over the stock. When they got back to the ranch house, they found that mutual friends had flown in. In the evening a poker game started with the stakes just high enough to make the palms of your hands sweat. It lasted all night, and when it broke up at eight in the morning, Raney had broken even, coming out just about two hundred dollars ahead.

After breakfast Raney had a sudden strong urge to head back home. Because the trip was from ranch strip to ranch strip, there seemed no point in changing and shaving.

After Sammy had put the aircraft down, John Raney stuffed the oil deal papers he had been studying back into the briefcase and went off and found a phone and called Betty at the ranch and told her about the delay.

“Now don’t you let Sammy take off with that thing until it’s fixed up right, you hear, honey.”

He pictured her at the phone with her worried look that put two vertical wrinkles in her pretty forehead, and grinned fondly. “If you rather I’d walk, it’ll take up quite a chunk of time, puss. Couple of months.”

“How did everything go?”

“Smooth and pretty, puss. Like I told you it would. I’m going to stake you to that new patio you got all drawn up.”

She squealed with pleasure, then gave him a report on the kids and asked about the breeding stock and when it would come. After the call he sauntered back to where Sammy was watching two mechanics working on the engine.

“How does it look, Sammy?”

“They’ve located it. I’d guess about forty minutes.”

“Want to come get some coffee?”

“No thanks, John. I’ll stick here and see how it comes along.”

John Raney ambled over to the main terminal building to the coffee shop. He was a tall man, close to forty, lean, angular, slow-moving. His khakis were sweat-stained, and he wore his ranch hat tipped forward as a protection against the glare. There was tough ginger stubble on his jaw and dust on his boots.

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