Bowie's Mine by Elmer Kelton

Author:Elmer Kelton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2011-02-18T00:00:00+00:00

8

FLOR WAS PLEASED BY THE PRICES SHE HAD EXTRACTED, both in selling the tobacco and in buying supplies. “But they’re poor liars. You can see in their eyes that they’re givin’ us the bait the way you’d do to catch a fish. They figure we’ll be back and then they’ll really jab the hook into us.”

They all went together to the various merchants, delivering each his pack of tobacco, then selecting the goods they needed, taking out in cash what they didn’t need in trade. Flor spread the business between all three. “If we was to buy everything from one man,” she explained to Daniel, “he’d see we’re takin’ more goods than we’d need for a little trip like we told them about. Time they get to comparin’ with each other, we’ll be gone.”

The way it was, the merchants were glad to trade goods rather than pay all in cash. Daniel noted a considerable discrepancy in the prices each asked for various types of goods. Daniel suspected they had a considerable profit margin hidden away. He noticed that though the general populace of the town was desperately poor, the merchants did not share their plight. Whatever little money found its way into the hands of the people evidently passed on to the profiteering merchants.

At haggling, Lalo Talavera, came into most useful service; he was easy with the words, hard at a bargain. Milo observed, “A merchant is no match for a man as good as Lalo at coaxin’ shy women.”

The supplies bought and set aside, they went to the mule dealer’s before dusk. His corrals were at the edge of town, near sprawling rock walls twelve feet high, guard towers on both sides. There was no gate on the side facing the dealer’s, but there was a row of five or six barred windows. “The prison,” Milo said unnecessarily; Daniel had already figured that out.

He shuddered. “Bleak-lookin’ place from out here.”

“Ain’t none the better inside,” Milo responded. “This is far and away the best view.”

Daniel looked up at the guard towers, which stood perhaps six extra feet above the top of the wall. The nearest guard stared curiously at the little group of people approaching the dealer’s gate. Daniel knew he looked mostly at Flor. She still wore the silks, though she rode a horse. The long skirts slipped up to show off her riding boots, which was more than most men got to see of a woman other than their wives.

The mule dealer waited, his corrals sporting a selection of animals ranging from fair to indifferent in quality. Right away Flor showed she was not so helpless as her act might have led the dealer to believe. “I have seen the zopilotes, the buzzards, turn away in disgust from better than these. If this is the best you have to offer, I must tell Lieutenant Zamaniega we have decided to go to another town.”

The dealer quickly protested that she should not act in haste until she had seen his

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