The Mule Tamer by Horst John C

Author:Horst, John C. [Horst, John C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-01-13T05:00:00+00:00

Del Toro spoke slowly and carefully. He spoke English well and it impressed Arvel that he did not care to be impressive. He knew that he was successful and he knew that he was a Mexicano. He did not see this as a handicap. He never tried to act like a gringo.

They dined on roast pig, bull and chicken, lounging on the terrace overlooking the valley below. The sunset changed the earthen colored walls, first to a warm auburn, then purple. Servants lit Japanese lanterns. The lights danced and cast shadows on the walls. Arvel was overcome with a sense of calm.

Del Toro spoke plainly of the fact that he could not tolerate the bandits in his land, or for that matter en el Norte. He was proud of what he had achieved and had no apologies for his past. He was proud to say that he never stole from a poor person, or took food out of a baby’s mouth. He never killed a man who did not deserve it, and he had never killed a woman or child.

His was a chivalrous kind of banditry. The cattle from which he built his empire really did not belong to anyone, just as the wild horses or elk or deer roaming the desert never actually belonged to anyone. They were there for the taking. Sometimes they had been taken from the wild by aspiring cattlemen first, but simply putting a brand on them did not make them automatically off limits, to his mind. You had to possess them once you branded them and, if you had been too greedy or ambitious and branded too many to watch, then you would have to suffer the consequences. Del Toro learned to watch many many head of steer.

“So, my friend, Capitan,” he leaned forward and put his hand on Arvel’s shoulder. He liked to touch and be close to his friends. “Your Rangers will be like the boys from Texas, and we will run the bandits off the land of Arizona, no?”

“That is our intention, Señor Del Toro.”

“Please, it is Alejandro or, if you do not mind my little joke, Jefe.”

“Absolutely, Jefe.”

“You know that we are not good here in Mexico at fighting the bandits. We do not have a good force, such as the Texas Rangers and, now, the Arizona Rangers. I would like to offer what assistance I can, but it will be limited. What I can offer to you is the cooperation of my neighbor ranchers, and the eyes and ears of the peons who live on my lands. They do not like the bandits. Our region is wealthy enough, with opportunity enough to keep the young men from choosing the bandit life.”

“And that is all we can ask, Jefe.”

He paused, trying to find the right way to say what he felt. “I am an old man, Capitan. I was ambitious as a young man, and I wanted to be rich and powerful and, in some part, I have done these things.

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