Tabor Evans - Longarm on the Border

"Que pasa? " he demanded of Molina. "Porque no~ " He stopped when the sergeant pointed to the line of rifles and shotguns aimed at them from the sandspit. Then Ramos saw Longarm.

"Maldito gringo cabron! Hijo de puta!" he shouted. He turned to his men. "Adelante! Conmigo!"

Along the rurale line, the men brought up their rifles.

"Ramos!" Longarm shouted. "Hold on! If you don't want to start another war, you better tell your men not to shoot!"

Ramos didn't reply, but he did not give his men orders to fire.

Though the rurales' faces were in the afternoon shadow, Longarm could see the struggle that was going on in Ramos's mind. He waited, not sure what the decision was going to be.

Ramos finally decided. "Quedarse!" he ordered his men. "No tiran!"

Along the line, the rurales slowly brought their gun muzzles down. On the sandspit, the motley band commanded by Longarm did the same thing. For the moment, at least, Longarm relaxed.

Chapter 19

"Now you're being smart, Ramos," Longarm said. He watched the rurales as, one by one, the men rested their weapons across their saddles. "Sorta surprises me. It's the first thing I seen you do that's halfway bright."

"Cuidado, gringo!" Ramos warned. "You keep make to me the insults with your dirty tongue, I come with my knife and cut it out of your head!"

"Now, that ain't your style. You're soft as a pig's turd without a bunch of your men to back you up."

"I don't tell you again, hombre! You go on, I tell my brave rurales to shoot!"

"You do that, Ramos! Mexico's never won a war yet. Texas beat you once, the U.S. beat you once; it'll be easy to do it again. So if you want to start the next war, just tell your men to let off one shot!"

"Now you insult my country and my men, too! I do not warn you again, cabron!"

"Oh, you got a right to be proud of them chickens you call men! Shit! They couldn't all of 'em hold on to three of us, even when they had us locked up! How the hell you think they could stand up to my men over there?"

"You play a gringo trick on us!" Ramos retorted. He was beginning to tremble with repressed anger. "Why you don't fight like men, not like old wrinkle-up viejas?"

"It wouldn't take more'n three old women to send your bunch off yelping," Longarm said. He was beginning to wonder how much longer the rurale captain would hold on to himself. "You had just one woman, but you couldn't keep her from walking away!"

"Bastardo! You are steal mi rubia! I make you pay for this!"

"I didn't steal her, Ramos. She couldn't wait to get shed of you. She told me you got no cojones."

"That is all!" Ramos shouted. He turned to his men, who'd been growing increasingly restless as their captain talked endlessly and angrily with the Norteamericano on the dappled horse. Ramos ordered, "Tome sus fusiles!"

Eagerly, the rurales brought up their guns again.

Longarm lifted his rifle and let off a shot in the air. Ramos swiveled quickly in his saddle. His men awaited the order to shoot.

Longarm used the phrase he'd been working on in case he needed to use it. "Parase! No tiran, o empeza una guerra!" The rurales hesitated, and some of them began to lower their weapons. In a low voice Longarm said to Ramos, "You better listen to me, hombre. We got a platoon from Captain Hill's cavalry halfway here by now. If just one of your men pulls a trigger, them soldiers will chase your outfit clear to Mexico City. How'd Porfirio Diaz like that, Ramos?"

Ramos's face showed that he had no taste for a fight with the cavalry regulars. At the same time, he couldn't afford to let this gringo shame him in front of the rurales.

Longarm sensed that the time had come to press him. "Act like you have some brains, Ramos! Get them billygoats of yours outa here before we knock the shit outa them!"

"No! My men do not retreat!"

"That's all they know how to do! All you know, too! Like the blonde said, you got no balls!"

"This is too much insult! Now you pay!" Ramos's hand started for his pistol, but stopped when Longarm twitched the Winchester's barrel. Staring into the muzzle, Ramos froze. He said, "You talk big, gringo federalista. What kind of cojones you got? Enough to fight me, mano a memo?"

"Well, now," Longarm tried to put uncertainty in his voice and hoped he was succeeding, "I ain't so sure that'd prove much."

"It will prove I am better man than you! You are afraid, no?"

"No." Longarm drawled out the word. "But there's not much of anything for either one of us in it." He added thoughtfully, "Unless we make a deal that'll settle this thing."

"You want a bargain, no? I will make you one, then. Listen to me, gringo! We fight. If I kill you, I get the other two gringos and la rubia, they come back with me. If I am lose, my rurales don't start the war. They go home. Es agradable?"

Hesitantly, Longarm said, "I guess I let you talk me into it. All right. What kind of fight you want? Fists? Knives? Pistols?"

"Fists are for gringo pigs! Knives are for peones! We fight, you and me, like caballeros, como soldados! With pistols, hombre! "

"Suits me." Having gotten what he wanted, Longarm decided to try for some frills. "You tell your men to pile up their guns on the bank and stay away from 'em. I'll tell mine to do the same thing. If you and me're going to settle this by ourselves, there ain't no use in taking a chance some hothead'll turn it into a free-for-all."

Ramos thought for a moment, then nodded. "De acuerdo. "

"Now, then. Where're we going to do it? On the sand, over there? It's a good clear space." He pointed to the wide expanse of river sand on the spit below the ford.

"Is as good as any place," the rurale agreed.

"Let's get on with it then!"

"No!" Ramos jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of the setting sun. "It will be too dark by the time we are ready. Otra cosa, if we fight now, you have the advantage over me. I have ride hard today, you are fresh and rested. No, hombre. Tomorrow, when the sky is bright, before la salida del sol, the light will favor us equally. De verdad?"

"If that's how you want it," Longarm shrugged. "It don't matter to me whether I kill you today or wait till tomorrow."

"Ay! Que fanfarron! We will see, manana!"

Ramos turned his horse in the shallows at the edge of the bank. His men clustered around him, and Longarm could hear them excitedly questioning the captain. He stayed in the middle of the ford until the rurales drew away, into the chamizal, to camp for the night. Then he turned Tordo and walked the gray to the sandspit. Hill and Webster reached him first.

"That was some hell of a long talk you had with Ramos," Webster said. "What was it all about?"

"Couldn't you hear?" Longarm asked.

Hill said, "I was down at the far end on one side. All I could get was a word now and then, when you two were shouting."

"About the same with me," Webster nodded. "I figured you must've had some pretty strong things to say, to get him to pull his men back. They gone for good?"

"Oh, I imagine they'll be around awhile, yet."

"Well, tell us the whole story," Hill said impatiently. "I'm as curious as Nate to find out how you made him withdraw."

"I lied a little bit. Told him a platoon of your troopers was on the way here, to take on him and his bunch. He didn't like that idea very much." Then as as afterthought Longarm added, "Oh, and I agreed him and me'd shoot it out, man to man, just before sunup tomorrow."