Cardinal Numbers: Stories Read Free Page B

down the valley came on the freshening wind. Costain knew it was 1910. People were starting to laugh at just the idea of road agents.
    Buzz kicked out at the barbed-wire fence. He said: “These Basque bastards and their sheep.”
    But Costain knew better.
    He said: “Perreault ain’t no Basque. He’s a general from France. Got drummed out of the Foreign Legion. Married a rich girl in Boston. Her father give him the ranch so’s he’d go away.”
    Buzz said: “Fuck him anyway,” and took out his wire cutters.
    Town was asleep at that time of day. There was only one horse tied to the railing in front of the pharmacy. The green mortar-and-pestle sign squeaked on its hinges. Costain and Buzz put on bear masks made out of paper. They busted the glass out of the door on their way in. Buzz swung on an old farmer who reached inside his black coat.
    Costain warned him: “Watch my .38,” but the old man kept reaching and Costain spun him with one shot and put a hole through his neck. The outlaw pair took four hundred in gold and paper and a brass-bound chest full of cocaine syrup and ether and belladonna and sleeping powders. A boy ran up in the street outside and Buzz gut-shot him.
    Buzz said: “Mask slipped. He saw my face.”
    The boy went into convulsions in the dirt. Red foam came to his mouth.
    Costain said: “Finish him.”
    The cut load took the boy’s skull apart and Buzz wiped brain off his boots. Then they rode hard up the draw and crossed the Flathead at the first show of treeline. Costain swept their trail with pine boughs. Then they cut north through the shallows …
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    … and threw his cards down.
    Midnight said: “Plainly it ain’t or I wouldn’t be asking.”
    Wiley said: “Don’t you read three queens?”
    The stove had gone out and night frost come up on the windows, but they paid no mind. Costain was rattling coins in his hand. Midnight was pawing at an empty syrup bottle. His face was all puffed up and had confusion in it.
    Buzz said: “Should of seed it. First slug puts him in rotation like a top. Then High Wide gives him the cup of grass on the next one and near takes his head off clean.”
    Midnight said: “Shut up and deal.”
    Wiley had his eyes open like a trance, but he was snoring. The loghouse smelled of blankets. The wick of the lamp was turned low. Costain brought the bandanna soaked in ether up to his face.
    Buzz said: “Fuck cards.”
    Oil dripped off the edge of Midnight’s whetstone. Bits of steel shaved from the blade were too small to see. Midnight was nodding to the rhythm of scrapes. Hair fell over his eyes.
    He said: “How ’bout I cut you a new asshole?”
    Buzz shot out of his chair and flapped his hand over an empty holster. A fist came down hard on the table and it was Costain’s.
    He said: “Quit now. Stow it before I have to lay both of you out.”
    The rivals stared at each other a long minute and the heat came into their eyes.
    Costain said: “Midnight. Get some air. Go find Juanito.”
    It was so fresh outside. Midnight stood under the moon clear as water and threw up his arms. Trees and fenceposts made long shadows and his breath made steam. The stars seemed to flare. A chicken ran out from under the porch. Midnight caught her up and opened her throat on the blade. He sucked blood from his finger stumps.
    In the morning Juanito was missing with two horses. Each man went alone to his cache and found it untouched. Then they looked for a trail sign. They walked in mist to their knees and a silence that was tense. Costain had been expecting something but not exactly this. He knew there was a supply of time being used up and nothing he could do about that.
    To himself Wiley said: “We got to take steps.”
    He was thinking how it would be sad to leave this place, where Juanito was sure to bring law on purpose or by accident. He liked being near water. He liked being right under the sky. Anywhere else would bring on his