The Busted Thumb Horse Ranch Read Online Free PDF

soon’s I can—I favor
beef almost as well as I do beer.”
    “Yeah—he had a little dugout where he stored
apples an’ potatoes an’ salted-down ham. I ain’t
seen it in a while, but I’d guess it’s still there. But
lemme ask you this: why not take one of them
wild pigs ’stead of a beef? You’re gonna lose lots
of good meat no matter how careful you are with
cattle, but a pig, why hell—you can use everything
but the squeal. Beef’s cheaper’n penny
candy in town. I’d get me a pig, I was you.”
    Arm and I looked at each other. “Makes sense,”
I said. Arm nodded. “I put a loop over one of
these porgos soon as I can. There are many
’round?”
    “Yeah. They’re tricky little bastards, so watchyourself.
A big stud or even a sow will charge a
horse, knock him right off his feet. Sonsabitches
are wild but they make pretty good eatin’. Leave
the big tuskers alone. They’re godawful crazy.
Shoot any I see, is what I’d do.”
    “There ees a stream, no?”
    “A damn fine one—a year-’rounder. Rarer than
teats on a boot ’round here. Gets awful low this
time of year, but she keeps on runnin’.”
    We drank for another hour or so. Arm and I
had the staggers a tad, but Tiny didn’t show any
effects of the beer.
    “I think it’s time me an’ Arm got us a meal an’
a bed,” I said.
    “Might not be a bad idea for me to head home,
too. The ol’ lady will start in on me if I stay out
too long.”
    The three of us stood and started toward the
bat wings.
    “Boys,” the tender called. “You got change
comin’—a good bit of it.”
    “Call it a tip an’ put it in your pocket,” I said.
“We’ll be seein’ you again.”
    Tiny headed back to the stables and Arm and
I weaved our way to the hotel, took a couple of
rooms, and went into the six-table restaurant. We
both ordered steaks from a cadaverous waiter
who probably hadn’t smiled during this century.
We also ordered more beer.
    Tiny had said the plates were big, and he wasn’t
exaggerating. They looked the size of wagon
wheels and still the steaks were too big for the
plates and hung off the edges. The meat was a tad
tough, but the flavor was great. Neither of us lefta
scrap of meat on our plates, and had scraped
clean the big bowl of mashed potatoes the waiter
had brought without being asked.
    Arm leaned back in his chair and belched. “I’m
ready to meet my bed,” he said, and yawned.
    “Me, too. Let’s do it.”
    The rooms weren’t a whole lot bigger than closets,
but the beds had real mattresses rather than
shucks and sawdust. I fell onto mine bed fully
dressed except for my hat, and I assume Arm did
the same with his. I was asleep immediately.
    Well before dawn a goddamn rooster right below
my window started his racket. I heard a gunshot
from the adjacent room. Blessed silence
returned and I went back to sleep.
    It must have been near seven thirty or eight
o’clock when we met up down in the restaurant. I
don’t think I’d slept that long since I was in a
cradle. Both our hangovers were mild and we
were both hungry as bears coming out of hibernation.
The cadaver hustled over and I ordered
six eggs, steaks like we had the night before, and
hash-brown potatoes. At first, the ol’ fellow
thought we were going to split that plate. I made
certain he realized we individually wanted what
I’d ordered.
    We chowed down and drank a pot of coffee.
    When the waiter brought the bill, I noticed he’d
added on fifty-five cents for the rooster Armando
gunned. We paid up for the grub, the rooms, and
left a good tip.
    The day promised to be another that’d almost
raise blisters on a man’s skin. We walked down to
the stable. Tiny’s anvil was ringing like a bell inspite
of the heat. We gave Tiny a fifty to open an
account for us, saddled up our horses, and packed
our old fellow. I asked Tiny where our ranch was.
“Straight east, maybe four or five miles,” he said.
    The first sign that told us we were on our land
was some