Casey Ryan Read online

  CHAPTER XI

  At two o'clock the next afternoon, the Smith outfit came back, limpingalong on three bare rims. Casey's jaw dropped a little when he saw themcoming, but nature had made him an optimist. Now, perhaps, thathungry-looking Smith would dig into his pocket and find the price of newtires. It had been Casey's experience that a man who protested the loudestthat he was broke would, if held rigidly to the no-credit rule, find themoney to pay for what he must have. In his heart he believed that Smithhad money dangling somewhere in close proximity to his lank person.

  But if Smith had any money he did not betray the fact. He asked quitehumbly for the loan of tools, and tube cement, and more blow-out patches,and set awkwardly to work mending his tattered tires. And once more Caseysent Juan to borrow the Oasis tub, and watered the goats and picked hisway amongst the Smith offsprings and pretended to be deaf half of thetime, and said he didn't know the other half. His green glass waterpitcher was practically useless to travelers, and Juan was worse. A goatgot away from Humbolt and Greeley and went exploring in the corner of thegarage where Casey lived, and ate three pounds of bacon. You know whatbacon costs. Maw Smith became acquainted with Casey and followed him aboutwith a detailed recital of her family history, which she thought wouldmake a real exciting book. What Casey thought I must not tell you.

  That night Casey patched tires and tubes. He had to, you see, or go crazy.Next morning he listened to the departure of the Smith family and theSmith goats, and prayed that their tires would hold out even as far asBagdad,--though I don't see why, since there was no garage in Bagdad, oranything else but a flag station.

  That afternoon at three o'clock, they came back again! And Casey neglectedto send Juan after the tub to water the goats. Wherefore paw sent Humbolt,and watered the goats himself from Casey's barrel and seemed peevishbecause he must. Maw Smith came after coffee again, and helped herselfwith no more formality than a shrill, "I'm borrying some more coffee!"sent to Casey out in front.

  That night Casey patched tires and tubes.

  At six o'clock Smith pounded on the back door and called in to Casey thathe would have to have some gas before he started. So Casey pulled on hispants and gave Smith some gas, and paid the garage out of his own pocket.He didn't swear, either. He was past that.

  That afternoon Casey watched apprehensively the road that led west. It wastwo-thirty when he saw them coming. Casey set his jaw and went in and hidevery blow-out patch he had in stock, and all the cement.

  Smith went into camp, sent Greeley after the Oasis tub and watered thegoats from one of Casey's water barrels. Casey went on with his work,waiting upon customers who paid, and tried not to think of the Smiths,although most of them were underfoot or at his elbow.

  "Them tires you mended ain't worth a cuss," Smith came around finally tocomplain. "I didn't get ten mile out with 'em before I had anotherblowout. I tell yuh what I'll do. I'll trade yuh goats fer tires. I gottwo milk goats that's worth a hundred dollars apiece, mebby more, the waygoats is selling on the Coast. I hate to part with 'em, but I gotta dosomethin'. Er else you'll have to trust me till I c'n get to my brotheran' git the money. It ain't," he added grievedly, "as if I wasn't honestenough to pay my debts."

  "Nope," said Casey wearily, "I don't want yer goats. I've had more goatsa'ready than I want. And tires has gotta roll outa this shop paid for. Wetalked that all over, the first night."

  "What am I goin' to do, then?" Smith inquired in exasperation.

  "Hell; I dunno," Casey returned grimly. "I quit guessin' day beforeyesterday."

  Smith went off to confer with maw, and Casey overheard some very harshstatements made concerning himself. Maw Smith was so offended that sherefused to borrow coffee from Casey that night, and she called herchildren out of his garage and told them she would warm their ears forthem if they went near him again. Hearing which Casey's features relaxed alittle. He could even meet customers with his accustomed grin when Smithin his anger sent the goats over to the water tank next day, refusing toshow any friendship for Casey by emptying a water barrel for him. But hehad to fire Juan for pouring gasoline into the radiator of a big sedan,and later he had to stalk that lovesick youth into the very camp of theSmiths and lead him back by the collar, and search him for stolen tools.He recovered twice as many as you would believe a Mexican's few garmentscould conceal.

  Casey was harassed for two days by the loud proximity of the Smiths, butnot one of them deigned to speak to him or to show any liking for himwhatever, beyond helping themselves superciliously to the contents of hiswater barrel. On the morning of the third day the lean man presented histhin shadow and then himself at the front door of the garage, with aletter in his hand and a hopeful look on his face.

  "Well, mebby I c'n talk business to yuh now an' have somethin' to go on,"he began abruptly. "I went an' sent off a telegraft to my brother in SanJose about you, and he's wrote a letter to yuh. My brother's a businessman. You c'n see that much fer yourself. An' mebby you'll see your wayclear t' help me leave this dod-rotten hole. Here's yer letter."

  Casey held himself neutral while he read the letter.As it happens that I have a copy, here it is:

  (Printed Letterhead)

  VISTA GRANDE RANCHO

  Smith Bros.

  San Jose, Calif.

  _Garage Owner, Patmos, Calif._

  Dear Sir: I am informed that my brother Eldreth William Smith, havingsuffered the mishap to lose his tires at your place or thereabouts, andhaving the misfortune to fall short of immediate funds with which to paycash for replacement, has been denied credit at your hands.

  I regret that because of business requirements in my own business it isimpossible for me to place the amount necessary at his immediate disposal.It is therefore my advise that you lend to my brother Eldreth WilliamSmith such money or moneys as will be necessary to purchase railroadtickets for himself and family from Patmos to this place, and

  Furthermore that you take as security for said loan such motor truck andequipment etc. as he has now stored at your place of business. I am awareof the fact that a motor truck in any running condition would amply securesuch loans as would purchase tickets from Patmos to San Jose, and I herebyenclose note for same, duly made out in blank and signed by me, whichsignature will be backed by the signature of my brother. Upon receivingfrom you such money as he may require he will duly deliver note andsecurity duly signed and filled with the amount. I trust this will beperfectly satisfactory to you as amply securing you for the loan of thedesired amount.

  Thanking you in advance,

  Yours very Truly,

  J. Paul Smith.

  In spite of himself, Casey was impressed. The very Spanish name of theprune orchard impressed him, and so did the formal business terms used byJ. Paul Smith; and that "thanking you in advance" seemed to place himunder a moral obligation too great to shirk. There was the note, too,--heavy green paper with a stag's head printed on it, and looking almostlike a check.

  "Well, all right, if it don't cost too much and the time don't run toolong," surrendered Casey reluctantly. "How much--"

  "Fare's a little over twenty-five dollars, an' they'll be four full faresan' three half. I guess mebby I better have a hundred an' seventy-fiveanyway, so'st we kin eat on the way."

  Casey chanced to have almost that much coming to him out of the business,so that he would not be lending Bill's money. He watched the lean Smithfill in the amount and sign the note, identifying the truck by its engineand license numbers, and he went and borrowed fifteen dollars from theproprietor of the Oasis and made up the amount. There was a train at noon,and from his garage door he watched the Smith family start off across thelava rocks to the depot, each one laden with bundles and disreputablegrips, the spotted dog trotting optimistically ahead of the party with hispink tongue draped over the right side of his mouth. Smith turned, thebaby in his arms, and called back casually to Casey:

  "Yuh better tie up them two milk goats when yuh milk 'em. They won't standif yuh don't."

/>   Casey's jaw sagged. He had not thought of the goats. Indeed, the last twodays they had not troubled him except by their bleating at dawn. Humboltand Greeley had grazed them over by the railroad track so that they couldwatch the trains go by. Casey looked and saw that the goats were stillover there where they had been driven early. He took off his hat andrubbed his palm reflectively over the back of his head, set the hat on hishead with a pronounced tilt over one eyebrow, and reached for his plug oftobacco.

  "Oh, darn the goats! Me milkin' goats! Well, now, Casey Ryan never milkedno goats, an' he ain't goin' to milk no goats! You can ask anybody if theythink't he will."

  Casey was very busy that day, and he had no dull-eyed Juan to do certainmenial tasks about the cars that stopped before his garage. Neverthelesshe kept an eye on the station of Patmos until the westbound train had comeand had departed, and on the rough road between the railroad and thegarage for another half hour, until he was sure that the Smith family werenot coming back. Then he went more cheerfully about his work, now and thenglancing, perhaps, at the truck which had been driven into the rear of thegarage where it was very much in his way, but was safe from pilferingfingers. It was not such a bad truck, give it new tires. Casey had alreadyfigured the price at which he could probably sell it, on an easy paymentplan, to the man who hauled water for Patmos. It was more than the amountof his loan, naturally. By noon he was rather hoping the "Smith Bros."would fail to take up that note.

  Casey, you see, was not counting the goats at all. He had a vague ideathat, while they were nominally a part of the security, they were actuallyof no importance whatever. They would run loose until Smith came afterthem, he guessed. He did not intend to milk any nanny goats, so thatsettled the goat question for Casey.

  Casey simply did not know anything about goats. He ought to have used alittle logic and not so much happy-go-lucky "t'ell with the goats." Thatis all very well, so far as it goes, and we all know that everybody saysit and thinks it. But it does, not settle the problem. It never occurredto Casey, for instance, that the going of Humbolt and Greeley and thelittle spotted dog would make any difference. It really did make a greatdeal, you see. And it never occurred to Casey that goats are domesticatedanimals after they have been hauled around the country for weeks and weeksin a trailer to a truck, or that they will come back to the only home theyknow.

  I don't know how long it takes goats to fill up. I never kept a goat orgoats. And I don't know how long they will stand around and blat beforethey start something. I don't know much more about goats than Casey, ordidn't, at least, until he told me. By that time Casey knew a lot more, Isuspect, than he could put into words.

  Casey says that he heard them blatting around outside, but he was busytrying to straighten a radius rod--Casey _said_ he was taking the kinksouta that hootin'-annie that goes behind the front ex and turns thedingbats when you steer--for a man who walked back and forth and slappedhis hands together nervously and kept asking how long it was going totake, and how far it was to Barstow, and whether the road from there upacross the Mojave was in good condition, and whether the Death Valley roadout from Ludlow went clear through the valley and was a cut-off north, orwhether it just went into the valley and stopped. Casey says that the onlytime he ever was in Death Valley it was with a couple of burros and thathe like to have stayed there. He got to telling the man about his tripinto Death Valley and how he just did get out by a scratch.

  So he didn't pay any attention to the goats until he went back after somecold water for the white little woman in the car, that looked all tuckeredout and scared. It was then he found the whole corner chewed off one waterbag and the other water bag on the ground and a lot more than the cornergone. And the billy was up on his hind feet with his horns caught in thefullest barrel, and was snorting and snuffling in a drowning condition andtilting the barrel perilously. The other goats were acting just like plaindamn goats, said Casey, and merely looking for trouble without havingfound any.

  Casey says he had to call the Oasis man to help him get Billy out of thebarrel, and that even then he had to borrow a saw and saw off one horn--either that, or cave in the barrel with Maud--and he needed that barrelworse than the billy goat needed two horns; but he told me that if he'dhad Maud in his two hands just then he sure would have caved in the goat.

  At that, the nervous man got away without paying Casey, which I thinkrankled worse than a spoiled barrel of water.

  Casey told me that he aged ten years in the next two weeks, and losteighty-nine dollars and a half in damages and wages, not counting the twowater bags he had to replace out of his stock, at nearly four dollarswholesale price. When he chased the goats out of his back door they wentaround and came in at the front, determined, he supposed, to bed down nearthe truck.

  It was late before that occurred to him, and when it did he cranked up anddrove the truck a hundred yards down the road that led to the spring. Thegoats did not follow as he expected, but stood around the trailer andblatted. Casey went back and hooked on the trailer and drove again downthe road. The goats would not follow, and he went back to find that Billyhad managed to push open the back door and had led his flock into Casey'skitchen. There was no kitchen left but the little camp stove, and that wasbent so that it stood skew-gee, Casey said, and developed a habit oftoppling over just when his coffee came to a boil.

  Casey told me that he had to barricade himself in his garage that night,and he swore that Billy stood on his hind feet and stared at him all nightthrough the window in spite of wrenches and pliers hailing out upon him.However that may be, Billy couldn't have stood there all night, unlessCasey got his dates mixed. For at six o'clock the Oasis man came over,stepping high and swinging his fists, and told Casey that them damn goatshad et all the bedding out of one tent and the soap, towel and one pillowout of another, and what was Casey going to do about it?

  Casey did not know,--and he was famous for his resourcefulness too. Ithink he paid for the bedding before the thing was settled.

  Casey says that after that it was just one thing after another. He told methat he never would have believed twelve goats could cover so muchcussedness in a day. He said he couldn't fill a radiator but some goatwould be chewing the baggage tied behind the car, or Billy would berooting suitcases off the running board. One party fell in love with ababy goat and Casey in a moment of desperation told them they could haveit. But he was sorry afterward, because the mother stood and blatted athim reproachfully for four days and nights without stopping.

  Casey swears that he picked up and threw two tons of rocks every day, andhe has no idea how many tons the six families of Patmos heaved at andafter the goats. When they weren't going headfirst into barrels of waterthey were chewing something not meant to be chewed. Casey asserts that itis all a bluff about goats eating tin cans. They don't. He says they nevertouched a can all the while he had them. He says devastated Patmos wishedthey would, and leave the two-dollar lace curtains alone, and clotheslinesand water barrels and baggage. He says many a party drove off with chewedbedding rolls and didn't know it, and that he didn't tell them, either.

  You're thinking about Juan, I know. Well, Casey thought of Juan the firstday, and took the trouble to hunt him up and hire him to herd the goats.But Juan developed a bad case of sleeping sickness, Casey says, whichunfortunately was not contagious to goats. He swears that he never saw oneof those goats lying down, though he had seen pictures of goats lying downand had a vague idea that they chewed their cuds. Casey tried to be funny,then. He looked at me and grinned, and observed, "Hunh! Goats don't chewcuds. That's all wrong. They chew _duds._ You ask anybody in Patmos." SoJuan slept under sagebushes and grease-wood, and the goats did not.

  Casey declares that he stood it for two weeks, and that it took all hecould make in the garage to pay the six families of Patmos for the damagewrought by his security. He lost fifteen pounds of flesh and every friendhe had made in the place except the man who hauled water, and he liked itbecause he was getting rich. Once Casey had a bright ide
a, and with muchlabor and language he loaded the goats into the trailer and had thewater-hauler take them out to the hills. But that didn't work at all. Partof the flock came back afoot, from sheer homesickness, and the rest werehauled back because they were ruining the spring which was Patmos' solewater supply.

  Casey would have shot the goats, but he couldn't bring himself to doanything that would offend J. Paul Smith of the _Vista Grande Rancho._Whenever he read the letter J. Paul Smith had written him he was ashamedto do anything that would lower him in the estimation of J. Paul Smith,who trusted him and took it for granted that he would do the right thingand do it with enthusiasm.

  "If he hadn't wrote so dog-gone polite!" Casey complained to me. "And ifhe hadn't went an' took it for granted I'd come through. But a man can'tturn down a feller that wrote the way he done. Look at that letter! Acollege perfessor couldn't uh throwed together no better letter than that.And that there 'Thanking you in advance'--a feller _can't_ throw a mandown when he writes that way. You ask anybody." Casey's tone was one ofreminiscent injury, as if J. Paul Smith had indeed taken a mean advantageof him.

  One day Casey reached the limit of his endurance,--or perhaps of theendurance of Patmos. There were not enough male residents to form a mobstrong enough to lynch Casey, but there was one woman who had lost a sofapillow and two lace curtains; Casey did not say much about her, but Igathered that he would as soon be lynched as remonstrated with again bythat woman. "Sufferin' Sunday! I'd shore hate to be her husband. You askanybody!" sighed Casey when he was telling me.

  Casey moralized a little. "Folks used to look at the goats that I'd maybejust hazed off into the brush fifty yards or so with a thousand poundsmebby of rocks, an' some woman in goggles would say, 'Oh, an' you keepgoats! How nice!' like as if it were something peaceful an' homelike tokeep goats! Hunh! Lemme tell yuh; never drive past a place that _looks_peaceful, and jump at the idea it _is_ peaceful. They may be a womanbehind them vines poisinin' 'er husband's father. How could them darntourists tell'what was goin' on in Patmos? They seen the goats pertendin'to graze, an' keepin' an eye peeled till my back was turned, an' theythought it was _nice_ to keep goats. Hunh!"

  At last Casey could bear no more. He gathered together enough hardwood,three-inch crate slats to make twelve crates, and he worked for threenights, making them. And Casey is no carpenter. After that he worked forthree days, with all the men in Patmos to help him, getting the goats intothe crates and loaded on the truck. Then he drove over to the station andasked for tags, and addressed the crates to J. Paul Smith, _Vista GrandeRancho,_ San Jose, Calif. Then he discovered that he could not send themexcept by express, and that he could not send them by express unless heprepaid the charges. And the charges on goats sent by express, was, asCasey put it, a holy fright.

  But he had to do it. Patmos had been led to believe that he would sendthose goats off on the train, and Casey did not know what would happen ifhe failed. There were the heads of the six families, and all the childrenwho were of walking age, grouped around the crates and Casey expectantly.Casey went back to the garage safe and got what money he had, borrowed thebalance from the male citizens of Patmos and prepaid the express. Patmoshelped to load them into the first express car going west, and Casey felt,he said, as if some one had handed him a million dollars in dimes.

  Casey seemed to think that ended the story, but I am like the rest of you.I wanted to know what the Smith family did, and J. Paul Smith, and whetherCasey kept the truck and sold it to the man who hauled water.

  "Who? Me? Say! D'you ever know Casey Ryan to ever come out anywheres butat the little end uh the horn? Ain't I the bag holder pro tem?" I don'tknow what he meant by that. I think he was mistaken in the meaning of "protem."

  "You ask anybody. Say, I got a letter sayin' in a gen'ral way that I'm athief an' a cutthroat an' a profiteer an' so on, an' that I would have topay fer the goat that was missin'--that there was the one I give away--an'that the damages to the billy goat was worth twenty-five dollars and samewould be deducted from the amount of the loan. _Darn_ these fancy wordslingers!" said Casey. "An' the day before the note come due, here comesthat shoestring in pants with the money to pay the note minus the damages,and four new tires fer the truck! Yessir, wouldn't buy tires off me, even!Could yuh beat that fer gall? And he wouldn't hardly speak."

  Casey grinned and got his plug of tobacco and inspected the cornersabsently before he bit into it. "But I got even with 'im," he added. "Ilaid off till he got his tires on--an' I wouldn't lend him no tools to put'em on with, neither. And then I looked up an' down the road an' seenthere was no dust comin' an' we wouldn't be interrupted, an' I went up tothe old skunk an' I says, 'I got a bill to colleck off you. _Thankin' youin advance!'_ an' then I shore collected. You ask anybody in Patmos. Say,I bet he drove by-guess-an'-by-gosh to the orange belt, anyway, the wayhis eyes was swellin' up when he left!"

  I mentioned his promise to Bill, that he would not fight a customer. Caseyspat disgustedly. "Hell! He wasn't no customer! Didn't he ship his rubberin by express, ruther'n to buy off me?" He grinned retrospectively andlooked at his knuckles, one of which showed a patch of new skin, pink andyet tender.

  "'Thankin' you in advance!' that's just what I told 'im. An' I shore gotall I thanked 'im for! You ask anybody in Patmos. They seen 'imafterwards."