The Payback Man by Carolyn McSparren Read Free Book Online

exception for her crew. Tonight she’d request an exception from Newman. He’d better not refuse, or she’d see that Ernest knew how he’d slept on the job.
    The pile of rotted manure and shavings that they’d dug out of the barn was as tall as Big, and looked rich enough to nourish the weakest vegetables. Portree should be pleased about that. He could never buy fertilizer one-tenth as rich for his hydroponic vegetable gardens.
    But he could darn well have somebody else move it from the back rear of the barn to his gardens.
    “Okay, guys, let’s knock off.” She leaned back in the tractor seat and pulled the kill switch for the engine. “I’ve got a cooler full of soft drinks in my truck if you’re interested.”
    “Got beer?” asked Gil. “I could go for a brew.”
    She shook her head. “You know better than that.”
    Newman grumbled. “You got no call to supply sodas.”
    “Sure I do. Big, how about you help me bring over the cooler, then we can all sit in the shade.”
    He ducked his head and followed obediently. The cooler was large and full of semi-melted ice and soft drinks, but Big hefted it as though it were a roll of paper towels and carried it back to the concrete pad in front of the barn.
    The shed roof over the pad projected ten feet or so beyond the walls so that trucks and stock could be unloaded in bad weather. At the moment that side of the barn was in shade, and the evening was already cooling, but the concrete still radiated warmth. She considered suggesting they bring the cooler inside. The men, however, seemedto prefer being outside—anywhere outside—to being within walls.
    She handed out drinks, then realized as she took one herself that she’d have to sit beside someone. Even so small an action could be misconstrued. She sat on the cooler, instead.
    “Plenty more.”
    The men had simply opened their throats and poured the soda down. She stood, bent over, and realized all they could see was her upended denim-covered rear. She straightened quickly. “Big, why don’t you hand them out?”
    He seemed grateful to be chosen and shuffled over.
    When she sat again, she said, “Here’s the plan for tomorrow.” Groans. “The worst part is over. Tomorrow you’ll be helping the painters, setting up the office and the storeroom, and rebuilding the fences that divide the pastures. The old barbed-wire fences are twenty years old but still in fairly good shape in most places. The posts are concrete and broken ones have been replaced during the years. We’ll still have to walk the fence lines, mark the few posts that may need to be replaced, restring wire and enclose the bull’s stall and paddock in electric fencing to keep him in.”
    “Just like us,” Robert said.
    She caught her breath. He was right, but what could she say to that? “This electric fence will simply give him a jolt when he touches it.”
    “Yeah, up at Big Mountain, we touch the fence, we get a lot more than a jolt.”
    “Will it stay on all the time, ma’am?” Slow Rise asked.
    “Good question. Depends on the bull we get, as I’m sure you know, since you raised cattle.”
    “Yes’m.”
    She turned to the others. “Bulls are as individual as people. Some of them will test the electric fence a couple of times and never go near it again. Others will try it everytime they go out to pasture. Still others will take the jolt and keep right on going—straight through.”
    “And some jump over.” Slow Rise grinned at her.
    “If we get one like that, we send him back where he came from. Once a bull learns to jump out, there’s no way to keep him in.”
    Robert again. “Come on, man. Bulls can’t jump.”
    “Hell, they can’t,” Slow Rise said. “Why, I’ve seen a bull jump a five-foot fence soon as look at you.”
    “Nah, old man, you’re crazy.”
    Slow Rise surged to his feet with blinding speed for a man who had to be over sixty. In an instant he stood over Robert, his fists clenched, his face