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100 Tamale Ridge by: Chuck Cusimano

He sort of stumbled as he came to an abrupt halt. He had seen that I wasn’t backing down, or

even the least bit frightened. He decided right there to change his attitude.

“Hi Gid!” “You know me, always joking around,” He said as he stuck out his hand.

“It’s sure good to see you!”

We shook hands but I wasn’t fooled at all. He had tried to run a bluff on me and it didn’t work.

He walked away and I think we both knew that he had almost made a big mistake. I was going

to keep an eye on him.

I saw Big Jim ride up on his sorrel horse and leading Vera Cruz, the blue horse that I had raised.

We shook hands and I showed him where we were camped. He camped there with us. The

rodeo would be starting tomorrow and we rested and visited with a lot of the folks there. I woke

up, like usual, at about five the next morning, started the fire and got some coffee going.

Gilberto was awake but stayed in his bedroll. Big Jim was snoring up a storm. Gilberto got up,

folded his bedding and stored it in a pile with the rest of our gear in the wagon. As soon as the

coffee was ready, I called Jim. We sat around trying to decide if we were going to go to the

trouble of fixing breakfast, or just drink coffee. Jim was sipping his coffee and saw someone

that he knew I would like to talk to:

“Hey, Walt!” He hollered, “Got a minute?”

“Yeah,” The man said, “How ya doin’?”

He walked up and shook hands with Jim.

“Walt Lawrence, this is Gideon Thacker and this is Gilberto Martinez,” Jim said.

“Howdy gents,” Walt said, “Pleased to meet you boys.”

“Walt here is the feller I told you about that own’s that strawberry roan,” Jim said.

“Oh! is that right?” I asked.

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