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"Oh, I couldn't do that?"

"Why not?"

"Oh, I just couldn't, that's all."

"You like me?"

"Sure I like you."

"Well, I like you. What's stopping us?"

She started to say something, didn't say it, and then laughed. "I own up. I'd like to, all right. And if it's something I'm supposed not to do, why that don't mean a thing to me. But I can't. It's on account of the cats."

"Cats?"

"We've got a lot of cats. And I'm the one that takes care of them. That's why I had to get home."

"Well, they got pet farms, haven't they? We'll call one up, and tell them to come over and get them."

That struck her funny. "I'd like to see a pet farm's face when it saw them. They're not that kind."

"Cats are cats, ain't they?"

"Not exactly. Some are big and some are little. Mine are big. I don't think a pet farm would do very well with that lion we've got. Or the tigers. Or the puma. Or the three jaguars. They're the worst. A jaguar is an awful cat."

"Holy smoke. What do you do with those things?"

"Oh, work them in movies. Sell the cubs. People have private zoos. Keep them around. They draw trade."

"They wouldn't draw my trade."

"We've got a restaurant. People look at them."

"Restaurant, hey. That's what I've got. Whole goddam country lives selling hot dogs to each other."

"Well, anyway, I couldn't walk out on my cats. They've got to eat."

"The hell we can't. We'll call up Goebel and tell him to come get them. He'll board the whole bunch while we're gone for a hundred bucks."

"Is it worth a hundred bucks to you to take a trip with me?"

"It's worth exactly a hundred bucks."

"Oh my. I can't say no to that. I guess you better call up Goebel."

I dropped her off at her place, found a pay station, called up Goebel, went back home, and closed up. Then I went back after her. It was about dark. Goebel had sent a truck over, and I met it coming back, full of stripes and spots. I parked about a hundred yards down the road, and in a minute she showed up with a little grip, and I helped her in, and we started off.

"You like it?"

"I love it."

We went down to Caliente, and next day we kept on down the line to Ensenada, a little Mexican town about seventy miles down the coast. We went to a little hotel there, and spent three or four days. It was pretty nice. Ensenada is all Mex, and you feel like you left the U. S. A. a million miles away. Our room had a little balcony in front of it, and in the afternoon we would just lay out there, look at the sea, and let the time go by.

"Cats, hey. What do you do, train them?"

"Not the stuff we've got. They're no good. All but the tigers are outlaws. But I do train them."

"You like it?"

"Not much, the real big ones. But I like pumas. I'm going to get an act together with them some time. But I'll need a lot of them. Jungle pumas. Not these outlaws you see in the zoos."

"What's an outlaw?"

"He'd kill you."

"Wouldn't they all?"

"They might, but an outlaw does anyhow. If it was people, he would be a crazy person. It comes from being bred in captivity. These cats you see, they look like cats, but they're really cat lunatics."

"How can you tell it's a jungle cat?"

"I catch him in a jungle."

"You mean you catch them alive?"

"Sure. They're no good to me dead."

"Holy smoke. How do you do that?"

"Well, first I get on a boat and go down to Nicaragua. All the really fine pumas come from Nicaragua. These California and Mexican things are just scrubs compared to them. Then I hire me some Indian boys and go up in the mountains. Then I catch my pumas. Then I bring them back. But this time, I stay down there with them a while, to train them. Goat meat is cheaper there than horse meat is here."

"You sound like you're all ready to start."

"I am."

She squirted a little wine in her mouth, and gave me a long look. They give it to you in a bottle with a long thin spout on it, and you squirt it in your mouth with the spout. That's to cool it. She did that two or three times, and every time she did it she would look at me.

"I am if you are."