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Other Works
By James Carlos Blake
Novels The Ways of Wolfe The House of Wolfe The Rules of Wolfe Country of the Bad Wolfes The Killings of Stanley Ketchel Handsome Harry Under the Skin A World of Thieves Wildwood Boys Red Grass River In the Rogue Blood The Friends of Pancho Villa The Pistoleer
Collection Borderlands
Copyright © 2020 by James Carlos Blake
Cover design by Cindy Hernandez
Cover photographs: sun with palm trees © Delphotos/Alamy Stock Photo; hawk © Prisma by Dukas Presseagentur GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo
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Published simultaneously in Canada
First Grove Atlantic eBook edition: July 2020
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-8021-5688-4
eISBN 978-0-8021-5696-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available for this title.
The Mysterious Press
an imprint of Grove Atlantic
154 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10011
Distributed by Publishers Group West
groveatlantic.com
To
The Distler IV
Joseph
Nancy
Emma
Morgan
Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state
Mine never shall be parted, weal or woe.
—John Milton, Paradise Lost
Do what thy manhood bids thee do
From none but self expect applause;
He noblest lives and noblest dies
Who makes and keeps his self-made laws.
—Sir Richard Francis Burton
Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see
Men not afraid of God, afraid of me.
—Alexander Pope, “Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot”
Life is contemptuous of knowledge; it forces it to sit in the anterooms, to wait outside. Passion, energy, lies: these are what life admires.
—James Salter, Light Years
CONTENTS
Jessie and Charlie
II The Girl
Catalina
Catalina and Jessie and Charlie
Rudy
III The Crossings
Rudy
Rayo Luna
Rudy
El Chubasco
Rudy
El Chubasco
Rudy
El Chubasco
Rudy
El Chubasco
Rudy
