gelding made short work of getting the tarp in place. Then Reg went to flipping it to spread it out overhead. He and Heck soon had it in place and the staking process began. In a short while, the shelter was up and secured.
Wade Morgan came by and squatted down on his boot heels to talk to Chet. “I guess you’re going north come spring?”
“I’m counting on it. We’ve got several head promised besides our own. You got some?”
“Not many, maybe two hundred steers.”
“I can take ’em.”
“What’ll it cost me?” Morgan was close to forty. Short, squat built man did some blacksmithing and had the shoulders for the job.
“About twelve bucks a head.”
“That’s higher than others’ve been quoting me.”
“I’ve not missed delivering them. My losses so far have been low. The prices I get there are all the market will allow. The France boys sent their cattle up two years ago with a man cheaper than I was, and they never saw that fella again. Lost everything.”
Morgan exhaled deep and nodded. “I know. I know. Five years ago, I send two hundred steers north with a fella named Sears and got the low price on fifty head. Said the others stampeded into a river and drowned.”
“So we’ve discussed the bargain deals. I may lose all of them. But I’ve paid life insurance of four hundred dollars on every hand I’ve lost, if they had an heir, plus their wages for the whole trip.”
“Hell, I know you’ve been fair, but I need all I can get out of’em.”
Chet clapped him on the shoulder. “So do I. And I can’t guarantee I can come back with a dime, but it won’t because I didn’t try.”
“Mark me down for two hundred.”
Chet took the logbook out and on the page marked “Drive of 1873” he wrote down, “Wade Morgan 200 head.” “We’ll be road-branding them in early March. The grass breaks loose, we’ll go north.”
They shook hands on the deal.
Morgan left him, headed back toward the building. Chet noticed Marla Porter drive by seated beside her husband on the buckboard. Porter’s fine team of matched horses were trotting along in step. Straight-backed, she sat head high, with a wide-brimmed hat and a tight-fitting jacket that emphasized her figure. Her posture drew a hidden grin from Chet. The sight of her also made his guts roil. She was like a bad habit that he needed to quit—but he couldn’t—damn her anyway.
Louise came back looking stern-faced, and after looking around, talked to him from behind her hand. “The word is that Felton and Mitch Reynolds went north yesterday with a wagon for three bodies. One of them, they said, is Roy. The other was Luther Hines, Kathren’s husband. And the third was a Dab Stevens, some cowboy worked around here.”
“So?”
“Those were the men you hung?”
He looked around, then hustled her aside. “Shut your gawdamn mouth. Now, I told you this was going to get volatile. Those men were common thieves. What they got they deserved.”
“But they were men you knew—my boys went to school with Roy.”
“Louise—”
“Don’t threaten me.”
“All right, but your damn mouth is going to get your boys killed. That’s not a threat, that’s a promise.”
Her brown eyes flew open and she put her hand to her lips in pale-faced shock. Teary-eyed, she pushed past him for the wagon. “Damn you, Chester Byrnes. Damn you.”
Shaking mad, Chet went to the fire ring and poured himself a cup of fresh coffee. Susie came from the fly on the wagon, her hands white with flour. “What did you tell her?”
He looked off at the late afternoon sun shining through the high mare’s-tail clouds. “That her mouth would get her boys killed if she didn’t shut up.”
“What set that off?”
“She came back babbling about them going up north after three bodies.”
“Who?”
He blew on his coffee. “A couple of the Reynolds men.”
“Who were they going after?”
“Roy, Dab Stevens, and Luther Hines.”
“Oh, my Gawd. That’s who was in on it?”
He nodded.
“I wonder how Kathren is taking it.”
“I have no idea. I can say this. He never mentioned her or the girl. It was like he’d turned his back on them. Even the boys wondered about that.”
“Bad deal. You know Louise may want to go home tonight after your confrontation.”
“Sis, she’s been a thorn in my side for years. I didn’t send Mark to Mississippi to fight. But we’ve all had to bow to her wishes ever since. I am tired of it.”
She wiped her hands on her apron and made a disappointed shake of her head at him. “Why don’t you go up to Mason and find you a nice plump little German girl who will raise you some kids and smile whenever you come home to her?”
“How’s that going to help me?”
“I don’t know, big brother. I don’t know, but you do need a wife.”
“I don’t need one.”
“All right, you say you don’t. I’ll have supper ready shortly. They’ll start dancing soon.”
“Stanton going to be here?”
She shrugged.
“Maybe you need a husband?” He wondered how serious Ryan Thomas Stanton was about her anyway.
“I have enough to say grace over now,” she said.
“Try to have a good time.”
“Why? Do you think it is our last chance to have any fun?” She frowned at him for an answer.
“No, but I know how hard you work. You need to relax for once.”
“I’ll get back to work then.” Susie laughed at him and left for her cooking.
Reg and Heck came back to camp for supper. Heck looked pleased to be getting to tag along with an older boy. He was busting to get off the place and see more of the world. Chet could read it in his eyes. The most inquisitive ten-year-old he’d ever seen. He wondered where he came by those footloose ways.
Susie asked Reg if he’d seen his girl, and he nodded. “I’m going to dance with her later. Those lessons you gave me should work.”
Chet
