“I want to explain,” Edie’s eyes were pleading. “First, let me start with last night. It was a beautiful night, and I was happy for the first time since Ed was killed. Sitting with you brought back memories of Ed, and I felt guilty for some reason. Then you sensed my feelings, and you thought I was rejecting you. I wasn’t! But you left too quickly for me to explain. I know now that you left out of consideration for me. That’s one of the reasons why I want to tell you about the man you killed today. He wanted me, but not in a good way, and I will always be grateful to you for eliminating the threat he posed to me.”
Edie wanted to go on, but she was having a problem explaining and gave a big sigh.
“He was the last man I spent time with. He came by without an invitation and pretended to want to help, and as you know, I needed a man’s help. The place was falling apart, but instead of helping, he came at me like a vicious animal. He was too strong for me to resist, and I made so much noise that I awakened Venie. She watched him slap me around until in for fear of being killed I had to give in. I had no other choice because I had a daughter to raise. My mouth was bleeding, my eyes were blackened, and I was bruised all over. That’s why Venie was so frightened when she saw Basel on the road. She thought he would hurt me again, and she knew that I had no way to defend myself. You did today what I had no way of doing. Every night after he forced me, I lay awake listening, thinking he would be back. Thank you for eliminating that danger.”
“I’m sorry that you had to endure such a violation, and I’m glad you told me. If I had known, I would never have allowed my attraction to you to overcome my sense of propriety. I promise it won’t happen again. I know you’re tired, but I want you to think about what I’m going to say, so we can discuss it tomorrow morning.”
“Of course I want to hear what you have to say. If you know of another way to save my ranch, I want to hear about it.”
“There’s no way to win a fight with the sheriff. He has the law on his side. I might beat him in a gunfight, and I might not, but even if I do, all I will accomplish is to make things worse. We have to force the banker to accept the payment on your mortgage. Everyone in Lone Hill either owes money to the banker or they are afraid of the sheriff. I was told that there is a fort west of here, and the army will pay more for beef than we could get from the buyers in Lone Hill, and the sheriff won’t even know that the army has bought the cattle.”
“We would still have to get the banker to accept the payment,” Edie rebutted.
“On my last job, I met the commanding officer of the fort. I prevented one of his men from being killed by a jealous gunfighter, and the commanding officer said I could go to him if I ever needed help. If I explain the situation to him, I’ll bet he would send an officer to verify the payment, and the sheriff’s authority would be overridden . . . . I can have the calves branded and the horses shod in a few days, and we’ll start west with a small herd.”
“I have a lot of things to resolve before we can start with a herd,” Edie replied shaking her head. “First, what would I do with Venie?”
Dan picked up his hat as he walked out the door. “Think about it,” he said, “And tell me what needs to be worked out at breakfast in the morning.”
His sudden departure caught Edie off guard again, and she didn’t know what to say, so she watched him go. After Dan left, Edie went to bed but even though she was tired she couldn’t sleep. Her mind was befuddled. Dan meant it when he promised to maintain a sense of propriety; therefore, she was in control, and she was unsure how to proceed.
* * *
The sun rose brightly, and a light breeze was blowing. Dan saddled a horse and went to the house carrying the milk and eggs. He still had to get the calves branded and the horses shod.
Edie appeared rested, and as usual she looked good. She had prepared the usual coffee, bacon, eggs, and biscuits, and when Dan came in she said, “Sit down, Dan, and let’s eat.”
Venie came in rubbing her eyes. “Can I have some too?”
“Good morning, Venie. Sit right here by me,” Dan offered.
Edie slid Venie’s highchair up to the table beside Dan, and then she sat on the other side of Dan. “I thought about what you said last night, and I’ve got a few suggestions.”
“Good, I was hoping you would.”
“Our biggest problem is, what do we do with Venie?”
We can put the cover on the wagon and take her with us. She likes to ride, and she can sleep in the back when she gets tired. You and Venie could share the wagon at night, and I can camp nearby.”
“I think that will work,” Edie concurred. “I have two wooden barrels that we can strap onto the sides of the wagon. We can use one barrel to hold food supplies, and the other to hold drinking water. There’s a lot of dry country west of here. I think ten cows are all we need to sell. I owe only two hundred, and I’m sure we can sell the cows for at least twenty dollars apiece. You can drive the herd, and I’ll drive the wagon. Ten cows is a lot of cows for one man to keep track of in wild country. Do you think you can keep that many under control?”
“While I was milking,” Dan injected, “I noticed that you have one cow that all of the other cows follow. Most people don’t know it, but cows live in a matriarchal society. Bulls are a necessary part of every herd, but they are incidental. Cows follow a boss cow. I noticed that your herd follows an old brindled cow. If we tether that cow behind the wagon, the others will follow her. That will make controlling them much easier.”
Edie smiled at Dan’s observation. “If you’ll tie the barrels to the wagon, I’ll bury enough bacon in salt to use as food and cooking oil, and we’ll also take potatoes, onions, and dried beans to make soup. You can shoot rabbits for fresh meat. I’ve got an iron kettle and skillet. We’ve got plenty of coffee, so food is no problem.”
“I saw a Rocking Bar branding iron hanging in the barn, so I’ll round up the cows, brand the calves, and shoe the horses while you get the wagon ready. We can leave in two days. The ranch will be left unprotected, but if we’re lucky no one will know that we are gone and rustlers won’t come by and take the rest of your horses and cows.”
“That’s a chance we’ll have to take,” Edie acknowledged.
Chapter 6
On the night before the drive, Dan hid extra guns, knives, and cartridges in the wagon, and made sure he had plenty of wheel grease. He loaded extra blankets for the cold desert nights.
Early the next morning, Dan got on his horse, and Edie took the reigns of the wagon. This was a great adventure for Venie. She was so excited she couldn’t sit still. Edie was smiling as they headed west.
Dan chose a piebald roan that was fast and eager for the trail. It was a beauty with many colors and big for a cow pony. He carried an extra pistol in his saddlebag and a rifle in his saddle scabbard.
The old brindled cow fought the tether but settled down after a spell, and her bellow was like a trumpet for the rest of the herd to follow. They wanted to cover as much ground as they could while the terrain was flat and the animals were rested.
“If we follow this stream, it will lead us to the main river and the fort is near the fork,” Edie offered. “The stream bed is sandy and easy to travel. Why don’t we just follow the stream?”
“We’ll follow it when we can, but because it wanders too much, it would take too long. I’ll ride up on a hill from time to time, so I can see where the stream leads, and we’ll cut across the big bends making the distance shorter. If you get tired, let me know, and I’ll spell you at the reins. We’ll stop by the stream around noon to let the cows rest and graze.”
“Do you think we’ll see any Indians?” Edie wanted to know.
”We might; they’re out here. But they probably won’t bother us since we present no threat to them. I lived among the Arapaho and Comanche for a little while, and I learned a lot about them and spoke their language.” He didn’t want to frighten Edie and Venie.
“Indians will trade hides for knives, whisky,
salt, and iron pots. They always want iron pots. They’ve cooked their food in clay pots over open fires for hundreds of years, but they prefer iron pots. We don’t need hides, but we might need their help. I brought along a few extra knives to be used as gifts. Indians make great scouts, but white men present a far greater threat to us than Indians do. Indians might steal a horse or a cow, but white men will steal the whole damn herd.”
Dan, forever on the alert, scanned the horizon, and commented, “Always watch for dust rising off the prairie. Do you see that dust off to the east? I’ve been watching it for about an hour now. Only an animal or a person would stir up dust like that. We’re being followed. I’ll drop back as though I’m checking on the herd, and take a look at whatever or whoever is making that dust. If you need me, just fire a shot. I won’t be far.”
“Be careful, Dan,” Edie said as she tucked a rifle in the seat beside her.
The day was warm, but not too hot. Hardly a breeze was blowing, so the dust Dan pointed to hung in the air.
"How can you check on whatever is making that trail of dust without making one yourself?"
“I can’t control how much dust my horse kicks up, but I can control how much I kick up if I’m on foot,” Dan explained.
After getting to a place where he could, Dan tethered his roan and walked to the rim of the gulley. He looked over the rim and spotted two men. They were rough-hewn gunmen, wearing big, black hats, dressed for riding. Their faces were stern, and they were riding good horses.
They were out to make a buck, and to earn that buck they had to kill. Killing was nothing new to them; they had been doing it for years, and it showed on their hard, sun-weathered faces and their well-worn holsters.
To Dan, they were just another threat to be dealt with, but a gunfight was nothing for a child to see, and it was better if Edie didn’t watch either.
Killing innocent men wasn’t Dan’s style, so, he had to know these gunmen’s intent, and to know, he had to face them head on. He stayed just below the rim until they rode by, not more than twenty feet away, and then stopped them by calling out, “My name is Duncan, Daniel Duncan, are you looking for me?”
They turned in their saddles, both drawing iron as they turned. Dan fired two bullets, and the gunmen fell from their saddles, and their mounts bolted away.
“Hey,” Dan muttered. “You didn’t give me a chance to get acquainted.”
Dan shucked their holsters—it wouldn’t do for renegade Indians to get the guns. To confirm that they were hired to kill him and steal Edie’s cattle, Dan searched them. He pulled ten bright new fifty-dollar gold pieces from their pockets with a bill of sale for Rocking Bar cattle, signed: Herman Bartle, Banker of Lone Hill. That signed note left no doubt about who had hired them.
Edie heard the shooting, but since she didn’t dare expose her child to the danger of gunfire or leave her alone, Edie drove the wagon into a grove of mesquite and waited. She waited less than an hour, but it seemed longer. When Dan rode his roan into view, he was leading a steer.
“I found this steer tangled in some brush. Good thing I checked.”
“Is that all you’ve got to tell me?” Edie asked anxiously. “I heard four shots fired. What was that all about?”
“I don’t want to tell stories that tender ears shouldn’t hear.” He handed Edie the bill of sale and the ten gold coins. “I found these coins and this bill of sale on two scoundrels. Their horses bolted, so I’d better round them up or they’ll starve. Horses can’t eat while wearing bridles.”
Pulling two holsters and four six-shooters from his saddle bag, he handed them to Edie. “Drive on down to the stream slowly; I’ll catch up after I gather their horses.”
“We’ve got money now,” Edie smiled. “This changes everything.”
“Not everything,” Dan corrected. “We’ve still got to get the banker to accept payment on the mortgage, and if we show up with the money the banker paid his killers, we’ll have a lot of explaining to do. We can explain it, but the banker won’t like our explanation. I want to do it in a court of law.”
“We’ll pay him with his own money,” noted Edie.
“I’ll talk to you about it when we stop for the noon meal,” Dan called back as he rode away after the horses.
The cover on the wagon provided shelter from the sun and rain, but it blocked Edie’s view of the sky, so she had to stand up in order to look up. The sun was at the apex, meaning it was noon. Edie spied a shady spot under a cottonwood tree by the river where the stream rippled over a bed of rocks and just below the ripples was an inviting pond of clear water. She parked the wagon below the pond to prevent the cattle from muddying the water, and then she untied the boss cow to allow her to drink and graze.
While the cows drank, Edie and Venie bathed in the pond.
Dan had roped the gunmen’s horses and was following the wagon tracks when he came upon a scene more inviting than any he had ever seen—Edie and Venie were frolicking in the water, and a blanket was spread under the cottonwood with food and drink.
Dan had been feeling low for having to kill two men and bury them, but the sight of the women he had vowed to protect waiting for him to join them in a cool pond of water brought a smile to his face and made life worth living. He spoke a command to the horses in a loud voice, not because the horses had done anything wrong, but to announce his arrival.
Both the woman and her daughter were wearing their undergarments, which didn’t hide much, but Edie didn’t seem to mind.
“Come, join us,” she called out. “The water is fine. It’s warm enough to please and cool enough to be refreshing. We’ll have lunch after you’ve relaxed a bit.”
Venie was too young for it to matter, and Edie pretended not to notice the obvious, as Dan entered the water.
“I’ve got a bar of soap in my saddle bags so I’ll bathe as I cool off.” He turned away from Edie as he got into the water. His long johns didn’t hide much either.
Venie provided the diversion Dan needed, but he felt a strong current of attraction flowing toward Edie. Edie had a woman’s ability to feign lack of interest. At least, Dan hoped that was her reason for showing no sensual interest. But what if her lack of interest was real? What if she really wasn’t interested? What should he do then? This game of catch me if you can was beginning to rasp a bit.
Edie felt Dan’s confusion and exclaimed, “Let’s eat! I’m starved. After we eat, I’ll watch the herd while you take a nap.”
The idea was sound, but the suggestion that he could nap after all that had happened was ludicrous. Dan smiled. “A nap sounds good, but we’ve got to talk. As you said, things have changed. We’ve got enough money to pay the mortgage, but that banker isn’t going to give up. He wants your ranch, and he wants it bad enough to kill us all to get it. Another thing, what do we do with these cows? We can’t just turn them loose. We could drive them back to the ranch, but what then?”
“What were you going to do after we sold the cows to the army? We still have to get the banker to accept the money to pay off the mortgage.”
“That fort is commanded by Colonel Mabry. He promised to help me if I ever needed help. Well, I need help, and I’m going to ask him to keep his promise.”
“Do you think he will?” Edie asked.
“I think he will. He’s a man of honor. He might not do it right away, but his men patrol this area, and the next time they are in Lone Hill they could witness your payment to the bank. The banker wouldn’t dare turn it down. What do you think? You’re the boss.”
“Awe, come on, Dan! You and I don’t have a boss-and-help relationship. You said you were doing this because you want to, and I sure want you to; so why don’t we talk about it as you suggested?”
“If I thought the shoot-out this morning would end it, I’d say let’s go home, but I know it won’t. The thought of either you or Venie being killed by that sheriff, or some other thugs he hires, turns my stomach. I don’t like killing people, and the only way I know of
to save your ranch is to find a way to do it legally. We need someone who isn't afraid of the sheriff has to witness your payment to the bank, and the army isn’t afraid.
“If I can clean up this mess legally, I'll have a chance to clear my name back home as well. Moreover, if I can prove that I acted in self-defense. I own a beautiful farm, and I’d like to take you and Venie with me. You have a ranch, but it’s in wild country, and it’s no place to raise a little girl. She needs friends and a school to go to.”
“I never thought of it like that,” Edie confessed. “I’ve been cruel haven’t I? I’ve been thinking of myself only. We can be at the fort in two more days. I say, let’s go on to the fort.”
“Then to the fort it is. The lunch was wonderful, and I feel refreshed, so the rest of the drive will be easier.”
Chapter 7
Dan stayed awake at night and kept the panthers and wolves away. Edie slept with Venie, but when she awoke, Dan was either guarding the wagon or shooing wolves away. She lay in her blankets and watched him. He seemed withdrawn—not angry, but sad. She knew that a man needed a woman, but Dan had expressed no further interest in her as a woman after the swim in the pond. Her unintentional rebuke had hurt him. His offer to take her and Venie with him to his home was almost a proposal, but not quite. The way he looked at her, and the longing in his eyes, expressed a need that his words didn’t form.
He rode all day keeping the cows in line, scouting ahead for trouble and looking for, a place to stop for mid-day rest, or a campsite for the night. He seemed tireless, but troubled.
Men had treated Edie both good and bad, and she had learned to judge men. Dan was big, bigger than Ed by far, but he was gentle. He was exactly what most women wanted in a man. He was strong when strength was needed, but he was kind, even loving with Venie. He was gentle with animals and always a perfect gentleman. She had always known that women needed men, but she had never before realized how much men needed women. Without a woman, a man is a wanderer—like tumbleweed, they drift with the wind, seemingly unable to take root.
Danny Page 5
