Lonesome Dove Part 53

"I'm enjoying this whiskey," Augustus said. "A man is foolish to give up the stable pleasure of life just to follow a bunch of s.h.i.tting cattle."

"You have a point, and it's a point I've often taxed myself with," Wilbarger said. "If you're such a normal boy then how come you done it?"

"Unfinished business in Ogallala, Nebraska," Augustus said. "I'd hate to grow old without finishing it."

"I see," Wilbarger said. "Another shy lady who must have got abducted."

They drank until the bottle was empty.

"If you had two, I wish you'd brought two," Augustus said. "I need to get back in practice drinking."

"Well, if we don't get across that G.o.dd.a.m.n river tomorrow, I'll see if I can rustle up another one," Wilbarger said, standing up. "I seldom get conversation like yours. I can't figure out if I like it or not, but I will admit it's conversation, which is more than can be had in my camp."

He mounted his horse and was about to ride away.

"I'll send the cook over with some breakfast," he said. "By the way, you didn't cross the path of a young sheriff from Arkansas, did you? He's up this way somewhere, and I've been worried about him."

"You must be referring to July Johnson," Augustus said. "We left him four days ago. He was headed on north."

"Well, he had a funny crew with him. I was just a little uneasy," Wilbarger said. "I found him a likable man, but inexperienced."

"He's got more experience now," Augustus said. "Blue Duck killed his crew."

"Killed all three of them?" Wilbarger asked, startled. "I even offered that young boy a job."

"He should have took it," Augustus said. "We buried them west of here."

"That Duck must be a hard son of a b.i.t.c.h," Wilbarger said.

He sat on his horse a moment, looking into the night. "I had a feeling young Johnson was inexperienced," he said, and trotted off.

The next morning Wilbarger's old cook came over with some breakfast. It was a fine morning, the sun up and the plains well dried out. Augustus stepped out of the tent, but Lorena was content to look through the flaps.

"This is like living in a hotel, Lorie," Augustus said. "We got people toting us meals as fast as we can eat them."

At that point the cook got careless and the little pack mule took a kick at him which barely missed.

"He's getting tired of making this trip," the cook said.

"Or it could just be the company he's tired of," Augustus suggested. "I'd buy him if he was for sale. I've always got along with mules."

"This mule ain't for sale," the cook said, looking the camp over. "I wisht all I had to do was live in a tent."

Without further ado, he turned and went back.

When he was gone, Lorena came out and sat in the bright sun. While they ate, Wilbarger's cowboys began to move the herd toward the river.

"That Wilbarger is a curious man," Augustus said. "He's blunt-spoken, but I guess he'll do."

Before noon all the herds had crossed and the wagon and remuda of the last one was just moving out of sight to the north.

"We might as well cross while the crossing's good," Augustus said. "It could come another rain."

He folded the tent, which was awkward to carry on a horse. His horse didn't like it and tried to pitch, but Augustus finally got him settled down. The river had gone down some, and they crossed without difficulty and made camp on a long ridge about two miles to the north of it.

"Now then, we ought to be set," Augustus said, once he had the tent secured. "I imagine the boys will be along in a week or so."

Lorena didn't care if they never came along, but she was glad they had the tent. It was scarcely up before rain clouds boiled again out of the northwest.

"Let her rain, we're ready," Augustus said, taking the box of b.u.t.tons from his saddlebag. "I guess it won't stop us from playing cards."

Wilbarger had thoughtfully let them have some coffee and a side of bacon, and with those provisions and the tent and the b.u.t.tons, they pa.s.sed a week. A little of the hollowness left Lorena's cheeks, and her bruises healed. She still slept close to Augustus at night and her eyes still followed him when he went out to move the horses or do some errand. Once or twice on pretty evenings they rode over to the river. Augustus had rigged a fishing line out of some coa.r.s.e thread they had found in Adobe Walls. He bent a needle for a hook and used tadpoles for bait. But he caught no fish. Whenever he went to the river, he stripped off and bathed.

"Come in, Lorie," he said several times. "A bath won't hurt you."

Finally she did. She had not washed in a long time, and it felt good. Gus was sitting on a rock not far away, letting the sun dry him. The water was rapid, and she didn't wade in too deep. She was surprised to see how white her skin looked, once the dirt was all washed off. The sight of her own brown legs and white belly surprised her so that she began to cry. Once the crying started, she couldn't stop it-she cried as if she would never stop. Gus noticed and walked over to help her out of the river, for she was just standing there sobbing, the water up to her thighs.

Gus didn't reprimand her. "I 'spect the best thing is for you to cry it out, Lorie," he said. "You just remember, you got a long time to live."

"They shouldn't have took me," Lorena said, when she stopped crying. She got her rag of a dress and went back to the tent.

62.

ONCE THEY HIT the Territory, Newt began to worry about Indians. He was not alone in his worrying. The Irishman had heard so much about scalping that he often tugged at his own hair as if to rea.s.sure himself that it wouldn't come off easily. Pea Eye, who spent most of his time sharpening his knife or making sure he had enough ammunition, was astonished that the Irishman had never seen a scalped person. During Pea's years as a Ranger they were always finding scalped settlers, and, for that matter, several of his friends had been scalped.

The Spettle boys, who were slowly becoming more talkative, confided in Newt that they would run away and go home if they weren't afraid of getting lost.

"But you have to drive the horses," Newt pointed out. "The Captain hired you."

"Didn't know we was coming where the Indians were," Bill Spettle said.

For all the talk, they saw neither Indians nor cowboys for days on end. They saw no one-just an occasional wolf or coyote. It seemed to Newt that the sky got bigger and the country emptier every day. There was nothing to see but gra.s.s and sky. The s.p.a.ce was so empty that it was hard to imagine that there might ever be towns in it, or people.

The Irishman particularly found the huge emptiness disturbing. "I guess we left the people," he said often. Or, "When's the next people?"

n.o.body was quite sure when to expect the next people. "It's too bad Gus ain't here," Pea Eye said. "Gus would know. He's an expert on where places is at."

"Why, there's nothing north of here," Dish said, surprised that anyone would think otherwise. "You have to go east a ways to get into the towns."

"I thought we was going to strike Ogallala," Needle reminded him.

"I don't say we won't," Dish said. "That's up to the Captain. But if it ain't no bigger than Dodge, it wouldn't take much to miss it."

Po Campo had become a great favorite with the men because of the tastiness of his cooking. He was friendly and kind to everyone, and yet, like the Captain, he kept apart. Po just did it in a different way. He might sing to them in his throaty voice, but he was a man of mystery, a strange man, walking all day behind the wagon, and at night whittling his little women. Soon each of the cowboys had been given one of the carvings.

"To remind you of your sisters," Po said.

A day and a half before they reached the Canadian the rains started again. At the sight of the great gray clouds forming in the west, morale immediately sank and the men untied their slickers, resigned to a long, cold, dangerous night.

The storm that struck them half a day from the Canadian was of a different intensity because of the lightning. By midafternoon, Newt, who was as usual with the drags, became conscious of rumblings and flashing far on the west. He saw Deets conferring with the Captain, though it was hard to imagine what advice might help. They were out in the middle of the plain, far from any shelter.

All through the late afternoon lightning flickered in the west. As the sun was setting Newt saw something he had never seen: a bolt of lightning shot south to north, bisecting the setting sun. The bolt seemed to travel the whole length of the western horizon-the crack that came with it was so sharp that Newt almost expected to see the sun split in half, like a big red melon.

After that bolt, the clouds rolled down on the group like a huge black herd, snuffing out the afterglow in five minutes. The remuda became restless, and Newt rode over to help Pete Spettle, but a bolt of lightning struck so close by that his horse went into a violent fit of pitching and promptly threw him. He had kept a tight grip on the reins and the horse didn't break free, but Newt had a time calming him enough that he could remount. Claps of thunder were almost constant by then, and so loud that they made his head ring. The herd was stopped, the cowboys spread around it in as tight a ring as possible.

Just as Newt mounted, a bolt of lightning struck the edge of the herd not a hundred feet from where the Captain rode. A number of cattle instantly fell, as if clubbed by the same club. It was as if a portion of the wall of cattle had broken and fallen to earth like so many bricks.

A second later the cattle were running. They broke west in a ma.s.s and surged through the riders as if they weren't there, although Dish, the Captain and Deets were all trying to turn them. The rain came almost as the cattle began to move. Newt spurred and tried to reach the head of the herd, which was nearer him than anyone. He saw a long line of lightning curl down and strike, but the cattle didn't stop. He heard the clicking of thousands of horns as the cattle b.u.mped one another. Again he saw the bluish light rolling on the tips of the cattle's horns, and was glad when the wall of rain came. He rushed to it with relief. Rain was just wet-it didn't scare him, and he knew that if it rained hard enough the lightning would finally stop.

The cattle ran for many miles, but soon the storm was to the east of them and he had only the rain and darkness to contend with. As he had done before, he plodded along much of the night beside the cattle. Occasionally he would hear the shout of another cowboy, but it was too dark and rainy to see anything. The length of such nights was a torment. A hundred times, or a thousand, he would look in what he thought was an easterly direction, hoping to see the grayness that meant dawn. But all directions were equally black for what seemed like twenty hours.

When dawn did come, it was a low and gloomy one, the sky heavily overcast. Newt, with Dish, the Irishman and Needle Nelson, was with a large portion of the herd, perhaps a thousand cattle. No one was quite sure where the rest of the herd was. The cattle were too tired to be troublesome, so Dish loped off to look and was gone what seemed like half a day. When he finally came back, Deets was with him. The main herd was six or seven miles east.

"How many did the lightning hit?" Newt asked, remembering the sight of the cattle falling dead.

"Thirteen," Dish said. "That ain't the worst, though. It kilt Bill Spettle. Knocked him right off his horse. They're burying him now."

Newt had been feeling very hungry, but the news took his appet.i.te. He had been chatting with Bill Spettle not two hours before the storm began. Bill was beginning to be rather talkative, after hundreds of miles of silence.

"They say it turned him black," Dish remarked. "I didn't see it."

Newt was never to see where Bill Spettle was buried. When they rejoined the main herd it was on the move, the grave somewhere behind on the muddy plain. No one knew quite what to say to Pete Spettle, who had somehow held the remuda together all night. He was holding it together still, though he looked weary and stunned.

The men were all starving, so Call allowed them to stop for a quick feed, but only a quick one. It was looking like rain again. He knew the Canadian was near and he wanted to cross it before more rains came; otherwise they might be trapped for a week.

"Ain't we gonna rest?" Jasper asked, appalled that they were required to keep driving after such a night.

"We'll rest north of the river," Call said.

Deets had been sent to find a crossing, but came back almost before he had left. The Canadian was only four miles away, and there was a crossing that had obviously been used by many herds.

"We all gonna have to swim," he said, to Jasper's consternation.

"I just hope we don't have to swim it in a dern rainstorm," Dish said, looking at the heavy clouds.

"I don't see what difference it makes," Needle said. "It can get just so wet, and if you're swimming you're bound to be wet."

"It oughta quit raining, it's rained enough," Pea Eye said, but the heavens ignored him.

Call was more worried than he let on. They had already lost a boy that day-another boy hastily buried, who would never see his home again. He had no wish to risk any more, and yet the river had to be crossed. He loped up to look at the crossing and satisfied himself that it was safe. The river was high, but it wasn't a wide river-they wouldn't need to swim far.

He rode back to the herd. Many of the men had changed into their dry clothes while he was gone, a wasteful effort, with the river coming up.

"You best strip off when we get to the river or you'll just get those clothes wet too," Call said. "Wrap your clothes up good in your slickers so you'll have something dry to put on when we get across."

"Ride naked?" Jasper asked, shocked that such a thing would be required of him. Northern travel was proving even worse than he had thought it would be. Bill Spettle had been so stiffened when they found him that they had not been able to straighten him out properly-they had just wrapped him in a bedroll and stuck him in a hole.

"Well, I'd rather be naked a spell than to have to travel in wet duds, like we done all last night," Pea Eye said.

When they approached the river, the herd was held up so the men could strip off. It was so chilly that Newt got gooseb.u.mps all over his body when he undressed. He wrapped his clothes and tied them high on his saddle, even his boots. The sight of all the men riding naked would have been amusing if he hadn't been so tired and nervous about the crossing. Everyone looked white as a fish belly, except their hands and faces, which were brown.

"Good lord, we're a bunch of beauties," Dish said, surveying the crew. "Deets is the best-looking of the lot, at least he's one color. The rest of us is kind of brindled."

n.o.body expected weather conditions to get worse, but it seemed that in plains weather there was always room for surprises. A squall blew up as they were starting the cattle into the water, and by the time Old Dog was across the twenty yards of swimming water, Dish on one side of him and Call on the other, the gray sky suddenly began to spit out little white pellets. Dish, who was out of the saddle, hanging onto his saddle strings as his horse swam, saw the first pellets plunking into the water and jerked with fear, for he a.s.sumed they were bullets. It was only when he looked up and had a small hailstone peck at his cheek that he realized what was happening.

Call, too, saw the hail begin to pepper the river. At first the stones were small, and he wasn't too worried, for he had seen fleeting hail squalls pa.s.s in five minutes.

But by the time he and Dish hit the north sh.o.r.e and regained their wet saddles, he realized it was more than a squall. Hailstones were hitting all around him, bouncing off his arms, his saddle, his horse-and they were getting larger by the minute. Dish came riding over, still naked, trying to shelter his face and head with one arm. Hailstones were falling everywhere, splashing into the river, bouncing off the backs of the cattle and plunking into the muddy banks.

"What will we do, Captain?" Dish asked. "They're getting bigger. Reckon they'll beat us to death?"

Call had never heard of anyone being killed by hailstones, but he had just taken a hard crack behind the ear from a stone the size of a pullet egg. Yet they couldn't stop. Two of the boys were in the river, swimming, and the cattle were still crossing.

"Get under your horse if it gets worse," he said. "Use your saddle for cover."

"This horse would kick me to death, if I was to try that," Dish said. He quickly unsaddled and used his saddle blanket for immediate shelter.

Newt didn't know what was happening when the first hailstones. .h.i.t. When he saw the tiny white pellets bouncing on the gra.s.s he a.s.sumed he was at last seeing snow.

"Look, it's snowing," he said excitedly to Needle Nelson, who was near him.

"It ain't snow, it's hail," Needle said.

"I thought snow was white," Newt said, disappointed.

"They're both white," Needle said. "The difference is, hail is harder."

Within a few minutes, Newt was to find out just how hard. The sky began to rain b.a.l.l.s of ice-small at first, but then not so small.

"By G.o.d, we better get in that river," Needle said. He had a large hat and was trying to hide under it, but the hailstones pounded his body.

Newt looked around for the wagon, but couldn't see it, the hail was so thick. Then he couldn't see Needle, either. He spurred hard and raced for the river, though he didn't know what he was supposed to do once he got there. As he ran for the river, he almost trampled Jasper, who had dismounted and made a kind of tent of his slicker and saddle-he was crouching under it in the mud.

It was hailing so thickly that when they did reach the river Mouse jumped off a six-foot bank, throwing Newt. Again, he managed to hang onto his reins, but he was naked, and hailstones were pounding all around him. When he stood up he happened to notice that Mouse made a kind of wall. By crouching close under him Newt avoided most of the hailstones-Mouse absorbed them. Mouse wasn't happy about it, but since he had taken it upon himself to jump off the bank, Newt didn't feel very sorry for him.

He crouched under the horse until the hailstorm subsided, which was not more than ten minutes after it began. The muddy banks of the Canadian were covered with hailstones, and so were the plains around them. The cattle and horses crunched through the hail as they walked. Isolated stones continued to plop down now and then, bouncing off the ones already there.

Newt saw that the cattle had crossed the wild Canadian, the river that had scared everybody, without much help from the cowboys, who were scattered here and there, naked, crouched under their saddles or, in some cases, their horses. It was a funny sight; Newt was so glad to be alive that suddenly he felt like laughing. Funniest of all was Pea Eye, who stood not thirty yards away, up to his neck in the river, with his hat on. He was just standing there calmly, waiting for the hail to stop.

"How come you got in the water?" Newt asked, when Pea waded out.

"It's fine protection," Pea said. "It can't hail through water."