Part 10 (1/2)
”No. I bought him.”
”If you don't mind tellin' me--how much?”
”A hundred.”
”Was Wishful drunk?”
”No.”
”Well, you got a real hoss, there. The water is right close. Old Dobe knows where it is. Just lift off your saddle and turn him loose--or mebby you better hobble him the first night. He ain't used to travelin'
with you, yet.”
”I have a stake-rope,” said Bartley.
”A hoss would starve on a stake-rope out here. I'll make you a pair of hobbles, p.r.o.nto. Then he'll stick with my hosses.”
”Where are they?”
”Runnin' around out there somewhere. They never stray far from camp.”
Bartley watched Cheyenne untwist a piece of soft rope and make a pair of serviceable hobbles.
”Now he'll travel easy and git enough gra.s.s to keep him in shape. And them hobbles won't burn him. Any time you're shy of hobbles, that's how to make 'em.”
Later, as Bartley sat by the fire and ate, Cheyenne asked him if Panhandle had been seen in town since the night of the c.r.a.p game.
Bartley told him that he had seen nothing of Panhandle.
”He's ridin' this country, somewhere,” said Cheyenne. ”You're headed for Steve's ranch?”
”Yes.”
”Well, Steve'll sure give you the time of your life.”
”I think I'll stay there a few days, if the Senator can make room for me.”
”Room! Wait till you see Steve's place. And say, if you want to get wise to how they run a cattle outfit, just throw in with the boys, tell 'em you're a plumb tenderfoot and can't ride a bronc, nohow, and that you never took down a rope in your life, and that all you know about cattle is what you've et, and then the boys will use you white. There's nothin'
puts a fella in wrong with the boys quicker than for him to let on he is a hand when he ain't. 'Course the boys won't mind seem' you top a bronc and get throwed, just to see if you got sand.”
Meanwhile Cheyenne manipulated the coffee-pot and skillet most effectively. And while Bartley ate his supper, Cheyenne talked, seemingly glad to have a companion to talk to.
”You see,” he began, apropos of nothing in particular, ”entertainin'
folks with the latest news is my long suit. I'm kind of a travelin'
show, singin' and packin' the news around to everybody. 'Course folks read the paper and hear about somebody gettin' married, or gettin' shot or leavin' the country, and then they ask me the how of it. I been ramblin' so long that I know the pedigrees of 'most everybody down this way.
”Newspapers is all right, but folks get plumb hungry to git their news with human trimmin's. I recollec' I come mighty near gettin' in trouble, onct. Steve had some folks visitin' down to his ranch. They was new to the country, and seems they locked horns with a outfit runnin' sheep just south of Springerville. Now, I hadn't been down that way for about six months, but I had heard of that ruckus. So after Steve lets me sing a couple of songs, and I got to feelin' comfortable with them new folks, I set to and tells 'em about the ruckus down near Springerville. I guess the fella that told me must 'a' got his reins crossed, for pretty soon Steve starts to laugh and turns to them visitors and says: 'How about it, Mr. Smith?'
”Now, Smith was the fella that had the ruckus, and I'd been tellin' how that sheep outfit had run _him_ out of the country. He was a young, long, spindlin' hombre from Texas--a reg'lar Whicker-bill, with that drawlin' kind of a voice that hosses and folks listen to. I knowed he was from Texas the minute I seen him, but I sure didn't know he was the man I was talkin' about.
”Everybody laughed but him and his wife. I reckon she was feelin' her oats, visitin' at the Senator's house. I don't know what she said to her husband, but, anyhow, afore I left for the bunk-house that evenin', he says, slow and easy, that if I was around there next mornin', he would explain all about that ruckus to me, when the ladies weren't present, so I wouldn't get it wrong, next time. I seen I had made a mistake for myself, and I didn't aim to make another, so I just kind of eased off and faded away, bus.h.i.+n' down that night a far piece from Senator Steve's ranch. I know them Whicker-bills and I didn't want to tangle with any of 'em.”