wolves and grizzlies.
'We may be long periods without water, and the grub may not be of the best. We can stop for nothing, man, woman, or beast, once we start moving again. We've taken a contract to deliver these cattle before winter sets in, and we're bound an' determined to do it.
'If you come with us, we'll play no favorites. You'll stand to the drive as the men do, and at times you may be called upon to help. It is a hard land, ma'am, and we'll have no truck with those who come with idle hands.' Her chin came up. 'I can do my share! I will do my share!' Well, I looked at her, the lift to the chin and the glint in her eyes, and I thought of Orrin there beside her, and I remembered the failure of his first marriage. If this girl stood to it, she was a woman to ride the river with, and Orrin wanted it, and her. Surely, no woman would have a harder time of it.
'All right,' I said, 'but no whining, no asking for favors. You'll be treated like a lady.' 'You need have no fears.' She stood straight and looked me in the eye. 'I can stand as much as any man.' 'Can you ride, ma'am? And can you shoot?' 'I can ride. I can shoot a little.' 'Come along, then, and if your brother is alive, we will find him.' 'What became of Kyle Gavin?' Orrin asked.
She frowned a little. 'Why, I don't know.
He was very attentive, and then suddenly he was there no longer. I don't know when he left or how.' When I went outside, Cap was riding in through the gate with Highpockets Haney. 'Cap,' I said, 'if you see any familiar faces don't call them by name.' He looked at me out of those wise old eyes, eyes wiser and older than the man himself, and he said, 'I learned a long time ago that a name is only what a person makes it.' He stepped down and said, 'What about those womenfolks?' 'We're takin' them with us, Cap. One of them is tough enough and strong enough to charge hell with a bucket of water. The other one thinks she is.' Cap hesitated, one hand resting on his saddle. 'Tell, you and me know better than any of them what lies ahead.' 'We do,' I said.
We had ridden the empty trails with a hollow moon in the sky and the bare peaks showing their teeth at the sky. We'd seen men die and horses drop, and we'd seen cattle wandering, dazed from thirst and heat. The leather of our hides had been cured on the stem by hot winds and cold, by blown dust and snow and hail falling. We knew what lay ahead, and we knew that girl might die. We knew she might go mad from heat and dust, and we knew I'd no business in letting her come. Yet I'd seen the desperation in her eyes and the grim determination in her mouth and chin.
'Orrin's taken with her, Cap,' I said, 'and I think she'll stay the route.' 'If you say so,' he said. He tied his horse. 'That person you thought I might put a name to?' 'Mary McCann,' I said, 'and she's a damned fine cook.' I looked at him slyly.
'An' for much of her life she's been in love with a miserable old mountain man turned cownurse who drifts where the wind takes him.' 'I wouldn't know anybody like that,' he said, and went inside.
We got the pemmican and other supplies we needed, including the ammunition, but we couldn't buy them for money. They needed cattle. When we started out of Fort Carlton, we were thirty head short of what we brought in. They wanted the beef, we needed th
supplies, and lucky it was because none of us were carrying much money. We'd spent a good bit and were running shy of cash money.
We went over the bluffs and into higher, beautiful pasture land, and we let the cattle graze. God knew what lay before us, but the best advice we got was to fatten our stock whilst we could.
Many a time those days I wished I had the words of Orrin, who could speak a beautiful tongue.
It was the Welsh in us, I guess, coming out in him, but it left me saddened for my own lack. I hadn't no words with which to tell of the land, that beautiful green land that lay before and around us. Some didn't like the cottonwoods. Well, maybe they weren't just that for folks up here called them poplars, and maybe that's what they were. Only they were lovely with their green leaves rustling.
Westward we marched, short-handed by two, for we'd left the Ox and Gilcrist behind.
It had all come to a head when we were fixing to leave Carlton. Gilcrist had come to me with the Ox at his shoulder. 'We want our time,' Gilcrist said.
When he had his money in his hand, Gilcrist said, 'Someday I'm goin' to look you up, Sackett. Someday I want to find out if you can really handle that gun.' 'Follow me back to the States,' I said, 'and choose your time.' 'To the States? Why the States?' 'I'm a visitor here,' I said, 'and a man has no call to get blood on a neighbor's carpet.' Westward we went following a route north of the North Saskatchewan through a country of hills and poplars with many small lakes or sloughs.
There was no shortage of firewood now, for at every stop we found broken branches under the trees.
It was a lovely, green, rolling country even now in the latter days of July.
Anxiously, we watched the skies, knowing that cold came soon in these northern regions and that we had but little time. The nights were cool and the mornings crisp; the campfires felt good.
'A good frost would help us,' Cap said, nursing a cup of coffee by the fire, 'kill off some of these mosqueeters an' flies.' We were camped by Bear Lake, a place I could have stayed forever. How many times I have found such campsites! Places so beautiful it gave a man the wi/ls to see or to think back on. So many times we said, 'We've got to come back some time!' an' knowin' all the while we never would.
That night, we heard the wolves howl, and there were foxes barking right out by the cattle. In the night, we heard a squabble, an' Tyrel an' me came out of our sleep, guns in hand. Then the noise quieted down, and we went back to sleep, only to be awakened again with a wild bawling of a cow, the crack of a whip, and the yelp of a wolf.
Come daylight, we learned some wolves had jumped a steer; he'd been scratched in some brush earlier and had blood on him. Orrin had come in with that Spanish whip he carried on his saddle, a long, wicked lash that could take the hide off. He'd used it on wolves before, and he could flick a fly from a steer's hide without touching the steer. I'd seen him do it.
The steer the wolves had attacked was so badly hurt it had to be shot.
We were breaking camp when we heard some yells, then a sound of galloping horses. In a moment, we had our rifles, but Baptiste gestured wildly and waved us back.
It was a party of m`etis wearing brass- buttoned capots, calico shirts in a variety of colors, and moleskin trousers. Their belts were beaded in red and white or blue and white, and most of them wore cloth caps, only a few having hats and one a coonskin cap.
They were a friendly, cheerful lot, talking excitedly with Baptiste whom they obviously knew well.
'They go to Fort Pitt,' he explained. 'They are hunters, and they have been to another camp, feasting.' Tyrel indicated their horses. 'Wish we had some of them. That's some of the best horseflesh I've seen.' When Baptiste suggested it, they agreed to show us some stock when we reached Fort Pitt. After drinking an enormous amount of coffee, they swung to their saddles and dashed off, whooping and yelling, at top speed.
After they had gone, Baptiste stopped me as I was mounting. 'Bad!' he whispered. 'Ver' bad! They speak of many mans, maybe ten, twelve mans near Jackfish Lake. They wait for somebody, or somet'ing. Today, they say the mans move back into woods, hide horses.' Haney came in for coffee at the nooning.
'Seen some tracks. Two riders, keepin' out of sight. I caught a flash of sunlight on a rifle and slipped around and taken a look.
They're scoutin' us.' 'White men?' 'You betcha! Well mounted, Tell, well mounted an' well armed.' Well, we had known it was coming. Now we were in wild country. If we vanished out here, who would know? Or care?
Chapter XXI
Wolves hung on our flanks as we moved out, nor would they be driven off. We had no wish to shoot and attract undue attention, nor would the waste of ammunition have done any good, for their ranks were continually added to by other wolves.
We pushed on over some flat country dotted by trees and groups of trees, crossing several small streams.
It was the thought of a stampede that worried me.
'If they scatter our stock, we lose time in the gather,' I said. 'Cap? Why don't you scout on ahead and try to find us a camp in the woods? Some place where we can fall some trees to make a so-so corral?' 'I can look,' he said.
'Ride easy in the saddle,' I said. 'This is an ugly bunch. I don't think much of them as fightin' men, but they'll
