mislaid, had to squint to make out many details; but when he did squint he discovered what he already suspected, which was that there was no way of deducing where Inish Scull might be.
'Why, there's nothing there, not even a creek,' the Governor said. 'Inish has lost himself, and over a goddamn horse.' 'Well, it was his warhorse, Governor,' Gus remarked. 'He held that horse in high regard.' 'Yes, and what about his duty to the state of Texas?' Governor Pease said. 'Did he hold that in high regard, sir?' Call and Gus had no idea what to say.
They had never met a governor before. Call thought they ought to talk as little as possible, but Augustus, as usual, found it hard to keep quiet.
'He made us both captains, before he went,' he said. 'I guess he thought we could get the boys home safe, and we done it, and recovered those captives too.' 'Yes, though I doubt the woman will recover --they rarely do,' the Governor said. 'I'll endorse your promotions--the state can use a pair of competent young captains like yourselves. What stumps me is Inish. How did he expect to catch up with Kicking Wolf on foot when he had already failed to catch him horseback?' The Governor went to the window and looked out.
Far to the west huge white thunderheads floated like warships across a blue sky.
'Inish Scull is a rich man,' he said.
'He's always been a rich man. He could buy and sell me ten times over, and I'm no pauper.
He don't need the job. He was only rangering because it interested him, and now it's stopped interesting him, I guess.
'So away he went,' he added, turning back to the young men. 'Away he went. He might be off to California to prospect for gold, for all we know. Meanwhile we've still got several thousand hostile Indians to contend with, and a whole nation to the south that don't like us one bit. It's a poor performance, I say.' 'At least he was with Famous Shoes,' Gus pointed out. 'I expect Famous Shoes will guide him home.' Governor Pease was staring out the window at the Scull mansion, its strange turrets just visible above the trees along Shoal Creek.
'I'm the governor, but the rich Yankee son-of-a-bitch has never answered to me, that I recall,' the Governor said. 'Every time I call him in for a report, that Yankee nose of his goes up--but that ain't the worst of it. The worst is that he's left us Inez. I expect we can hold our own with the Comanches and I believe we can whip back the Mexicans, but the heavens are going to ring when Inez Scull finds out that her husband didn't care to come home.' Neither Call nor Augustus knew what to say about that.
'She's richer than Inish, you know,' Governor Pease said. 'They're quite a couple, the Sculls. A Yankee snob and a Southern slut. They're hell to manage, both of them.' The Governor stared glumly out the window for a while. The fact that the two young rangers were still in his office seemed to slip his mind. Below him he could see Bingham sitting in the buggy, waiting to take someone somewhere; but it was not until his reverie ended and he saw the two dusty young rangers standing by his desk that he realized Bingham was waiting for them.
'Why, gentlemen, excuse me--y'll think I'm daft,' Governor Pease said. 'Inish Scull used good judgment in making you captains, and I'll second it. You've both got a bright future, if you can keep your hair.' He had given the young rangers a careful looking over. They were polite in deportment, unlike their commander, the wild millionaire soldier who had just marched off into the wilderness for reasons of his own. Governor Pease was suddenly moved to emotion, at the sight of such sturdy, upright young fellows.
'You're the future of Texas, fine young men like yourselves,' he said. 'Why, either of you could wind up governor, before you're done, if you apply yourselves diligently and keep to the straight and narrow.' He patted them both on the shoulder and gave them a warm handshake before sending them away-- Augustus claimed the man had even had tears in his eyes.
'I didn't see any tears,' Call said, when they were in the buggy again, heading back down the hill toward the ranger corrals. 'Why would he cry if he likes us so much?' 'I don't know and it don't matter --we're captains now, Woodrow,' Augustus said. 'You heard the Governor. He said we're the future of Texas.' 'I heard him,' Call said. 'I just don't know what he meant.' 'Why, it means we're fine fellows,' Augustus said.
'How would he know that?' Call asked. 'He's never even seen us before today.' 'Now, Woodrow--don't be contrary,' Gus said. 'He's the governor, and a governor can figure things out quicker than other folks. If he says we're the future of Texas, then I expect it's so.' 'I ain't being contrary,' Call said. 'But I still don't know what he meant.'
When Slipping Weasel came racing into camp with the news that Kicking Wolf had stolen the Buffalo Horse, there was an uproar at what a big joke it was on the Texans. Old Slow Tree was still there, talking to anyone who would listen about how the time for war with the Texans was over, how it was time for the People to grow corn, how the buffalo would soon disappear, so that the People would starve if they did not soon learn the ways of the whites and plant and reap.
Buffalo Hump had started avoiding the old chief whenever he could do so without giving offense.
When Slipping Weasel came into camp Buffalo Hump was boiling a buffalo skull in a big pot he had taken from a white farm on the Trinity River.
Boiling the skull was taking a long time-- Buffalo Hump had to send Lark off several times to gather more firewood. He was boiling the skull because he wanted to make himself a new shield and he needed the thickest part of the bone for the center of his shield. Very few warriors bothered to make bone shields anymore; it was slow work.
And yet only the thickest part of the buffalo skull would turn back a rifle bullet. He had been fortunate enough to kill a bull buffalo with an exceptionally large head. The buffalo had been watering in the Blue River when Buffalo Hump saw him. He had driven the bull into deep water and killed him with an arrow; then he took the head and carried it all the way back to Texas, despite the flies and the smell, so he could boil it properly and make his shield. The skull was the thickest Buffalo Hump had seen in a long life of hunting--it was so thick that it would turn away any bullet, even one fired at point-blank range. It was important to him that he make the shield correctly. It would not be a very large shield, but it would protect him during the years he had left to raid.
All over camp the warriors were whooping and dancing because of the news Slipping Weasel had brought. It had been poor hunting lately, mainly because old Slow Tree was too lazy to go back to his own hunting ground--the game in the big canyon was exhausted. Naturally the news about Kicking Wolf's audacious theft cheered the young men up. Many of them wondered why it had not occurred to them to steal the Buffalo Horse. If they ate him they would not have to hunt so hard for a while.
Buffalo Hump thought it was a good joke too, but he did not allow the news to distract him from the task at hand, which was to fashion the best possible shield from the great head he had taken on the Blue River, far north of his usual hunting range.
