FIFTEEN
Critter was mad at me. When I entered his stall, he fired a left rear hoof at my groin. He sure knows how to hurt a guy.
“Cut it out. We’re going for a trip,” I said.
I started to brush him, but he leaned into me, pushing me against the plank wall, intending to break a few of my ribs.
“You’re dog food,” I said.
I kneed him away just before he splintered my whole rib cage. He laid back his ears and clacked his teeth.
“Try that again and I’ll leave you here,” I said.
That subdued him. He hated cooped-up life in there. He suffered in there. He rolled his eyes upward like a helpless wife in there. And in between, he plotted murder and mayhem. But the threat to leave him there wrought a new cheerfulness in him, and he settled for a swat across my face with his dung-soaked tail.
“That’s better,” I said.
I brushed him real good, threw the blanket on, and my saddle over that, cinched it up, wary of another hoof, and then I stuffed a bit in his mouth and slid the bridle over his ugly ears.
I backed him out into the aisle. He sighed, farted, dropped some apples, and we were ready to travel. Critter and I had been friends for half a dozen years.
The town would take care of itself this day. Rusty and DeGraff would man the sheriff office and jail, with shotguns at the ready. But I didn’t expect trouble. All them T-Bar men wanted was to make sure there was a hanging, and the prisoner didn’t get stolen away from us. But that wasn’t gonna happen.
I steered Critter out on Wyoming Street, and soon put Doubtful behind me. It was a nippy spring day, with a few razors in the wind, but that was fine with me. I get tired of city life pretty quick. I wasn’t sure I’d stay in Doubtful for long, but the pay was pretty fine and I got to sip some red-eye now and then, and look at horseflesh, and sometimes female flesh, which was better than once-a-month ranch paydays. I buttoned my canvas coat up tight and pulled my hat low against the gusty wind out of the snowy mountains.
Critter and me, we were going on a little exploration. As long as most all of them T-Bar men and Crayfish Ruble were camping in my metropolis, I thought I’d just go have a look at the T-Bar when there was no one but a couple of caretakers around there. I just wanted to see a few things. It wasn’t that I thought King Bragg was innocent, but things didn’t add up, and I’d hate to hang a feller who didn’t do what he was said to do. I still had a few days before the big event, so I thought I’d just poke around and see what could be seen. I didn’t much like it that the only witnesses to King Bragg’s killing spree of T-Bar men was other T-Bar men.
Critter, he was so happy to get out of jail that he was almost frisky. He kept wanting to run, but I reined him in.
“We got ten miles each way, feller,” I said.
But I let him settle into a jog that was easy on my ass-end and still ate up time. The T-Bar was up the valley, farther than the Anchor Ranch owned by Admiral Bragg, which was a bone of contention. Crayfish ached to be closer to town, and had designs on Bragg’s property so he could ride into town most any time and entertain the ladies. But Bragg had got here first, and had nabbed all the best land, which even had some well-watered hay meadow and a creek or two, leaving latecomers like Crayfish to settle the dry hills and long gulches.
It sure was peaceful. Even if the wind had an edge, the sun was bright and warm. I like to get out of town and see the crows flying when I need a little time away from people, who are usually at each other’s throats. Not that nature is peaceful. That hawk circling over there was pretty quick going to land on a vole or some such critter and have him for dinner. Nature’s the same as people when it comes to spilling blood, but I like the country better than the town anyway.
I steered past a mess of Anchor Ranch cattle. Bragg had started with them red shorthorns, and was trying to breed closer to Angus now. I steered toward a bunch that was all wearin’ the Anchor brand unmistakable. I continued up the road a piece and saw a horseman heading my way. Only it wasn’t male, judging from that big straw hat and the way the party sat the horse. I sort of dreaded what was coming. I guess Queen Bragg was the last person I wanted to see. She was a huffy sort, and probably would’ve tried the jailbreak her pa was cooking up, and besides, she was ornery and uppity too. But I thought I’d put up with it, seeing as how she was closing on me fast.
Sure enough, it was Queen, riding a blooded mare and wearing one of them split leather skirts so she could ride astride. I never did understand why women ride sidesaddle, and I sort of secretly was pleased to see Queen showing some sense. Well, she sailed right up and smiled.
“Howdy, Miss Bragg,” I said.
“Howdy yourself. You looking for something here?”
“Nope, just riding through.”
“Off to the Crayfish empire then.”
I wasn’t gonna tell her my business so I just stared.
“You want company?” she asked.
“No, miss, I’ll just go her alone.”
“Well, you’ve got company,” she said, steering that blooded horse in beside me.
“I’m doing fine alone, miss, so you just get along now and take the morning air, and I’ll be on my way.”
“You’re stuck with me.”
I surrendered a little. “Only until we get to the T-Bar range,” I said. “This is your turf, so I’ll somehow manage to survive the next mile or two if I try real hard and you don’t try no more jailbreaks.”
She laughed, damn her. How do you chase off some woman like her without threatening to shoot her and the
