“Too much worry for my mind,” Rolf said with a decisive nod of his head. “If someone else owned it, you could have a steady job without any worry. Don’t you see, Nathan?”
“I guess,” Nathan said, not seeing at all. “If I buy a ranch, I’ll let you ride fence for me. It’d be up to you.”
“Why, I’d like that a lot!”
“Well,” Nathan said, “I plan to buy and sell a couple of ranches. Maybe I’ll even keep the best one and you can ride its fences on that dapple horse.”
Rolf looked like he’d died and gone to heaven. “I just can’t think of anything nicer.”
“What about girls?” Nathan asked out of curiosity. “Did you ever know a girl?”
“Why sure! I knowed lots of girls. Had four sisters. Two older, two younger. I know all about girls.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Nathan said. “What I meant was if you ever slept with a girl?”
“Yeah,” Rolf said, dipping his chin and avoiding looking over at Nathan. “I slept with my sisters every winter until I was twelve. We only had a few blankets and it was warmer that way … but they all snored.”
Nathan actually chuckled. “I give up,” he said. “I don’t think you ever had a girl.”
“There was one that was different than my sisters,” Rolf confessed. “I wanted to kiss her, but kindly don’t tell anybody.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t do that. What was her name?”
Rolf’s face softened. “Her name was Miss Sally Mayfield and she was real pretty, Nathan. But she upped and got married and, for some damned reason, wouldn’t hardly speak to me no more. After that I gave up on ‘em.”
“Probably a hasty decision,” Nathan said. “The right women can bring a lot of pleasure to a man.”
Rolf’s cheeks reddened. “I guess I’d better ride on up ahead,” he said, spurring his sorry horse into a trot.
Nathan watched the kid ride away. He was so pathetic, he was actually kind of endearing. Like a puppy or something, only this pup had fangs. Nathan again reminded himself of how good Rolf was with a gun and how he’d better not forget the exploding pine cone.
“Whiskey Creek is just up ahead,” Rolf announced near sundown as they rode through the cold and drenching rain. “But it’s a rough place, so maybe we shouldn’t stop.”
“Have they got a saloon, a gambling hall, and a hotel with dry beds?”
“Yeah, but-“
“Then that’s where we’ll spend the night,” Nathan said. “How much farther?”
“Right up ahead, less’n a mile.”
“Anyone in Whiskey Creek know you were riding with those two men I killed?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Then you’ll stay in the room and that way there will be no problems,” Nathan said. “I’ll have some food brought up.”
“Be mighty nice of you,” Rolf said. “Haven’t slept in a hotel room much.”
“No,” Nathan said, “I don’t expect that you have. Well, you will tonight and every other night we can find one.”
“Cost a lot of money to stay in hotel rooms every night.”
“It’s my money,” Nathan said, “so don’t let it worry at your mind.”
Lightning crashed in the distance, and when the roll of thunder passed, Rolf shouted, “But if You spend all your money on hotels, Nathan, you won’t have none left to buy that ranch and I won’t have a job ridin’ your fences!”
Nathan just shook his head. “It’ll all turn out fine, Rolf. Trust me.”
“Yes, sir, but I sure wish you’d save your money. We could put up our horses and stay with ‘em at the livery and save lots.”
“Not on your simple life!” Nathan yelled into the storm as the lights of Whiskey Creek blurred wetly through the falling rain. “Not on your life!”
From the lights, Nathan could tell that Whiskey Creek was a decent-sized town with at least a couple of thousand residents.
“First stop is the livery,” he said.
“It’s at this end of town,” Rolf said. “But old man Waite is kind of a sourpuss, and I doubt he’ll be very happy to have us show up in a storm.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll even make him smile,” Nathan promised.
“How?”
“Cash always makes a man happy. I’ll just pay him enough to keep grinning.”
“You don’t know Waite.”
“Maybe not,” Nathan agreed, “but I sure do know the power of cash.”
When they arrived at the livery with their horses, it took some doing to get the old liveryman to open his barn door. He wore bib overalls, had a full beard, smelled like a pig, and constantly spat tobacco juice.
