After several more minutes of discussion, Duff once again addressed the meeting.
“I have a suggestion. For the wee ranchers, continue to look for cows that have wandered into your herd, ’n if you can’t take them back, right away, let the owner know that you have them. That way he’ll be for knowing that you dinnae steal them, ’n he’ll know that he hasn’t lost them.”
“I’ve been doin’ that,” Prosser said.
A few of the other small ranchers made the same affirmation.
“And for you larger ranchers, if ye find yourselves missing cattle, give some time before you start worrying that your cows have been stolen. As we have all noticed here, of late, our cows have taken to wandering off on their own. If you’ll but wait, they may be brought back to you.”
“If a hundred cows are taken, they didn’t just wander off,” Houser said.
“Perhaps not, Mr. Houser,” Duff said without further amplification. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, if there be no other subjects to discuss, this meeting is ended.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
After the meeting Duff, Meagan, Elmer, and Vi had dinner at the Cattle Stampede Restaurant.
“Ha,” Elmer said. “Did you see the look on Houser’s face when he come into the meetin’ ’n seen all of us there? He looked like he had just chewed up a whole hot pepper.”
“Why was he so upset?” Vi asked. “Didn’t you invite him?”
“Yeah, Duff invited ’im, but that was the thing. He said we didn’t have no right to invite nobody, on account of he was chairman of the group ’n he was the onliest one who could do the invitin’.”
“How did you handle it?” Meagan asked.
“Oh, I told him it was nae an official meeting, but was only a wee gathering of friends and neighbors,” Duff replied.
“A wee gathering,” Elmer said with a laugh. “We had nigh on to a hundred people there.”
“Well, you would have had one more if I hadn’t been working on Mrs. Trotter’s new dress,” Meagan said. “She wants it by Wednesday.” She reached over to put her hand on Duff’s arm. “But I know I was well represented.”
“You got that right. We was all represented real good with Duff, ’cause he pretty much wound up givin’ Houser pure ole dee hell.”
“Be careful of that man, Duff. There’s something about him, something in his eyes.”
Meagan remembered sharing a table with him at Tacky Mack’s, and she had a sudden thought.
“Duff, you don’t think . . . ?” Meagan started, then she stopped as if not wanting to complete the question. “I mean, the Hanlons, Jenny and Asa, you don’t think . . . no, it couldn’t be.”
“I know the question you fear to ask, Meagan, and I surely hope that Houser has nothing to do with it.”
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t put it past ’im,” Elmer said. “I ain’t got a lot of book learnin’ like some people, but there’s somethin’ I learned a long time ago, ’n that’s how to see evil in a person. ’N I see it in Houser.”
“Aye,” Duff agreed. “He does have a touch o’ the sulfur about him, that’s for sure.”
* * *
When Duff and Elmer returned home, they were met by Emerson. “Boss, we’ve got a puzzle here,” Emerson said.
“And what would the puzzle be?”
“You know all them cows that was gone when I went over to Percy’s ranch to take them provisions to Sam?”
“Aye.”
“Well, they ain’t gone no more.”
“Are ye for telling me, Steven, that the cattle have been returned to Percy’s ranch?”
“No, sir, I ain’t a-tellin’ you that at all, ’cause that ain’t what’s happened to ’em. They ain’t back in Percy’s ranch, on account of them cows is all right here at Sky Meadow.”
“What?” Elmer asked. “Are you sayin’ we have all of Percy’s cattle?”
“Yes, sir, that’s exactly what I’m sayin’,” Emerson replied. “They’re all mixed in with the Sky Meadow herd. It was Calhoun that seen ’em first, ’n he pointed ’em out to me. I started countin’ em, ’n I done seen near a hundred of ’em. ’N here’s the thing, Percy didn’t have no more ’n a hundred ’n fifty head on his whole ranch.”
“Now, how in Sam Hill do you think all them cows get here from Percy’s place?” Elmer asked.
“We was talkin’ ’bout just that same thing,” Emerson said. “’N ’bout the onliest thing we can come up with is figurin’ that maybe when the house caught on fire, that maybe the cows all got scared ’n run over here.”
“That don’t seem likely a-tall,” Elmer said. “I mean, the whole herd just comin’ over here?”
“We are the closest ranch to Percy’s ranch,” Emerson said. “’N what we got here is Angus cows, just like what Percy has. ’N remember, a lot of Percy’s cows come from our herd to begin with. It could be that when them cows got scared they just wanted to come back to someplace they remember. And them that didn’t come from here, just sort of natural followed the rest of ’em that did.”
“Yeah,” Elmer agreed. “I reckon maybe that could be.”
“Have you separated Mr. Gaines’s cattle from our herd?” Duff asked.
“Yes, sir, I got ’em all in the brandin’ corral now. We’re lookin’ now to see if there’s any more.”
“Good. We’ll keep them here until Mr. Gaines returns.”
“What is it he’s goin’ to be comin’ home to? He ain’t got no house, no more,” Elmer said.
“Yes, sir, ’n I got somethin’ to say about that, too,” Emerson said. “I been talkin’ to some of the other fellers, ’n we got us an idea, that is, if you’ll go along with it, Mr. MacCallister.”
“What is your idea?”
“Well, sir, you might know that me ’n Percy was just real good friends all the time he was workin’ here, ’n even after he started his own ranch, why, we was still good friends.”
“Aye, I’m aware of that.”
“What I was thinkin’ is, after Percy gets back maybe me ’n the others could
