his left hip: and the other was sent tumbling. Only in the case of one other single attacker from the wagon was the dog persistent enough that Wolf turned on him suddenly and pinned him to the ground by the neck, clamping skin and neck alike in the vise of his powerful jaws so that it choked the other animal as well as locked it in place.
The dog ki-yied in fright and fled as soon as Wolf let him up. Back at the wagon, Merry’s exploring fingers could find no sign of injury on the dog that had been neck-pinned.
Wolf, Jeebee concluded interestedly, must have a fine-tuned sense of possible responses to threats.
With time, however, the contacts between Wolf and the dogs of the wagon gradually built up patterns of tolerance between him and at least some of the males; and gradually Wolf came closer and closer, until one day he finally greeted Jeebee beside the wagon itself.
Meanwhile, as they got into the western part of South Dakota, to the north of the Badlands, the country became rougher and they left the route of the interstate more often to get to customers.
The wagon was stoutly built and could be taken across fairly open country when it was absolutely necessary, but there were definite limits to where it could go. Consequently, Paul normally chose to stick to roads. Or to the shoulders of old roads, where the road itself was too pockmarked and pitted. At other times, where it was impossible for the wagon to go to the customer, the customer came to Paul.
Usually this meant that Paul would stop the wagon in mid-afternoon and wait until the following morning before going on. If whoever had been used to trading with him at that point showed up, business was done. Otherwise, if no one appeared, Paul moved on the following morning. Those who dealt with him knew approximately when he was due in their area; and if they still existed or were interested in trade, it was up to them to show up.
If they did not, that particular stop was removed from Paul’s customer list. Paul’s practice was to travel along a road as far as he could, then stop and fire four spaced shots in the air; not from his usual rifle, but from a black-powder muzzle loader.
Almost always, within half an hour, one or more riders on horseback would appear and come to the wagon. These would later be followed by most of the whole clan or family. In a few cases Jeebee saw a small, temporary tent city set up for a day or two by the wagon while deals with Paul were made; and a certain amount of hospitality and celebration resulted.
Occasionally, where the wagon was able to go across country, they traveled where there were no roads at all; just as their forerunners, in the wagons of the nineteenth century, had traveled where there were no roads. Occasionally, they came to rivers, and Jeebee was surprised to discover that for all its weight of armor and goods, the wagon had been built to float. With the horses swimming, it could cross rivers in their path, provided the current was not too swift or the bottom too deep or rocky.
If it was either of these things, they sometimes forded. Otherwise, they turned either up the stream or down—depending upon Paul’s knowledge of the best route—until they came to a place where it was possible either to float across or wheel over safely.
Altogether, as a result, their movement across country was not swift. There were pauses of as much as two days in some locations. Nonetheless, most of their time was spent covering distance by themselves. Little by little, Jeebee fell into the routine of the wagon, became competent with the weapons, able to handle the team for stretches of three to four hours at a time, and able to hold the following remounts of horses tightly bunched behind the wagon, moving along with it.
His knowledge of his traveling partners expanded. Paul he found to be an interesting, informed if not educated, and lively conversationalist; when he felt like talking. Nick talked very little and had periods during which he seemed not to want to talk at all and was best left alone. Merry, surprisingly, gradually emerged as the best company of the three for Jeebee.
By degrees her chilliness toward him, largely a surface protection in any case, thawed; and as she began to relax with him, naturally warm spirits bubbled to the surface. She reacted instinctively and emotionally to almost everything; with the result that she could change from summer sunshine to thunder and lightning in an instant, and back to sunshine again, almost before the first rain from the storm had begun to fall.
Jeebee was amused to notice that not merely Paul and Nick, but the dogs as well, did not take her sudden small explosions of anger seriously. The dogs, in particular, made a large display of acting repentant and apologetic, but it was perfectly obvious to Jeebee after a while that they were looking forward to being lavishly petted and forgiven within the next few moments, and would have been alarmed only if this had not happened.
Gradually he found himself beginning to look for, and delight in, her wholehearted, sudden enthusiasms, her suddenly revealed depths of sympathy and understanding. In the same gradual manner, he began to realize that he had fallen in love with her, entirely without planning to. It was something that must inevitably have an effect on his partnership with Wolf.
Meanwhile, full summer took them into its flow, and other interesting things were happening. They were now into country where there was a great deal more ground cover; not so much of trees but of hills and underbrush. The result was that Wolf had begun to stay closely with them in his visits; and, bit by bit, lured by Greta, but also simply because he was becoming used to the wagon, its horses and humans, and beginning to be less shy of them, he moved in closer and closer. Until he finally ended, for short periods at least, literally traveling with the wagon itself.
After a few snaps and snarls from Greta, the dogs simply accepted Wolf as they had accepted Jeebee.
Wolf, on the other hand, did not so much accept them as ignore them.
Jeebee had expected him also to more or less ignore the people with the wagon. To a large extent he did, since he was with them only for an hour or so at a time and he came and went unexpectedly. But he did treat the wagon area now as if he had a right to be there. His attitude was different with each of the humans.
Paul, he tended to avoid, but was invariably polite to. Nick was the only one he really ignored and generally avoided. Merry, to Jeebee’s surprise, he greeted, if only occasionally. Clearly, he regarded Jeebee and himself as social outsiders.
However, at his first close meeting with Merry, Wolf was almost effusive toward her.
It was the last sort of behavior Jeebee had expected. Merry happened to be off her horse at the time, and the other dogs were within view, but not close to her, when Wolf first approached her. He went directly to her, with ears back, head low, tail wagging, and she squatted to meet him, talking to him as if he was one of the dogs. He licked at her face, squatted, and urinated a few drops, then fell on his side and rolled over on his back, as though inviting a belly scratch.
Jeebee could not repress a small feeling of jealousy. He had been with Wolf for weeks before Wolf had invited him to as much familiarity. But here he seemed ready to make friends with Merry with no further courtesies or introductions needed.
Feeling unwanted, Jeebee left them both to each other and went up front to join Paul on the wagon seat.
“Good you came up,” said Paul. “It’s about time we had a bit of a talk anyway.”
“Oh,” Jeebee replied. He was instantly alert.
“Yes,” said Paul. “Do you know where we are now?”
Jeebee shook his head.
“We’re a little beyond Weston,” said Paul. “In Wyoming.”
“Wyoming?” Jeebee stared at Paul. “You knew I was headed north towald Montana.”
“I know. I knew,” said Paul. “You’re still determined to go find your brother’s place?”
“I have to,” said Jeebee. “I’ve got to find a safe place for what I have in my head about the work I used to do. Someplace to keep it alive against the time civilization can use it again.”
“Right. I thought you still felt that way,” said Paul. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you, now. A little beyond here—about thirty miles or so—before we get to what used to be Buffalo, and before we get into the Bighorns, I’ll be turning south to start the long swing down and back east again. So we’re just about at the point where we’re going one way and you’re going to be going another.”
Jeebee realized with a sudden shock that he had not expected their parting to come so soon. It had been well over a month since he had joined them. He had fallen into the way of life of the wagon, got used to it; and he was now almost more at home here with Paul, Merry, and Nick, than he had been at any place else in his life, except when he had been very young. He suddenly realized that, unconsciously, he had been looking forward to
