Lonesome Dove

on the elbow and I can't straighten my arm yet.'

'You don't do much with it when you do straighten it,' Bert remarked unsympathetically.

'Just 'cause he can't rope like you can don't mean he wouldn't like to use his arm,' Pea Eye said. Everyone picked on Jasper, and once in a while Pea felt obliged to come to his defense. He swung onto his horse and froze before getting his other foot in the stirrup. He had happened to glance across the river and had spotted a horseman riding toward them. The crew on the north bank had their backs to the rider and hadn't seen him.

'Why, I swear, it's Gus,' Pea Eye said. 'He ain't dead at all.'

They all looked, and saw the rider coming.

'How do you know it's him?' Bert wanted to know. 'He's too far. It could be an Indian chief for all you know.'

'I guess I know Gus,' Pea said. 'I wonder where he's been.'

63.

CALL AND DISH were just getting into their dry pants when Augustus came riding up. It was not until they heard the sound of his horse crushing the hailstones that they turned around. Call saw at once that Gus was riding a different horse from the one on which he had ridden off, but he himself looked fit.

''I god, I never thought you boys would start working naked,' Augustus said. 'I guess the minute I left camp things went right to hell. You jaybirds look like you're scattered from here to Fort Worth.'

'Well, the river was deep and we ain't overloaded with dry clothes,' Call said. 'What happened to you?'

'Nothing much,' Augustus said. 'I got here last week and decided there wasn't no sense in riding south. I'd just have to turn around and come back.'

'Did you ever find Lorie?' Dish asked.

'Oh, sure,' Augustus said. 'I found her. She's probably sitting out in front of the tent right now watching you prance around naked.'

At that Dish blushed and made haste to get the rest of his clothes on, though when Gus pointed out the tent to him he saw it was too far away for Lorie to have seen anything.

At that point several of the naked cowboys on the south bank plunged into the river and swam over, so excited by Gus's return that they forgot caution.

'I swear, Gus, we near give you up,' Pea Eye said. 'Did you catch the bandit?'

'No, but I hope I do someday,' Augustus said. 'I met plenty of his friends, but he slipped by me.'

'Did you get to town or what?' Dish asked. 'You didn't have no tent when you rode off.'

'Mr. Wilbarger loaned me that tent,' Augustus said. 'Lorie's feeling shy and she needs a little privacy.'

'We best get the wagon across,' Call said. 'We can listen to Gus's story later. You boys that ain't dressed go back and help.'

The sun came out, and that plus Gus's arrival put the hands in a high mood. Even Jasper, normally so worried about rivers, forgot his fear and swam right back across the Canadian to help get the wagon. They all treated swimming the river like a frolic, though they had been anxious about it for a week. Before long they had the wagon across. They had put both pigs in it but the blue shoat jumped out and swam across.

'That's an independent pig,' Augustus said. 'I see you still got that old cook.'

'Yes, his food's right tasty,' Call said. 'Is the girl all right?'

'She's had an ordeal but she's young,' Augustus said. 'She won't forget it, but she might outlive it.'

'We're a long way from any place we could leave her,' Call said.

'Oh, I have no intention of leaving her,' Augustus said. 'We've got Wilbarger's tent. We'll go along with you cowboys until we hit Nebraska.'

'Then what?' Call asked.

'I don't know, we ain't there yet,' Augustus said. 'What's the word on Jake?'

'He was in Fort Worth when we passed by,' Call said. 'I guess he's mainly card playing.'

'I met that sheriff that's after him,' Augustus said. 'He's ahead of us somewhere. His wife run off and Blue Duck killed his deputy and two youngsters who were traveling with him. He's got other things on his mind besides Jake.'

'He's welcome to Jake, if he wants him,' Call said. 'I won't defend a man who lets a woman get stolen and just goes back to his cards.'

'It was wisdom,' Augustus said. 'Blue Duck would have scattered Jake over two counties if he had run into him.'

'I call it cowardice,' Call said. 'Why didn't you kill Blue Duck?'

'He's quick,' Augustus said. 'I couldn't follow him on this piece of soap I'm riding. Anyway, I had Lorie to consider.'

'I hate to let a man like that get away,' Call said.

'Go get him, Woodrow,' Augustus said. 'He's west of here, probably in Colorado. You go get him and I'll nurse these cows along until you get back. Now what's that old cook doing?'

They saw all the cowboys gathered around the wagon, which still dripped from its passage through the river.

'He likes to surprise the boys,' Call said. 'He's always coming up with something different.'

They trotted over and saw that Po Campo had made the hailstones into a kind of candy, with the use of a little molasses. He dipped them in molasses and gave each of the hands one to lick.

'Well, senor,' he said to Augustus, 'I see you made it back in time for dessert.'

'I made it back in time to see a bunch of naked waddies cross a river,' Augustus said. 'I thought you'd all turned Indian and was aiming to scalp Jasper. Where's young Bill Spettle? Has he gone into hiding?'

There was an awkward silence. Lippy, sitting on the wagon seat, stopped licking the hailstone he had been given.

'No, senor, he is buried,' Po Campo said. 'A victim of lightning.'

'That's a pity,' Augustus said. 'He was young and had promise.'

'It kilt thirteen head with one bolt,' Pea Eye said. 'You never seen such lightning, Gus.'

'I seen it,' Augustus said. 'We had a little weather too.'

Newt felt warm and happy, his clothes on and Mr. Gus back with the crew. The sky had cleared and the clouds that had caused the terrible hail were only a few wisps on the eastern horizon. In the bright sun, with the river crossed and the cattle grazing on the wet grass, and Lorena rescued, life seemed like a fine thing, though every once in a while he would remember Bill Spettle, buried in the mud a few miles back, or Sean O'Brien, way down on the Nueces-the warm sun and bright air had brought them no pleasure. Po Campo had given him a hailstone dipped in molasses and he sat licking it and feeling alternately happy and sad while the men got dressed and prepared to be cowboys again.

'Are there any more trees, or does this plain just go on to Canady?' Bert Borum asked.

'I wouldn't bet on trees for the next few months,' Augustus said.

The men wondered about Lorena. Many still held her beauty in their minds. What had happened to her? What did she look like now? Hers was the most beauty many of them had seen, and now that she was near it shone fresh in memory and made them all the more anxious to see her.

Dish, especially, could not keep his eyes off the little tent. He longed for a glimpse of her and kept imagining that any minute she would step out of the tent and look his way. Surely she remembered him; perhaps she would even wave, and call him over.

Lorena knew the cowboys were near, but she didn't look out of the tent. Gus had assured her he would be back soon, and she trusted him-though sometimes when he was gone for an hour looking for game, she still got the shakes. Blue Duck wasn't dead. He might come back and get her again, if Gus didn't watch close. She remembered his face and the way he smiled when he kicked her. Gus was the only thing that kept the memories away, and sometimes they were so fresh and frightening that she wished she had died so her brain would stop working and just leave her in the quiet. But her brain wouldn't stop-only Gus could distract it with talk and card games. Only his presence relaxed her enough that she could sleep.