mine.'
She paused. She knew he wished she'd shut up, but she was determined to say what was on her mind.
'I'm getting attached to Martin,' she said. 'He ain't mine, but he ain't your wife's anymore, either. Young things mainly belong to themselves. How they grow up depends on who gets attached to them. I'll take Martin, if she don't, or you don't.'
'But your husband's sick,' July said. Why would the woman want a baby to care for when she had two girls to manage and a big horse outfit to run?
'My husband's dying,' Clara said. 'But whether he's dead or alive, I'll still raise that child.'
'I don't know what to do,' July said. 'It's been so long since I done anything right that I can't remember it. I don't know if I'll ever get Ellie back to Fort Smith. They might even have hired a new sheriff by now.'
'Finding a job's the least of your problems,' Clara said. 'I'll give you a job, if you want one. Cholo's been doing Bob's work and his too, and he can't keep it up forever.'
'I always lived in Arkansas,' July said. It had never occurred to him that he might settle anywhere else.
Clara laughed. 'Go to bed,' she said. 'I've worried you enough for one night.'
He went, but the next morning at breakfast he didn't look much better or feel much better. He would scarcely talk to the girls, both of whom doted on him. Clara sent them off to gather eggs so she could have a word or two more with July in private.
'Did you understand what I said last night, about raising Martin?' she asked.
July hadn't. He wished she would just be quiet. He had no idea what to do next, and hadn't since he left Fort Smith many months ago. At moments, what he wanted was just to go home. Let Ellie go, if she didn't want to be his wife. Let Clara have the baby, if she wanted him so much. He had once felt competent being a sheriff-maybe if he went back and stuck to it he would someday feel competent again. He didn't know how much longer he could stand to feel such a failure.
'If your wife don't want Martin, do you have a mother or sisters that would want to raise him?' Clara asked. 'The point is, I don't want to keep him a year or two and then give him up. If I have to give him up I'd rather do it soon.'
'No, Ma's dead,' July said. 'I just had brothers.'
'I've lost three boys,' Clara said. 'I don't want to lose another to a woman who keeps changing her mind.'
'I'll ask her,' July said. 'I'll go back in a day or two. Maybe she'll be feeling better.'
But he found he couldn't stand it to wait-he had to see her again, even if she wouldn't look at him. At least he could look at her and know he had found her after all. Maybe, if he was patient, she would change.
He saddled and rode to town. But when he got to the doctor's, no one was there at all. The room Ellie had been in was empty, the big man no longer to be found.
By asking around, he found the doctor, who was delivering a baby in one of the whorehouses.
'She's left,' the doctor said. 'I came home yesterday and she was gone. She didn't leave a note.'
'But she was sick,' July said.
'Only unhappy,' Patrick Arandel said. He felt sorry for the young man. Five idle young whores were listening to the conversation, while one of their friends lay in labor in the next room.
'She took it hard when they hung that killer,' he added. 'That and the childbirth nearly killed her. I thought she would die-she ran one of the highest fevers I've ever seen. It's a good sign that she left. It means she's decided to live a little longer.'
The man at the livery stable shook his head when July asked which way they went.
'The wrong way,' he said. 'If they get past them Sioux they're lucky people.'
July felt frantic. He had not even brought his rifle to town, or his bedroll or anything. They had a day's start, though they were traveling in a wagon and would have to move slow. Still, he would lose another half day going back to the ranch to get his gear. He was tempted to follow with just his pistol, and he even rode to the east end of town. But there were the vast, endless plains. They had almost swallowed him once.
He turned back, racing for the ranch. He wore the horse half down, and he remembered it was a borrowed horse, so he slowed up. By the time he got back to Clara's he was not racing at all. He seemed to have no strength, and his head hurt again. He was barely able to unsaddle; instead of going right to the house, he sat down behind the saddle shed and wept. Why would Ellie keep leaving? What was he supposed to do? Didn't she know about the Indians? It seemed he would have to chase her forever, and yet catching her did no good.
When he stood up, he saw Clara. She had been on her way back from the garden with a basket of vegetables. It was hot, and she had rolled the sleeves up on her dress. Her arms were thin and yet strong, as if they were all bone.
'Did she leave?' Clara asked.
July nodded. He didn't want to talk.
'Come help me shuck this corn,' Clara said. 'The roasting ears are about gone. I get so hungry for them during the winter, I could eat a dozen.'
She went on toward the house, carrying her heavy garden basket. When she didn't hear his footsteps, she looked back at him. July wiped his face and followed her to the house.
82.
THE NEXT MORNING, when he managed to get up, July came into the kitchen to find Cholo sharpening a thin- bladed knife. The baby lay on the table, kicking his bare feet, and Clara, wearing a man's hat, was giving the two girls instructions.
'Don't feed him just because he hollers,' she said. 'Feed him when it's time.'
She looked at July, who felt embarrassed. He was not sick, and yet he felt as weak as if he had had a long fever. A plate with some cold eggs on it and a bit of bacon sat on the table-his breakfast, no doubt. Being the last one up made him feel a burden.
Cholo stood up. It was clear he and Clara were contemplating some work. July knew he ought to offer to help, but his legs would barely carry him to the table. He couldn't understand it. He had long since been over his jaundice, and yet he had no strength.
'We've got to geld some horses,' Clara said. 'We've put it off too long, hoping Bob would get back on his feet.'
'I hate it when you do that,' Sally said.
'You'd hate it worse if we had a bunch of studs running around here,' Clara said. 'One of them might crack your head just like that mustang cracked your father's.'
She paused by the table a minute and tickled one of the baby's feet.
'I'd like to help,' July said.
'You don't look that vigorous,' she said.
'I'm not sick,' July said. 'I must have slept too hard.'
'I expect you did something too hard,' she said. 'Stay and make conversation with these girls. That's harder work than gelding horses.'
July liked the girls, though he had not said much to them. They seemed fine girls to him, always chattering. Mostly they fought over who got to tend the baby.
Clara and Cholo left and July slowly ate his breakfast, feeling guilty. Then he remembered what had happened-Ellie was gone, into Indian country. He had to go after her as soon as he ate. The baby, still on the table, gurgled at him. July had scarcely looked at it, though it seemed a good baby. Clara wanted it, the girls fought over it, and yet Ellie had left it. Thinking about it made him more confused.
After breakfast he got his rifle, but instead of leaving, he walked down to the lots. Every now and then he heard the squeal of a young horse. Walking, he didn't feel quite so weak, and it occurred to him that he ought to try and be some help-he could start after Ellie later.
It was hot, and the young horses were kicking up dust in the lots. To his surprise, he saw that Clara was doing the cutting, while the old man held the ropes. It was hard work-the horses were strong, and they badly needed another man. July quickly climbed into the lots and helped the old man anchor the hind legs of a quivering young
