his mouth.
Soon he got too tired to think and could only hope that it would finally be morning. But the night went on and on. The lightning died and the hard rain stopped, but a drizzle continued; they hit intermittent patches of thick brush and had to back and turn and go on as best they could. When he had crossed the gully, one boot had filled with water. Newt wanted to stop and empty it-but what if he dropped it and couldn't find it in the dark? Or got it off and couldn't get it back on? A fine sight he would make, if he even saw camp again, riding in with one boot in his hand. Thinking about the ridicule that would involve, he decided just to let the boot squish.
All the same, he felt proud of Mouse, for many horses would have fallen, sliding into a gully.
'Good horse,' he said. 'If we just keep going maybe it'll get light.'
Mouse swung his head to get his wet forelock out of his eyes, and kept on plodding through the mud.
32.
JAKE HAD FORGOTTEN to hobble the horses-he remembered it when the first lightning struck and Lorena's young mare suddenly snapped her rein and ran off. It was dank and the sand was still blowing. He managed to get the hobbles on his own horse and the pack mule, but had to let the mare go.
'She won't go far,' he said, when he got back to Lorie. She was huddled under a blanket, her back against a big mesquite tree and her legs half buried in the sand.
'No better than she likes to swim. I expect we'll find her on this side of the river,' Jake said.
Lorena didn't answer. The lightning filled her with such tension that she didn't think she could endure it. If it went on much longer she felt it would twist her like a wire.
She held the blanket around her as tightly as she could, and her teeth were clenched as they had been when she crossed the river. She kept trying to think about something besides the lightning, but she couldn't. She kept thinking of how it would feel if it hit her-it was said to be like a burn, but how could a burn travel through your body in an instant?
Then the lightning began to strike in the trees nearby, with cracks so loud that it made her head ring. She didn't mind the wet. Jake had tried to rig a tarp, but it wasn't big enough.
A bolt hit just behind them, with a sound so loud that it took her breath. I want to go back, she thought. When she got her breath back she was crying, the tears mingling with the rain on her face.
'We got to get out from under this dern tree,' Jake yelled.
Lorena didn't move. He was crazy. The tree was all that was keeping them from death. Out in the open the lightning would immediately strike them.
But Jake began to pull at her. 'Come on,' he said. 'We'll get under the bank. It might strike the tree.'
The lightning had become constant-she could see every whisker on Jake's face in the glare. He looked old. But he wouldn't leave her under the tree. In the flashes she could see the river. The river had almost got her and now he wanted her to go back to it. When he pulled, she fought. The tree was the only protection she had and she didn't want to leave it.
'Dern it, come on!' Jake said. 'This ain't no place to sit out a lightning storm.'
Every time he pulled, the tightness inside her broke out a little and she struck at him. The first blow hit him in the eye and he slipped and sat down in the mud. Then it was dark. When the lightning flashed again, she saw Jake trying to get up, a look of surprise on his face. But he grabbed her in the darkness and began to drag her away from the tree. She kicked at him and they both went down, but a bolt struck so loud and so near that she forgot to fight. She let him pull her toward the river, dragging the tarp. Another bolt hit so near it shook the ground, almost causing Jake to fall in the water. There was not much overhang to the bank, and the tarp was so muddy he could barely drag it, but he pulled it over them and sat close to her, shivering. In the flashes the light was so bright that she could see every wavelet on the river. She wondered where the turtle was, but before she could look it was pitch- dark again. In the next flash she saw the horses jumping and trying to shake off their hobbles. She shut her eyes but when the bolts hit she felt the light on her eyelids. There was nothing to do but wait to die. Jake was shivering against her. She felt her muscles coiling up, getting tighter and tighter.
'Well, I wish we'd brought our feather bed,' Jake said, trying to make light of it.
She opened her eyes to blackness and a second later saw the lightning come to earth just across the river, cracking into the tree where they had made their first camp. The tree split at the top, then darkness fell, and when the next flash came the split part had fallen to the ground.
'We got ol' Deets to thank that we're still alive,' Jake said. 'That one would have got us if we'd stayed put.'
You didn't thank him, Lorena thought. She put her head against her knees and waited.
33.
BY DAWN the rain had stopped completely and the sky was cloudless. The first sunlight sparkled on the wet thickets and the hundreds of puddles scattered among them, on the wet hides of the cattle and the dripping horses.
At the head of the main bunch of cattle, Call surveyed the situation without too much apprehension. Unless there was a lightning victim somewhere, they had come through the storm well. The cattle had walked themselves out and were docile for the time being. Deets had been to look, and Soupy, Jasper and Needle had the rest of the herd a mile or two east. The wagon was stuck in a gully, but when the hands gathered they soon had enough ropes on it to pull it out. Bol refused to budge from the wagon seat while the pullout took place. Lippy had got out to help push and consequently was covered in mud practically up to his lip.
Newt had been extremely surprised, when dawn came, to discover that he was in his natural position in relation to the herd: behind it. He was too tired even to feel very relieved. All he wanted was to stretch out and sleep. Several times he dozed off, sitting straight up in the saddle. Mouse was just as tired, and kept to a slow walk.
Deets reported that all the hands were well and accounted for with one exception: Mr. Gus. He had been with the main herd for a while but now he was nowhere to be seen.
'He probably rode off to the cafe to get his breakfast,' Dish Boggett said. 'Or else went in to San Antone to get himself a shave.'
'He might have went to see Mn. Jake,' Deets said. 'Want me to go look?'
'Yes, have a look,' Call said. 'I want to cross the river as soon as possible and it would be convenient to have Gus along.'
'It ain't much of a river,' Dish said. 'I could near jump across it if I had a long-legged horse.'
When asked how many cattle he thought might be lost Dish estimated no more than twenty-five head, if that many.
'Well, you nearly lost me,' Jasper Fant said, when they were all standing around the wagon. Bol had some dry wood that he had kept under a tarp, but the preparation of victuals was going too slowly to suit most of the hands.
'I'm so tired I won't be worth nothing for a week,' Jasper added.
'When was you ever worth anything?' Dish inquired. He himself was in rather good fettle. It always improved his mood to have his skill recognized, as it clearly was by all hands. He had managed to turn the main part of the herd out of the worst of the brush and keep it together. Even Captain Call had seemed impressed.
The only cowboy who had not performed up to caliber in the emergency was Sean O'Brien, who had been walking out to catch his night horse when the storm hit. He was such a poor roper that Newt usually roped his horses for him, if he happened to be around. This time, of course, he hadn't been. The Spettles, responsible for the remuda, were afraid Sean's awkward roping would cause the whole herd to bolt; Bill Spettle had roped a horse for him, but it wasn't one he could ride. Sean had promptly been bucked off, and when the remuda did bolt, Sean's horse ran with it. Sean had been forced to ride in the wagon all night, more worried for his life than his reputation.
