'Jake was up to being Jake,' Augustus said. 'It's a full-time job. He requires a woman to help him with it.'
Dish had gradually eased Old Dog to the front of the herd, working slowly and quietly. The old steer was twice as big as most of the scrawny yearlings that made up the herd. His horns were long and they bent irregularly, as if they were jointed.
Just before the men reached the river they came out into a cleaning a mile or more wide. It was a relief, after the constant battle with the mesquite and chaparral. The grass was tall. Call loped through it with Deets, to look at the crossing. Dish trotted over to Augustus on the trim sorrel he called Mustache, a fine cow horse whose eyes were always watching to see that no rebellious cow tried to make a break for freedom. Dish uncoiled his rope and made a few practice throws at a low mesquite seedling. Then he even took a throw, for a joke, at a low-flying buzzard that had just risen off the carcass of an armadillo.
'I guess you're practicing up so you can rope a woman, if we make it to Ogallala,' Augustus said.
'You don't have to rope women in that town, I hear,' Dish said. 'They rope you.'
'It's a long way to Nebrasky,' Augustus said. 'You'll be ready to be roped by then, Dish.'
'Whene'd you go for half the morning?' Dish asked. He was hoping Gus would talk a little about Lorena, though part of him didn't want to hear it, since it would involve Jake Spoon.
'Oh, Miss Lorena and I like to take our coffee together in the morning,' Augustus said.
'I hope the weather didn't treat her too bad,' Dish said, feeling wistful suddenly. He could think of nothing pleasanter than taking coffee with Lorena in the morning.
'No, she's fine,' Augustus said. 'The fresh air agrees with her, I guess.'
Dish said no more, and Augustus decided not to tease him. Occasionally the very youngness of the young moved him to charity-they had no sense of the swiftness of life, non of its limits. The years would pass like weeks, and loves would pass too, or else grow sour. Young Dish, skilled cowhand that he was, might not live to see the whores of Ogallala, and the tender feelings he harbored for Lorena might be the sweetest he would ever have.
Looking at Dish, so tight with his need for Lorena, whom he would probably never have, Augustus remembered his own love for Clara Allen-it had pained him and pleased him at once. As a young woman Clara had such grace that just looking at her could choke a man; then, she was always laughing, though her life had not been the easiest. Despite her cheerful eyes, Clara was prone to sudden angers, and sadnesses so deep that nothing he could say or do would prompt her to answer him, or even to look at him. When she left to marry her horse trader, he felt that he had missed the great opportunity of his life; for all their fun together he had not quite been able to touch her, either in her happiness or her sadness. It wasn't because of his wife, either-it was because Clara had chosen the angle of their relation. She loved him in certain ways, wanted him for certain purposes, and all his straining, his tricks, his looks and his experience could not induce her to alter the angle.
The day she told him she was going to marry the horse trader from Kentucky, he had been too stunned to say much. She just told him plainly, with no fuss: Bob was the kind of man she needed, and that was that. He could remember the moment still: they had been standing in front of her little store, in Austin, and she had taken his hand and held it for a time.
'Well, Clara,' he said, feeling very lame, 'I think you are a fool but I wish you happiness. I guess I'll see you from time to time.'
'You won't if I can help it, Gus,' she said. 'You leave me be for the next ten years or so. Then come and visit.'
'Why ten years?' he asked, puzzled.
Clara grinned-her humor never rested for long. 'Why, I'll be a wife,' she said. 'I won't be wanting to be tempted by the likes of you. But once I've got the hang of married life I'll want you to come.'
It made no sense at all to Augustus. 'Why?' he asked. 'Planning to run off after ten years, or what?'
'No,' Clara said. 'But I'd want my children to know you. I'd want them to have your friendship.'
It struck him that he was already years late-it had been some sixteen years since Clara held his hand in front of the store. He had not watched the time closely, but it wouldn't matter. It might only mean that there would be more children for him to be friends with.
'I may just balk in Ogallala,' he said out loud.
Dish was surprised. 'Well, balk any time you want to, Gus,' he said.
Augustus was put out with himself for having spoken his thoughts. Still, the chance of settling near Clara and her family appealed to him more than the thought of following Call into another wilderness. Clara was an alert woman who, even as a girl, had read all the papers; he would have someone to talk to about the events of the times. Call had no interest in the events of the times, and a person like Pea Eye wouldn't even know what an event was. It would be nice to chat regularly with a woman who kept up-though of course it was possible that sixteen years on the frontier had taken the edge off Clara's curiosity.
'Can you read, Dish?' he asked.
'Well, I know my letters,' Dish said. 'I can read some words. Of course there's plenty I ain't had no practice with.'
A few hundred yards away they could see Call and Deets riding along the riverbank, studying the situation.
'I wisht we was up to the Red River,' Dish said. 'I don't like this low country.'
'I wish we was to the Yellowstone, myself,' Augustus said. 'Maybe Captain Call would be satisfied with that.'
When they reached the river it seemed that it was going to be the smoothest crossing possible. Old Dog seemed to have an affinity for Deets and followed him right into the water without so much as stopping to sniff. Call and Dish, Augustus and Pea and Needle Nelson spread out on the downriver side, but the cattle showed no signs of wanting to do anything but follow Old Dog.
The water was a muddy brown and the current fast, but the cattle only had to swim a few yards. One or two small bunches attempted to turn back, but with most of the crew surrounding them they didn't make a serious challenge.
Despite the smoothness, Newt felt a good deal afraid and shut his eyes for a second when his horse went to swimming depth and the water came over the saddle. But he got no wetter, and he opened his eyes to see that he was almost across the river. He struck the far bank almost at the same time as a skinny brown longhorn; Mouse and the steer struggled up the bank side by side.
It was just as Newt turned to watch the last of the cattle cross that a scream cut the air, so terrible that it almost made him faint. Before he could even look toward the scream Pea Eye went racing past him, with the Captain just behind him. They both had coiled ropes in their hands as they raced their horses back into the water- Newt wondered what they meant to do with the ropes. Then his eyes found Sean, who was screaming again and again, in a way that made Newt want to cover his ears. He saw that Sean was barely clinging to his horse, and that a lot of brown things were wiggling around him and over him. At first, with the screaming going on, Newt couldn't figure out what the brown things were-they seemed like giant worms. His mind took a moment to work out what his eyes were seeing. The giant worms were snakes-water moccasins. Even as the realization struck him, Mr. Gus and Deets went into the river behind Pea Eye and the Captain. How they all got there so fast he couldn't say, for the screams had started just as Mouse and the steer reached the top of the bank, so close that Newt could see the droplets of water on the steer's horns.
Then the screams stopped abruptly as Sean slipped under the water-his voice was replaced almost at once by the frenzied neighing of the horse, which began to thrash in the water and soon turned back toward the far bank. As he gained a footing and rose out of the water he shook three snakes from his body, one slithering off his neck.
Pea Eye and the Captain were beating about themselves with their coiled ropes. Newt saw Sean come to the surface downstream, but he wasn't screaming any more. Pea leaned far off his horse and managed to catch Sean's arm, but then his horse got frightened of the snakes and Pea lost his hold. Deets was close by. When Sean came up again Pea got him by the collar and held on. Sean was silent, though Newt could see that his mouth was open. Deets got Pea's horse by the bridle and kept it still. Pea managed to get his hands under Sean's arms and drag him across the saddle. The snakes had scattered, but several could be seen on the surface of the river. Dish Boggett had his rifle drawn but was too shaken by the sight to shoot. Deets waved him back. Suddenly there was a loud crack-Mr. Gus had shot a snake with his big Colt. Twice more he shot and two more snakes disappeared. The Captain rode close to Pea and helped him support Sean's body.
