Caleb: A Western tale, circa 1880's

Chapter Seven

"Be careful?" the red-haired wife begged one day. "Yesterday, I saw prints when I was riding."

He guessed at what kind of prints she'd seen. "There's bound to be some horses around here running wild since the last owner came up missing."

"And them prints was the wrong shape to be wild remuda horses," she continued as if he hadn't spoken. "I thought it might be moccasins. If it wasn't so crazy, I'd say there was injuns about."

He looked at her and blew a thoughtful smoke-ring. His wife was no fool. Raised by a rancher herself, his wife could read tracks better than most. "I'll be careful," he promised. "I saw some buffalo on the far range last week too. Could be there's some the government missed when they shot off the buffalo and corralled them injuns on the reservation."

True to his word, the cowboy rode careful after that. He too, occasionally saw sign of the natives hiding on his ranch. Long thought went into his daily rides but he didn't say much until he was sure of what he was thinking.

"I'm pretty sure there's a pocket of injuns up on the ridge," he remarked as his wife put a nail into the board he was holding up.

She nodded. "I smelled their smoke yesterday when the wind was strong from that direction. Just a hint, mind you, but enough to know they're there." She finished pounding in her nail and handed him the hammer so he could secure his end of the board.

"Could be why this ranch has changed hands so often." The board nailed, he went to fetch the next one. Their barn was slowly nearing completion. Already, the corral was finished. The first brand of the new 'Lazy 8' iron had been heated and burned into the board on the top of the gate.

"I expect. You gonna' call in the army?" She waited where she was; ready to hold the next board when he came with it.

"Not yet," he allowed. "I have a few ideas I wanna' try first. No sense in alarming the neighbors or making enemies when there's no need. I've a mind to try God's way first."

Kitty hated going to town. She hated the memories such a trip invoked, hated having to answer the storekeeper's nosy wife while not giving the prying woman any information. Too little of an answer and the price of vegetables took a nosedive; too much and the secrets that Infinity held would be in danger of being revealed.

Eventually, both parties arrived at an acceptable price. Kitty agreed to reduce the price of the vegetables in exchange for empty jars, as usual. By the time she'd made her purchases, there was little left of the price.

The storekeeper was pleased by the slightly worried look Kitty manufactured, assuming that he'd gotten the best of her. For her part, Kitty was only pleased to be going home with more money than she'd arrived with. The fact that his son was nowhere in sight was also an added bonus!

"That's a powerful lot of firepower for a little girl like you," the storekeeper's wife remarked as she watched her husband unload Kitty's produce.

"You said it," Kitty reminded her as she hefted a box herself. "I'm a woman alone, Ma'am. A body can't be too careful. Lord forbid a catamount licks his chops at me or a rock in the stream breaks a wheel." She paused to give the woman a sunny smile. "Or a bull takes exception to my passing near his girls. Dad always wanted that rifle. I figured if he felt the need of it, it might be a wise investment for me, too."

"I guess!" agreed the storekeeper's wife as Kitty disappeared into the building. She'd attended the funeral for Kitty's father and knew what kind of damage an enraged bull could do. The fact that the bull had been a featured dish at the wake that followed was a well-known part of the widow's personality.