Caleb: A Western tale, circa 1880's

Chapter Thirteen

True to her word, Aunt Sue's 'boys' had three hundred steers bawling in front of the corral a mere hour after dawn. Fifteen braves worked the cattle from horseback, keeping them in a tight group behind an enormous bull. Kitty greeted the bull with a piece of bread in her hand and scratched behind his spreading horns. Riding Dusty Back, Charlie pointed at the bull. "He's made this trip ten times, more than any of us. He could almost make the trip on his own."

Caleb nodded, watching the bull establish himself as leader. Once the steers were used to the bull being in charge, they would follow him almost quietly wherever he led them. Having been penned with the steers for a day or so, the bull had a good head start on the task.

Without reply, Caleb pulled his bandanna up over his face against the dust and set his horse into motion, using the end of his rope as a whip to help get the cattle moving. Riding Porgy, Kitty rode point alongside Ghost-Who-Rides, guiding the big bull down the path towards town. By nightfall, the cattle were still hours from town. The men slowed their pace but didn't stop.

As the town finally drew near, Caleb began to understand why the townspeople never saw who drove the 'Lazy 8' cattle into town. Both men and beasts were exhausted. The cattle plodded forward, following the lead bull and trying to stay ahead of the rope ends that the men used as whips to drive them onward.

Having had to work most of the day to keep the cattle bunched together, the men and horses were equally tired, not saying much beyond what was necessary for communication and trusting their ropes to keep the cattle moving forward. The exhausted cattle bunched into the pens, eager to rest after the long trip from the ranch. Having ridden drag for most of the way, Caleb felt as if his limbs were made of lead and even Half-Moon was shuffling his feet.

As soon as the last gate clicked shut behind the cattle, the boys from the ridge led their favorite bull back into the trees to rest until dawn, when they would slowly melt back to the ranch, leaving no trace of their passing. While they rested, the braves ate a simple meal of pemmican and dried fruit. Caleb settled down with them to rest and eat but refused to leave come dawn.

"I'm waiting for Miss Kitty," he said when Running Bow asked. "Somehow, it don't seem like a right good idea to leave her on her own after what happened."

Ghost-Who-Rides overheard. "Cowboy is correct," he agreed. "We take three best horses and stay; you, me and Charlie. Running Bow will return home to brush sign." Seeing that his son would have liked to stay, Ghost-Who-Rides added, "Running Bow is patient to cover tracks."

Satisfied by his father's reasoning, Running Bow dismounted without a word and climbed up onto Half-Moon's back. "Half-Moon is most tired," he explained. "We go slow that way." He started off but soon returned. "Fire from before was picked over," he told his father. "Someone been reading trail here." Without another word, Running Bow turned his mount and left again.

It was nearly noon before Miss Kitty found the men waiting for her. "There's been men combing these woods, looking for you," she told Caleb. "They found where Sees-At-Night cooked that squirrel and assumed Caleb camped out here. Knowing he crossed my fence, it won't be long before they come looking again, especially since they know he's riding one of Infinity's horses. Marshal Sikes mentioned it and asked me if I'd seen anything unusual around the barn. He wasn't real satisfied when I said I hadn't."

"We go home," said Ghost-Who-Rides simply.

"And we keep an eye on our back trail," agreed Caleb. "Someone's bound to be following Miss Kitty this time, after everything that's been happening." Charlie agreed. Silently, Caleb wished their horses could be more rested. Folks were growing real curious about how Miss Kitty got her cattle to the rail yard. He didn't think it would be long before keeping her secrets would become mighty difficult for Caitlin Slocum.