Page 40 of Follow the Lonesome Trail
“The hour?” Hughes echoed indignantly.
“At that rate, all my gear’s here,” said Teller stubbornly.
“Leave the outfit horses, please.” A man could steal cattle out here and think to get away with it. Almost no one dared take a horse.
“What happened?” Teller’s lip took on a faint curl.
“It has been a long time coming. Surely you knew with so many cattle missing, I wouldn’t be able to afford hands.”
Teller continued to stare at her, as if trying to discern another motive. Surely he was afraid she knew, and he was gauging how far he could push her.
She returned the stare coolly. “My mind is made up. Unless you want to work for nothing, I cannot keep you.”
Teller bit out an oath.
“Come on, Hughes. There’s better work to be found, anyway.”
From there, she let it be. She watched them from the porch as they swapped gear from the outfit horses to their own and rode out.
“Where are they going?” asked Henry, his face puzzled.
“They’re leaving for good.” She let her breath out in a low sigh. He was old enough; he was shouldering the burden of the man of the house, even at eight. “They were stealing from us.”
“Money?”
“The cattle they were bringing in.”
“But they won’t do it again?”
“I don’t expect so.”
Stealing cows off the range and taking them straight from a homestead were very different things. She’d go to town and hire a couple hands for a week, talk to the sheriff, and get the cattle driven to the nearest town. If she could sell them off, they’d survive the winter. She still had the bull, and the breeding stock would rebuild the herd.
It was just a small crack of hope, but it was enough for now.
The Bar S was quiet when he rode in; most of the hands seemed to be resting. Strange how this land froze you in the dark and burned you out during the day.
He’d barely begun to strip his gear and tack from the horse when the foreman met him in the yard.
“Where’ve you been?”
“Out scouting for cattle.”
“Find any?”
“Not enough.”
“I don’t see any.”
“I left them with Hank.”
“Hank, huh?”
He glanced back at the foreman and continued working.
“Hank said you took some cattle by yourself. At night.”
“They weren’t ours. We shouldn’t have had them.”
