AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t want to be here when the Jenningses figure out they weren’t careful enough with the paperwork,” Whitfield offered with a mischievous grin.
“Right,” Garret said with a chuckle. “We’ll make this quick then.”
He tossed Whitfield a leather bag of money and waited while the man counted it.
Whitfield grunted in approval. “That’ll do it. This money will get me out of town and into the city, where I have relatives waiting. Plan to get on the train by the end of the day.”
“Probably a good idea,” Garret replied. “Don’t reckon anybody’s tried to stand up to the Jenningses before today. We’ll probably drive the herd straight into town ourselves, and get out of the Jennings’s way.”
“Probably best. I would drive them myself, if I had the manpower. They’ll fetch a good price.” Whitfield squinted at the position of the sun. “Listen, I got a horse. A real fair filly, and I can’t take her with me where I’m going. Would you mind picking her up in town and taking her back to the Lazy S? She’s draft and Friesian, a real big girl. She’s great for hard work, and her foals will catch a price. I’d be much obliged. I can’t stand thinking she will go to Jennings’s breeding stock.”
“I’ve seen the horse you’re talking about. She’s a beauty. Of course we’ll take her, if that’s what you want. Give them my name at the stable, and we’ll get her after we sell the cattle. I don’t have a lot, but I can come up with some cash for her.”
“Call it a gift. You said no one has stuck up to Jennings, but you’re wrong. You been standing up to him for years.” He tipped the brim of his hat. “I’ll see you when I see you,” Whitfield said, and went back to loading his small wagon.
It took an hour to gather the milling cattle before they were off at a gruelingly slow pace. Getting such a large herd moving in the intended direction while keeping the ornery ones from escaping into the brush took alertness, hard riding, and lots of yelling. As the other three were seasoned at driving, often Eliza had to go after the cattle intent on splitting from the bulk of the group. There was no pattern or organization. Driving cattle, for her, was chaos.
They stayed off the main road in hopes of avoiding attention, so the cattle had to be pushed through areas of thick brush. Every muscle was strained as if she had been driving for days by the time they stopped for a bite to eat.
The cattle milled about, exhausted from traveling, and grazed hungrily on knee-high prairie grass. With Garret’s portion of dried venison in hand, she wove through the mass of irritable beasts on Buck, careful to avoid the bulls with the biggest horns, until finally she reached him near the middle of the herd. It would have to be a lunch in the saddle if they wanted to get to town by dark.
Garret leaned across the saddle horn and took the small meal from her outstretched hand. “We aren’t going to make camp until late today.”
Already biting into a strip of jerky, she nodded. A small flash of gray through two large patches of brush caught her attention, and she jerked her head and squinted in the direction she had seen it. Nothing moved besides the cattle that had wandered that far. She sat straighter in the saddle, straightening her legs as she pushed her boots against the stirrups, so she could see better over the backs of a cluster of cows that was now blocking her view.
“What?” Garret asked, watching her.
“I thought I saw something.”
“Cow?”
“No, something gray.”
Garret perked up sniffed the air. “Shit. Burke!” he yelled behind him, waving him forward with a pistol in his hand. The cattle up ahead started trotting, and bellowing.
“Heyeyeyeyey!” Garret yelled, trying to slow the beasts barreling toward them.
Rooney and Buck danced, and Rooney’s eyes were rolling as he pinned his ears back. Garret was having to hold him back from a full gallop.
“Get out of here, Eliza. Head for the edge and stay out of their way. Go!” Garret yelled over the noise of the stampede.
Sound advice. Garret had given her sound advice.
If it had only been that easy, she would have obeyed immediately. Instead, caught in the middle of a large herd of frantic cattle, Buck got stuck running in the midst of a large number of of cattle as big as himself, and some of them were horned. Forced to stay with the stampede, she tried to maneuver to her right whenever a hole presented itself. The beasts’ eyes rolled in fear as they ran into each other, bellowing.
She screamed as a bull bumped into Buck’s side. When she looked for Garret, he was already blazing up ahead and near the tree line.
She had no choice but to run with stampede. The dust was kicking up and it was getting harder to see, but she could make out Garret jumping off Rooney. A wolf exploded from his skin and Eliza gasped, dragged her attention back to Buck. They’d gotten some space for her to push a few cattle on the edge outward so she could have room to get Buck to the edge.
Up ahead, something was happening. She could hear the snarling over the noise of the cattle.
“Eliza!” Lenny yelled.
She’d lowered down because Buck was running so fast, and she was terrified she would fall off. She was holding the reins and the saddle horn for dear life. One quick glance back showed Lenny was chasing behind her, trying to catch up on her paint horse.
Lenny’s eyes were so bright.
Eliza tried to slow Buck, but they were still a few layers of cows from the edge and it was tight here.
