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"Wow, did you see how fast he was going?" Corey looked at Hawk.
"Yes, we wouldn't have gotten her, but she was eating…"
Hawk picked the dead animal up and carried him into camp.
Eve was pleased with the meat. "Oh good, I was wondering what I might cook for everyone, I have potatoes, and biscuit makings, but no meat."
Hawk didn't smile at her, merely handed the meat to her and walked on. Eve realized she couldn't be her real friendly herself, so she prepared the meat over a spit and cooked it.
"Corey said you were headed for Fort Worth, what is there?" Hawk asked.
"Corey ain't been to no big towns before. We are from just across the Red and decided we'd make a trip to Fort Worth to show him the sights."
Hawk knew that the sights meant saloons and the wild carrying on in towns. Figuring them for regular cowboys, he wasn't too worried as long as he remembered not to look at Eve too often.
Everyone ate well that night and the cowboys seemed pleased. "I can see now why Mackenzie picked you to take the lady. You can provide food and protection."
"That's the idea, yes." Hawk smiled at them.
"Ma'am I'm sorry about your husband. "Corey came to sit beside her.
"Thank you." Eve didn't mention that his death was some time ago. Matthew was looking at Hawk's slingshot.
Hawk showed him how it worked and told him that when he needed to sneak up on a small animal it was effective enough to kill the animal and not alert people.
"Can I make one of those?"
"Making one isn't hard, but knowing how to use it can be. I will fashion you one." Hawk told him. "Mine is made from buffalo hide, and then you use a big rock, as big as you can handle without hurting yourself or someone else and depending on what size animal you are aiming at."
Smitty didn't talk much, but he had a guitar and he brought it out and played it for Eve.
He played a lovely ballad and sang the song. Eve listened and smiled. "That's beautiful. Music is a real luxury, hadn't heard anything like that in a very long time."
"Did y
ou and your husband live out on the prairie?"
"Yes, it was just a small clearing with a ridge above it, made kind of like a valley below. We built a home there, when my folks died on the wagon train west. We never went any further."
"I got an Uncle that went to California to try his luck in the gold fields."
"Did he strike it rich?" Eve asked.
"Not that we know of, he got killed. Someone jumped his claim."
"Oh, that's terrible." Eve cried.
"You fellas live in Indian Territory?"
"Naw…we travel a lot. Corey, he was from Kansas, I'm from West Texas and Smitty he lives close to Fort Worth." Badger told them.
"How'd you get a name like Badger?" Matthew asked.
"Cause when I was a kid, I was the runt of the family, had seven brothers and they were always funnin' me. So I fought 'em. They finally started callin' me Badger, cause if they cornered me, I came out fightin'." Badger laughed.
Hawk sat with the men, and kept his distance from Eve, he didn't even look at her. He didn't want them thinking he was watching her. Eve seemed to understand.
The next day though the men took off for Fort Worth, waving at them and taking enough fatback to make a few meals with.
