“Now what would he do a dumb-fool thing like that for?” Angus asked. He could barely conceal the frustration he felt at having almost found Faglier, only to miss him by a couple of weeks.
“Well, sir, that’s the same question lots of us have been askin’,” Thornton replied. “But when you look at it close, you see that it ain’t such a dumb-fool thing after all. That is, if they can do it. They’re takin’ a herd of over three thousand cows up to Dakota to sell ’em to the gold miners. They figure to get fifty dollars a head for them cows.”
“Gold miners? What gold miners?” Angus asked.
Thornton chuckled. “My, where have you fellas been that you ain’t heard the news. They’ve found gold up in Dakota.”
“Where?”
“According to what I’ve read they found it first at a place called Grassphopper Creek, but I reckon they’re findin’ it all over now. Why, from what I’ve heard, there are picking up nuggets as big as your thumb just clinging to the roots of the grass. Bigger, even, than the California find was, here a few years back.”
“I’ll be damned,” Angus said.
“Will you be boardin’ your horses for long?”
“What?” Angus asked, distractedly.
“Your horses,” Thornton repeated. “How long will you be leaving them with me?”
“Three, four days at least,” Percy said. “Maybe more.”
“Uh, no,” Angus said, overriding Percy’s response. “We’ll be takin’ ’em out first thing in the mornin’.”
“If you’re goin’ to take ’em out in the mornin’, that’ll be twenty-five cents apiece, in advance. If you leave ’em past noon tomorrow, it’ll cost you another twenty-five cents.”
“All right,” Angus said. He gave Thornton the money, then started out of the livery. Percy and Chance watched him for a moment, then put their own quarters in Thornton’s outstretched hand before they hurried after him.
“What are we going to do now?” Percy asked as he and Chance caught up with Angus.
“Right now, I aim to get me a little supper, and maybe somethin’ to drink,” Angus said.
“I mean, in the morning,” Percy said. “I thought we was goin’ to rest here for a few days.”
“That was before we heard about Faglier,” Angus replied.
“Listen, Angus, it ain’t goin’ to do none of us any good if we go out after him right away. We been ridin’ hard for a long time, we need a little rest,” Chance said. “Besides, if he’s trailing a herd all the way up to Dakota, he ain’t goin’ nowhere. We can catch up with him anytime we want.”
“Wait a minute,” Percy said. He smiled. “Wait a minute, I know what you’re doin’. I’ll be damned. You’re aimin’ to steal them cows, aren’t you?”
“No,” Angus replied.
“What? Why not? Didn’t you hear what that liveryman said? Them cows will be bringing fifty dollars a head up in Dakota. Why wouldn’t we steal ’em?”
“Yeah,” Chance said. “I’m with Percy on this, Angus. I mean, why, who knows how much money them cows would make?”
“ ’Bout a hunnert and fifty thousand dollars,” Angus said easily.
“A hunnert and fifty thousand dollars?” Percy gasped. “Lord, I didn’t know there was that much money in the whole world.”
“Wait a minute You’re sayin’ them cows is worth a hunnert and fifty thousand dollars, but we ain’t goin’ to steal them?”
“That’s what I’m sayin’.”
“Damn, Angus, what’s got into you? You used to be the one with all the ideas,” Chance said.
Just as they reached the front of the saloon, Angus turned to his two brothers. “You want to herd those cows all the way up to Dakota? Just the three of us?”
“What are you getting at?”
Angus smiled. “I say, let them do all the work, drive the cows to Dakota, find the buyer, then sell them. That’s when we’ll hit them. It’s going to be a lot easier to steal the money than it would be to steal the cows.”
Percy laughed out loud. “Damn, that’s right,” he said. “So, what’s the plan?”
“It’s going to take them three or four months to push a herd all the way to Dakota,” Percy said. “But if we ride back to Kansas City and catch a riverboat going up the Missouri, we can be there less than three weeks from now.”
“So, we’re going to wait on them?”
“Yes.”
“Hey, Angus, while we’re waiting, you think we could look for some of that gold?” Chance asked.
“Why bother to look?” Angus asked. “Why not just take our gold off the people who have already found it?”
With the Golden Calf Cattle Company, mile 300, Friday, July 11:
Although no one had driven a herd as far as they intended to take this herd, everyone in the outfit had previous experience except Duke. Ironically, the Scattergoods had the most experience in longer drives, since they had brought most of their stock up from Mexico.
Duke’s normally taciturn habit proved to be an asset to him. He talked little, listened a lot, observed, and learned. He was prepared for work, so the fact that the drive required the cowboys to be in the saddle for fifteen hours each day didn’t bother him.
He found the makeup of the drive interesting. The wagon Revelation drove was the chuck wagon, which carried the food, bedding, and tents. Revelation prepared the breakfast and supper meals, and served them from the tail-board of the wagon. The food was cooked over an open fire. Lunch was generally taken in the saddle, often consisting of a cold biscuit and bacon left over from breakfast, or perhaps a piece of jerky.
The herd moved across the country, not in one large mass, but in a long plodding column, generally no more than four or five abreast. An average day was twelve to fifteen miles, and while on the move, one of the cowboys would be riding as point man, ahead of the herd scouting for water and graze. Flankers rode on either side of the herd, keeping them moving, while one man rode drag, meaning the rear. This was the least desirable position because the cowboy who rode drag had to swallow all the dust. In many outfits, Duke, being the least experienced, would have been selected to ride drag every day. But James, who had been elected trail boss, was fair about it, and he rotated the position, even taking drag himself, when it was his turn.
Billy Swan was about five miles ahead of the herd, looking for water, when he crested a small hill and saw the military encampment. It wasn’t a large group as army units were measured back East, but there were at least one hundred men there on the banks of a swiftly flowing stream. A puff of red, white, and blue hung from the top of a makeshift flagpole. However, because it was a windless day, the flag hung straight down so it was impossible to determine whether it was the Stars and Stripes of the Union, or the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy. Turning his horse around, he rode quickly back to the herd.
“Is there any way to avoid them?” James asked, when Billy reported on his find.
Billy shook his head. “I don’t see how,” he answered. “Not if we want to water the herd.”
“We’ve got to water the herd,” Bob said.
“And you don’t know if them soldier-boys be theirs or our’n?” Mark Scattergood asked.
“Like us, you chose not to go to war,” James said. “Therefore, for us, there is no theirs or ours,” James said.
“What do you mean there ain’t no theirs or our’n?” Mark asked. “They got to be either Yankees or Southerners.”
“Listen to what I am saying. There is no theirs or ours,” James repeated, saying the words slowly and distinctly. “Not if we are going to make it through over a thousand miles. All of us chose to avoid this war. That means we are neutral.”