Hidden Heritage 12

It had been a long and worse than uncomfortable ride to

the Elbow's Bend hospital, followed by a longer one back to

Cowtown. As soon as Moo learned he had no broken bones he

insisted on going, stating that a lawcow's work was never

done. The vet had insisted on the importance of staying off

his foot and Moo countered that he could ride back and stay

off his foot catching up on a bit of paperwork just as well

as he could sitting around doing nothing. 'Why waste time

he was going to spend off his feet anyway, when it would

mean that much longer before getting back into the saddle?'

he had reasoned. Though it wasn't mentioned, Cowlorado and

Dakota knew that it was also to spend some time with Miss

Lily, since duty often kept the C.O.W.-Boys out of town

longer than what might be wished for a social life.

A couple of days later found Moo up early at his station

in Cowtown with Dakota and Cowlorado.

"Boy howdy, Moo," tsked Dakota, as he saw the marshal to

his chair. "You don't look like you got near enough sleep."

"It would have been plenty of sleep, Dakota," Moo

grunted. "If I weren't still hurting so much. Good thing

the worst is just a sprain."

Cowlorado remarked as he swept the floor. "It's too bad

science hasn't come up with a way to stop a fella from

hurting without knocking him out." The bovine youth paused

to look at his broom in disgust. "Or an easier way to

clean, for that matter," he muttered.

As Dakota set about making coffee Moo took a moment to

pull a long piece of fabric out of his pocket. Made of

calico and mostly white, it was some of the cloth that had

been used to wrap his hurt ankle by person or persons

unknown. It had almost been thrown away when replaced by

linen bandages at the Elbow's Bend Hospital, but Moo decided

to keep it as a possible clue. Hoping the previous owner

had not had a run-in with the Masked Bull, he put the cloth

in a desk drawer for possible future reference.

Sweeping his way along, Cowlorado had slowly made his way

to the door. It was there he noticed the arrival of Mayor

Bulloney, as the bull who owned nearly all of CowTown came

to the entrance.

"I heard of your misfortune, dear boy, and I've just the

very thing for it. Yesss..."

Dakota and Cowlorado exchanged suspicious glances as

the older bull offered Moo a dark bottle.

"From my own private stock. Good for what ails you, and

ah, no charge."

Moo's only response was, "How'd you know what happened?"

The crooked mayor was instantly flustered, but recovered

quickly. "W-well, everyone knows, don't they?"

"Not in Cowtown they don't," replied Moo darkly. "We got

back just last night and went straight to sleep."