The next day, Rowdy and Dan had almost three miles between them as Rowdy was assigned point and Dan continued his position of drag. That morning, Rowdy had been abruptly woken up before the crack of dawn to help Mushy fix breakfast, because Wish for some reason wasn't feeling well. And by some odd coincidence, another drover had taken Rowdy's favorite horse for the day, leaving Yates a mount just a shade too bronco to be an easy ride. The colt balked at every little thing, almost unseating Rowdy when a steer suddenly got too close for his particular tastes. Yates hung on, but he was halfway out of the saddle before the colt finally calmed down enough for him to regain control.
And so at noon camp, Rowdy walked in just a tad stiff from the hard riding. As he headed over to eat next to Dan, Pete, standing alongside Mr. Favor, couldn't resist a barb at the kid.
"What's the matter, Rowdy? Not know how to ride a horse yet? See, it's very simple, you try to stay on top and when the horse moves, you're supposed to move with it." Bailey grinned at Nolan's words, but Rowdy just scowled.
"Funny, Pete, funny. You want to tell me why you felt you just had to take my horse today?"
"Simple. Quince took mine." Pete answered as Mushy refilled his cup.
"And why did he take yours?" Rowdy continued his grilling.
"You'll have to ask him that."
"Quince?"
Jim walked over. "Yeah, Rowdy?"
"Why'd you take Pete's horse?"
"'Cause Joe here took mine." Joe Scarlet had followed Quince over. Rowdy turned his questioning gaze to him.
"Well, Mr. Favor took mine. Said none of us should have a favorite horse, that we needed to ride all the horses equally."
"Oh, well," Rowdy started backing up at the mention of orders from the boss, when Mushy, finished refilling, decided to enter the conversation and help Joe finish his explanation.
"Yeah and then Mr. Favor said that Mr. Rowdy needed to be punished for talking too much yesterday." Pete choked on his coffee.
"Bailey, you ready to show us that crossing?" Favor called as he strode away from the group, studiously ignoring Rowdy's glare.
"Yes, sir." Dan wolfed down the rest of his meal, and quickly headed over to the remuda.
"Mr. Favor?" Rowdy followed Mr. Favor to the chuck wagon.
"You stay with the herd. Pete and I'll look at the river." He threw his dirty plate into the wash pan. He finally had to look up when Rowdy's eyes continued to drill into him. He shrugged.
"It was Pete's idea."
But Pete was already over at the remuda and swinging into the saddle when Rowdy turned around. He walked his horse (or really, Quince's horse) slowly past the still-glaring Yates. "Remember, Rowdy, when the horse moves, you move with him." Then the three men lit out.
…
They reached the river, and Dan led them several miles farther west before he pointed out the shallowest part of the river. The rains had made the river higher and faster than normal, he explained, with the water halfway up the horses' legs, which with this current, meant trouble for the cattle.
"It'll be rough, but it's the best crossing for miles around," Dan yelled back behind him as he led the trail drovers through the river.
Favor studied the water carefully after they made it across to the other side. The riverbed was shallower here, but there was a significant drop-off on the right; if any cow slipped by the drovers it was a cinch to be swept away by the swift current. "Pete?"
"Like he said, it's gonna be rough, but I think we can do it. We'll just have to string them out a little more than normal. It'll cost us time, but it's better than losing the beeves."
"Yep," Favor mused. "We'll run them hard to the river, and let them drink their fill, then maybe we'll have better control when we cross them over." The boss had made up his mind. "All right, let's get back to the herd."
They rode across the river. The three gently loped for a bit, then slowed to a walk to rest their mounts, for they had ridden hard and far this afternoon. Bailey had been silent for a while, until finally Pete asked him what he was thinking about.
"I still can't believe Rowdy's a ramrod!" he exclaimed, and the other two glanced at each other in amusement.
"Sometimes we can't believe it either," Pete grinned.
"He's still a little green, but he is learning. Doing pretty good, too," Favor told Dan truthfully. He was proud of how far Yates had come (though he still had a very long way to go) and he felt an obligation to his ramrod to build him up to one of his old friends.
"Speaking of Rowdy," Pete broke in, "how much of that story was true last night?"
Bailey smiled. "Every word of it."
"Oh, come on," Pete doubted.
"Well, Rowdy can turn a lot of girls' heads," Favor broke in. And there was no argument for that.
Bailey nodded. "Yeah, no matter if they're Reb or Yank, they can all tell Rowdy's a nice guy." Favor nodded.
"The trouble is, he thinks they're all nice girls," Dan continued, turning serious. "And some'll take him for all he's worth because of it."
"Yep," Favor muttered, struck at how this man knew so much about his ramrod. "You two must have been quite a pair growing up."
Dan paused for a second, but then shook his head. "No, not really. See, I'm several years older than him. He and my younger brother Charlie, they were good friends, rarely left each other's sight. And then they started tagging along after me. Got real annoying, real fast. But when we all joined up together, Charlie kind of forced us to become friends. Said if it was going to be a long war, we might as well all be friends through it. After that, the three of us became almost inseparable."
"Sounds like a smart man," commented Favor.
"Where's Charlie now?" Pete asked.
"He was killed in the war." Dan looked down for a moment, but then he made an effort to lighten the mood. "But the things Charlie and Rowdy did when they were kids! I remember one time…"
…
That night, Favor thoughtfully assigned them the same night hawk shift, after Rowdy helped clean all the dishes with Mushy (and then Favor finally decided to call Rowdy's punishment over). The two rode dutifully around the herd a couple of times, but the cattle were real restful, and the night was calm and clear, so after a while they just leaned back in their saddles and talked.
"Boy, this is some pretty country," Dan exclaimed, surveying the rugged landscape.
"Wild and rough, but it is pretty," Rowdy agreed.
"I wish Charlie were here, he would have loved to cowboy across the river coming up."
"He always wanted to be a cowboy. And boy did he love danger and excitement," Rowdy laughed as old memories surfaced.
"It's incredible isn't it? It seems only yesterday you and Charlie were tumbling out of the hay loft and roping each other for practice and now you're roping cattle for real."
"Yeah, time did go fast, didn't it?" They lapsed into easy silence for a little bit.
"How's your ma?" Dan asked.
"Fine," Rowdy shrugged.
"On the way back this afternoon I was swapping stories with Mr. Favor and the scout Nolan, and somewhere along the way they mentioned that your father was dead."
Rowdy ducked away as he felt Bailey's eyes on him. "Yeah, I told the fellows that."
"Why?"
Uncomfortable, he shrugged and kept his eyes averted. "Easier than the truth I guess." He waited for the other's reprimand, but Dan didn't say anything.
After a long moment, Rowdy switched topics. "When you get enough money scraped together, where you going to go?"
Dan smiled ruefully. "Don't know. However far I can go, I guess. I bet I'll be a drifter all my life, can't stand being tied down in one place for too long."
"Well, why don't you stay on the drive? Out on the trail, you're not tied down to one place; it's just like drifting except you get paid for it."
"Yeah, I know, but the work's not for me. The first time I was on the Sedalia, I swore I'd never ride it again. But guess where I am?"
"Well, since you've already broken your promise, why don't you just break it all the way and stay on for the end?" Rowdy suggested good-humoredly.
"No, Ramrod Yates, I won't. Just across the river and then the next town with a stage and I'm gone."
"So, you're just going to wander around for the rest of your life?" he asked in mock disapproval.
"You just going to cowboy for the rest of your life?" Bailey retorted.
"Okay, okay, I give up," Rowdy conceded to his friend. A moment later, he muttered, "but you could just wander around with the drive."
Hey, sorry it took me so long to get it up. Hopefully, if all goes well, the next chapter should be up around...Monday or Tuesday. Thanks for reading! Please review! Have a great day!