CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Full Speed Ahead

After Nick changed clothes and checked again on Andy, he went to see Sam. "Is now a good time to talk to McColl?"

Sam pulled Abby off his leg and looked at Jeannie.

"Yes, now is fine," she said.

"And anytime you need anything, Jeannie, anything, you just run over to the house there and let someone know."

"Thanks, Nick," Jeannie said. "I appreciate that."

"And it ain't that far that you couldn't send the boys by themselves, either. They can see the house from here, so they wouldn't get lost."

Jeannie nodded.

"Mother said she'd like to take you to town tomorrow and get some groceries and whatever else you need," Nick said. "So just make a list. Make sure you got enough kitchen towels and bath towels and all that. Audra or Isabella can watch the kids while you go. Unless you want to take them with you."

"There's all kinds of food already in the kitchen," Jeannie said. "And there's ice in the ice box. I don't know that I need anything else at all."

Nick shook his head. "You'll disappoint Mother if you don't need something."

Jeannie chuckled. "I'll look around and think about it." She looked at Sam. "Anything you need?"

Sam smiled. "You know I have everything I need."

Jeannie blushed.

"All right, Sam, let's get you outta here before I end up havin' to babysit while you and Jeannie play games."

"What kind of games?" James asked.

Nick roughed his hair. "Secret games. Have you ever played Quaker Meeting?"

"No, sir."

"Okay. It's easy. Who wants to play?"

"I do!" Jack ran to them.

"Me! Me!" Abby said.

Nick nodded at the sofa. "You gotta sit on the couch. Then whoever starts the game—I will, this time—and then the winner starts it the next time—and the winner is the last one to be disqualified—says, 'Quaker's Meeting has begun. No more laughter, no more fun. If you show your teeth or tongue, you have to sit 'til Ma says done. One, two, three, start."

"What's disquaffed mean?" Jack asked.

Nick smiled. "It means you did something to get out of the game—such as talk, laugh, make a face, anything like that—you're out of the game and you have to sit quietly until everyone else is out of the game." He winked. "Let's start again." And Nick repeated the game rhyme.

The three children stared at each other with wide eyes. No one moved or made a sound.

Nick grinned and slapped Sam's gut. "My job here is done. Let's go."

Sam followed Nick out the door. "I can learn a lot from you."

Nick chuckled. "You didn't bring a horse, did you?"

"No. I didn't know I could take it on the train. I let my brother-in-law use it."

"That's fine. Let's go pick you out one." Nick headed past the stables to one of the corals. "These are the good stallions. The good geldings are in the next corral, and the mares are in the corral on the other side of the geldings. Just look 'em all over and pick out the one you want."

"Any of 'em I should stay away from?"

"Nope. Like I said, these are the good ones." He pointed to an Arabian. "The chestnut Arabian is fast. Smart, too." He pointed to the black stallion. "Heath gentled that horse himself. Worked with it for a long time. Responds with just a touch or a whisper. You got to baby him, though."

"Don't Heath want him?"

"He's got two horses—Gal and Charger," Nick said. "And it wouldn't be here in the coral if he wanted it. It would be in the stables."

"Nice lookin' horse."

"He loves carrots. And sugar cubes." Nick grinned and looked up at Sam. "We tend to spoil our horses."

"I can tell." Sam smiled. "But you gotta take care of your horses."

Nick watched as Sam's eyes looked at each of the horses. But they always came back to the black stallion.

Nick gave a low whistle, and the stallion cantered over to them and pushed his muzzle into Nick's pocket. "Sorry, buddy. I didn't bring any treats for you."

The horse stepped back and nickered.

Sam reached out a hand for the horse to smell, then rubbed his muzzle. "Nice horse."

"I ain't been here for almost six months, so I don't know the latest on any of 'em and some of 'em are new. Heath usually handles the horses." Nick shrugged. "Heath may have named this one, but if he did, I don't know what he called 'im. So, you can have the honors."

Sam considered. "Let me get to know him a bit."

Nick nodded. "And, if you decide after a few days you don't care for him for whatever reason, you can trade him in for a different one."

Sam smiled his easy smile. "Can't beat that."

"We'll take him over to the stables and get you everything you need."

Sam followed Nick to the stables.

Nick pointed to an empty stall. "You can use that stall for him." He nodded towards the tack room. "We can find you a saddle and stuff in there." He led the way and opened the door. There were several saddles lined on one wall.

Sam looked them over, then picked out one.

"Again, if you decide you don't like that one, you can trade it in. And I don't have to be here for you to do that. Just do it yourself."

"Thanks, Nick."

"Grab you a saddle blanket and a girth, a bridle, reins, a bit, and, yeah, that already has stirrups, so you can skip that unless you wanna swap 'em out." Nick took the saddle from him and pointed where the items were as he called them out. "Probably better grab you a brush to keep in your stall."

Sam picked out all the items and went back to the horse.

"Go ahead and spend some time with 'im while I get Coco ready."

"Are you sure it's okay to stable him with the mares?"

"No mares in this stable. They stay in the other one. That way, the stallions behave." Nick headed to Coco's stall. "Oh, yeah, there's always a bucket of carrots and one of apples over here. And, unless Audra takes 'em all, a box of sugar cubes." He pointed to a shelf. "Probably should introduce yourself to that stallion with a little bit of love."

Sam grabbed a couple of carrots and an apple, then put some sugar cubes in his pocket. "Absolutely."

Nick grinned. "Be careful of putting sugar cubes in your pocket. I had to stop because Mother refused to sew my pocket back on my shirt anymore."

"Thanks for the heads up." He moved the sugar to his pants pocket.

After the men spent some time with the horses, they rode to Duke McColl's house.

XXXXX

"Come in, Nick," Liz said, stepping back.

"Hi, Liz. This is Sam Sampson. He's gonna train as a foreman. Duke home?"

Sam took off his hat and shook Liz's hand.

"Come in, come in."

"I'm here!" McColl hollered, coming into the living room. He shook Sam's hand.

"Sam Sampson," Nick said. "And this is Duke McColl. He's been on this ranch as long as I have."

"Longer," McColl corrected. "I used to wrangle this one when he was just a little tyke. Always wanted to know what we were doing and why we were doing it and then he wanted to do it, too."

Nick's dimples appeared. "And he'd usually let me, too."

"As long as you couldn't kill yourself doin' it." McColl raised an eyebrow. "But you figured out more ways of gettin' hurt than any kid I ever saw."

"Doc Merar said that whenever you break a bone, it grows back together stronger. So, I figure I got me some strong bones."

"That you do, Nick. That you do." He looked at Nick. "You planning on staying around awhile now?"

"Planning on it." Nick looked at McColl. "Just wanted to be sure we had everything ready to finish roundup."

McColl nodded. He took out a sketch of the Barkley property and motioned for the men to follow him to the table. He laid out the map. "We sent out three crews last Monday. They came back in on Friday. Then I sent out two other crews on Friday. But we still have a lot of territory to cover."

Nick glanced at Sam. "We got a bit over thirty-thousand acres, which is around forty-seven square miles. Our property is about twenty-four miles wide and about twenty miles long." He pointed out the directions on the map. "Unlike JR's ranch, our 'headquarters'—the main house, the bunkhouse, the stables, and so forth—ain't in the center of the property. They're here—only about two miles from the west border and three miles from the south border. So, to reach these north or east borders, you're looking at more than a half-day's ride. And to reach the northeast corner—which is about thirty miles from the main house—it's gonna take a full day's travel—especially since you run into a lot rougher terrain in that area. That's why we stay out there for a few days. Otherwise, we'd spend all our time comin' and goin'."

Nick stepped back. "After roundup and the drive, I'll take you around the perimeter of the property, but it takes about three days to travel around it—and that's just travel time. If you're checking fences, it's gonna take a lot longer."

Sam whistled. "That's a lot to manage."

"Yes, it is. Now, our headquarters for roundup is over here, more in the center of the property. That cuts way down on the driving time. So, you can see why, even if we're working closer to the main house, we usually stay out for at least a few days."

"We want to be finished with roundup by Thursday," McColl said. "That gives us all day on Friday to sort the herd and separate the ones that need to be branded and the ones going on the drive. If we don't get done on Friday, we work on Saturday until we are done."

Nick nodded. "Hopefully, we get Sunday off, and then we can start driving a week from Monday. It should be an easy drive. We're only takin' what, Duke? Half the men?"

McColl nodded. "If that."

Nick grinned. "I suppose you want to stay here and babysit the ones that ain't goin'?"

Duke matched his grin. "I'd be much obliged."

Nick looked at Sam. "Any questions?"

Sam slowly shook his head. "I'm sure I'll have plenty. Right now, I don't know what I don't know."

Nick laughed. "Well, know this. Better get you some rest tonight. It's gonna be a tough couple of weeks."

XXXXX