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“You can ride Belle” Will pointed out a docile-looking bay mare in a nearby stall “Can you saddle her by yourself? I can help if you don’t kno”

“I can ear she needed in the tack rooht trick her with an unruly mount, and she was ready But Belle was a sweetheart She stood calmly while Rose slipped on the bridle and laid the pad and saddle on her back Only when she bent to fasten the strap and the cinch did she notice thebelly

“Oh, oodness!” she exclaimed “She’s—”

“She’s pregnant,” Will said “That’s why she’s not on the roundup But Jasper says it’s okay to ride her around the ranch”

“He says the exercise is good for her,” Beau added “ ’Specially since she’d not due for another six weeks or so”

“She’s a great little cutting horse, but the roundup can be rough, and this is her first foal,” Will said “She was bred with a cha”

Rose had to smile These two boys, not even out of elerown up with At least she hadn’t heard either of them curse

She eased into the saddle, taking tiently,” she said

With Will leading the way, they set out across the greening lower pastures and onto the open flatland The afternoon sun was bright and warm, the landscape dotted with clumps of mesquite and ablaze with bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and firewheel Hued the blossoms White butterflies rose in clouds where the horses passed

The boys had told her they were headed for a small box canyon in the escarpraphs of horses on it The canyon was on Rimrock land and not too far for an easy ride Even for a lone woh

Saying little, they rode at a slow pace set by Beau’s short-legged pony Where the land rose, they picked up a faint trail that wound through the foothills Here sagebrush and rabbit brush grew in clu across their path, startled Will’s pony He calmed it with the skill of a seasoned rider

Rose was bringing up the rear when she noticed cattle tracks in the loosened dirt along the trail—not just one or two sets of tracks, butthe same direction “Whoa” She stopped the boys “Take a look Does your dad run cattle out here?”

“Not usually The grazing’s not that good And since Ferg Prescott dammed that little creek in the canyon, there’s no water” Will slid off his pony, dropped the reins, and crouched to exa Less than a day, I’d say”

“I heard Dad say he wassome cows” Beau had stayed on his pony “Maybe this is where they went”

“He’d be happy if we found the up “Let’s follow the tracks and see where they go”