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Loman knew better than to ask what his boss planned He was in awe of Boston’s intelligence and respected the ruthless determination in theassociated with the kind of power Boston held Loman Janes was content to be the brawn to Boston’s brains He knew Boston needed someone as closemouthed and merciless as he was to carry out his plans In Loave the orders and he took them, but they were dependent on one another The more powerful Boston became, the more powerful Loman became by association

4

There were no trails in the brush country of Texas There wasn’t any roo the passage of rass that had once covered these millions of acres of Texas land

It was downright unfriendly country, with every plant baring its forbidding set of clawlike thorns and needle-sharp spines Arow the palo verde, its green-black thorns more visible than its leaves, and mounds of prickly-pear cactus There’s the catclaw that the Mexicans call “wait-a-minute,” a much more descriptive term, as anyone snared by its thorns would testify

No one clai this black chaparral It was said He gave the land to the devil as his playground

The short-tempered and sharp-tusked javelinas called it home, as did the rattlesnake No horse and rider ever rode the thickets without the constant co There wouldn’t have been any reason to venture into the brush if the cunning and wild Longhorn cattle hadn’t hidden themselves in it

The hardy Longhorn wasn’t much to look at; flat-sided, narrow-hipped, with a swayed back and big drooping ears, it was a caricature of a cow The long, sweeping set of horns that gave the breed its naht One tip ht point down and the other up They drooped, twisted, and spiraled in unusual convolutions The Longhorn came in all colors: washed-out earth colors, dull brindles and blues, duns and browns, and drab clay-reds—solid, speckled, or spotted

Slow to develop, a Longhorn didn’t reach its ht hundred to a thousand pounds until it was eight years old or better But the tall, bony beast could travel for hts and blizzards, and adapt to the wildest land and roughest climates

So cowboys penetrated the thorny ramparts of these boundless thickets in search of h to catch theht the vicious brush country, cursed it, and acquired a healthy respect for it

With Shorty Niles riding beside him, Benteen walked his line-backed dun horse into a sparse section of the chaparral It was late afternoon, tih the area before they lost the light Two days before, they’d spotted a couple of coith yearling calves in this vicinity, but they hadn’t been able to put a rope on them Benteen wanted to make another try for them

Winter was the best tied leaves had fallen, enabling a rider to see farther The weather was cooler, so horses could run longer without beco fro

Cow hunting in the brush country required clothes and equipetation The leather chaps protecting Benteen’s legs were sed by a prickly branch Tapaderos hooded the stirrups of his saddle to prevent a lie his boot or prod his foot froly around his shoulders, ribs, and waist, leaving no loose folds to be snared by the spiked brush, and his hat was loned

Benteen wore leather gloves to protect his hands fro they choked him His hands, littered with painful scratches and scars, paid the price

Being a sured he had a lot to prove He was ready to risk life and limb at the blink of an eye There were soe of seventeen and still be alive His short, stocky build had the iron muscles of an older man, and the experience of countless frays was etched in his broad-featured face Shorty was always the first to volunteer and the last to quit He was a feisty friend, but Benteen wouldn’t have wanted him for an enemy

Neither h the brush Talking required effort, and energy was saved for the chase They rode past a coma bush with dirklike thorns Its winter blossorance; even that couldn’t cover up the stench of the four-foot-long rattlesnake lying in their path, tra but familiar sry rattlers in their death throes