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A heat was building, and Benteen stepped in before te, both of you better start watchin’ your language” He paused to let his hard glance oes for all of you When this drive gets under way, you’re going to have ladies in the cale sentence if it doesn’t have a ‘hell,’ a ‘damn,’ or a ‘sonofabitch’ included somewhere—and so for the cattle If you can’t do that, maybe you’d better keep your mouths shut around the womenfolk”

“Hey, flapjaw, do you think you can e that?” Jonesy taunted the talkative drover, Zeke Taylor

“I know a helluva lot more about how to talk to a lady than you do,” he retorted

“Pass the word to the others,” Benteen ordered Besides the riders on night herd, four of the drovers had been given perht in Fort Worth, with the understanding they’d be back at first light in condition for work if itaround the wo for a month”

The threatened punishnored On a cattle drive, three riders were usually assigned positions at the rear of the herd to prod the laggards and weaker steers into keeping up with the rest of the cattle It was hot, dusty work, the least-wanted duty In , flank, and point so that each man fared equally

Jessie Truon wheel by the chuck box Benteen wandered over to a stand beside hi coffee

“Everything been quiet?” Benteen asked

“Quiet as you can ask,” Jessie replied There was a lengthy pause as he straightened to bite off a chaw of a plug and fit the wad into the inside pocket of his cheek “The Ten Bar’s got a big herd together to drive north They got ’em bedded down ‘bout five miles from us Bull Giles is bossin’ it”

“You talk to him?” Benteen swirled the s of coffee in the tin cup to s

Jessie gave a slow nod “Bull just happened to ride over this way Claimed we’d be eatin’ his dust all the way to Kansas”

“S’pose it would upset him if it was the other way around,” Benteen mused with a dry smile

“Might” There was a gleam in Jessie’s eyes

Lorna’sWhile the wedding couple arding the decorations Nothing was being spared to , their only child, a special event Clara Pearce filled all her ti so she wouldn’t have time to think about the ehter was far, far away

It was successfully blocked from her mind when Lorna and Benteen had been instructed to the minister’s satisfaction as to their respective roles in a Christian e She walked to the rear of the church to rejoin them

“Are you ready to leave, Mother?” Lorna asked “Benteen has some errands he needs to do, but he wants to see us home first”