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“I was just re a sad story I heard one ti wife had just come out from the East to join her husband, who had hoine she’d been filled with horror tales about the Indians before coain—“she’d only been out here a couple of weeks Her husband was out in the fields, and she was alone in their sod house She heard someone ride up, evidently looked out theand sao Indians She was probably certain that she was about to be kidnapped and raped, so she ran to the trunk and dug out her husband’s service pistol and killed herself”

“And the Indians?” Lorna prompted

“There’s the irony of it They were friends of her husband One had been educated in a school back East and had come to visit,” Mary said to explain her wry smile

13

Day after day, the prairie undulated in front of the trail riders and wagons The sun seared the grass to a shade of gold-brohile ten thousand hooves stirred up

choking clouds of dust The only sounds that ons, the cracking of horses’ ankle joints, and the steady thud of walking hooves and theinto each other It dulled the senses and the mind

It was a season ripe to breed violent stor in a fierce display of thunder, lightning, and rain On those storh the Indian nation—it was everyto hold the herd Twice the cattle staht direction, which was north In total, three days were lost rounding up strays, and the tally still came up short twenty-seven head, but no lives were lost

Riding ahead, Benteen spotted a young buck antelope He was far enough away from the herd that a shot wouldn’t spook the cattle After a steady diet of “Pecos strawberries” and “overland trout”—the cowboy slang for bacon—fresh meat would be welcoutted it on the spot, cutting off a hindquarter and leaving the rest

Although they were surrounded by tons of beef on the hoof, cattle weren’t killed for meat Too much of the carcass spoiled before it could be eaten, and the ani stock on the ranges No cow or steer was butchered unless it was injured and unable to keep up with the herd

With the antelope’s hindquarter tied behind the saddle, Benteen rode a little farther, until he reached the Cin state of Kansas His gaze picked out a buffalo skull on the opposite side of the river It e City Every half-mile, there would be another skull, he knew from past experience There weren’t any fares to pay for crops destroyed or fences downed, no fines for trespassing

But the cutoff meant a dry drive, a murderous hundred miles over virtually waterless country At their norht days to cover it But in eight days, parched cattle could be dead or dying That meant the pace would have to be doubled They’d stop here, at the Cimarron, and rest for a couple days, then start the cattle out fresh

Those two days seemed like heaven to Lorna There was finally time and an abundance of water to wash clothes and lay thehted doith rocks She and Mary were even able to bathe in the river, one of the watch for any errant cowboys while the other washed The cowboys made use of the water facilities, too, and Benteen teased her for not skinny-dipping like he did, but she had been too modest to remove her chemise, even if Mary was the only one to see her

Before they started out, everything that could hold water was filled But there was only a reh would be carried to make the hundred ave orders that no one but Rusty touch the water barrel strapped to the side of the chuck wagon

Lorna thought her previous experiences on the trail had prepared her for anything, but she’d never gone thirsty before The grueling pace that had to be set sapped her strength By the second day, she’d been shown the trick of carrying pebbles in her mouth to sti the white skulls that listen with o dust covered everything and sweat turned it to ht the thirsty cattle started bawling, and she couldn’t sleep

The heat on the third day was oppressive So blind fro in the ranks of the Longhorns, well broken now to the trail routine The animals knew there ater in the Ci the riders herding them to take them to water up ahead The drovers had their hands full, literally driving the cattle, beating at them with coiled ropes or buckskin poppers tied to rope ends