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,” he insisted when Benteen started to reach inside his coat to pay for the drink

“Obliged” He nodded and took a s, feeling the pure fire burn its way down his throat

“I told you it was the real stuff,” Fat Frank reminded him

“You did,” Benteen adlass as he turned, angling his body toward the two other customers

“You acquainted with Mr Janes of the Ten Bar?” Fat Frank asked, as if prepared to make introductions

“I am”

“I swear all you Texans know each other” The shopkeeper laughed

“Who’s mindin’ the Ten Bar with you up here, Janes?” Benteen inquired with semi-interest

The gaunt-cheeked forelass in a half-circle on the table “Ollie Webster is runnin’ the Texas end”

“Good man” Benteen inclined his head in a silent admission of the cowboy’s abilities He’d worked with him a few times

“There been much Indian trouble?” Loman asked

It was a question from one cattleman to another, and Benteen treated it as such “Some They run off a few head from time to time”

“Poor, starving savages” Fat Frank shook his head “More than half the supplies the government promised ’em never makes it to the reservations And that scu them whiskey”

“What are you talking about?” Lo interest

“There’s a pack of ex-buffalo hunters and wood-hawks that’s nested on the Missouri River” Wood-haas the term applied to men who chopped wood for the steamboats that trafficked the river “They’re an unsavory bunch Thethe Crees and Bloods sout and separating those savages fro so the Indians spend most of the winter on this side of the border”