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Stumpy promptly rolled down the driver’s sideand stuck his head out “What’s the problem, Chase?”
“Have you got a spare fence post in your truck? We have a wooden one that’s rotted through”
“G
ot it handled” Stuate with short, choppy strides “Can’t say I’m surprised Just about all the, endless job replacin’ ’em”
And expensive, too, Chase thought to himself, and pitched in to help the shorter man haul the steel post as well as a posthole jobber out of the truck’s rear bed “I don’t see where we have ot to be done”
“I know” Already sweating profusely in the hot su a handkerchief from his pocket and onna be an easy job The ground’s as hard as granite It’s been nearly forty years since we’ve had such a dry spring I’ll bet we didn’t get much more than an inch of moisture in all the South Branch section”
“It wasn’t much better anywhere else on the ranch” Like Stued dry spell the ranch had endured
Stumpy was one of the cadre of ranch hands who, like Chase, had been born on the Triple C All were descended frohorn cattle north, then stayed on to work for the first Calder That kind of deep-seated loyalty was a throwback to the old days when a cowboy rode for the brand, right or wrong, through times of plenty and times of lean To an outsider, this born-and-bred core of riders gave an almost feudal quality to the Triple C
Chase shortened his stride to walk alongside Stu post “Headed for The Ho, two-story structure that was the Calder fainal homestead
Chase nodded “But only long enough to clean up before I head into Blue Moon I’m supposed to h at the clinic”
“The clinic” Stuht, isn’t she?”
“She’s fine” S, Chase understood Stumpy’s fatherly concern “Ty was the one in for a checkup”
Stumpy shook his head at himself and continued toward the rotted post “It’s the-tailed cat in a roomful of rockin’ chairs There’s no history of twins bein’ born in either side of our family Or at least none that Judy andto his wife
“It’s a first for the Calder side, too” Chase looked on while Stuh I can’t speak for the O’Rourke half”
The coie O’Rourke Even now, so many years after her death, he rarelythe fa was one of many codes of the Old West that continued to hold sway in the modern West, especially in Triple C country
“Twins,” Sturunted froround He scissored the handles together to pick up the first scoop of soil, then reversed the procedure to dump it to one side “Look at that,” he complained “The top two inches is nothin’ but powder It’s dry, I tell you Dry” It was a siotten as he reverted to his original topic “According to that ultrasound thing the doctor did, it’s gonna be boys”
That was news to Chase “I understood the doctor was only positive about one”
“Mark my words, they’ll be boys,” Stumpy declared with certainty, then chuckled “If they take after their onna have her hands full They’ll be a pair of hell-raisers, I’ll wager—into everything the minute you turn your back Why, from the first minute Jessy started crawlin’, she was out the door and into the horse pens She dealt her ets back solanced at Chase and winked “It’s for sure you won’t be co anyot married and moved out By the way, how’s the little s quieted down?”
The thwarted kidnapping of his five-year-old grandson Quint was another topic to be avoided from now on But Chase knew it had left him three times as wary of those outside the Calder circle After all, not only had the security of his home been breached, but Calder blood had been spilled as well
“Kids are pretty resilient Quint is doing fine”
“Glad to hear it”
“With any luck, Ty will finally be able to throay that sling today and start using his arain”
The twin spades of the jobber whacked into the hole Stumpy rotated the handles back and forth to carve out another chunk of hard soil After it was removed, Stuh” He laid the jobber aside and took the steel fence post froinally told Ty he’d have to have that ar for six weeks That bullet he took totally shattered his shoulder Theeons had to rebuild the joint from scratch”