Next morning, Megan was wearing a dress and her hair was brushed loose. She was well worth a second look, and she got it from Joseph when the men sat down for breakfast.
An hour later, when Hector and Joe were saddling up, Ben had a quiet word with her.
‘I like it,’ he said, and smiled warmly. ‘But I said I’d tell you about this mess we got.’
‘You can start by admittin’ you weren’t drunk out there in the brush,’ Megan replied.
‘Yeah, well, I wasn’t,’ he said, and told her what had really happened.
‘Where are those men now?’
‘Hector took care of ’em. Exactly how, might be one thing best left alone,’ Ben advised.
‘What about the land bein’ wrested from the Kettle family?’
‘We got a pretty good idea it was Wilshaw Broome who murdered Judd Kettle … somehow inveigled the Standin’ K from him. We’re goin’ into Lemmon, an’ ol’ Hoope Kettle’s grandson’s goin’ to file a dispute for the town clerk.’
‘But after what happened yesterday, there’s still goin’ to be a fight. Joe knows that?’ Megan speculated.
‘As sure as God made little apples. But Hec told me this boy’s the spit of his pa. I know he don’t talk much, but I ain’t seen a youngster in a while I took to more.’
‘I know, an’ he ain’t said more’n two words to me since we met up,’ Megan chipped back.
‘Well, if he could, Megan, he’d probably say he’s pleased you got yourself prettied up for him.’
‘I can dress for—’ Megan started to protest, but Ben held up his hand.
‘It’s worth it for whatever, or whoever,’ he said. ‘Now, if the moment we’re gone, you switch that costume to chaps an’ boots, remember, I don’t want you ridin’ out too far. The Broome men won’t give a woman any trouble, but if they ain’t lookin’ too close, they might snap off a long range shot at anyone approaching. I got to go now, Megan. You just remember what I said.’
‘I will. But you remember that as far as I’m concerned they can have anything except my pa.’
Megan watched the three men ride away and the straight back and broad shoulders of young Joe Kettle. So this was the way her feelings were developing, she considered with interest. She hoped he knew it; recalled that soldiers who rode into combat often took a loved one’s keepsake with them.
‘Why don’t you go ridin’ with them stock buyers, Megan? You know just as much as your pa about four-legged critters?’ Her mother’s strident voice brought Megan out of her agreeable reverie. ‘You might stop him from bein’ robbed blind.’
‘I could certainly stop him from somethin’,’ Megan muttered.
Ten minutes later Megan was into her range clothes, and she was headed for the Rio Bonito. A little smile crossed her ma’s face as she watched, waved from the small pantry window. Megan waved back. It wasn’t much of a deceit not to say she wasn’t riding after her pa and Joe and Hector.
Megan rode along the banks of Rio Bonito. She looked into the breeze-rippled water, watched the slim willow leaves that skimmed across the sheltered eddies. She rode for nearly an hour before reining in where a thick screen of mixed timber ran close to the river-bank. She climbed from her saddle and sat with her back against a gnarled buckeye. For a long time, she stared pensively into the bright running water, felt the press of impending trouble.
A hundred yards upstream, on the opposite bank, a man was talking to his horse, getting it to pull back from the water’s edge, ‘Stand up,’ you ol’ soak,’ he encouraged.
‘What the hell are we doin’ up here, Krate?’ a second man asked.
‘I told you, we’re lookin’ out for somebody,’ Carter Krate answered back. ‘It’s what the boss wants us to do, so we best do it. You saw the mood he was in earlier.’
‘Did he tell you who we’re supposed to be lookin’ out for?’
‘Yeah, an’ he said we shouldn’t make a ruckus, so keep your goddamn voice down. We’re to see if Ben McGovren’s got any riders with him.’
‘Huh. That old coot ain’t likely to be with anyone, less it’s his mare. He don’t need no help to run that shirt-tail outfit.’
‘Well, Felix is sayin’ otherwise,’ Krate answered back. ‘He says McGovren’s suddenly got himself a couple o’ gun-packers. Do you know where Tate an’ Perez were last night?’
‘Gettin’ roostered in town.’
‘No, they weren’t,’ Krate corrected. ‘Felix said his pa found ’em in a line shack by one o’ the creeks. He said whatever happened durin’ the night got ’em frightened speechless. No good to man nor beast for a day or so. It made Broome madder’n a stuck pig.’
‘They must’ve said somethin’.’
‘Yeah, that it was McGovren, but he had two others coverin’ his back. That’s what we’re doin’ out here … lookin’ for ’em. Oh, an’ somethin else,’ Krate added. ‘There was what looked like a couple o’ corn nubbins stuck to the shack’s door on a pear thorn. But they was dried-up earlobes, human earlobes. Boss said it was some sort o’ hex, a sign of retribution. Felix reckons that’s what’s got him rattled, not the treatment two of his riders got.’
‘So what are we supposed to do if we run into ’em?’
‘That’s up to us, I guess. Felix reckons his pa’s puttin’ up a fat reward for bringin’ ’em down.’
‘There’s all sorts o’ fat, Krate.’
‘Felix reckons it’ll be three or four hundred dollars apiece for McGovren an’ them two other fellers.’
The other man whistled through his teeth. ‘All things bein’ equal, that’s a fair bounty. An’ up against another ’puncher, I’d take it. But how’d we spend more’n a year’s pay in Boot Hill, if they’re hired guns?’
‘Yeah,’ Krate agreed. ‘We’ll have to be real watchful, that’s for sure.’
‘Any other likely trouble we should bear in mind?’
‘No, other than to look out for the girl. She ain’t to be harmed.’
‘The McGovren girl? What’s she got to do with all this?’
‘I reckon Felix has gone sweet on her,’ Krate said. ‘But we’ll find out tonight, when we ride to that little house o’ theirs. But don’t worry yourself into a spin, there’s goin’ to be a good half-dozen of us.’
‘So, what the hell’s goin’ on?’
‘I don’t get to know the detail, but accordin’ to Felix, if they want to fight fire with fire, we’ll oblige.’
‘I was meanin’ the breadth of it. What’s behind it all?’
‘Accordin’ to Felix, this Ben McGovren’s been rustlin’ hereabouts for most of his life. The old Broome’s got tired of it, an’ wants an end to it, once an’ for all.’
‘Well, if he has been rustlin’, he ain’t got too much out of it. I wouldn’t have thought McGovren folk were much of a threat.’
‘Perhaps not, but I ain’t goin’ to argue the case,’ Krate decided. ‘I’m thinkin’ more o’ them dollars. Let’s ride further up the creek.’