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“MAKES SENSE DON’T IT.” Bailey said as he trotted along behind Titus. “Ranchers can get some work out of fella’s riding the wrong side of the law just for keepin’ quiet.”
“I guess it does,” Titus agreed. “Of course you don’t really know what you’re dealing with, and these men might just as easily rob you blind as help.”
“True, but it’s a harsh land. Can’t be easy making a living out here?”
“No I don’t suppose it is,” Titus continued. “Still I can’t see takin’ what a man’s worked for and thinking that’s alright.”
He lifted his eyes to the canyon walls as his horse picked its way along the sandy bottom and a vision of rich dark soil and wheat seemed to swim before his eyes.
Titus pulled his horse up short stopping to rub the vision from his mind as he squeezed his eyes tight.
“You okay Titus?” Bailey asked.
“Yes.” Titus said, though his voice still held doubts, “just a memory.”
Bailey nodded as if that was enough explanation for him. “We all get that sometimes. One minute we’re mindin’ our own business, and the next, we’re thinking about a past life.” He chuckled as if sharing this wisdom held a joke only he knew.
Together the men rode until darkness blotted out the trail then they found a low rise and made camp.
“I surely hope we find these rascals soon,” Bailey said laying out his bed roll. “I had my saddle good and broke in already.”
Titus chuckled, even with the items from the packs redistributed between both mounts and heavy blankets padding the wooden supports of the pack saddle, he didn’t envy Bailey his ride.
“Mighty quiet down here,” Bailey mused as he climbed into his blankets. “Makes a man ponder his existence.”
Titus listened wondering what the man would say next. Bailey was often philosophical as he talked of nature.
“God’s country my pa used to say. He liked seeing things, travelin’ knowing how things worked.”
“It’s something seeing all these wild places,” Titus agreed.
“Makes you feel small and big all at the same time.” Bailey said.
Titus thought about it for a while. He was a man who didn’t know his place, a man who had followed what felt right and hoped that in the end things would work their way out.
Days with Jed, he’d been busy; working himself to exhaustion most nights and keeping the thoughts and worries about a life gone at bay.
Now his mind turned back to the past. Who was he? Where did he come from? Had he left loved ones behind?
There were no answers, only brief notions; glimpses of things that seemed distantly familiar.
After the flash from earlier that day he wondered if he’d been a farmer. Some things seemed to come easy to him, as if he’d been born to them, and somehow his body had remembered what his mind had forgotten.
Working with Jed, he’d had no trouble swinging a pick or using a shovel. His hands were hard and calloused; accustomed to work.
“You alright over there?” Bailey asked.
“Just thinkin’,” Titus replied. “You see when Jed found me I’d been shot,” he finally confessed. “A bullet had grazed my temple, and when I came to, I didn’t know who I was. Still don’t.”
“No kid’n?” Bailey asked in wonder.
“Nope.”
“Well you must be alright,” Bailey said, “If you were a bad man I reckon you’d have already showed signs of it instead of gettin’ yourself a badge and helping out a friend.”
Titus smiled he could only hope that Bailey was right.
***
“I SURE CAN UNDERSTAND why them cowpokes called this place the maze,” Bailey said, drinking from the canteen on his saddle. “You run into more dead end canyons than not every which way you go.”
Titus had to agree. The only redeeming thing about that maze was that so far they’d been able to find enough food and water for themselves and their mounts.
“It’s a crazy place,” Titus agreed.
“I done seen about fifteen places a fella could stash just about anything he wanted to until folks kinda forget about it then maybe come back and fetch it.”
“I think that’s exactly what these outlaws do,” Titus said, pushing his horse forward again. “I think they hide their ill-gotten gains here in the maze then come back for it when the law’s lost interest in them.”
“Well I haven’t lost interest in getting’ my horse and rig back,” Bailey offered belligerently. “I was partial to the things I had and that horse as well. Good steady animal it was.”
“Well I hope we find them soon,” Titus offered hopefully. Then we can make our way out of here and into a landscape that makes sense again.”
“Look there,” Bailey said, waving Titus near, “that’s my bay’s track, clear as day.”
Titus leaned out of the saddle and studied the hoof print. “How old do you think?”
“A day or two at the most,” Bailey said looking up at the sky. “Ain’t had no rain lately, so it’s nice and clear.”
Titus shifted in his saddle, looking up at the ridges and high walls of the canyon. In the distance he could hear the bawling of cows and tugging his hat down tight he headed in the direction the sound was coming from.
Bailey eased his rifle on his knees, nodded and fell in behind Titus.
The small running iron fire was blazing as they rode up on three men fiddling a brand on a large calf.
One man, his black beard dusted with sand held the line tight on the animal while two others pressed the glowing iron to its hip.
“I wouldn’t move if I was you,” Bailey said, his rifle aimed at the two men on the ground.
The third man dropped the rope he’d been holding and bolted, driving his spurs viciously into his horses sides.
Titus kicked his mount into a dead run, racing up along the other man and leaping from the saddle dragging them both to the earth.
The big man with the black beard rolled, jumped to his feet and swung, but Titus ducked under the fist and brought an uppercut to the man’s chin rocking him to his heels.
The other man snarled, shaking his head and charged Titus knocking him to the ground, but Titus twisted out of the way and came up with another punch to the man’s bearded jaw.
With a heavy crash the other man slumped to the ground unconscious.
Titus looked up in time to see the calf trot away and the other two men trust with the rope that had been using to hold the cow.
“You done with yours?” Bailey asked grinning. “Cause I’d like my horse back now.” He nodded to black beards horse that stood several feet away nibbling grass.
Titus nodded, wiping a trickle of blood from his lip.
“I think we might have made ourselves a bit more work,” He said grabbing the other man by the shirt and dragging him toward the fire. “Now we have cows to drive back up the trail.”
“Long as I don’t have to ride the mule it’s good for me.” Bailey said making Titus laugh.
