Chapter 30

Tom and Cathy walked back upstream a ways and found a place where she could climb up the short bank without too much trouble. She climbed up ahead of Tom and with his hands on her hips she made it to the top. Just before she made it far enough to stand up straight, Tom ran his hand under her dress and caressed softly between her legs. Cathy squealed then laughed as she turned to pull him up the bank and kiss him again. They both laughed as they made their way back to where Cal and Callie were sprawled out asleep on the blankets.

The two young couples went back to town and took the buggy to the livery stable, Tom put his horse in the stall and spent a few minutes with him before they all walked back to the boarding house. They could still hear some of the crowd down on the south side of town and the player piano was banging out tunes one after the other. The sun was almost down and soon the crowds would be leaving and the circus roustabouts would be tearing down the riggings and rolling the big tent tarps up to store away until they rolled into the next town.

Tom and Cal spent a while sitting out back of the boarding house with Callie and Cathy, the evening shade was cooler and they wanted as much time as they could together before they rode out in the morning.

Cal and Callie were sitting in the swing and Cathy and Tom were sitting on the back steps.

“Tom, Callie said she and Cathy would heat us some water if we wanted to use the bathing room tonight,” Cal told his friend.

“That’d be good, we’ll be ridin out soon after breakfast in the morning,” Tom said.

The sisters jumped to their feet and hurried in the house to start the fire in the bathing room for their friends.

“Cathy, did you and Tom enjoy your last evening together?” Callie asked when they alone.

“Callie, it was beautiful and I’m so happy now that I did it. Tom made me feel so good and so alive.

“Did you and Cal do anything while we were gone?”

“We did lay together but we had our clothes on, we wanted to wait until he came back to get me. Tell me all about it Cathy, was it as good as you wanted it to be, did it hurt you any?”

“It was more than I ever thought it could be, and if there was any pain it got swept away in our feelings together. I did bleed just a bit though, I saw some stains when I washed.”

“Oh Cathy, I am so happy for you, I know how much you wanted this and how much you wanted it to be Tom.”

The sisters soon had enough hot water for their friends and told them to come on in. Tom and Cal had gone back to the livery stables and gotten clean clothes from their bedrolls and now were standing, waiting for the girls to leave the room. They were still bashful in front of them with their parents in the house.

“Come on Callie, they aren’t going to take a bath with us in the room, and besides mother and daddy could walk in anytime now.”

“I’ll leave now Cal, but one day I will bathe you myself, you will see,” Callie smiled and kissed Cal before she left. Cathy turned and smiled back at Tom just before she pulled the door closed behind them.

“Well Cal, how was your 4th of July celebration?”

“Tom I swear, if it was any better, I wouldn’t even leave tomorrow,” Cal said and they both laughed.

They bathed and dressed once more, then they walked out back to find Mr. and Mrs. Bowers sitting out there in the near dark with Callie and Cathy.

“Well boys, I reckon you’ll be leaving out early in the morning, I overheard your conversation with the Sheriff’s today,” Mr. Bowers said as they sat on the edge of the porch.

“Yes Sir, we’re gonna ride out to the Triple T spread early then we’ll be headin back over to Stockton and on down to Hays City to meet with Sheriff Wade,” Tom answered.

“You both be careful out there, we’ve heard some of the tales about what’s going on around here,” Mrs. Bowers said.

“Yes Ma’am, we’re always watchful out there, Tom can usually tell me when something’s about to go wrong, he feels it stirrin’ the air around him,” Cal told them.

“Well, none the less, please be careful, we like you both and want you to come again,” She said, then she got up from her seat on the swing and grabbed her husbands hand.

“Come on James, we need to check on something in the kitchen before we go to bed. I reckon you boys will be eating breakfast before you pull out tomorrow?” She turned and asked.

“Yes Ma’am, we’ll be here,” Tom said.

“Then we’ll see you all in the morning, good night,” Mrs. Bowers said as they went into the house.

They all said their good nights to the parents, then Callie and Cathy wasted no time hurrying over to spend a few minutes close to their friends.

Cathy whispered to Tom as she sat cross ways on his lap.

“I wish we could do it again Tom, I feel so warm and good inside.”

“Shhh, Cathy they’re gonna hear you,” Tom whispered back.

“I’ve already told Callie anyway and I know she’ll tell Cal before y’all leave in the morning,” she smiled at him shyly in the dim light.

“You girls just won’t do, you tell each other everything don’t you?”

“We’re not only sisters, we’re best friends and always have been.”

“Then I can’t fuss at you too much, I know you’re close and close with your parents too.”

“Yes we are, Mother knew you and I were going to do it today before we went out there.”

“Cathy, you mean to tell me that you talked this over with your Mother even before I knew what was gonna happen?”

“Sure did, we have no secrets from our Mother, she is out best friend too.”

“Well, I reckon I know some of what you are sayin’, my parents are a lot like that, we all had a good sit down talk before I left an they told me all about this girl and boy thing.”

“Your Mother and your Dad at the same time did that?”

“Yep, my Dad and I had already had some talks, then we all talked and my Mother told me a lot of stuff that I woulda never known if she hadn’t.”

“Tom, that’s so good that you can talk to your parents like that, we always keep some things from our daddy, but we know mother tells him anyway.”

The four of them talked for a while longer and then Tom and Cal kissed their girls good night and walked over to the livery stable and climbed up in the loft where there was a breeze coming through the open doors.

“Tom, I want to thank you again for letting me be your friend and letting me tag along with you. I’d still be sittin’ back there in that stable in Wichita watchin the sun go down one more time through the back door of the barn, if you hadn’t come riding in that day and made friends with me.”

“Cal, I reckon we were just meant to be friends, seemed like the natural thing for us to do. I’m proud to call you friend and have you ride with me.”

They talked for a while longer and both drifted off to sleep on their open bedrolls in the warm night air. The two deputies woke early and were packed and saddled, and sittin’ on the front steps of the boarding house when Mrs. Bowers opened the front door.

“You boys come on in and get some coffee, the girls will be down in a few minutes and we’ll have breakfast ready.”

When they were seated at the big dining table, Mrs. Bowers brought Cal a cup of steaming coffee and Tom a large glass of water. She leaned over and placed the water in front of Tom and patted his shoulder, Tom looked up and she smiled at him as if they were sharing a secret. In no time Cathy came busting through the door followed by her younger sister. They stopped, leaned over to kiss their friends on the cheek, then headed on to the kitchen to get their breakfast.

Cathy and Callie sat beside Tom and Cal as they ate, wanting to be as close as they could for as long as they could. Soon it was time for some serious goodbyes and after saying their farewells to Mr. and Mrs. Bowers, Tom and Cal walked out on the front porch with the two sisters. Both girls had tears in their eyes and were trying to hold back from breaking down. They all had said their goodbyes the night before and knew this was coming, but now that the two young men were about to ride off, it was almost more than any of them could stand.

Tom hugged Cathy to him hard then kissed her on the cheek. Then he backed up and smiled at her before he turned to swing his long legs up over the saddle. Cal and Callie were hugging too, and Callie was sobbing as she let him go.

The sisters stood on the porch, each with an arm around the other and tears running down their faces but trying as best they could to smile as Tom and Cal rode south out of Osborne.

They turned when they reached the end of the street and waved one last time at the two girls still standing on the porch waving.

Once outside the town, Tom bumped his heels on his horses’ side and they were gone in a fast lope as Cal rode with him. It was like if they didn’t get away now, they may never leave. They rode all the way to the entrance to the Triple T Cattle Co. not saying a word. Each lost in his own thoughts, each setting his own mind on the job at hand and the future that lay just over the horizon.

The riders of the TTT were moving all the mama cows and their spring calves over to another pasture with good grazing and it was a slow process as they let the cows and calves walk along at their own pace. Tom and Cal sat on their horses and watched as the riders calmly rode along side the cattle, never hollering or waving their arms to make them move faster. Dan Tanner rode up beside them and all three sat and watched for a minute

“Tom, Talmon and my boy Daniel had to take a crew over to the other side of the spread early this morning, the rider we had out there came riding in and said someone had cut some fences and from the looks of the ground, had taken a few head of cattle.”

“That sounds like the same thing we’ve been seeing in other places throughout the range Dan, we’ve just about figured that someone is taking a few head of young unmarked cattle at a time from each herd and moving them to a place where they can either be branded with another brand or maybe moved out of this area for good.”

“I don’t know of any new brands around here Tom, but you may be right. Before you leave, I’ll get you a list of the known brands in this part of the state, that way you can be watching out for any others as you ride.”

“That’d be good to have Dan, I reckon you got the notice about the association terminating Willamacher and his friends from the payroll?”

“Yep, we got notice of that day before yesterday, Tan and I both knew it would come sooner or later. Wonder what Will McDonnough will do now that he doesn’t have a connection to the peacekeeping of the association.”

“I reckon he’ll make his own rules just as he did all along, we’ve not run upon him or any of his men since that day over’n Stockton. Cal and I both expect to have a brush with them soon though, they were already itchin’ to get cross ways with us.

“Dan, if it’s alright with you, Cal and I’ll ride over to the other side of your spread and see if we can get a look at where your cattle went.”

“I see no reason why you can’t, I’ll ride back to the house now and get that list of brands and then give you directions to where the rider said the break was.”

Dan Tanner was back in just a few minutes with the list of all the registered brands of the association as well as any other brands that may be from a spread not large enough to be in the association. Someone had taken the time to draw by hand, a replica of each brand beside the ranch name and the owner’s name listed as well. Each entry on the list also told the county the ranch was in too.

Dan gave Tom and Cal the directions that would take them with seein’ distance of where the men were working on the far side of the Triple T. He told them to go back out and head west at the front entrance and ride until they came to the big marker post on their left. They would know it when they saw it. Then ride south until they came upon the crew working on the fences, Tan and Daniel would be there too.

Tom was kinda skeptical about coming face to face with Daniel Tanner, he didn’t know how much, if anything Daniel knew about him and Cathy and sure didn’t want no confrontation as they were leaving these parts soon anyway. Tom didn’t feel guilt about bein’ with Cathy, he just didn’t want to cause any distrust between her and Daniel. Tom didn’t know Daniel Tanner, but he knew that he was one lucky man to soon have Cathy Bowers as his wife. Tom and Cal rode for nearly two hours before they came to where the Triple T men were repairing the fence. As they rode up the men all put their hands on their guns until they saw the badges.

“I’m Tom Cooper and this is Cal Randal, we ride for the cattlemens association and for the Sheriff also. Mr. Tanner told us to come out and take a look at where you had the trouble last night.”

“Deputy, you ain’t gonna find much now, we done just about wiped out all the signs by puttin’ this fence back,” An older man told him.

“Well, if you don’t mind we’d still like to take a look around, maybe walk outside the circle where you been workin’.”

“Have at it deputy, Mr. Tanner and Daniel just rode back east a while ago, along the south line. They were gonna make their way back over to the headquarters, we’re about done here anyway.”

“Thanks Mr., we’ll be gone from here too, soon as we look the place over some,” Tom told him as he and Cal dismounted and walked out a ways from where the men were workin’.

They found where the cattle had been driven away from the break in the fence. They could see hoof prints of horses too and from the looks of things, the cattle weren’t runnin either. While Cal was walking a wide circle around the place, Tom walked over to where the men had piled the broken fence posts and tangled barbed wire. He squatted down and looked close at all the posts, he looked at all the wire too. He was just about to stand up when he saw something sticking out of the dust where all the cattle had passed.

Tom reached down and flicked the shiny object with his finger. It flipped up and Tom saw the broken wheel of a rowel. Someone had lost part of his spur out here. He wondered if some of the Triple T riders had lost it while workin here on the fence, or was it from the bunch that had been here last night. Cal walked up and Tom showed him what he’d found, then he jerked his head over toward the men workin on the fence and looked at Cal. They walked slowly over to where the five men were finishing up the repair and while they worked, Tom and Cal pretended to be looking through the dirt and grass here for signs.

They were able to see all but one rider’s spurs as the men loaded their tools, then turned to load the broken posts and the tangled wire. Soon they had seen all the riders’ spurs and none of them were broken. Tom knew that all this proved was none of these men were wearing a pair of spurs that had a rowel broken off and nothing else. Tom slipped the rowel into his leather pouch and they were about to mount up when one of the Triple T riders asked if they had found anything.