Chapter 6

We were on our own horses as soon as they walked off skinnin’ back to camp. They were up and ready to travel so we left right away, rolling into town just before lunch. This town was a pretty good burg. We drove the cattle right down main street and into a couple of corrals.

Merchants were all over us before we could dismount. The livery owner hit us first, giving us the charge for feeding and holdin’ the cattle. Zeke grinned. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I suspect they’ll be sold in an hour and then it’ll be someone esle’s responsibility. In good faith, pick one out and take it for your fee.”

He thought that was a pretty good idea and had his helper give him a hand pulling five heifers at random and moving them to a smaller corral. He grinned at me. “I’ll be buyin’ these at market price if you agree. I got ten cows and a pretty good bull. This will increse my herd substantially.”

I couldn’t fault that logic.

Bob surprised us all when he hopped up on the corral and yelled to get attention. Seems one of the things he did before coming west was work for an auctioneer. “Ya’ll look then over. The sale starts in an hour, in lots of 10 each.”

Bob might be a Yankee but he was no fool. Selling them in small lots should drive the price up. We hoped. The ladies took the opportunity to freshen up in the ‘hotel’, little more than hard sided tents. They wore their best when they showed up for the auction, hoping to distract the buyers enough they wouldn’t realize how high the bidding would go.

It worked pretty well because most of the male population was paying attention to them and not the cattle. The serious buyers were not to be deterred and beef was at a premium now. In fact everything was at a premium here. We got about three dollars more a head than we hoped for.

We sold ours, keeping four for winter rations. If we were lucky we wouldn’t have time to hunt and that beef would come in mighty handy. Our orginal packhorse was loaded down with flour, sugar, coffee, beans, rice, salt, pepper, a few odds and ends of spices, and a few cans of things like peaches. It probably would last until just before cold weather and then we could make a trip for more. Zeke was right in saying it would be a whole lot cheaper to go back and buy in bulk than pay gold camp prices.

Bob sold his stock as fast as he could pull it out of the wagon, keeping good records so he could send his dead partner’s family his share. Most out here would have just shrugged and kept it all. Chastity was making a good choice landing him. We talked it over our last night together, and sent most of the money we made on our investments back with him. He was going to live on Emily’s ranch and next spring they was going to the railhead to buy everything he could. Then they were going to make a spring roundup and drive back to us.

Emily managed to find two hands, one her age who decided there wasn’t enough gold in the world worth spending another winter at the gold camps. The other was a youngster who’d lost his family and wanted something stable to do. Plus it wasn’t two days until he was mooning over the middle daughter something fierce.

We watched them drive away. It was sad, watching them go. Then the thirteen year old came galloping back, leapt off her horse into Zeke’s arms and gave him a tremendous kiss! Before he could recover she slid down, grabbed the reins of her horse and mounted at a full gallop, whooping until she was out of sight. I just grinned. “You better hope you’re not single when she comes of age. You won’t stand a chance.”

He rubbed his lips lightly and grinned. “If she can kiss that good now maybe I’ll hang around until she does.”

We left the town the next day heading for fortune and fame.