Chapter 32

Wonder of wonders, nothing untoward disturbed our sleep that night and all our newfound stock was still hanging around when we woke. They didn't get excited when I went out walking among them either. Most of the stallions still steered clear of me, but for some reason the mares didn't seem to. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for a few minutes there.

Then I remembered I'd left the herd's former stallion where I'd found him, without even spending a round to put him out of his misery. Of course that might have been unwise at the time, but I could have at least ridden back to finish him after the herd was at our temporary camp.

I was so ashamed of myself that I saddled Red to ride back that way before breakfast. It was probably a useless gesture, but I felt I needed to do it. Nosey must have agreed since he came with me.

The stallion was dead when we got there, but he hadn't been for long, and it was apparent that he'd been attacked during the time I'd been gone. I didn't see where any big chunks had been bitten out of him, but there was a dead bitch wolf not far from him and the way her head was caved in let me know that he'd done it, but now I had another problem on my hands.

The bitch had obviously been nursing, milk was leaking from her teats. I guess the milk making process kept going even during death, and maybe a little longer. I wasn't worried about that, but I did know there were some wolf cubs that would soon be starving to death, and they probably weren't that far from me.

Of course Jean Auel's Ayla and Wolf came to my mind right away. Hell, if dogs came from wolves to start with, we could sure put some to good use around the camp if we could get hold of the cubs.

I mounted Red again and rode right back to our camp, explaining what I had in mind as soon as I got there. Lanita was nearly beside herself with enthusiasm for this project. Since Nita had treated people that had been attacked by wolves before she wasn't so sure, but she finally came around.

My mates and Lanita came with me while Denac and Jekaycey stayed with our new stock. Half an hour later we were working our way out from the dead wolf, hoping to find her orphaned children.

Of course Nosey was the one who found them and he hee hawed us to the den right away. I could tell from the sound of their growling that they were bigger than I'd expected them to be. No wonder their mother had seemed so skinny. If there were many of them they must have been a load on her system.

At first I'd imagined sticking my hand in and pulling them out. That was before I knew they were actually old enough to growl so, even though it did sound a little feeble. I knew that their little teeth were probably as sharp as needles. I didn't try a damned thing until I fetched and put on my gloves.

The way it turned out, the rawhide gloves were great for this job. As soon as I put my hand in, one of the little bastards bit down on it. I pulled my hand back and he held on tight, assuring that he was captured right away. Lanita scooped him up at once. It didn't take her five minutes to have him settled down, especially since she'd been smart enough to bring a few scraps from our breakfast with her. It was literally eating out of her hand in no time.

Yes, I had run off without thinking about anything to put them in. Luckily my mates weren't that dumb. Nita, Katia, and Shaeta each had an empty skin bag with them and they proved large enough to hold all nine of the crew, a bumper crop to say the least. I figured they might be as much as eight weeks old, but that was a pure guess.

When we got back to Denac, Jekaycey, et al, they had everything loaded, the travois hitched to Matilda, and were set. We took a few minutes to dig out some food for the cubs and to give Jekaycey and Denac a chance to fondle them too. We mounted up and headed home a few minutes later. Nita, Katia, and Shaeta rode drag this time while Lanita helped me in scouting our way back.

Once we were close enough so the river and the hills made escape for the new Clydesdales impossible, Lanita and I had our mounts break into a slow lope and we went to the canyon's gate.

Jortah was on the ball this morning and he had one of the guys waiting near the gate to open it in case we made it back. He did the deed while Lanita and I moved past it as a sort of catch crew in case our new herd wanted to go on past. Luckily, they didn't think of it and just followed Denac and Jekaycey in.

We dismounted after the gate was closed and then decided to get the tack off Buster and let him resume his new herd stallion duties among the newcomers. We needed to get something figured out so we could start training the new stock.

While Buster went over to sniff around his new harem, Jonalton told me that Sir Longears had just done his daily duty to Candace. That was a good thing, but our new breeding program was occupying the pen we needed for our regular training. I hated to think about taking the time to build another pen that we'd have to abandon in a week or so anyway. Lanita came up with a workable solution right away.

"They all stay over here now Daddy, so why don't you bring Candace and Sir Longears over to the camp to hang around with Nosey and Buttercup. Can't they just wear hobbles to keep them from wandering off too far?"

"You are such a smart little thing, and cute too. That's a great idea. All we'll need to do is take the hobbles off Sir Longears when it's time for him to do his duty."

The details were arranged without much problem. Jortah had one of the guys put a hackamore on Candace and ride her across the river. We intended to put a halter on Sir Longears but it turned out we didn't even need to do that. As soon as the guy rode Candace away Sir Longears was hot on their trail. I hoped the guy could get someone over there to help him with the hobbles.

Meanwhile, we had a little rodeo to get started, but even that worked more easily than we could have hoped for. Our pen wasn't large enough to hold the whole new group, since it was much larger than the original one with Buster.

I took the time to get a good count, and even though I'd been looking at them and working with them for more than a day now, it was still surprising. There were thirty-one mature mares, seventeen of them had nursing foals and there were twelve obvious yearlings. We also had four young but mature stallions.

Our biggest problem was keeping the nursing mares out of the pen, but with some judicious use of the gate we managed it. I wanted the four young stallions in that pen too, but while it wasn't as big a need it was more complicated. They simply wouldn't cooperate. I gave up on that just before we took a break for lunch.

I'll admit I was glad to get back to the main camp's cooking, and I'm pretty sure that Lanita was too. We had a good meal and just after it was done Caltort came over with some great news. He had his first wagon wheel assembled, and he was anxious to try putting the rim around it.

There was even better news when I went to take a look at things. Caltort hadn't mentioned it, but the part making seemed to be done with. I could see stacks of spokes seven more hubs and an uncountable number of felloes. Apparently they had gone ahead and made all the parts before they put the first wheel together.

We talked it over and decided that the best way to do it was by setting the assembled wheel on flattened blocks of scrap timber and then heating the wheel rim and using the tongs to lower it over the wheel. In fact it was the only way I could see to get the job done. I left Caltort and Jagbac getting things ready and headed back to the ranch.

Jortah had things rocking along in the training pen when I reached it. There was a mare in the chute and they were babying her into submission. The four wild stallions were bunched up together away from most everything else but I figured they could just wait until the rest were in the fold, so to speak.

With nothing much needed out of me right now, I took a halter and lariat and headed for one of the mares that hadn't made it to the pen yet. I might as well see if I could do things the old-fashioned way, for a while at least.

The lead mare, who still had a foal nursing, let me walk right up to her and put on a halter. It wasn't a big surprise since she'd worn one that first night we captured them. I didn't have Nosey here to help me, but she cooperated anyway and soon enough I was leading her around. Since the snubbing tree was vacant right now, I spent an hour leading her and then tied her to it. She didn't like it much but she didn't pitch a fit, and she quit trying to pull away after about fifteen minutes.

Caltort and Jagbac were probably near ready to deal with the hot wheel by now, so I walked back to camp to check on them. They were about to send someone after me so things worked out fine.

It was all Caltort and I could do to lift the rim out of the coals with the two pairs of tongs that we had. There was nothing tricky about it, that damned rim was just heavy. We managed to get it about halfway onto the wheel and then I let he and Jagbac finish things with hammers and a lot of pounding. There was nothing I could do for them now except cheerleading and they didn't need it, so I went back to the ranch and spent the rest of the day leading another of the wild mares around.

When it came time for supper I was more than ready, and I was worn nearly completely out too. I wasn't the only one though. Katia, Nita, Shaeta, and Lanita had spent almost all day on their cashda. Riding in and among the thaka and cashda that weren't currently being trained. They'd even taken to including the unoccupied cashda into their practice cattle drive routine.

The next morning, when I woke, I realized that we'd let Lanita have too much fun the day before. She was still sleeping soundly in her own little spot, and so were all my mates. I even managed to get up, dressed, and out of the hut without rousing them.

We weren't the only ones that had been hard at it yesterday though. On my walk to the privies I noticed that Caltort and Jagbac had assembled another wheel yesterday afternoon. I also spied something I hadn't noticed before. One of the wagon boxes looked nearly complete, it even had a seat built on already.

For a minute I wondered who'd done this, then I figured it must have been Bruca and Charlton. It only took a single look to know they were doing a bang up job. It isn't easy to build something like that with no nails or other hardware but they'd done it. Wooden pegs and dowels were holding it together, and they required a hell of a lot of work.

By the time I got to Buttercup, Candace, Nosey, and Sir Longears I could see the latter was ready to do his duty. He had his dick run out and it was plain he was doing his best to figure out a way to pole Candace with his front feet hobbled. I decided to help him out and removed the hobbles. He didn't waste any time after that, and he didn't have the strength to complain when I hobbled him again after the deed was done.

Figuring that it was time for breakfast, I went to our log and took my seat. Denac was there and Jekaycey was already around the cooking fire but Lanita hadn't showed and I didn't even see a one of my mates anywhere.