Chapter 18

Andy rode out the next day with Jane for his partner. He no longer had any idea of the schedule that the women worked up, but he didn't really care. He would gladly take any of the women who wanted to ride with him. Jane had assured him that she could handle a gun and knew how to use it, so he was willing to take her word for it.

Andy did ask Jane if she wanted to go by her family's home, but she declined. After Jane had heard what had happened to Ann, she was not interested in a repeat performance with her family.

They were coming into a section of Missouri that was covered with low, but steep hills, and covered with trees. Andy and Jane were charged with the responsibility of finding a route which would bypass as much of that rough country as they could, even if it meant circling well off the straight-line path. Jane had some feel for the topography, so she was able to save them some time and trouble in their search. But Jane didn't really know the ins and outs of a trail drive, so Andy still needed to see the actual route to be sure that it was truly passable for the herd.

Jane directed them to a long, but narrow, valley which led a little to the east of a direct route to Sedalia, but the detour was hardly noticeable. There was a small river that meandered its way down the valley. The river was neither deep nor swift, so it was not going to be a problem. In fact, it was helpful, since it provided plenty of water for the cattle. The valley was narrow enough that the cattle would be strung out for a long distance, so the women working as drovers were going to be a big help. It would have been a serious problem for 3 men, but they now had 8 people driving the cattle, and that was plenty for the job.

Andy and Jane rode through the valley to the end where it divided into three possible paths. Jane didn't know enough about these three valleys they faced to have an opinion on which would be the best to take. Andy said, "Well, since ya don't know which of these here valleys we should take, I guess we'll just have ta check them all out. We'll start with the one on the left an' go from there." They started down the selected valley and got maybe a quarter of a mile when they ran into a stand of trees completely blocking the route.

"This shore as hell won't do! Let's go back an' check out the middle valley. If that don't work, we kin try the last one." Fortunately, they didn't have far to go to start over in the new valley. They rode just over two miles through the valley and broke out into a broad meadow which seemed to run ahead of them as far as the eye could see. They rode across the meadow land for miles, well beyond what they could possibly travel with the cattle that day. The problem with this meadow was that it looked like they would have a dry camp that night. Andy and Jane pushed on, hoping to find some useful water. They were getting to the point when they would have to turn around and head back to the herd. Andy hated to do that before he found some water. One night without water was acceptable, but two dry nights would be an entirely different story. They had to find water, and they had to find it pretty soon.

Thank God! There was the glint of water up ahead. They rode toward the water, but were abruptly stopped by a wooden fence. "Who the hell had fenced off the only water for miles?" wondered Andy.

Jane answered, "There's been a lot of feudin' goin' on around these parts, an' this fence is pro'bly part of that. We kin pro'bly git through ifen we talk ta the man what owns this property. All we gots ta do is find him."

"That sounds good ta me. Let's see what we kin find by goin' east." They set off at a fast lope, looking for a farm house. Three miles farther along, they saw a house set among some trees. The found a gate and went through the fence. A short ride took them to the house and Andy went to the front door. He knocked on the door several times, but nobody ever came to see who was there. This was very puzzling, so Andy went around the house, looking for another door.

He found a door at the rear of the house, so he tried knocking on that door. Still no answer! "What the hell is goin' on?" Andy tried opening the door. The door opened a couple of inches and then stopped moving. Andy was pissed by now, so he pushed as hard as he could to try to open the door. It moved very reluctantly, as if there was an obstacle holding it closed. He got the door pushed open far enough to stick his head in. He looked around the kitchen and was horrified at what he saw.

The dead body of a woman was blocking the opening of the door, and there was a dead child sprawled across the kitchen table. He pushed the door open enough for him to wedge himself through. Jane followed him into the kitchen and gasped when she saw the bodies. They looked at each other in horror, and Andy drew his pistol; this prompted Jane to do the same. Andy held his finger to his lips to signal for Jane to be as quiet as she could.

They carefully searched the house and found a naked, teen aged girl sprawled on the bed. Her throat was cut, and she had obviously been raped. A little bit farther down the hall in a small office, there was a man sitting in a swivel chair at a desk. He had a bullet hole in his head on the side near the door and no head at all on the opposite side; that's what a large-caliber bullet could do to a man when it was fired at close range.

Andy led them back to the horses and said, "There's nothing we kin do fer any of these here people, an' we have a responsibility ta the trail drive. We gotta git back ta the herd an' give 'em the route. We'll worry 'bout the dead folks when we git back here." They rode back to the herd as fast as they could and reported the situation to Josh. Josh agreed that they had done the right thing, since the herd would have been in serious trouble without the information from Andy.

The next day, Andy and Elizabeth rode out to check out the third valley, just in case it was a better choice than the middle one. About 3 miles into the valley, they came to a forest that effectively blocked the path the cattle would have to take, so they gave up and accepted the fact that they would have to use the middle valley.

They returned to the middle valley and searched for a source of water they could use that night. No luck. They rode back and forth without finding any sign of a source of water for the cattle. Maybe Josh would pause the cattle for a while in the middle of the day and let the cattle stock up on water from the stream in the first valley before pushing on before stopping for the night. Andy didn't know what Josh would do, but he would pay attention to whatever it was to file the information for future reference when he had his own cattle to drive.

They returned to the herd with the information that they had. Josh agreed that they should stock up on water where they found it and push on to camp later on. The next day would find them at the known water source; they would see what happened when they got there.

The drive the next day went as expected, and Andy stayed with the herd, since he had already scouted the route for the following day. Instead, Andy helped with driving the cattle that day, and had a lazy time of it. When they finally made camp, Andy was sure that he got a dirty look from the herd leader when she saw that there would be no water at this camp. Oh, well, you can't win them all!

The next day, Andy and Sue Ann rode ahead to see what they could do at the house. There was not much that they could do. They dragged the bodies out to the barn, there was no point in having the house loaded with the smell of decaying bodies, since they did not have the time or the tools to dig graves for 4 bodies. They cleaned up the spilled blood as best they could before closing up the house and heading out toward the water.