Chapter 15

Even though this mission hadn't started off the best, it was looking good by the time I left. I hadn't had time to scare up a bunch of pencils before my unexpected departure, but Kathy had been able to provide some and they had plastic retainers for the eraser instead of the normal metal ones.

I hit the bank vault with Joe Bob on a lead rope and a pocket full of pencils. It took me a couple of minutes to settle him down after I called for my boxes to remove my stuff, but it wasn't a big pain in the ass or anything and he settled right on down when I put the blanket and then the saddle on him.

Finally I was ready to exit the vault and there were even people in the bank when I came out leading Joe Bob. They didn't say a word as we left and the old guy who was still the guard howdied me as I went leading him out the front.

I mounted as soon as I was on the street and we trotted on out to the place right away. When I came riding up to the gate the guard recognized me and I waved as I rode by.

I was back earlier than I'd told Bill I was going to be, but the new smithy looked like it was finished already anyway. Ben was out in front of the barn and he was surprised when he saw me riding up.

"That's the finest horse I've ever seen," Ben said, when I got down.

"He is a good 'un, and I think I'll leave him here for breeding when I leave this time. You'll notice he don't have good working shoulders though so don't count on getting plow or wagon horses out of him. We will get better horses to work cattle with out of him though," I said.

"But how do you use horses to work cattle?" he asked.

"I'm gonna show you before I leave if I have time. You can work cows a lot easier with horses to ride and ropes to throw," I said.

"You'll have to show me because I've never done it that way," he said.

"Well we'll just try it and if you don't like it you don't have to do it. It'll take some time to breed up some good cow horses anyway."

"Well, let's get him in a stall if you're through with him for now," Ben said, and led me into the barn.

Of course with a new stallion coming into the barn the others were up in arms squealing and kicking their stalls. I was sure Joe Bob would be right in there squealing too in a minute. I'd let him do all he wanted of it while I was up at the house begging for food from Kala.

Kala didn't make me beg. She put a meal right on the table for me. Of course she'd just finished feeding everyone else since I'd dragged in about half an hour past noon. I noticed Wanda was still here, but she was very pregnant and I doubted she'd be working another month before she was mothering for real.

"Wanda, I can tell what you've been up to," I said.

"Yes, and it's your fault. Well not that way, but I mean you did save Ralph from the dreadful job he had," she said, and then blushed over her earlier accusation.

"Where is Ralph working now?"

"Bill put Ralph and his brother in charge of raising crops over on the former Blanksdale place. They're doing well and as soon as the baby comes I'll be moving over into the big house there. When I'm able to work again I'll be working there."

I talked with Wanda and Kala for a few more minutes and they introduced me to Jerri - she was a tasty little redhead - one of the girls we'd rescued from the slaving bastards across the road. Jerri had me wondering just how solid the rule against not fucking the Chaos residents was. She had titties for days and her cute little ass was rounder than Wanda's had been when I first patted it. Oh well, I'd just have to wait until I had the Damsel rescued and was back at Crossroads with Kathy.

I had already found out I could come awful close to getting too much of a good thing when Kathy and the three Damsels from hell had worked me over good last time.

Jerri led me to see Bill in his office after we'd teased each other for a few minutes and I was at least able to get a good fondle of her ass on the way. Bill was in his office, but he looked like he was just putting some paperwork down when I walked in.

"I see you're back sooner than you expected to be," he said, getting up and offering his hand to shake this time.

"Yep. I got into a little scrape with a horse and it sent me back sooner than I expected. I see you were able to get the building finished though."

"Yes, it went more quickly than I expected. I think you had a lot to do with it though."

"How could I have anything to do with it?" I asked.

"Ben and I told the men it was a building laid out by you for a new project and they worked especially hard on it. They did so well I had a sort of celebration after it was finished and that worked out so well I'm trying to plan a reason to have another one.

"The men were all laying around with pounding heads the next day, but the day after that they were back to their usual output or even more."

"It couldn't hurt if they actually like working here. Do you have plenty of land for raising cattle? Could you raise more on the land if you needed to?"

"Yes. I think we could raise three hundred more head per year if we kept back some of the females and let them raise calves instead of butchering them. Do you want me to increase the number we're raising?" he asked.

"I want you to do exactly what you think is best. I do think this region will be growing for the next few years though. I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I think it is going to. I'll be traveling in another day or so and I'm going to try and bring an experienced smith I've met back to live here when I return. He will be making some items that are a little different from the normal things too," I said.

"I'll try to help him any way I can," Bill said.

"I think he'll be able to help you too. We'll have to see how it works out though. I was planning on putting together some machinery for the new building, but I think I'll wait and see if he can do it. I'm sure he knows how better than I do.

"Now, let me show you something else I have that is new," I said, and I dragged out the pencils.

He wasn't so hot on the pencils at first, but when I showed him how to erase a mistake he perked right up. He was amazed when I told him the writing would stay for years, just as the ink did and he was more excited when I showed him how much easier it was to draw layouts for buildings with them. He was so excited when I showed him how to use a piece of wood like a ruler and draw a straight line down it he nearly wet his pants. I couldn't wait to get someone to fabricate a compass for him. We talked until it was time for supper.

I loaded up during supper and after it was over I asked Kala if she could put together some traveling food for me, explaining I would have to travel about a hundred and fifty miles starting tomorrow. I also asked Ben if he could provide a couple of horses who could travel hard for me and he said he had just the two to go along with the one I rode in on.

I was up before sunrise the next morning and luckily I found Kala already in shape to feed me. I gobbled up all I could and then headed outside to start packing the horses. I realized I needed shoes on Joe Bob as soon as I took him out of the stall.

I'm sure he'd had shoes before, but he hadn't had any on when I bought him and there'd been no need for any later since I didn't ride him very much at Cowboy Jack's. He needed them for this trip though.

Thankfully I hadn't run the farrier off last time and I saw what Amos meant when I led Joe Bob over to get him taken care of. The farrier was excellent with him and he had shoes on him in nearly no time. In fact, I could see he was a lot better at it than I was. I thanked him profusely.

"I wouldn't be much if I couldn't take care of the owner's mount. This is a good place to work and I try to do a good job," he said, but I thanked him again anyway and then packed up and headed out.

I wasn't taking the big horse, but I was leading two of his sons behind me. I put a packsaddle on one to carry the food and I was planning on using the other one to spell Joe Bob on the trip because I planned on moving fast and it was a long way. They were all good horses though and I thought they could do the job.