Chapter 4

This trip was just full of surprises! It was early in the morning, and Billy was out in front of the herd looking for problems that he could fix or that could be avoided. Billy was just coming around a curve in the Trail when he heard a gunshot. That, in itself, was not so surprising, but it had that kind of explosive sound that comes from a gun with a short barrel, so he figured that it must be a derringer. But why would somebody be shooting a derringer out here in the wilds of Central Texas? Well, it didn't take long for him to find out.

He came upon a caravan of three wagons, each driven by a woman. On the ground beside the middle wagon was lying the body of a man. He was obviously dead because his head was twisted at a grotesque angle and he had a big hole in his chest which had once produced copious quantities of blood. The driver of that wagon was sitting with one hand to her mouth as if she were trying to stifle a scream, and the other hand was still holding a smoking derringer.

Billy rode up and asked, "Ma'am, can I be of service?"

With that simple question, Billy turned on a flood of tears from the woman holding the derringer. She tossed the derringer to the wagon bed and wailed, "Oh, what have I done? What will happen ta us, now?"

"Well, I can't answer that 'til ya tell me what happened."

Another woman came out of the covered section of the wagon and said, "I kin tell ya what happened. That there bastard was about ta beat Violet within an inch of her life fer refusing ta let him fuck her. We're all whores what worked fer him, but he was a real bastard from whatever direction ya looked. Right now, it's Violet's time of the month, and she's feelin' right poorly 'cause of cramps. That crazy man liked ta fuck women what was bleeding. He got some real kicks from doin' that. None of us could understand why he liked that, but we put up with it, 'cept when we was crampin'.

"Anyway, he wanted her ta let him between her legs right now, an' he was slappin' her face ta make her do what he wanted. When that didn't work, he was about to punch her in the belly with his fist. Well, that was just too much, so Violet shot him. I don't blame her—I'd of shot him too, ifen I had been in her place!"

Billy said, "Well, Ma'am, I think that I would of shot him even sooner ifen I had been in her place. I kin see the red marks on her face, now that I know what I'm lookin' at. I see three wagons, but I wonder how many of y'all ladies there are?"

The woman said, "My name's Maude. There's six of us, an' we was headin' fer a new town. Sam, that there bastard on the ground, hauled us from town to town. He'd rent hotel rooms an' have us set up shop there fer a few days afore movin' on. We was headed fer Gunther Flats, but I don't know how we kin operate now without our front man. I'm kind of the leader of the women 'cause I've been in the business the longest, so I'll ask yer opinion. What do ya think that we should do?"

"First off, my name is Billy Harris, so please call me Billy. I don't rightly know what y'all should do. I'm the scout fer a trail herd what's a couple of miles behind me. I'm thinkin' that y'all should talk ta Mr. Jase Culpepper, the trail boss. He's a right smart an' experienced man, an' maybe he can suggest somethin'.

"Ifen ya want ta do that, I suggest that y'all just sit where ya are an' let the herd catch up ta ya. Anybody kin point out Jase ta ya, but he's the one y'all need ta talk ta.

"We need ta git this here body off the trail afore the cattle gits here. It wouldn't do ta let them git spooked by the blood. I'll take care of that while y'all ladies just sit where ya are."

Maude said, "We're much obliged ta ya, Billy. Ya're a right nice fellow. Ya're so nice, in fact, that I'd like ta offer ya a free sample of our services."

"Dammit, Miss Maude, I sure as hell would like ta take ya up on that offer, but I'm a workin' man, an' I need ta git about my business. Kin I take ya up on the offer some other time when I ain't so pressed?"

"Certainly, Billy. Ya just let me know when ya're ready. I'll always be available fer ya."

"That's right nice of ya, Miss Maude. I'll sure remember yer offer. Now, I better get this here body taken care of." Billy dismounted and made a quick check of the body. There were some items like a watch and a couple of rings that were obvious, but he was astonished to find that the man had been wearing three moneybelts that were jammed full of coins and bars. Billy gave all of the stuff he found to Maude and proceeded to loop his rope around the chest of the dead man. He pulled the man into the brush well away from the trail and dumped it into a convenient gully.

He rode back to the women and waved to them as he returned to his regular work. He found the expected campground and saw that there was nothing in the way of the herd, so he hurried back to report to Jase and to pick up Old Charley to escort him to the designated site.

By the time he got back to the herd, it had passed the women in the wagons, but Billy was surprised to see the three wagons trailing along behind the remuda. Jase was back there talking to Maude, so that was where Billy headed after waving to Old Charley that he would rejoin him in a few minutes.

When he got back to the end of the line where Jase and the wagons were, Billy found Jase and Maude deep in conversation. Jase saw him and waved him over. "Well, Billy, ya did it again. Ya done rescued some more women in distress. I ain't never heard of a man with yer kind of luck. Miss Maude done told me what happened, and I invited them to ride along with us fer a few days. After that, we kin talk about what ta do. Meanwhile, we're gonna try somethin' I ain't never heard of: these here women are gonna service our boys when they ain't workin'. They will provide the cunt at no charge in exchange fer lettin' them ride with us. As far as I know, we're the first trail drive ta have its own mobile whore house. I understand that ya are scheduled ta be the first customer."

"I guess so, an' I'm sure lookin' forward ta samplin' Miss Maude's charms."

"Honey, like I said, I always will have time fer ya."

"I sure do thank ya, but duty still calls. I ain't off work, yet. Jase, the Trail is clear up ta the next campground, soz I'll take Old Charley an' we'll get started. I sure don't want him mad at me, again."

The rest of the afternoon was routine, but that evening after supper was anything but routine. The six women ate with the men, and the conversation was lively, but none of the men knew what was about to happen. Jase stood up and said, "OK, boys, Billy has done found a treat fer us. These lovely women what are eatin' supper with us tonight will be around fer a while. We don't know fer how long, part of that will depend on y'all."

Jase was interrupted by cheers, for men on the trail had almost no chance for female companionship, even as limited as it was that time at supper. He let the commotion die down before he said, "Y'all ain't heard the best part, yet. These here ladies are all whores, an' they plan ta service every one of us free of charge. The catch is that there ain't enough of them ta do a turn with every one of ya in one night, so I done worked out a schedule. Each of the women will fuck two men each night. Each man will git 30 minutes with a woman, that ought ta be long enough fer the slowest of y'all ta blow his wad. If it ain't, we'll work somethin' out. All of this means that only 10-12 of y'all will be serviced each night, but it also means that nobody will have ta wait more than two days fer his turn.

"Those men what ain't on the fuck schedule for a particular night will be the ones what will be out working night guard duty. Now listen real careful ta this: any man what shirks his duty with the herd because of the women will be fired on the spot! Also, any man what gives any of these fine ladies a bad time loses all chance at any fuckin'. Y'all got those two rules?"

There were loud shouts of agreement. There were some men in the group who sometimes acted foolish, but there were no fools when it affected their chance at fucking for free!

"One last rule what may be dropped ifen it turns out ta be no problem. There will be no swapping around of the schedule. A man goes on the night he's scheduled fer, an' I'm the only one what sets the schedule. Is that clear?"

Again, there were the loud shouts of agreement. Nobody wanted to mess up this great opportunity. With so few women in Texas and money so hard to come by, it was a rare thing for an unmarried man to fuck twice a week for free.

There was no hotel readily available, so improvisation was in order to get a little privacy. One bed was available inside a wagon, so a second "room" was rigged by putting a pad on the ground under a wagon and draping blankets on the sides. It wasn't perfect, but nobody was going to complain if it meant missing out on the free fucking.