"Let's ease on home," he said to the boy. "I hope Wilbarger's got his pockets full of money. We've got horses to sell."

12.

IF WILBARGER WAS IMPRESSED at the sight of so many horses, he gave no sign of it. The small herd had already been penned, and he and Deets and the man called Chick were quietly separating out horses with the H I C brand on them. Dish Boggett worked the gate between the two corrals, letting Wilbarger's horses run through and waving his rope in the face of those he didn't claim. Jake Spoon was nowhere in sight, nor was there any sign of Augustus and the Irishmen.

The new herd was far too large to pen. Call had always meant to fence a holding pasture for just such an eventuality, but he had never gotten around to it. In the immediate case it didn't matter greatly; the horses were tired from their long run and could be left to graze and rest. After breakfast he would send the boy out to watch them.

Wilbarger paused from his work a moment to look at the stream of horses trotting past, then went back to his cutting, which was almost done. Since there was already enough help in the pen, there was nothing for Newt to do but stand by the fence and watch. Pea had already climbed up on what they called the "opry seat"-the top rail of the corral-to watch the proceedings. His bay and Newt's Mouse, just unsaddled, took a few steps and then lay down and rolled themselves in the dust.

Call was not quite ready to rest the mare. When Wilbarger finished his sorting and came over to the fence, it was her, not the Captain, that he had his eye on.

"Good morning," he said. "Let's trade. You keep them thirty-eight splendid horses I just sorted out and I'll take that mean creature you're astraddle of. Thirty-eight for one is generous terms, in my book."

"Keep your book," Call said, not surprised at the offer.

Pea Eye was so startled by what he was hearing that he almost fell off the fence.

"You mean you'd give up all them horses for the chance of having a hunk bit out of you?" he asked. He knew men fancied the Captain's mare, but that anyone would fancy her to that extent was almost more than he could credit.

Dish Boggett walked over, slapping the dust off his chaps with a coiled rope.

"Is that your last word on the subject?" Wilbarger asked. "I'm offering thirty-eight for one. You won't get a chance like that every day of your life."

Dish snorted. He fancied the gray mare himself. "It'd be like tradin' a fifty-dollar gold piece for thirty-eight nickels," he said. He was in a foul temper anyway. The minute they had the horses penned, Jake Spoon had unsaddled and walked straight to the Dry Bean, as if that were where he lived.

Wilbarger ignored him too. "This outfit is full of opinion," he said. "If opinions was money you'd all be rich." He looked at Call.

"I won't trade this mare," Call said. "And that ain't an opinion."

"No, it's more like a damn hard fact," Wilbarger said. "I live on a horse and yet I ain't had but two good ones my whole life."

"This is my third," Call said.

Wilbarger nodded. "Well, sir," he said, "I'm obliged to you for getting here on time. It's plain the man you deal with knows where there's a den of thieves."

"A big den," Call said.

"Well, let's go, Chick," Wilbarger said. "We won't get home unless we start."

"You might as well stay for breakfast," Call said. "A couple more of your horses are on their way."

"What are they doing, traveling on three legs?" Wilbarger asked.

"They're with Mr. McCrae," Call said. "He travels at his own pace."

"Talks at it, too," Wilbarger said. "I don't think we'll wait. Keep them two horses for your trouble."

"We brought in some nice stock," Call said. "You're welcome to look it over, if you're still short."

"Not interested," Wilbarger said. "You won't rent pigs and you won't trade that mare, so I might as well be on my way."

Then he turned to Dish Boggett. "Want a job, son?" he asked. "You look all right to me."

"I got a job," Dish said.

"Running off Mexican horses isn't a job," Wilbarger said. "It's merely a gamble. You've the look of a cowboy, and I'm about to start up the trail with three thousand head."

"So are we," Call said, amused that the man would try to hire a hand out from under him with him sitting there.

"Going where?" Wilbarger asked.

"Going to Montana," Call said.

"I wouldn't," Wilbarger said. He rode over to the gate, leaned over to open it, and rode out, leaving the gate for Chick to close. When Chick tried to lean down and shut the gate his hat fell off. Nobody walked over to pick it up for him, either-he was forced to dismount, which embarrassed him greatly. Wilbarger waited, but he looked impatient.

"Well, we may see you up the trail, then," he said to Call. "I wouldn't aim for Montana, though. Too far, too cold, full of bears and I don't know about the Indians. They may be beat but I wouldn't count on it. You might end up making some a present of a fine herd of beef."

"We'll try not to," Call said.

Wilbarger rode off, Chick following at the rear of the small horse herd. As Chick rode past, Dish Boggett was greatly tempted to rope him off his horse and box his ears as a means of relieving his feelings about Lorie and Jake Spoon-but the Captain was sitting there, so he merely gave Chick a hard stare and let him go.

"By gosh, I could eat," Pea Eye said. "I sure hope Gus ain't lost.

"If he's lost I don't know what we'll do for biscuits," he added, Since nobody commented on his remark.

"You could always get married," Dish observed dryly. "There's plenty of women who can make biscuits."

It was not the first time Pea had had that particular truth pointed out to him. "I know there is," he said. "But that don't mean there's one of 'em that would have me."

Deets gave a rich chuckle. "Why, the widow Cole would have you," he said. "She'd be pleased to have you." Then, well aware that the widow Cole was something of a sore spot with Pea, he walked off toward the house.

Mention of Mary Cole made Pea Eye very uncomfortable. From time to time, throughout his life, it had been pointed out to him that he might marry-Gus McCrae was very fond of pointing it out, in fact.

But once in a while, even if nobody mentioned one, the thought of women entered his head all on its own, and once it came it usually tended to stay for several hours, filling his noggin like a cloud of gnats. Of course, a cloud of gnats was nothing in comparison to a cloud of Gulf coast mosquitoes, so the thought of women was not that bothersome, but it was a thought Pea would rather not have in his head.

He had never known what to think about women, and still didn't, but so far as actions went he was content to take his cue from the Captain, whose cue was plain. The Captain left them strictly alone, and had all the years Pea had been with him, excepting only one puzzling instance that had occurred years before, which Pea only remembered once every year or two, usually when he was dreaming. He had gone down to the saloon to get an ax someone had borrowed and not returned, and while he was getting the ax he heard a young woman crying out words and grievances to someone who was with her in her room.

The woman doing the crying was the whore named Maggie, Newt's mother, whom Jake Spoon took such a fancy to later. It was only after Pea had found the ax and was halfway home with it that it occurred to him that Maggie had been talking to the Captain, and had even called him by his first name, which Pea had never used in all his years of service.

The knowledge that the Captain was in the room with a whore struck Pea hard, sort of like the bullet that had hit him just behind the shoulder blades in the big Indian scrape up by Fort Phantom Hill. When the bullet hit he felt a solid whack and then sort of went numb in the brain-and it was the same with the notion that struck him as he was carrying the ax home from the saloon: Maggie was talking to the Captain in the privacy of her room, whereas so far as he knew no one had ever heard of the Captain doing more than occasionally tipping his hat to a lady if he met one in the street.