Jodi's Journey (25 page)

“All right, but before we go, I want you all
to understand, the main thing is to get those cattle across that
river. If it takes two days or forty, we’ve got to move them.
Basically, I'm going have to take over that herd to get them
through. We might have to just string ours right behind them and
keep them all moving. We'll need our oxen to do it. Concho, I want
you to string our herd out, keep them thin, because as soon as we
get theirs over, we'll be moving ours. I'm going to scout the river
before I go, see how bad it is, where we can cross, and then we'll
go in and check on those…drovers.”

The men all nodded and Hunt realized for the
first time that they had complete trust in him. He couldn't get
mushy on them and tell them how he felt about them, but he never
was as proud as he was now.

“All right, I'll check the river, and then
we'll move out.” He nodded to Cole.

“We'll be ready, boss,” Cole responded, his
tone confident.

“Thanks,” Hunt said, unable to voice his own
feelings.

Jodi came up to him as he was about to ride
out. “Be careful.”

“I intend to.” He smiled and tipped his hat
to her. Then, with one long look at her, he added, “I've got a
reason to…don't I?”

“Just be careful.”

“Promise me, Jodi,” he demanded in a very low
voice.

“Promise you what?”

“Think about what I said.” He stared down
into her amazed face.

“Will you stay alive if I promise?” she
whispered so only he could hear.

He came closer, bent to her, and touched his
lips to hers as he murmured, “Promise me.”

Her smile was all he needed. That and the
assurance that maybe they had a chance. A man didn't need much more
than that to make his life complete.

But the river he faced now was way out of
bounds. He spotted the camp ahead, but didn't go in. He wasn't
ready to deal with that part of his problem yet. He wanted to find
a place to cross first. He needed all the facts and some idea of
how he was going to manage getting nearly seven thousand head of
cattle across a swollen, mean-looking river.

Abilene wasn't that far now, but the river
was his enemy. So far, he hadn't lost a single cow. In fact, he had
gained some. But this herd ahead could cause him all kinds of
grief, and he didn't want that happening.

He rode the river banks for miles.
Occasionally, he stopped to check the water temperature. He'd let
his horse wade through it, then he leaned over and touched it
himself.

It was ice cold, and the current was moving
too swiftly. He'd have to wait a few days and hope it would go
down. He did find a narrower spot, but the embankment was too
steep. He didn't like it and moved on. Better to cross where the
embankment was lower and easier to manage.

There were signs of previous herd passages
and a couple of crosses littered the banks. It seemed that every
river had the crosses up, reminding him that he had to stay alive.
Hunt noticed how fresh they were and realized instantly that
whoever herded these cattle had lost more than they should have.
There was a huge cottonwood at one point that had been struck by
lightning and looked torn and jagged, not at all a pretty site. The
weather and rivers in Kansas seemed treacherous. He'd wait it out
as long as he thought feasible. That's all there was to it.

Hunt rode back toward camp and met up with
Concho. The man had a big wad of tobacco in his mouth; he spit and
was able to talk.

“The river…is she good?” Concho asked.

“I'm afraid not. We are going have some
trouble on this one. We’ll need to cross at the widest, shallowest
end and the current is way too strong. We'll do it like we've
always done, but we're going to have to let the water go down some
first. Right now the banks are overflowing and it's flooding the
area. It's hard to tell where the banks of the river are. If the
cattle bog, they could freeze before we get them out,” Hunt said,
rubbing his hands together to warm them.

“Si, mucho trouble.” Concho nodded. “And the
other herd?”

“Yeah, well, I'm going across to talk to
them,” Hunt said, glancing in that direction.

“You take Señor Cole with you, boss,” Concho
encouraged.

“Yeah, I'll take Señor Cole,” Hunt laughed.
Concho's effort to protect him from any and all dangers never
faltered.

Cole and the others were waiting for Hunt in
camp. He knew they wanted good news, but he didn't have any.
Instead, he looked them over with grim foreboding. “I don't want
any trouble if we can avoid it. No use someone getting shot up
unless we have to. With this outfit it’s best, though, to keep an
eye out for your back.”

“Don't you fret none about that, boss. We'll
be there for you. We'll show those snot-nosed drovers what a real
drover is like.” Cole chuckled. “So…how's the river lookin'?”

“Mean, Cole. Not good, not good at all. We'll
have a heck of a time getting that other herd across unless we take
our oxen. I know some cattle won't balk at the water, but it would
be just our luck to get them all bunched in the middle of the river
and they'd freeze. And I'm not standing for a bunch of greenhorns
standing around watching us work either. They will work, or I'll
personally see they don't get paid.”

Most of the men laughed at that.

Hunt spoke low so Jodi couldn't hear. “Check
your ammo, and take your best mount. This will be a wait for us,
but we're going to wait with them and make sure those cattle move
out as soon as we can.”

Jodi was cooking, but when she saw Hunt, she
left the job to Matt and went up to him. “So, how's the river?”

“Bad…” His face was grim, but he forced a
smile. It was important to keep the morale in camp up, but he also
knew he couldn't fool Jodi. She'd see right through it. “Don't you
fret; everything is going to be fine.”

“How long you figure before we can cross?”
she asked anxiously.

“I'm not sure. I'm not as familiar with this
river as I am the Red. Don't know its temperament. But I may make a
short run in a couple of days just to see if we can make it. I got
a feeling this one is going to be a long haul. I don't know if
those drovers over there are up to it or not. If the river isn't
down in a day or two, we'll wait a little longer,” Hunt said,
packing his gear. “The current is swift and icy; they aren't going
to like that. Let's pray for a little sunshine.”

“Where are you going now?” she asked, seeing
he was packing up his bedroll.

“I'm going on into the other camp.” When he
saw her dismay, he added. “Look, we can't move till they do, and
I've got to make sure they are ready as soon as the river goes
down,” Hunt explained. “The weather being the way it is, it could
stall us a long time. There's too many of us waiting to get
across.”

“How long are you going to be gone?” she
asked with impatience.

“Awhile,” he said, then looked down at her
scowling face. “Don't you worry…” he began, but before he could
explain, she reached up and grabbed his neck and pulled him against
her. Her kiss was slow, exploratory, and thoughtful. Her lips
tasted like honey: sweet and eager. More followed the first.

His calm was shattered by the raw hunger of
her kisses. Jodi hung on to him with urgency, and she moaned a
little sound in her throat as he pulled away regrettably. “I got
every reason to come back,” he said and he turned away from her
slowly.

She was breathless and gasping; he was
totally in control, maybe more so than before, as though her kisses
stabilized him.

“Matt, unhitch those oxen. Concho, we're
taking them with us. As soon as we get that other herd moving, I
want you to have our herd ready. I don't want us to gap; just keep
them moving toward the river. There are three more herds to the
south of us; we need to get these cows moving as soon as we can.
I'll send someone back to signal when we start moving them across,”
Hunt explained, a dozen things gnawing in his mind at once.

“Si, boss, we'll be ready.” Concho waved.

He was almost ready to ride out when a couple
of cowboys rode into camp. One was tall and imposing, but his
smiling, friendly manner set everyone at ease. Hunt knew
instinctively that this man was a trail boss, and welcomed him.

“Howdy,” he declared in a deep Texas drawl.
“The name's Bud Taylor.” He quickly extended his hand for a
shake.

Hunt greeted him heartily and offered a shake
in return. “Howdy…Hunt Johnson.”

“Ah…we got a herd just south of here, thought
we'd get a little closer to the Arkansas and check it out. Unless
you fellas already did?”

Hunt nodded. As the beginnings of a smile
tipped the corners of his mouth, his brow shot upwards in warning.
“Yeah, I just came from the banks of it myself. It's way out of
bounds, the water is ice cold, and the current is rough. The water
is so swollen you can't judge the depth of it. We're going to have
to wait a few days for it to go down before we can start across.
Looks like taking the wide end will work better than the steeper
embankments to the north.”

The other trail boss nodded with a grunt.
“All right, then we'll plan on camping and grazing for a spell. You
folks have any trouble with the Indians?”

“No, we gave them some strays and fed them a
couple of nights, but no real trouble. How about you?”

“Well, sir.” He began his story with
exaggerated slowness. “Not with the one that came to camp, but one
of my boys run into some Kiowa down the road a piece and they
weren't too friendly. I think they were talkin' about somebody
killin' off the buffalo, best I could make out. Told them it wasn't
us. Gave them a beef or two and they let us alone, but followed us
a day or two. Made my boys a little edgy. I guess they wanted to
make sure we were leaving the area.” The man chuckled.

“There's been an unreasonable amount of
buffalo killed. That riles the Indians. But what really ticks them
off is for someone to kill the animals and leave them to rot on the
land and not use them. They don't understand that, and I guess I
don't blame them too much for that since the buffalo is of great
importance to them.” Hunt smiled as the other man offered him some
tobacco. Hunt only smoked if he was stressed, but he never turned
tobacco down.

“You know, if people would only try to
understand their way of thinking sometimes, maybe we wouldn't be
fighting them all the time. I tell my boys to act friendly and not
to start anything because it’s so much easier that way. I'd much
rather give a cow or two to them than fight them or chase a
stampeded herd all night,” Bud chuckled.

“I know,” Hunt agreed.

“Well say, what about the herd ahead there?
You talk to their trail boss?”

“They don't have one anymore.”

Bud twisted his head as though he didn't
understand that.

“He was killed back a ways in a gunfight.
I've been herding them, if you know what I mean. But I'm going to
have to get a lot rougher because they are sitting on their butts
instead of working the herd.”

“Sounds like some trouble there. Need any
help?”

Hunt studied Bud a minute and nodded. “I
could sure use some backup if you can spare the time?”

“I'll be glad to go along. I don't cotton to
sitting here any longer than we have to. It's a might cold at night
up here in Kansas. We been on the trail for a couple of months and
we're all a little anxious to get home.”

“You got that right,” Hunt agreed.

“Tom, you run on back to camp and tell them
I'm going ahead with…what'd you say your name was?”

“Hunt Johnson.”

“Yeah, you tell them I’m going ahead with
Hunt Johnson and get those greenhorns up there moving,” Bud
hollered at his man.

The drover nodded, tipped his hat and
left.

“Better get some coffee before you go, Bud,
it's liable to be a really hard few days,” Hunt advised.

Hunt poured him a cup of coffee, stuffed some
biscuits in his shirt, and winked at Jodi.

Before they left, he sat there in the saddle
for a long moment, just staring down at her. He loved the way her
cheeks blossomed with color when he looked at her. He knew they had
a lot of problems to overcome, and maybe some wouldn’t be overcome,
but somehow, he felt at least there was a chance of maybe a little
happiness with this woman.

“I'll be back, Jodi. I've got plenty of
reason to come back and you are one of them.”

≈≈≈

As he finally left, he winked at her and
tipped his hat, then rode off as the other men joined him.

“Let's ride, boys,” he called, and they
galloped off, the dust flying behind them. The oxen moved a little
slower, but Cole kept up with them.

“I wish I was going with them.” Josh came to
stand beside Jodi.

“Yeah, me too. I got a feeling about this,
and it isn't good,” Jodi said as she stared after her husband. His
last words had come as close to telling her how he felt as she was
going to get. It was enough.

Funny, she hadn't thought of him as her
husband until now, but she kind of liked it.

Maybe Hunt was right. Maybe things could work
out for the best.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“Where's your straw, boss?” Hunt asked the
first cowboy he saw as they rode into the camp. There was a lot of
nothing going on and both bosses looked at each other as though
they couldn't quite believe it. What really set them off was that
not a cowboy looked guilty either.

“Over there by the cottonwood,” the cowboy
said, and nodded to the men.

Hunt and Bud dismounted and walked their
horses over to the man sitting by the tree. He was eating an apple
and staring at the water as though that was all he needed to be
doing.

Hunt stared at him unblinking. His shoulders
tensed because of his squashed temper. “Excuse me, but are you
ready to cross the river?”