Read Matagorda (1967) for Free Online

being fed by the government, or when it was cattle to be beefed for the army itself. However, he had watched a lot of cowhands work on the range, and had listened to them warning over campfires. As he could match none of these men with a rope, he devoted his time to finding the cattle and driving them from the brush or the grassy hollows. By the end of the fourth day they were holding four hundred head of mixed stuff, and their horses were played out.
    Most of the cattle had been found within a few miles, but they were wild, some of them being old mossy-horns that had lived back in the brush for years. These made most of the trouble. At first it was not much more than a matter of riding around the cattle and slowly bunching them; but the older stock would have none of that.
    Time and again some of the mossy-horns would break for the brush, and it was hard work, and hot work, rousting them out again.
    There was no chuck wagon. Every rider carried a small bait of grub in a sack behind his saddle, and ate his noonday meal out on the range ... if he had time.
    On the evening of the fourth day, Kittery said, "We've got to ride for horses. We'll need about forty head, and the nighest place is over to Coppinger's."
    "Give you a chance to see Mady," Johnny Lubec said, grinning. "Want I should go along to kind of cool you off after you leave there?"
    "I wouldn't trust you. Ever' time we get near the C-Bar, you head for those Mex jackals down in the wash. I think you've got eyes for that little Cortinas girl."
    Lubec made no comment, and Kittery said, "All right. We'll ride out at daybreak.
    Johnny, you can come, and I'll take Pete and Roy." Then he glanced over at Duvarney.
    "You want to come, Tap?"
    "I'll stay here."
    After they had gone, Duvarney worked over his guns and equipment, then saddled up to ride out. "I'm going to scout around," he said to the others. "I may drive a few cattle if I see them, but I'm going for a reconnaissance."
    Welt Spicer got to his feet. "Mind if I trail along?"
    "All right with me."
    The Cajun watched them with eyes that told nothing, but Joe Breck looked at Duvarney and said, "You be careful. There's Munsons around, and if they see you they'll shoot first an' ask questions afterward."
    When they'd been a few minutes on the trail, Welt Spicer commented, "We're nigh Copano Creek. Empties into the bay yonder."
    "Mission Bay?"
    "Copano. Mission's smaller, and opens into Copano Bay. . . . You ever been in this country?"
    "No, this is my first time east of the Brazos in Texas. But I've seen the maps."
    The trail was narrow. Only one rider could follow it at a time, the other trailing behind. Branches brushed them on either side. It was hot and still. The only sound except the muffled fall of their horses' hoofs was the hum of insects or the occasional cry of a bird. Sweat trickled down Duvarney's face and down his body under his shirt.
    Sometimes they saw the tracks of cattle. Cow trails branched off from time to time, but the riders held to the main trail.
    They came on Copano Creek unexpectedly. It was a fair-sized stream, with many twists and turns. Both men dismounted and drank upstream from their horses. The water was clear, and not unpleasant.
    "Low tide," Spicer said. "At high tide you can't drink it." He squatted on his heels and took a small Spanish cigar from his pocket. "You got your work cut out for you, Major."
    "Call me Tap."
    "That Tom, now. He's a mighty good man, but he's mad. He's Munson-killing mad, and so are the others. All of 'em want to fight, not run cattle."
    "How about you?"
    "I'll string along with you. I figure we're a sight better off drivin' cows to Kansas."
    Spicer pushed his hat back so he could see Tap's face without tilting his head. "You're goin' to need men-men you can depend on."
    It had been that way in the army. There had always been men he could depend on, the right sort of men in the right places when they were needed, and they made easier whatever needed to be done.