Bert's Crossing, Re-did

{Picking up from where they spotted the lost girl, I'll start over.]

"Go see what she wants, Horse. One of us has to keep out of sight in case this is a trick of some kind."

Horse casually walked up to the girl and said something that I couldn't quite hear.

The girl gasped and hauled off and slapped Horse on the side of his cheek, knocking off his hat, saying, "Why you miserable little excuse for a lawman, I ain't that kind of girl. Besides, I ain't had nothin' to eat in three days, since them cowboys pulled out herding the beef like they wanted to get to Amarilla by noon. You got something to feed a young lady, Mister?" She blinked her eyes in a coquettish fashion and ran her pink tongue across her full reddish lips.

Horse reached down and picked up his hat, turned back to face her, looked into her blue eyes.

"My pard, the Marshal, has some prairie chicken he was goin' to cook up until we spied you comin' out of the brush. Maybe you'll change your mind after a good barbecued chicken breast," he said, eyeing her full bosom that was rising up and down under her flowery dress. "Come on out, Wussy! There ain't nothin' here by but this young woman. I promised her some chicken as soon as you can cook it up. She's awful hungry."

I was standing by his side by the time he had finished talking with the prairie bird in my hand. "I'm plumb out of barbecue sauce, Miss. Why don't you fix it the way you like it? Horse and I ain't too particular as long as it's cooked well."

"How'm I supposed to get the feathers off that thing, there ain't no water here since all the run-off from the rain has dried up? And I don't even have a pot to put it in, anyway," and she started crying, holding her hands up to her eyes.

Well, Horse and I got her calmed down and built a nice fire and singed off the feathers, telling her, "Now, see, that wasn't so difficult, was it? After you clean out the insides, you can run a green branch of mesquite tree through it and hold it over the fire, turning it over and over till it's cooked clear through, see. Horse, why don't you take a look around and make sure them rustlers cleared out. We don't want to be interrupted during our dinner."

While we were eating, I was keeping an eye on her, noticing the dainty way she held the leg in her fingers and opened her mouth just enough to take a nice-sized bite and closing her lips and chewing gently, savoring every little morsel. I was falling hard for her, she was such a pretty little thing, all alone with nobody to look our for her or protect from them bad elements that always found a way to take advantage of a pretty girl.

Horse returned from another of his rounds and interrupted my thoughts by saying, "We might be able to catch up with them cattle, if we can get out of here early enough in the morning. What are we going to do with this girl?"

"We'll have to take her along with us. Is that all right with you, Miss...Miss...?

"My name is Loretta, Loretta Taylor Lancaster, and I was forced to go along with my husband while they stole them cattle. They said I was holding them up when we reached here, and I got in an argument with my husband over it. They just rode off and left me here with no horse or food and didn't say when they would be back. I have friends in Amarilla, if that's where you're headed."

"Is that where they're takin' the cattle, Amarilla?"

"Of course. That's where the railroad is. They can sell them for a good price with no questions asked at the cattle yards."

They left camp as the sun was coming up and headed across the flat land in the direction of Amarilla. There was no sign that any cattle had been herded through the grass and brush. The rain had fixed that with the grass springing back to its natural state with the high water content sucked up from the wet earth.

[Next - Amarilla bound.]