Virgil and I took the horses out for a ride south of town on a bright morning.
"Ain’t good for ’em,” Virgil said. “Standing around in the livery all the time, eatin’.”
It was low rolling land where the small ranches were, and we let the horses amble.
“Lotta grass,” Virgil said.
“Government land mostly,” I said. “Ranchers are home-steading. ”
“They free-range the cattle?” Virgil said.
“They say that they graze them on all the homesteads,” I said.
“You believe that?”
“No.”
“Never saw government land people didn’t free-range,” Virgil said.
“Government’s a long way away,” I said.
“Enough land to support a lot of cattle,” Virgil said.
“Homesteaders are trying, I guess, but nobody got the money,” I said. “They’re talking about organizing.”
“Who got the money?” Virgil said.
“Wolfson,” I said. “Fella named Eamon O’Malley, runs a copper mine. Probably fella runs the lumber business, Fritz Stark.”
“Any of them interested?”
“In a cattle operation?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t know,” I said. “Ranchers say that Wolfson’s trying to run them off their land.”
“Tell me ’bout that,” Virgil said.
I did.
When I was done Virgil said, “Sounds effectual.”
I nodded. We let the horses stop for a time and eat some grass.
“This O’Malley fella,” Virgil said. “Think he’ll let that happen?”
I shrugged.
“He hired Cato and Rose for something,” I said.
“He did,” Virgil said.
We pulled the horses back up from the grass and moved on.
“We gonna look for Allie?” I said after a while.
“I guess,” Virgil said.
“When?”
“When you get through here,” Virgil said.
“I can get through when I want to.”
Virgil shook his head.
“Gonna be trouble,” he said. “You know it. I know it.”
“Might be,” I said.
“You ain’t going anyplace until that’s settled.”
“Why not?” I said.
“’Cause you ain’t,” Virgil said. “Neither would I. It ain’t how we are.”
“You gonna hang around and wait?” I said.
“Uh-huh.”
“’Cause you get lonesome without me?” I said.
“Uh-huh.”
“And I listen when you talk,” I said.
“Uh-huh.”
“And you don’t want me to have to go up against Cato and Rose alone.”
Virgil grinned at me.
“Uh-huh,” he said.
The sun was warm. There was a little breeze. We let the horses drink at a stream that wound down out of the high ground to the north. Then we moved on.
“We go looking for Allie,” I said, “where we gonna look?”
“Texas,” Virgil said. “She was always talking ’bout Texas.”
“Texas is big,” I said.
“It is,” Virgil said.
“What happens when we find her?”
“We’ll see,” Virgil said.
“You ain’t gonna kill her?”
“No,” Virgil said. “Can’t kill her. Why I killed him.”
I nodded.
“You take up with her again, Virgil,” I said, “she’ll probably do this again.”
“Maybe,” Virgil said. “Won’t know what’s gonna happen next, ’less we find her.”
“That would be true,” I said.