The Bozeman Trail

Chapter Sixteen

With the Golden Calf Cattle Company, mile 1,560

Thursday, October 9, 1862:

The day began with overcast skies and a northwest wind. Although it was tolerably warm in the morning, the temperature started dropping and by noon it was below freezing. Shortly after noon the clouds delivered on their promise, and a freezing rain began falling. Conditions went from uncomfortable to downright miserable. Sleet pummeled the riders and caused sheets of ice to build up, first on the horns of the cattle, then on their coats and the coats of the horses.

Sheets of ice also built up on the buffalo robes the riders were wearing. Ice crystals hung in the mustaches and beards of the men, and on their eyebrows. It even caused little icicles to hang from the end of their noses.

Bob rode in advance of the herd, looking for some place to shelter the animals. He came back with the happy report that there was a canyon just a few miles ahead.

“What good will it do us? We’ll never get them there,” Billy shouted into the howling wind.

“We’ll get them there. We’ve got to!” James shouted back. “If we don’t, we are going to lose the entire herd. I didn’t come this far to give up now!”

Billy’s prediction that they wouldn’t be able to get the herd into the shelter of the canyon came uncomfortably close to being true. The wind cut through man and beast like a razor-sharp knife, blowing sleet and freezing rain into the faces of the plodding cattle. The natural tendency was for the cows to turn around, presenting their tails to the wind, but if they did that, they would be going away from the canyon, so the cowboys worked hard to keep them going in the right direction. Making lashes of their lariats, they slapped the animals hard on the rump, forcing them to proceed into the face of the driving storm.

It was a long, hard drive until finally, just before nightfall, they entered the canyon. As they did so, the drive got easier, for the cattle, realizing now that the better choice for them was ahead, were anxious to get into the shelter.

The night that followed was bitterly cold, though they managed to push it back somewhat by building a large fire. Revelation got supper going. It consisted of biscuits and bacon, augmented by a big pot of coffee. The men, exhausted from the day’s efforts, sat quietly, staring into the fire as they drank their coffee and ate their supper.

Then, Revelation surprised them with something else. She added sugar and cinnamon to the extra biscuit dough, formed the dough into little circles, and dropped them into a boiling pot of lard. Within minutes she was moving from cup to cup, pouring fresh coffee and passing out doughnuts. When she started, still one more time, to refill the cups, James called out to her.

“Here, Revelation,” James said. “You don’t have to do that. If we want more coffee, we can get our own.”

“I don’t mind,” Revelation said. “I was warm and snug on the wagon seat today, while you men kept the herd moving.”

Billy chuckled. “Warm and snug, huh? You looked like a big icicle when you climbed down from that seat. I don’t know how you could call that warm and snug.”

“Sit down, Sis. If anyone else wants coffee, I’ll get it for ’em,” Matthew said.

“Damn, Matthew, what’s got into you?” Bob teased.

“I can be a good guy if I want to,” Matthew said. “It’s just that most of the time, I don’t want to,” he added.

The others laughed.

Taking him at his word, Revelation hung the coffeepot from its hook over the fire, then sat down beside James.

“That was very nice of you, cooking sinkers for the men,” James said, using the cowboy term for doughnuts.

“It was the least I could do for them. Everyone worked so hard today.”

“Yeah, they did, didn’t they?” James said. “They’ve endured a lot on this drive, but they’ve pulled together into a really great outfit.”

“You’ve pulled them together,” Revelation said.

“No, they pretty much did it themselves. I don’t think there’s anything one man could do with a group like this, if the men weren’t willing to do it on their own.”

“Still, they look up to you as their leader.”

“I reckon,” James said, clearly uncomfortable with the compliments.

“James, how much longer do you think this drive will last?” she asked.

“Well, if the map we got back at Fort Larned is accurate, I figure we’ve got about one more week. That is, if a blizzard doesn’t come up and snow us in.”

“Oh, do you think that will happen?” Revelation asked, anxiously.

“I hope not,” James said. Then, when he saw that wasn’t comforting enough to her, he added, “I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about a lot of snow, the sleet and freezing rain has pretty much taken about all this cloud has to offer.”

“I hope you’re right.”

They were silent for a moment, then Revelation spoke again.

“After we get there and sell the cattle, how long will it be before the outfit starts back?”

“Well, the outfit won’t go back,” James said.

“What do you mean?”

“After we sell the herd, there won’t be any more outfit. The Golden Calf Cattle Company will break up and everyone is going to be on their own,” James said.

“What do you think they will all do?”

“I imagine everyone will hang around, at least through the winter, looking for gold.”

“Oh, do you think so?”

“Well, yes. I mean, when you get right down to it, that’s the real reason we came up here. The idea of the cattle drive came later.”

“So, you’re going to look for gold, too?”

“I may look for a little while,” James answered. “Why are you so concerned? Are you that anxious to get back to Texas? Have you got someone waiting for you back there?”

“Someone?”

“A fella.”

Revelation laughed. “No,” she said. “Are you kidding? Who, in Bexar county, would be interested in a Scattergood?”

“I just wondered, I mean, with all the questions about how soon you could get back.”

“I like to know what is going to happen next, that’s all.”

“Whether I find any gold or not, I don’t plan to go back to Texas, to stay,” James said. “I’ll take Pa his share of the money from the sale of the herd, but then I’m coming back to Dakota.”

“Why?”

“If Dakota is like California, even after the gold boom dies down, there will still be a lot of people up here. And if so, they’ll have to eat. I plan to get myself as much grassland as I can and start a ranch.”

“Yes,” Revelation said. “Yes, I can see where that might be a good idea.”

“I’m glad someone can see it. I’ve talked with some of the others about starting a ranch up here, and they don’t seem to think it’s a very good idea.”

“So everyone else is going back?”

“I don’t know what your brothers will do, but Bob, Billy, and Duke plan to stay here, at least through the winter, to look for gold.”

“I suspect my brothers have something like that in mind as well.”

“What about you?”

“I suppose I’ll have to stay for a while as well. I can’t go back by myself.”

James picked up a stick and tossed it into the fire, watching it catch in the flames. He looked over at Revelation. Her face glowed softly in the flickering light of the campfire. James cleared his throat.

“Revelation?”

“Yes?”

James was quiet for a moment.

“Yes?” Revelation said again.

“I’ve been watching you for this entire drive,” James said. “You’re strong, you’re a hard worker, and you don’t get rattled in danger. You’re a good cook and you can make do without a whole lot of trappings. I mean, the sinkers you made for us tonight show that.”

Revelation laughed. “Well, I thank you,” she said. “I think.”

James tossed another stick into the fire. “What I’m getting at is this. It’s going to be a hard, lonely life starting a ranch up here. But I really feel like it could pay off in five or ten years. Now, those first few years would go down a heap easier if I had someone to share them with me. And, I expect there would be more reward in building a ranch, if I had a son to leave it to.”

“I suppose so,” Revelation said. She still wasn’t certain she understood where James was going with this line of conversation.

“So, how about it?” he concluded.

“How about what?” Revelation asked, confused by the question.

“What’s your answer? Yes or no?” James asked.

As Revelation realized what James was asking, she gasped.

“James Cason, are you proposing to me?”

“Proposing?”

“Are you asking me to marry you?”

“Well, yes,” James said, as if surprised that she was just now figuring it out. “What do you think I’ve been doing?”

“Damn you, James,” Revelation said.

“Damn me what?”

“Don’t you know that a girl spends her entire life fantasizing about how she is going to be proposed to? She wants the moment to be romantic, she wants to be made love to, she doesn’t want to think she’s being hired as a ranch foreman.”

“Oh,” James said. “Well, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any offense.”

“So ask me.”

“What?”

“If you want me to marry you, James Cason, ask me the way a woman is supposed to be asked.”

James was quiet for a long moment. Finally, he spoke.

“I’m not very good at this sort of thing, Revelation. I’m a plainspoken man, and I say what’s on my mind. I always tell the truth about things, no matter which way it falls, so sometimes I get myself into a heap of trouble because I’m honest, when a little dishonesty would be a less hurtful thing.

“This, I will tell you true. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to starting a ranch up here, and almost from the beginning, I have known that I don’t want to do this alone. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it’s not just that I don’t want to do it alone, I don’t want to do it without you.

“You want me to ask you to marry me, the way a woman is supposed to be asked? Well, Revelation, I truly don’t know how that is, so all I can do is tell you that I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. And most of all, I’m thinking that I would like for you to be around from now on. I would like for us to share the rest of our lives together. So I’m asking you now, Revelation Scattergood, would you marry me?”

James had been staring into the fire for the whole time he was talking. When he looked back at Revelation he was surprised to see tears streaming down her face.

“Revelation, what’s wrong? Have I upset you?”

“No, silly,” Revelation said. “Don’t you know that women also cry when they are happy?”

“You’re happy?”

“Yes.”

“Does that mean you’ll marry me?”

“Yes,” Revelation said, nodding her head vigorously. “I’ll marry you, James Cason.”

“Yahoo!” James shouted.

“What’s got into him?” Matthew asked.

“I imagine your sister just told him she would marry him,” Duke said.

“Well, it’s about time,” Matthew said. “She’s been pining over him ever since we left Texas.”

“Yeah, I figured it would’ve happened long before now,” Billy said.

“I told you he wouldn’t ask her until we were nearly through the drive,” Bob said.

James listened to the exchange with an expression of surprise on his face. “Damn,” he said. “Are you telling me everyone knew about this?”

Revelation laughed. “Everyone, it seems, but you,” she replied, her eyes glistening happily in the firelight.