LITMIR.BIZ

      Pearlie and Cal were standing over in front of the bunkhouse and like the others, they had waved and shouted their good-byes to the cowboys as they rode out.

      “How many of them you think will be back come spring?” Cal asked.

      “Most of ’em, I reckon,” Pearlie said. “You’re too young to know any better ’cause this is about the only place you’ve ever worked. But I’ve worked at other ranches and I tell you true, there is no better place on God’s green earth for a cowboy to work than to work for Smoke and Sally here on Sugarloaf Ranch.”

      “I know this is the only place I’ve ever worked,” Cal said. “But I had already figured that out myself.”

      “Come on, Cal, what do you say we give Carlos and Juan a hand getting things cleaned up?” Pearlie suggested.

      “All right,” Cal said, and the two of them started across the yard toward the older men.

      “Oh, Pearlie, wait a minute,” Sally called from the porch of the Big House.

      Stopping, Pearlie looked back toward Sally. “Yes, ma’am?”

      “When Mr. Goodnature dropped Lucy off, I promised we would get her back home. Would you mind doing it? You can use the surrey.”

      “Why, I’d be glad to,” Pearlie said, smiling broadly. “Miss Lucy, you just wait right here. I’ll hitch up the team and be back for you before you can say Jack Robinson.”

      “Thank you, Pearlie,” Lucy said. “That’s very kind of you.”

      “Want me to come along with you, Pearlie?” Cal asked.

      “I—uh,” Pearlie began.

      “Cal, if you don’t mind, why don’t you stay here and help me with something?” Sally suggested.

      “Oh, sure, I don’t mind,” Cal said, walking over toward the porch.

      True to his promise, Pearlie was back in very little time. Hopping down from the surrey, he helped Lucy in, then drove off, with the two of them engaged in conversation.

      “What do you have for me to do?” Cal asked as they watched the surrey pass under the entry arch.

      “What?” Sally asked.

      “You said you wanted me to help you with something,” Cal said. “What is it?”

      “Oh. Uh, nothing, I guess.”

      “But you said—” Cal began, then chuckled. “Oh, I know now,” he said. “You just said that because you wanted to give Pearlie a chance to be alone with Miss Lucy, didn’t you?”

      “Something like that, yes,” Sally replied.

      “Well, I hope it works,” Cal said. “Pearlie sure is crazy about that girl, but I don’t think she even knows he is alive.”

      Sally smiled. “She knows.”

      “You mean she’s sweet on him?”

      “Let us just say that nature is gradually beginning to work its course,” Sally said.

      Cal laughed. “I like that. Nature working its course. Well, if you really don’t have anything for me, I think I’ll give Carlos and Juan a hand,” Cal said, starting toward the lawn where Carlos, Juan, and several others were beginning to clean up from the barbeque.

      “I’m sure they will appreciate it,” Sally said.

      “What was all that about?” Smoke asked after Cal left.

      “You haven’t noticed Pearlie and Lucy?” Sally asked.

      “Notice them? What do you mean, notice them?”

      Sally laughed. “Smoke Jensen, to be as smart as you are in so many things, I’m sometimes surprised to discover how incredibly dumb you are in other things.”

      “Oh?” Smoke said. Then, it dawned on him. “Oh!” he said. “You mean Pearlie and Lucy are, uh—like that?”

      Sally reached up to kiss him on the cheek. “Maybe you aren’t all that dumb after all,” she said.

      Chapter Two

      The drive from Sugarloaf over to Crosshatch, which was the name of the ranch Ian Goodnature owned, was about five miles, and with a spirited team pulling the surrey, Pearlie covered the distance in about twenty minutes. He and Lucy talked during the drive, but it was of inconsequential things, because Pearlie was too self-conscious to bring up any subject more substantive than the scenery or the weather.

      He turned off the main road and up the long drive to Lucy’s house, feeling a sense of frustration and disappointment with himself because he had been unable to let her know how he felt about her, or to feel her out as to how she felt about him. He pulled the team to a halt in front of the steps, then, wrapping the reins around a davit on the dashboard, hopped down from the surrey and hurried around to help Lucy down.

      “I—uh—am glad you were able to come over today,” he said.

      “I wouldn’t have missed it for anything in the world,” Lucy replied. “It was great fun.”

      “Wasn’t Maria good?”

      “Yes, she was wonderful. And she is such a lovely little girl,” Lucy replied.

      “Yes. And she is a very sweet little girl, too. Everyone on the ranch just loves her.”

      There was a beat of silence, finally broken by Lucy.

      “Well, I suppose I had better get on inside.”

      “Yes, I suppose so.”

      “Thanks for driving me home.”

      “It was my pleasure.”

      Lucy started toward the porch.

      “Miss Lucy?”

      Turning back toward Pearlie, Lucy had a big smile on her face. “Pearlie, don’t you think you and I are good enough friends now, for you to call me Lucy? Without the Miss?”

      “Uh—yes, I think so. I just didn’t want to be too forward.”

      Lucy chuckled. “Pearlie, believe me, no one could ever accuse you of being too forward,” she said.

      “There’s a dance Saturday night. Actually, there’s a dance in town every Saturday night.”

      “Yes, I know.”

      “Will you be going?”

      “Why, would you like me to go?”

      “Yes. I mean, that is, if you are going anyway. I mean, if you want to go.”

      “I will be there,” Lucy said, a little disappointed that he didn’t ask to escort her to the dance.

      “Good, good,” Pearlie said. He touched the brim of his hat. “I’ll see you there then.”

      Fontana, Colorado

      Lucas Keno was at the Brown Dirt Cowboy Saloon in Fontana. It was still too early in the day for the evening trade, so there were few in the saloon. An empty beer mug and a half-full ashtray conveniently placed by the piano provided the only evidence that anyone ever played the instrument. Keno ordered a beer, then found a table and looked around.

      There were two people were sitting at the table nearest the piano—a middle-aged cowboy and the only bar girl who was working at this hour. The fact that both of them had only one glass before them, and that the glass was still half-full, indicated that the bar girl either found

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