Will and Rufus agreed to the terms and thanked Forester, and the men stood and shook hands, and they went outside to get Fletcher and Hill, the gear, and the cutting horse.
Will just hoped this Clyde was half as good as Forester said.
CHAPTER 26
“Meet Clyde,” Forester said, nodding to the stallion cropping grass in a pasture behind the barn.
“Clyde, huh?” Will said, studying the gigantic, over muscled horse with its huge, ungainly head. “What’s his last name, Dale?”
“He’s a biggun, but he works cattle like no other horse you ever saw.”
Will walked over to the rail close to where the big horse was munching on grass. Clyde was a blue roan with a coat the washed-out blue-gray color of an old gun barrel. Darker spots spattered this unremarkable color in shotgun-blast patterns. Overall, he was lighter in the hind quarters and almost black in the face and chest and the upper part of his neck, which gave him the appearance of a horse standing half in shadow. His mane was black and wild.
“Well, Clyde,” Will said, “you’re ugly enough to be a good worker, anyway. You want to go down into the Thicket with me and gather some cattle?”
The horse lifted his head a little and stared at Will with a bright eye that Will had to admit was full of intelligence.
Will stood and stuck out his hand to Forester. “All right, you got a deal. You told the truth about him being ugly. I’ll trust that you’re telling the truth about the rest, too.”
“Oh, I’m telling the truth all right. And if I wasn’t so old and heavy, I wouldn’t sell him to you for ten times what I’m asking. Only reason I’m selling him at all is it breaks my heart to see a good horse go to seed in a corral. Horse like Clyde needs to work. You take him down there, you’ll see. That horse’ll practically rope and brand cattle on his own.”
“All right,” Will laughed. “I bought, so you can quit selling, Mr. Forester. I’ll see what old Clyde’s made of soon enough.”
From there, they ambled over to the tack room, and Forester gathered gear for Will.
“You’ll need a working saddle,” Forester said. “Here, take this one. And here.”
Next, Forester took down a pair of thick, fringed shotgun chaps dyed black. “Take these. They’re my own chaps. I hate to give them to you because it’s like admitting I’ll never ride again.”
Will waved him off. “You go ahead and keep them, then.”
Forester shook his head. “You take them. You’re too tall for any of the other pairs. I doubt they’d have anything to fit you in town, and now you got me all fired up about this gather. I don’t want to have to sit around waiting for you to get some chaps made. Take them.”
Will nodded and took the chaps and thanked him.
“Don’t mention it,” Forester said. “You are leaving soon, aren’t you? For the gather, I mean?”
“Yes, sir. As soon as possible. When could your men go?”
“How about tomorrow morning at daybreak? You get here before that, I’ll feed you. But don’t expect much talk from Fletcher or Hill. They’re all business.”
“That works,” Will said.
“You boys armed?”
“To the teeth.”
“Good. I’ll make sure Fletcher and Hill are, too. You want them to get some other hands to join you?”
Will looked at Rufus.
Rufus shrugged. “That’s your call, Will. I don’t got any money. You hire them, I’ll pay you back once we get to market.”
Will nodded and turned back to Forester. “What’s your recommendation, sir?”
“Hire them. I wouldn’t go down there without at least six good men, maybe more. It’ll cost you, though. Probably two dollars a day for the sort of men you want.”
“I can do that,” Will said.
