Diamond Buckow (20 page)

“Buckow! My God, is it really you?”

“It's me, all right, but I don't use that name anymore. Appreciate your never mentioning it again.”

Jake nodded. “What'll I call you?”

“I go by Diamond these days. Let's get out of here.”

Strickland put a hand on his friend's arm. “You got any more money? I owe Whitey, and I don't like leaving debts stand. If you make it good, you'll get it back out of my first pay.”

Diamond considered it. Somehow, between himself and Tom Dobbins, he knew they'd take care of Jake. And Jake would repay in kind.

“No sooner said than done,” Diamond grinned.

He called Whitey over, talked to him briefly, and left coins on the bar.

The sun was down but darkness hadn't set in when Diamond and Strickland stopped. They went to make night camp along the Arkansas River, a few miles west and a little north of Dodge City.

Jake had stuck grimly to his saddle for the two hours or so they'd spent riding. When the horses were cared for and he'd drunk his first tin of Diamond's strong coffee, he began to talk. He suspected Newt Yocum was running off at the mouth saying Strickland was informing local rustlers where and when to strike and had once snatched a convicted thief away from the hangman.

“They just keep repeating those lies 'tit most folk believe them,” he concluded bitterly.

“Well, Jake, they'll soon forget all about you if you don't hang around Dodge anymore.”

“But, damn it all, it's not true! If I run away, they'll be that much more convinced they're right.”

Diamond shook his head, sure of his own experience. “Maybe, but I doubt it. If they don't see you around, the lies will soon be forgotten.”

“And another thing,” Strickland challenged. “From what you said, I figured we'd be heading southwest. But we're going 'most straight west, and maybe a little north of that.”

Diamond hid a grin. He'd thought his friend was too hung over to notice what direction they were headed in. He was actually pleased to be wrong.

“Got to go to Garden City first,” Diamond said. “My partner lives there—he's helping me get started. We'll rest up here 'til morning, then go on in.”

He paused, watching Jake. “And if Tom agrees, I want you to file on the quarter section next to mine and be a
full
partner.”

Strickland spoke in a breathless whoosh, although his gaze never left the cookfire.

“My God! A place of my own. I never expected—I mean, I'd be glad just to work for you. You don't have to give me a half interest.”

Diamond laughed. “Don't you think twice, Jake. It's not much of anything at all yet. We'll have to work like all get-out before we can even call it a ranch.”

Late afternoon of another day had rolled by before Diamond and Strickland rode into Garden City on two tired mounts. Diamond was anxious for his old friend to meet his new partner. But he looked askance at Jake's seedy appearance, and decided to get him cleaned up and a little more presentable.

They stopped to buy clothes first. Over his protests, Strickland went away carrying a new outfit. Then Diamond pushed him along to the barbershop, where he submitted, willingly this time, to a haircut and bath. Lastly they leaded for Dobbins's Hardware, but found it locked. Diamond reckoned that Tom had gone home for supper.

They walked down the alley. Dobbins must have seen them coming, Diamond figured, for he was waiting out on the porch by the time the pair got there.

“Diamond. Glad you're back, see you've brought your friend.”

Tom's face wore its familiar smile, but his dark eyes asked a number of questions. They went unanswered for the moment.

“Yes, sir,” Diamond replied. “This is Jake Strickland. Jake, my partner, Tom Dobbins.”

Strickland looked uncomfortable at the niceties. He was still a little shaky despite all Diamond had done for him. With unsteady movements he walked up the three steps to the porch.

Plunging a hand forward he said, “Sure glad to meet you, Mr. Dobbins. My sidekick here's been singin' your praises all the way from Dodge.”

Tom forced himself not to hesitate. He caught Jake's hand and shook it with vigor.

“Well,” he began, showing another cautious grin. “If Diamond's sure of you, I guess it'll do.”

“Tom.” Diamond's tone held just the slightest warning edge.

“Time was when Jake could work cattle with any man. Better'n most, from where I saw it. I want him to file on the quarter section next to mine. He's to be a full partner on my end of that agreement between you'n me.”

Dobbins looked at Jake and back again at his young friend. The wrinkles deepened on his old-before-their-time features as he mulled over his next words. But Diamond held up a hand.

“Now, Tom. Before you say anything, just let me tell you about the work I did. About the cattle I saw out there where my claim is. I didn't rightly keep track of time, but counting mavericks of all ages, I was averaging six head a day that never had a brand before.”

He paused a minute to count in his head. “I brought in, say, a third to sell. That leaves around a hundred-fifty to add to the two hundred you had, and I didn't hardly scratch the surface. One awful lot of critters out there, and we got the best claim on them. With Jake to help, I can brand 'em twice as fast. What he gets as his share will come out of my half.”

Diamond stopped again and drew a breath. Speech-making didn't come natural to him. But when Dobbins made to get in edgewise, and Diamond not sure he'd been convincing enough on Jake's worth, he took off again.

“I never told you my story, Tom. But Jake, here, once saved my life, and I feel like nothing's too much for me to do in paying him back.”

The hardware man fitted his back against the railing post. This time his whole face smiled.

“I'd thought you took too much on by yourself, anyways. Was about to suggest you talk Sean O'Malley into going out there with you. He's young yet, but he's got nobody else. Be good for you both, him being such a hard worker. And now you got Jake, so that's two to train him right.”

Diamond and Strickland eyed him. Tom broke into a chuckle.

“Seein's how you've already proved yourself, partner, and you're the one going to be boss, I thought I'd stake the whole outfit. Got a team of matched dapple-grays, been broke to harness and heavy enough to stand hard work. Also, an old wagon to haul supplies out to the place. Even got a string of six mares that could do double duty as cow ponies and brood mares.”

Strickland's open mouth and gray eyes blazing with a sudden swirl of emotion stopped Tom. Diamond pounded his partner's shoulder with enthusiasm as he shouted at Jake, “Now you can see why I've been singing his praises.”

Tom waved it off, his round cheeks getting red. “Back to the breed boy,” he said hastily.

“You take Sean along, pay him out of your share, and we'll split the whole thing three ways. You, me, and Jake.”

Mrs. Dobbins interrupted by poking her head out the front door.

“There's good food settin' on the table getting cold. I got plenty. Tom said to expect you, Mr. Diamond. Tom, you holler out in the barn to Sean. Bring in our new friend, too, one more makes no never-mind.”

Dobbins turned, only to find the half-breed standing at the foot of the porch steps.

“Sean, you hear?”

Black eyes danced. “Yeah. And if this new cowboy ain't hungry, I'll eat his share, too.”

Everybody laughed but Diamond, who was anxious to settle up.

“D'you hear the rest, about working for me, boy? That set right with you?”

The head of dark hair bobbed twice, emphatically.

“If you want, Sean,” Tom added, “I'll give you that App cutting horse you've ridden of late.”

The boy bounded up the steps with a war whoop. “For me? Honest? You'd really do that? Thanks, Mr. Dobbins!”

He turned to Diamond with a great show of seriousness. “I'll work hard, swear. I'll do any jobs need doing. The harder and more riskier, the better.”

Now Diamond laughed, with pure joy. He pushed Sean through the doorway ahead of him. But halfway through the meal a thought occurred to him.

He asked the boy, “What about your ma? Am I right that your pa's dead but she isn't?”

Sean nodded, smiling around a mouthful of home-baked bread.

“When my father died, she went back to the Pawnee. She let me stay in town because I'd always lived here like a white. She visits whenever her people pass by. If she wants to see me, she'll find me any place I go.”

The breed looked up to find four pairs of eyes studying him. He rose quickly from his chair.

“I'll sleep in the barn. Mr. Diamond, I'll be ready to go before first light.”

Diamond pulled the heavy saddle off and turned his third horse of the day into the pasture. As he stood watching the tired mount move away, he thought of the large cattle herd ready for the trail into Dodge the next morning.

He and Jake hadn't driven stock to Dodge City before. They'd always sold small numbers in Garden City, and only enough to keep the ranch operating. Now they were taking a large-sized herd to what used to be the railhead. Dodge was still a good place to sell cattle, but now the railhead had gone on west. The city had cooled down some, according to their partner, Tom Dobbins.

At the sound of a horse, Diamond looked up to see Sean O'Malley coming in.

As the half-breed slid down, he said, “Jake wants me and you to eat. Then one of us can watch the herd while he eats.”

Diamond nodded. He thought over these past two-and-a-half years with Strickland as his partner, knowing that Jake was always willing to do his share and more. He also never once stopped remembering the former top hand as the man who'd saved his life.

Diamond met Sean's eyes and said, “OK. Afterwards, you take the first watch, I'll take the middle, and we'll wake Strickland for the last. I aim to move toward those cattle pens at Dodge just as soon as it's possible to see where we're headed.”

The young cowhand made one of his infrequent protests. “That'll mean you get your sleep broke in the middle again. Don't seem right, your always takin' the heavy end.”

“Sean, I'm still the boss,” Diamond said firmly.

But when he saw the surprise on O'Malley's face, he suddenly realized what things must be like. The breed had worked hard alongside himself and Jake the whole time, with never a say on how the ranch was run. He'd grown into a man while helping to build a barn with all its corrals and outbuildings.

The boy had done his share out on the range. He'd even used a hammer and saw on the present living quarters that took the place of the old soddy. Through it, he'd been a strong, silent friend.

All at once Diamond found himself pouring out his whole past history to Sean. How he'd left home in East Texas on the wrong foot, even to the point of being hanged. He told how Jake had saved his life, not even hearing Sean's muffled exclamations, and went on about how everything seemed to center around Dodge.

He ended with, “Neither Jake nor I have been there since.”

Sean took it all in without comment. His black eyes were deep and unfathomable as he left to take Strickland's place with the herd.

Long after he'd gone, Diamond sat remembering. He remembered things he hadn't told the breed, too, like finding his sister in Dodge—like his friendship with Nancy Blough, how he always found a warm and chatty letter waiting for him whenever he went to Tom's.

And how once in awhile he and Nancy had been in Garden City at the same time. He could count on the fingers of one hand the times they'd been alone, but he could recall every second.

Diamond thought on it. Why should he hold back telling Sean, who had met and knew Nancy? Or better yet, why did he keep recollecting her himself, and turning the sight and sound of her over in his mind?

The door to the kitchen banged open. Jake came in and helped himself to a plate full of food that had kept hot on the back of the stove.

“The kid says you got the middle watch, and I got the last.”

“Yeah. Those cattle settled down? Can one rider keep 'em bunched during the night?”

Jake nodded, his mouth full, and grunted something around the beans that sounded like, “Easy.”

Diamond said good night and went to the sleeping quarters. They had built just three rooms to take the place of the sod house: a kitchen, small office, and a bunkroom. As he turned in, Diamond smiled to himself. These quarters had been planned for a much larger crew.

Oh, well, he thought, as a huge yawn escaped him. He had a good enough operation without its needing ten or twelve hands. And it could grow that big yet. He turned his face to the wall, yawned once more, and was instantly asleep.

Three days had passed. Midaftemoon, Diamond went to the horse pasture and whistled up Bones. Still his favorite, Diamond believed he was the fastest mount on the range. Sean O'Malley disagreed, of course. The breed hand maintained his App was faster, and somehow in all of the two-and-a-half years, they'd still not gotten around to holding a deciding race.

Diamond bent over, lifting the bar to close the pasture gate. Bones was feeling playful. He put his head against the seat of his owner's pants and gave a strong shove.

“Here! You ungrateful, undisciplined, old reprobate!” Diamond put the bar in place, then reached to rub behind the gelding's ear.

But Bones tossed his head and backed away in an oh-no-you-don't gesture.

Diamond took a step toward him. “So you want to be coaxed. Well, it won't do you any good, I didn't bring you a treat this time.”

Still the horse's head stayed up, ears forward, his eyes on something in the distance. Diamond turned to see what caught and held his mount's attention. Two riders, coming fast.