Mr. Majors nodded with his long beard.
“So they say,” he replied simply. “Well, we’re reducing our force out in the cattle camps now, so you two needn’t go back this fall. The cashier’ll pay you off. And—Dick,” he continued to the cashier, “give Davy an order for a suit of clothes with the company’s compliments. Make it clothes, shoes and hat complete.”
Davy blushed hotly, and didn’t know quite what to do. That the word of his adventure with the Indians had reached the office so quickly was very embarrassing. But he was glad to get some clothes, and Mr. Majors had spoken in earnest, so it would have been bad taste in him to make much ado about what he had or hadn’t done. Mr. Majors wasn’t a man to say what he didn’t mean, or to offer more than anybody deserved. So Davy stammered “Thank you, Mr. Majors,” and, clapped heartily on the back by Mr. Baxter, went forward to the cashier.
“Here you are,” said the cashier, shoving out the money and the order. “What’s the news out yonder? Anybody booming Cherry Creek?”
“Yes. A bunch of men who claimed they were from there passed us coming in,” answered Mr. Baxter. “They had a big story about plenty of gold, but we noticed they didn’t show any!”
“Color talks,” remarked Wild Bill. “When I see color I’m going out thar but not before.”
“Yes, we’ll all wait a bit,” commented Mr. Majors.
“Those new towns out there will make more freight business, Mr. Majors,” said Mr. Baxter.
“Shouldn’t wonder. We’re hauling down from Laramie for them now, and up from Bent’s Fort on the Santa Fe trail. There’ll have to be a new trail straight across, eventually. But we’ve got about all the business we can handle. The government work alone takes thirty-five hundred wagons, four thousand men and over forty thousand oxen. We’ve hauled over sixteen million pounds of government freight, most of it clear through to Utah.”
Nearly four thousand wagons, four thousand men, forty thousand bulls! Davy gasped. It certainly was a big company, and he was proud to be working for Russell, Majors & Waddell, even if he was only one in the four thousand.