13. Tex Takes the Trail
Tex followed the trail of the mares until almost dark. He came up with them several times and sent them galloping into the lower valleys. He did not shoot any of them because he wished to leave them as an attraction for the black stallion. With less than half an hour of daylight left he headed over a ridge to one of the high-country cabins where food and horse feed were always kept ready for wandering cowpunchers and for the boys who rode the high range during the summer.
As he slid from his saddle he saw that someone else was using the cabin for the night. Yellow light streamed out of its one dusty window and the smell of frying bacon and boiling coffee floated down to the corral. Tex unsaddled the bay, watered and grained him, then rubbed him down. He always cared for his horse before thinking of his own comfort.
As he shoved open the cabin door he saw Major Howard and Shorty sitting at the plank table nailed to the wall under the window. They were just finishing a meal of hot biscuit, sugar syrup, bacon, and coffee which Shorty had fixed.
“Hello,” Tex greeted them. “Any grub left?”
Shorty grinned widely and the major nodded. Shorty shoved aside the packing box he had been sitting on.
“I’ll scorch some bacon and warm up the coffee,” he said. “I overestimated the boss’s appetite for biscuits, so there’s plenty.”
“Shorty made enough biscuits for six men,” the major said.
Tex eased his lank frame down on the packing box. He was ravenously hungry. Reaching for a biscuit he broke it, exposing its snowy center. The major watched him as he crammed half the biscuit into his mouth.