Five minutes later there came the sound of splashing water. Ma Basset, looking out the kitchen window, nodded her approval.
“They’re washin’-up at the bunkhouse, Hank,” she whispered. “Those boys has had raisin’.”
“When a man sets down to his grub afore he’s took care uh his hoss, watch out fer him,” added Hank. “I was a-waitin’ tuh see if they was goin’ tuh let their animals wait. It don’t take no smart gent tuh see that they’re as different from the other LF riders as a gentleman is different from a sheep herder. I bin thinkin’, Ma, mebbe so them two boys kin help us. They’re kinda like home folks, sorter.”
“Help us?”
Ma Basset shoved a second pan of biscuits in the oven and closed the door thoughtfully. Then she straightened.
“Help us, Hank? I’m afeered not. The cattle’s gone, that’s all. They’re good boys, like as not, but they can’t make a herd uh cattle outa a handful uh sore-footed cows and wind-bellied calves. No, we’re beat and beat bad. But we ain’t hollerin’, neither of us. If only our Pete boy was back home, I’d feel as chipper as a meadow lark. But the thought uh him cooped up in a prison cell, kinda takes the warm feelin’ outa the sunshine, somehow.”
Tears glistened in her eyes. She seated herself on a chair and dabbed at the tears with the corner of her apron. Hank crossed over to her and put an arm about her shoulders.
Tad and Shorty had removed their spurs at the bunkhouse. They made but little noise as they came to the door and halted to wipe the dust from their boots. They could not help but see what went on inside the kitchen. Embarrassed, they looked at each other in silence.
“Our Pete sent over the road by that low-down LF spread, our cattle run off and a ten-thousand-dollar note due next week,” came the voice of Hank Basset whose back was toward the cowpunchers. “It’s hard lines fer folks as old as us, Ma. But we ain’t licked yet. I kin still hold down a job punchin’ cows.”
“And I kin beat ary round-up cook that ever burned a batch uh beans er turned a mess wagon over,” added Ma Basset bravely. “Yuh mind that fall when I cooked fer the outfit, Hank, and drove two broncs fer wheelers? I can do it again, too.”