CHAPTER XXXVI
A HERO IS EMBARRASSED
Following the Ute War, as it came to be called, there was a period of readjustment on the Rio Blanco. The whites had driven off the horses and the stock of the Indians. Two half-grown boys appropriated a flock of several thousand sheep belonging to the Indians and took them to Glenwood Springs. On the way they sold the sheep right and left. The asking price was a dollar. The selling price was twenty-five cents, a watermelon, a slice of pie, or a jack-knife with a broken blade.
The difficulties that ensued had to be settled. To get a better understanding of the situation the Governor of the State and a general of the United States Army with their staffs visited the White River country. While in Bear Cat they put up at the hotel.
Mollie did a land-office business, but she had no time to rest day or night. Passing through the office during the rush of the dinner hour, she caught sight of Blister Haines sprawled on two chairs. He was talking with Bob Dillon.
“Hear you done quit the Slash Lazy D outfit. What’s the idee?” he said.
“Nothin’ in ridin’,” Bob told him. “A fellow had ought to get a piece of land on the river an’ run some cattle of his own. Me an’ Dud aim to do that.”
“Hmp! An’ meanwhile?”
“We’re rip-rappin’ the river for old man Wilson.”[4]