“Carl, Carl wake up. If we want to get back to the ranch by tonight we gotta get a move on,” hollered Roy.

Roy is a cowhand that works for my pa. Well one of the many he has for hire, and the one that I like the most. Now Roy, he looked as smooth as axle grease, but worked like a mule. Roy fights for what he believes, you do him wrong he’ll put you in your place. He is sharp as a Arkansas toothpick, and used to be a auger at some logging company in Alabam. He stands straight and tall, but most the loggers I’ve seen are about twice his size.

“Where’s Frank and Jesse at,” I asked while pulling myself up off the ground.

“Their scouting ahead, they said to meet with them when we are ready to move,” Roy answered while at the same time dangling a long piece of wheat out of his mouth.

I crawled up on to my nag and started riding to the herd of cows lying down in the tall grass. As I rode over to the herd, I thought bout what my pa will say to me when we get done with this cowpunching job. See I done lost some of my pa’s respect on our last two jobs. So I’ve been nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs this whole time, from the point we saddled up to now, and I will be til we get back. On the last two jobs something went wrong right when we are close to home. So you better betcha that I am really worried at this point. I’m keeping one hand on my cannon as I scan the land all around for any rustlers looking for some free cows. Texas was filled with these here cow rustlers. I have always heard about them myself, last couples jobs I got to know them too, and I don’t like them.

All of the sudden I hear something crashing into the bushes up ahead. Then I’m startled by a horse running toward me, and I notice that it is Frank’s horse.

“Man I feel like a cowchip in a tornada, holy sh*t that was crazier than a run over coon,” Frank announced as he sprung up out of the bush with leafs hanging off his hat.

Frank and Jessie were brothers from Missouri, they are basically the guns for the jobs my pa needs done. Jessie was a better shooter than Frank was, but they both were just as smart. Now Frank and Jessie both were outlaws, they robbed a couple banks and held up some stage coaches. They both were real rugged looking and always had a grin going from ear to ear, even when someone is pointing a gun in their face. They just sit there and grin like there is nothing going on.

“Well, mount your horse so we can get going,” Jessie said as he rode up to us. “Everything looks fine up ahead, we should be there by dusk,”

“That’s what I like to hear, maybe it will go right this time,” I said while putting a pinch of tobacco in my mouth, “Frank and Jessie go on ahead of us.”

Just as we were about to get the herd going, someone shouted.

“You aint going nowhere non of ya,” a man on a horse that was kinda dripping in the color of black coal. The man wore a light brown vest and a wine red drenched bandana. He had one partner with that looked much of the same. His partner looked at me and smiled.

“Throw that gun over here kid so no one gets hurt, cause that’s the last thing that either of us want,” he said with his smile crawling from one ear to the other.

“Now no one has to get hurt and nothing needs taken, why don’t you two just keep riding along. We go our way you go your way,” Roy bargained.

“That’s a good idea,” the man in charged said, “ But on second thought why don’t yall give us your guns, money, and this herd here, and we will be on our way.”

I myself was frozen and was about to throw my money and gun on the ground with my gun when Roy held out his hand to stop me. My mind was rushing, what was Roy thinking about doing, why was there only two, maybe we could take them, was I ever going to be able to court on Kate down the road again.

Roy looked at me like he had an idea, but I wasn’t to sure if it was a good idea because these guys looked serious.

That’s when it came to me these two were wanted for many counts of cow rustling, and stage coach stick ups. Then I was wondering where Frank and Jessie were, they must of snuck off. Figures them bastards usually stare danger in the eye and spit in it to boot. But when they are with me they turn into some cowards of the county. Of course that sent a whole new load of thoughts through my head, soon my mind will be blown and the smoke will be rolling out of my ears.

The two started coming towards us with greed on their mind and leaking the scent of whiskey off of them. Then all of a sudden someone started yelling. We all looked but none of us saw nothing. Then I started thinking of it being injuns, I mean it would all seem to go that way for me with my luck. First we have these two cow rustlers wanting our herd, then you got them dag gum Indians that want to scalp us probably. Maybe they will think of helping us instead of taking our heads, hell in my dreams.

Then I saw Jessie and Frank sneaking up behind the two on horse back. Once they got right behind them.

Jessie yelled, “Hey a**holes, turn around.”

As soon as the two turned around Jessie and Frank jumped up and tackled them to the ground. The two hit the ground with a thud with Jessie and Frank on top of them.

“Carl give me a hand,” Roy hollered as he was about diving of his horse to join in on the pile.

As I’m getting off my horse, my foot gets got up and I am now dangling upside down cursing about everything under the sun. My horse started taking off with me hanging off the side, I see the summer sky and the green grass of Texas flashing on by. It feels like my ankle is about to get ripped right off of my leg any minute now, all the blood is rushing to my head and I begin to feel real dizzy. My foot finally came loose and I go flying into some bushes. I feel the hard ground underneath me as I start to get up. I stand up and brush all the branches off of me and look for Roy and them. I finally see them and they are a pretty good distance away from me. When I start to run, my foot is halting me to fast limb.

Finally I reach them, and there was no way I could break them up or join them in my condition. So I grabbed the riffle from the one man’s horse. The gun feels real heavy as I point it up into the air, I squeeze the trigger as the force of the gun about makes me go straight into the ground. The five come to a screeching halt and start to crawl away from each other.

“Now yall get up,” I yell as I point the riffle at the two men. “Now just get a steppin before I put a load of buckshot into both of ya.”

“Kid, you don’t know what your doing, now just put the gun down so no one gets hurt,” the one says.

“The only people that are fixing to get hurt here are you tow if you don’t do what the kid says,” Jessie said still catching his breath from the scramble.

The partner then goes to pull his gun, but I pull the trigger and shoot him right in the leg. He goes down screaming in pain. I didn’t want to shoot but I had to. The other man helps him up and onto his horse and they go riding off with their tails tucked in between their legs.

“Good job Carl, hey it’s what you had to do,” Roy said, “By the way what took you so long to join in, trying to sneak a little snooze.”

“Hey it’s a long story, I will tell you on the way back,” I answered with a smirk on my face.

“First we got to find your horse and get these cows back into a herd so we can get going,” Frank said as he was offering me a hand up on his horse.

“Thanks guys, I will make sure you guys get a little bit more money for this, you deserved it,” I said cheerfully.

Maybe this time my pa will be happy that we got this herd back, and maybe he will give me more respect as a cowpuncher and as a worker. See how much I get paid and I will go a calling on Kate down the road, maybe take her to the dance in town Friday night. It’s supposed to be a real barn burner, even though I got two left feet when it comes to dancing. First I got to get my mind on the rest of the ride home from here. It’s kind of hard with this many things on my mind, my pa, shooting a man, and Kate. I will always be grateful for having Roy, Frank, and Jessie with me on this day, and I want them to be with me on any other jobs we have from now on.

The End