William Johnstone - Snake River Slaughter

“This is a big ranch, with a lot of range land,” Kitty said. “Maybe they just got out of the field where we were holding them.”

“No, ma’am, we’ve looked all over the range,” Tyrone said. “The horses are gone.”

“Stolen?”

“Yes, ma’am. There’s no doubt in my mind, but that they were stolen.”

“Seventy five horses?” Kitty sighed, and leaned back in her chair. “Oh, Tyrone, that seven thousand five hundred dollars,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am, I know it is. Mrs. Wellington, if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to put out night riders to keep watch from now on.”

“No, I don’t mind at all. I think that’s a very good idea,” Kitty replied.

Chapter Five

A colt whinnied anxiously and a horse responded with a whicker. An owl hooted, while the night insects filled the air with their songs. There was no moon, but the night was alive with stars—from the brightest orbs in the heavens, all the way down to those stars which weren’t visible as individual bodies at all, but whose distant presence added to the ambient glow in the velvet vault of sky.

Three young men rode around the milling shapes and shadows that made up the herd. It had been a week now since the seventy-five horses were stolen, and since that time, Tyrone had put out riders every night to keep watch over the horses. Though it would have been more efficient for them to separate, the boring aspects of the task caused the three nighthawks to ride together so they could visit. Prew was one of the riders, and he and another rider were teasing the youngest one.

“What do you mean? Are you trying to tell me you’ve never been with a woman?” Prew asked the youngest one.

The youngest cowboy, whose name was Hank, cleared his throat in embarrassment. “I ain’t never thought I was old enough. And comin’ from the orphanage like I done, I ain’t never really had the opportunity to be with no woman.”

“Hell, you don’t need no opportunity. All you got to do is go into town and visit Flat Nose Sue,” Prew said.

“Yeah,” the other added. He laughed. “And bein’ as you ain’t never been with a woman before, that makes you lucky.”

“How does it make me lucky?”

“Tell him, Prew. How does it make him lucky?”

Prew laughed. “You the one that brought it up, Timmy. You tell him.”

“All right,” Timmy said. “Here’s why it makes you lucky. If you go into Flat Nose Sue’s place and tell her you’re a virgin, why, she’s such a big hearted woman that on your first time, she will let you do it for free.”

“I ain’t no virgin,” Hank insisted.

“What do you mean you ain’t no virgin?” Timmy asked. “You just said you ain’t never been with a woman before.”

“I ain’t never been with no woman before, but that don’t make me a virgin.”

“Sure it does. If you ain’t never been with a woman before, then you are a virgin.”

“Virgins is women, ain’t they?” Hank asked.

Prew and Timmy laughed. “It ain’t only women that’s virgins. A woman that ain’t never had a man is a virgin, yeah, but a man that ain’t never had a woman, why, he is a virgin too.”

“Are you sure about that? I ain’t never heard of no man virgin.”

“And you know all about such things do you?” Timmy asked. “I mean, bein’ as you are so experienced and all.”

“No, I don’t really. I just thought—that is—I didn’t know that men could be virgins too. All right, if that is the case then I guess I am a virgin.”

“So, like I said, all you got to do is, you go into Flat Nose Sue’s place and tell her you’re a virgin.”

“Then what?” Hank asked.

“Then, you don’t have to do nothing. Flat Nose Sue will take care of that little situation for you,” Timmy said. “Right, Prew?”

“Right.”

“For sure?” Hank asked.

“For sure,” Timmy answered. He laughed. “Flat Nose Sue, she’s the oldest one there and she runs the place. So she’ll break you in her ownself.”

“Break me in her ownself? Wait, what do you mean? Are you saying I’d have to uh—do it—with Flat Nose Sue?” Hank asked in a voice that reflected the unattractiveness of the offer. “Didn’t you say she’s the oldest one there?”

“That she is. How old you reckon she is, Prew? Fifty. Sixty, maybe?”

“Yeah, maybe sixty,” Prew answered. “I don’t think she’s any older than than sixty, maybe sixty-five. And if she is any older than that, then it ain’t by all that much.”

“But I’m only sixteen. I don’t want to do it with someone who is sixty, or maybe sixty-five years old. Couldn’t I do it with one of the younger ones?” Hank pleaded.

“You don’t want a young one for your first time,” Prew said. “You want someone who knows what to do so they can break you in proper. Besides, why are you askin’ that? You wouldn’t turn her down, would you? That would hurt her feelings. You sure don’t want to hurt Flat Nose Sue’s feelin’s because if you do that, why, you’ll piss off all the women that’s in the whore house, and they won’t none of ’em have anything to do with any of us anymore. Is that what you want to do?”

“No, I guess not,” Hank replied plaintively. “If she says I’ve got to do it with her, why, I reckon I will. Why do they call her Flat Nose Sue?”

Timmy and Prew both laughed.

“That’s right, you ain’t never seen her, have you?” Prew asked.

“No. I told you, I ain’t never been to no whore house nowhere before.”

“Well, sir, they call her Flat Nose Sue ’cause she’s done got her nose broke so many times by drunk cowboys and the like, that when you look at her sideways, it purt’ nigh looks like she don’t have no nose at all,” Prew explained.

“Oh,” Hank said, even more dispirited than before.

“But she don’t look all that bad when you are lookin’ at her from the front,” Timmy said. “’Ceptin’ for how old she is,” he added.

“Tell you what,” Prew said. “Why don’t we all go into town first thing in the mornin’ after we get off work? Seein’ as we’re goin’ to be ridin’ herd all night, it’ll be early in the mornin’ and there won’t hardly be nobody else there. We can have our pick.”

“Except for Hank,” Timmy said. “He don’t get his pick, ’cause he’ll have to lay with Big Nose Sue.”

“Yeah, but it’ll be free,” Prew said.

“You lucky dog,” Timmy said, reaching over and striking Hank playfully on the shoulder. “You’re goin’ to get it for free.”

“Yeah, I’m just real lucky,” Hank said without enthusiasm.

The colt whinnied again.

“Sounds like one of the colts might have got somewhere it shouldn’t be,” Hank said. “I’ll go take a look.”

Prew waited until Hank rode out into the darkness, then he laughed.

“We got that boy so up tight that right now you couldn’t drive a straw up his ass with a ten pound sledge hammer,” Prew said.

Timmy laughed, then asked, “You sure Flat Nose Sue will go along with it?”

“She said she would,” Prew answered. “This is going to be funnier than all hell.”

“Yeah, I reckon so. But it’s sort of a dirty trick when you think about it. Lord I hate to think of breakin’ him in with Flat Nose Sue. I mean, she could turn a fella off women for life,” Timmy said.

“She ain’t really all that bad,” Prew said.

“How do you know?” Timmy asked. Then he laughed out loud. “I’ll be damn. You’ve had her, ain’t you?” He laughed and slapped his hand against his leg. “I can’t believe you’ve actually had her. Does Jenny know that?”

“What’s Jenny got to do with it?”

“I thought you was kind of sweet on her. You always hangin’ out with her at the Sand Spur.”