Snatched by cmsix

Chapter 27

The next morning I woke knowing there'd been yet another delivery during the night. I even knew what had come, and I was very pleased. I was also pleased that I woke before Lanita, who was asleep on my chest as usual. I wiggled to wake her up and grinned wide when her eyes opened.

"Good morning my little princess, how did you sleep?"

"Very well," she said, "Especially with this nice fur for comfort," she explained, rubbing her hand in the hair on my chest, and then laughing.

We were surrounded by sleeping naked women so we got to enjoy wiggling and squirming until we woke them too. Finally Nita rose to sitting and looked around.

"Lanita, where is Nosey, didn't he sleep in here with us last night?" she asked.

"You know he didn't mother. He was keeping watch outside with Buster, Red, and Buttercup," Lanita said.

"I'm sure he was protecting us," Nita said.

"In a way they probably all were, except maybe Buttercup. I doubt anything can sneak up on the cashda or the donkeys," I said.

"But wouldn't they just run off if they sensed something coming that was dangerous?" Shaeta asked.

"Nosey might, but I doubt it from the way he hangs around Lanita. Buster and Red can't get away fast enough with those hobbles, so I think they would start causing a commotion."

"You are probably right, but it is time to get up and get moving. Something seems odd though," Katia said.

"I believe you are right, and if you sense what I already know, you are going to be happy soon," I said.

"Happy about what?" Katia asked.

"Let's get dressed and go see."

So we did, and it didn't take long. We went back behind the hut before they even headed out to cook. The saddles were sitting up on end with the pads and blankets for each laid over their tops.

"What is all this?" Nita asked, since she was the first able to get her wits together and form a question.

"They are called saddles. You put them on the cashda's back, fasten the girth strap, and then you can ride with much more comfort and stability. I will have to tell you more about them after breakfast," I said.

Lanita and I took a swing by the privies and then headed to see Buttercup and the whole gang. Nosey told her hello in his normal braying way and Buster and Red even gave us a little snort before they went back to pulling up grass. As we left Nosey came with us.

We went to our log sofa and sat down to join Denac. When I told him about the saddles and explained what they were for he was anxious to see them himself. He also had a question.

"How many of them are there?"

"I counted and there are eight, one for you and one for Jekaycey, one for me, and one for each of my mates and Lanita. The other one is all disassembled so it will be easy to see how they are made. They can be copied that way.

"There were also adjustable halters and other things for putting on the horses' heads instead of the halters that we have been making. They will make our hunting trip much easier. In fact they will make everything to do with the cashda much easier."

"That is good. Riding on Buster's back is not the most comfortable thing. If these saddles help it will be much better. Still, even if we didn't have them, riding a cashda beats walking every time," Denac said, and smiled.

I smiled too, because the food arrived about then. It was apparent that my mates had taken the time to let Jekaycey in on the saddles' arrival. She was curious now too, but they waited patiently while we ate.

After we'd finished and the bowls had been taken care of we all went back to the saddles and I explained everything I could. I showed them the example for making more and explained about the tree, and told them it was made of thin wood covered in wet rawhide that was sewed together and then allowed to dry. We also found a few essential tools for helping to make them.

There was even a partially made bosal, mecate, bosal hanger, and brow band to show how they were made, and of course a setup to go with every saddle. Denac's saddle was the biggest one I'd ever seen. That was only right though, because Denac was the biggest man I'd ever seen and Buster the biggest horse, or cashda.

After show and tell was over, Denac held Buster and I showed him how to place the blanket and pad and then how to saddle him up. Next we looped a lariat around Busters neck, just in case, and put the headstall, browband, and bosal on him and then I made my first try at tying the mecate's reins and lead rope knot, damned if I didn't get it right.

We finished up with Buster by making adjustments to the fit of his headgear, making sure the bosal hung correctly and that the rein was just right for Denac to use. Since it looped from one side of the bosal's heel around and over the saddle horn and back to finish the knot and make the lead rope it was a little bother, but we got it done. For now we coiled the lead rope and tied it to a saddle string.

We repeated the procedure on Red and then went back to Buster. Denac was very appreciative of the stirrups. He could now mount Buster on his own, though it took a couple of tries before he decided I was right about putting a foot in the left stirrup and then hopping up, concentrating on pressing up with that foot and not trying to pull yourself up by your grip on the saddle horn and cantle.

The saddles were all double rigged and I was thankful for that, but I knew I'd have to keep an eye out to make sure everyone got the front girth tight enough and kept the back one loose enough.

After attaching my best riata and the handy rifle scabbard that came with my saddle, I put the M1 in it and we mounted. We were off for the rodeo grounds then. Actually, I hoped that today's rodeos were few and far between.

Jortah and Jonalton were the first to greet us when we rode up, but they didn't have a cashda in the chute yet and all the others joined them. They were amazed by the saddles and some of them even noticed the hackamores. Questions came hot and heavy for a few minutes, but I made them stop when they started asking where this stuff came from. It was a need to know thing, and they didn't need to know.

"I want to assure you that everyone will have a setup just like it soon. My mates and some of the others are probably already copying the examples we have. In fact, Denac and I will be heading out in the morning for thaka hunting and I know that some men already left after breakfast for the same thing. We are going to need many more hides to make our tack."

"We also need all of you to continue what you are doing. We will need two of the large cashda to take with us when we hunt. All they need to be trained for is pulling a travois, but Jonalton will need to show them how to follow on a lead rope behind a rider on another cashda first," Denac said, explaining.

They nearly ran from us then, hurrying to their jobs. I had to call Jortah and Jonalton back to talk with them further.

"The first thing is to take one of the mares that will already lead and walk her with a longer rope. After you think she is used to it, one of you should mount up and take the rope to start leading her that way. We will need two of them ready by tomorrow morning. Don't forget to use whoa every time you stop. I'm hoping that they will stop where they are when you say whoa and not come up to you."

Denac and I left then. They could do this as well as we could and I wanted to get in more practice with our mounts. We kept at it until we thought it was nearing time for lunch, and we went back to camp to see if we were right.

We were. Denac and I hobbled Buster and Red and then found our logs. Lanita was waiting for us and I pulled her into my lap. Nosey went off to visit Buster and Red and our mates arrived with food shortly.

"Mother told me that you were going hunting tomorrow, Daddy," Lanita said.

"Yes, Denac and I need to bring back some thaka so there will be plenty of hides to make saddles and hackamores," I said.

"Do you think you can catch a mate for Buttercup?" she asked.

"I hadn't even thought about it, but I'm sure we can. In fact, after the hard work your mothers did on the lariats we might even be able to bring back a grown thaka or two. If I can rope a mother, she will have to follow me back and her calf will follow her," I said.

"That sounds like it could be ever so much fun, but will the grown one be nice?" she asked.

"Not at first. I'm sure it will have to be hobbled or tied all the time for the first little bit, but after a while it might come to like it here, if not we will just eat it," I said.

"At least it would be fresh and tasty that way," she said, and laughed.

Denac and I didn't tarry after lunch. We removed the hobbles, tightened the girths and mounted, heading back to the horse canyon. Our ranch hands were just finishing their meal when we got there.

I noticed right away that all the grown cashda were out of the pen, and that one of the yearlings was in the chute now. Before I could even asks, Jortah told us that they had two mares they thought were ready to pull travois. He pointed them out, they were both tied to the snubbing tree.

Denac and I rode over and dismounted. We tied one end of my lariat to one of their halters and then Denac mounted and I handed him the other end of the lariat.

"Lead out Denac, and we'll take it to the main camp. It will probably take the women some time to fashion something to use for attaching the travois."

I mounted to follow and we were on our way. We even had no trouble crossing the river.

Back at camp it didn't take long to get my mates, Jekaycey, and Matita started making a wide strap to hold up the ends of travois poles by running it over Matilda's withers. All that was left was cutting a couple of practice poles and adding a band to the harness to go across Matilda's chest. Caltort had come over and he said he'd put a travois together for testing use, so Denac and I went back for the other mare, Gertrude.

When we were back at camp with Gertrude we found that Caltort and Jagbac had nearly finished the first training travois, and that it was already on Matilda and the pulling harness was finished. They had even put on several small cross members across the travois poles to keep the skin from dragging the ground.

"If you are going to bring back thaka, those braces will probably be needed, and the extra weight won't mean much to the cashda," Caltort said.

"I think you're right."

"Should I make another one for the other cashda?" he asked.

"I don't think there is a need. We will be taking the travois cashda with us when we go to hunt, and dragging empty travois out would be too much trouble. We'll just take the harness they are making and throw a travois together if we have something to bring back.

"The one you made will let us teach the cashda how to pull it and it will make a good pattern for the ones we'll no doubt need to make after Matatu gets to go visit his vision site and comes back anxious to move us all," I said, and then he laughed with me.

After I mounted Red, Shaeta handed me the end of the long lead rope and I led Matilda off. She was a little skittish about the travois following her so closely at first, but it didn't take her long to settle down. I returned after about fifteen minutes of practice.

Lanita was standing by Denac when I got back, so I told her to hop on the travois and see how it rode. She was happy to, but when I took off with her, Nosey noticed that she was leaving and he brayed loudly and then trotted to catch up. We were barely out of the camp before every one of the youngsters had rushed to the edge to watch.

By the time I returned, Matilda was an old hand at this, so I stopped and invited the other children to climb aboard. There was barely room for all of them. I told them to grab hold so they wouldn't fall off and away we went. I gave them about a thirty-minute ride, and I saw that even with fourteen children riding, Matilda wasn't even breathing hard.

Denac and I unhitched Matilda and then went back over to fetch Gertrude for her travois training. When we hitched her up she gave even less trouble than the little bit Matilda had. Of course Lanita and the other children were hanging around in case they could get another ride. After some preliminary training for Gertrude I obliged them.

When the joy ride was over, Denac and I took a long lead each and returned Gertrude and Matilda to the ranch. I planned on leaving from its side of the river in the morning anyway and there was no sense hobbling them all night near Red and Buster. There was a lot more grazing available in the canyon anyway, and the less horseshit we had over here, the better. Denac and I got back to camp about half an hour before supper, and we sat on our big asses until food arrived.

Caloe came by to tell us that the men who'd hunted today had done well. They had brought back six thaka, and four qaka. That was good news, and she also said they'd be going out again tomorrow.

After the meal and the clean up, my mates, Jekaycey, and Matita huddled up and went back to work trying to figure out how to copy our new items, and they kept at it until dark. Lanita, Nosey, and I did our best to entertain ourselves til then.

Things seemed normal the next morning when I woke. Lanita was lying comfortably on my chest, waiting for my eyes to open.

"Good morning, Daddy. Are you still going hunting today?" she asked, as we got up and dressed.

"I plan to, unless something else comes up."

"What else could come up and keep you from it?" she asked.

"If I knew, I wouldn't be planning on going."

"Well why don't you plan on taking me out to see Buttercup, Nosey, Buster, and Red then?" she asked.

So that's just what we did. We even had Denac along with us after a few minutes. I could tell that he was a little antsy about the trip, but I thought it was more along the lines of anticipation.

Breakfast was great and our mates had a couple of day's worth of traveling food packed up for us too. Denac and I saddled up, said goodbye, mounted up, and rode off across the river. Just as we got to the gate of the cashda canyon there was a little breeze and I caught a sniff of something familiar.

"Denac, go on in and see if the mares are haltered and ready to travel. I want to go eastward a little right now and I'll be back shortly," I said, and he agreed.

What I wanted to do was ride into the breeze for a minute or two. I thought I'd smelled several thaka and I might as well find out if I was right.

In ten minutes I knew I had been, right that is. I could sense several thaka in a bunch, more than I could count, and they had to be within half a mile or so. Thinking about it I had seen them bunch up into small herds before, but I never really knew why, since they usually seemed to travel in groups of two or three.

It didn't matter. While I was seeking out their scent a flash of cowboy movie came back to me. A cattle drive was what we needed, or a thaka drive. It would be a hell of a lot better if we could get on the other side of this small herd and drive them into the canyon than it would be to shoot a few and have to haul them back. I returned for Denac and some talking.

I called all the guys to join us and told them what I thought I'd smelled and also what I thought I wanted to do about it. They were enthusiastic and Jortah thought that if I could encourage the thaka to come between the two rocky hills just to the east of our entrance, he and the guys could build a temporary fence directing them into this canyon.

"I think that will work perfectly. Let's go and take a look at what you'll be getting into," I said, and we did.

They'd need to build nearly a hundred yards of fence, but it wouldn't have to be very strong or long lasting. In fact, we'd probably want to take the rails right back down, even if we left the post in place for later use.

They put off cashda training for now and started right to work on the blocking fence. After watching them work for about fifteen minutes I knew they'd have it ready before we could get the thaka to it, if we could even herd them at all. Denac and I mounted again and took off, leaving Gertrude and Matilda where they were.

An hour later I knew they'd have plenty of time to get the fence finished. We had located the thaka, but hadn't gotten on the other side of them yet. We were working our way around them now, but we didn't want them to get anxious about it so we were staying well clear.

For most of the way I had been explaining what we were going to do to Denac. He thought he had a handle on what needed to be done. Hell, I hoped I did. I had no idea whether the thaka would stay together and move along as we hazed them from the back, or if they'd just scatter, every thaka for itself.

When we'd worked our way behind them we spread out and moved toward the bunch. They weren't interested at first, but as we got closer they noticed and started moving away from us. At least they seemed to stay together. Unfortunately, they were trying to move off to the south and if allowed to they'd take a different path than the one leading to their capture.

I had to put Red into a lazy lope to cut them off and turn them back. He cooperated but clearly didn't understand what we were trying to do. That made sense since he was completely untrained so far.

The thaka must have decided that Red needed a little experience in working cattle, because they tried their best to do exactly what we didn't want them to do every time. It seemed to be working because Red acted like he was catching on. Thank goodness Denac realized he couldn't be any help, so he backed off to stay out of the way.

After nearly an hour of going back and forth, turning them one way and then the next, the thaka finally turned in the direction we wanted them to go. Denac came up closer then and we kept them moving. Fifteen minutes later we had them in a sort of draw between two sets of hills that led back to our canyon. They could have climbed up and over the hills at this point, but it would have been tough going for them and they had no reason to think they weren't escaping.

Thirty minutes later the hills forming the sides of this passage had grown more rocky and steeper; fifteen minutes after that the thaka were within sight of the fence. They went right up to it and some of them leaned against it before they decided the way was blocked and started looking for an exit. It didn't take them long to find the now widened gate and they entered our ranch grounds.

The guys had been keeping out of sight up in the rocks opposite the entrance. When the last thaka walked in the gate they started coming down, and it was easy to see that they were as surprised as Denac and I had been. We had captured over eighty thaka, including the youngsters.

As best I could tell we had five adult males and around forty adult females. Twenty of the cows were nursing young calves. There were also eighteen yearlings still tagging along near their hopefully bred mothers. It was an astonishing haul, and Denac and I hadn't even needed to kill a single one.

We left Jortah directing the dismantling of the fence; we'd decided to leave the post in place. Denac and I went over to spread the word of our success. We got to camp just in time for lunch, but everyone there was surprised.

We loosened the girths on our mounts and hobbled them, then headed for the dinner log. Lanita was waiting for us.

"Daddy, I thought you were going hunting for thaka," she asked, as I sat down and pulled her into my lap.

"Denac and I both went hunting, and did we ever find."

"But we listened and never heard your rifle," she said.

"That's because I didn't fire it. That doesn't mean we didn't get some thaka, because we did."

"But how? With spears?" she asked.

"No, we got them with Red and Buster."

"Really it was Red that did most of the work," Denac said.

"But how did Red kill the thaka?" Lanita asked.

"He didn't kill them. He made them walk to the canyon and go in through the gate."

"Daddy, are you pulling my leg?" she asked.

"No, but I can tickle it if you'd like."

"That's enough teasing Daddy. Tell me what happened," she said.

"Wait until your mommies and Jekaycey are here with lunch, so I can tell it once."

"Oh, all right. I can wait," she said.

"I hope you will have enough energy after lunch to go over and help with the thaka."

"How can I help?" she asked.

"Well, you can at least watch and tell us what a good job we did. I think there are about twenty that are even younger than Buttercup."

I was saved by the food then, since Lanita didn't have time to get any more questions out before I popped a tidbit into her mouth. My mates were getting revved up to tease me about coming back so early from my hunting trip without any thaka, when Lanita spilled the beans.

"Well just how many did you bring back?" Shaeta asked.

"Eighty in all, or maybe a couple more than eighty."

That was a show stopper, or a question staller at least. It didn't stall them long though. I just put them off and told them they'd have to come over and see for themselves.

After we finished eating, Denac, Lanita, and I rode over to the ranch while Jekaycey and my mates headed that way walking. Of course they let the cat out of the bag as they came and about half of the Calak came with them.

Jonalton and a couple of the guys were already out walking around among the thaka, trying to get them used to company I guess, and of course about half the donkeys were in on the deal too. The thaka were by no means calm about it, but they weren't in a panic either.

Everyone that came over from the camp had a real hard time getting a grip on that many thaka in one spot, and captured at that. Caloe was the first one to tumble to the implications.

"Carl, aren't those young ones with them?" she asked.

"Yes, there are about twenty females with nursing calves and about twenty females with yearlings following them around, even though they aren't nursing any longer," I said.

"Do you think they will keep having young even though they are stuck in here?" she asked.

"I'm almost sure they will."

"Do you think we could actually raise them?" she asked.

"I'm sure we can. In a few more years we'll probably have so many that we don't even need to hunt much. Until we have enough, we will only eat a few of the males we raise and save all the females to raise more."

"That sounds like an excellent plan, but you'll have to go out again and get some thaka for skins won't you?" she asked.

"Unless we run across another bunch like this to capture. I knew that already though. I think we can butcher two of the adult males we have here, but we'd probably better wait and see what the others bring in before we do it," I said.

"You're right, four more groups left this morning to hunt," she said.