The cattle drivers hadn’t seen a town for weeks. Let alone a strange face. Hereby the quarrels began to pile up and there were easier fights among the men. It cost trail boss Gil Favor a lot of difficulty to keep the peace. To make the disaster worse the cook Wishbone began to behave very strangely.
One evening the camp got the company of reverend and his daughters. Scout Pete Nolan, Rowdy Yates and Favor saw them coming and looked at each other with amaze.
“Are you the boss here?”, the reverend asked.
“Yes, I am in charge here. Name is Gil Favor. That is Pete Nolan, our scout, and Rowdy Yates”, Favor said.
“I am reverend Wilson and that are my daughters Nancy and Susannah. Where is the trip going to?”, the reverend wanted to know.
“We drive a herd via the Sedelia route. Where are you going?”, vroeg Favor asked while he worked some chow to his stomach.
“We are on our way to the much better country. May we travel along with you?”, Reverend Wilson asked.
“I don’t know where the better country is but just ride along. Put the wagon somewhere nearby. Wishbone will make sure for something to chow down. I mean something to eat”, Favor said.
He didn’t know where he had to look.
He turned to Rowdy and Pete,“ Mind your words boys. That is a real reverend. I will tell that to everyone in a minute.”
The trail boss turned a moment later to his men and said with a loud voice, “I have something to say to you. For an unknown period of time a reverend with his twee daughters travels along with us. I don’t want to hear any rough language and no rough behavior either. That means no cursing. How much needed that might be at the food.”
This remark almost caused that Wishbone gave a reaction but he swallowed it just in time. Favor looked at them with a questionable look and waited for a reaction. This didn’t come to his amazing.
“Continue with your work”, the trail boss said after a long silence.
“If there is something I can help you with let me know”, he said with a shy smile.
“You can leave us alone. Then you are helping us”, Nancy said who didn’t like men.
“I see you later Rowdy”, Susannah said who liked him.
Rowdy nodded with approvement and walked away from the girls. Favor saw hat his face that Rowdy had fixed again something.
“Rowdy, I thought that I had been clear. Don’t get involved with those daughters of reverend Wilson. I don’t want any trouble in the camp. There are already enough problems”, Favor said at a strict tone.
“I only wanted to help Mr Favor”, Rowdy said protesting.
“I know you meant well Rowdy. But don’t let it happen again. You are here for the herd, not for those daughters. How beautiful they may be”, Favor decided then.
Rowdy promised that he would try to keep it. Favor knew that he could trust him.
The presence of the reverend and his daughters would cause for a lot of commotion in the camp. Favor and the men had to watch very much what they were saying. That meant especially for Wishbone who could come very rough in the open with his words. That was mainly pointed to his helper Mushy, who had the talent to let water burn.
The rest of the evening was without any further difficulties.
Pete noticed that Reverend Wilson read very much in his bible. Nancy didn’t dare to come nearer the cattle drivers.
That also caused more discussion stuff among them. Favor noticed that the cattle drivers had to do for behaving a bit normal opposite the reverend and his daughters.
The next morning Wishbone noticed that dat Mushy had over overslept. The cook began to rave at him. His words sounded so loud that even the herd could hear them.
Wishbone said, “You damn dumb head. Why did you for god’s sake have overslept yourself? You would even oversleep for your very last journey.”
“I am sorry Mr Wishbone”, Mushy apologized.
He got up and wiped his clothes clean. None of them had seen that the reverend came to stand near them.
“Oh eh hello reverend. Have you slept well?”, vroeg Wishbone asked when he saw him standing.
Hereby the cook even showed his most friendliest grin.
“Good morning Mr Wishbone. I have slept very well, thank you. Are you always take on your helper?”, Reverend Wilson asked.
“A misunderstanding”, Wishbone said grinning.
The cook didn’t see that Favor and Rowdy were watching and that they had heard everything. The trail boss waited till the reverend was away.
Then he came nearer and he said to the cook, “Wishbone, Remember what I said about the usage of words as long as the reverend was with us? That also counts for you.”
“I didn’t think of it for a minute, Mr Favor”, was the apology of Wishbone.
“It bothers me too. After all we never have had a reverend among us. But as long he doesn’t do reforming, I don’t mind”, the trail boss answered.
Meanwhile Mushy had fallen head and ears in love with Susannah. But he wasn’t the only one. Rowdy was bothering with the same feelings. Though they both knew how to control it. This to certain highs.
Nobody of the cattle drivers could suspect that the reverend would cause trouble. The reverend turned out to be a gunslinger who had killed the real reverend Wilson. Both the daughters were his accomplices who had made up the mean plan to rob the cattle drivers and to steal the herd that way.
To the aggravation of Wishbone Mushy gave very often an extra portion of food to Susannah. She always looked at him with her blue eyes. Hereby the cook’s mate was directly sold. He couldn’t resist her look.
One evening it was again that time with him. After supper Mushy went to her and they drank something. She seduced him so that Mushy all got excited.
The following morning during breakfast Rowdy noticed that Mushy looked very smitten at Susannah. This made him very jealous and he walked away angry. Favor saw the whole scene and wondered what was going on. He followed him.
Near the horses the trail boss asked, “Rowdy, what is the matter?”
“How dare Mushy to take away my girl? I saw her first”, Rowdy raged furiously.
Favor knew directly what time it was. For him the presence of women had only one real meaning: trouble!
He said, “If I had known what that reverend and those girls could cause for trouble in the camp, I would never agreed to ride along with us. Just leave her alone and concentrate on your work. Then you will forget her quicker.”
“I will do that Mr Favor”, Rowdy said a bit calmer but still a bit angry.
Mushy spend a lot of time with Susannah. This caused not only aggravation by Wishbone and Rowdy but also with the reverend. Despite that the turtle-doves took no notice of anything at all.
This action made sure that after a meal the reverend said to Favor:“Keep your driver away from my daughter.”
“Mushy won’t harm her. By the way, why don’t you keep our daughter away from him?”, reageerde Favor reacted calm.
“You may say that but I don’t trust him at all”, the reverend answered.
The trail boss had to do very much trouble to stay calm. The fact that the reverend was present the whole day and the whole night began to irritate hem very much.
But that wasn’t the case with him alone. Rowdy too thought it was awful that Mushy had taken a girl from him.
One evening Mushy discovered a load of rifles in the wagon of the reverend.
He went to Pete and asked whispering, “Pete, I have seen a whole load of rifles. They lie in the wagon of the reverend. Isn’t that a bit strange?”
The scout looked at him and said, “Indeed. Let me see it.”
Unnoticed they went to the wagon of Reverend Wilson.
Mushy lifted up a piece of tent cloth and Pete saw the weapons too.
“They are stolen. That are army rifles. We must tell this to Mr Favor”, Pete said to Mushy.
“That was not a good thought”, Susannah said who stood behind them with a rifle in her hands.
“Susannah, are you behind this with your father and sister?”, vroeg Mushy asked amazed.
“Shut up. You are a real crock. Did you now really think that I wanted to have something with you? In the wagon both of you”, Susannah said with a hard tone in her voice.
There was nothing else for Pete and Mushy to be done than to do what she wanted. Susannah climbed upon the wagon and rode away from the group.
Wishbone discovered very late that his assistant was gone.
He went to the trail boss and said, “Mr Favor, that piece of no-good is gone.”
“You mean Mushy is away? Strange because Pete is also nowhere to be seen”, Rowdy said.
“Damned, everything goes wrong around here”, Favor groaned.
It couldn’t care him anymore if there was a reverend among them. The divine was the cause of it that everything went wrong in the camp.
“They are leaving tonight”, was the decision of the trail boss.
Nancy came to them and said, “We stay here, Mr Favor.”
“No way. You get lost right now at once. I already have enough problems without you around”, Favor said groaning to the girl.
“Will you not curse so in our presence?”, Reverend Wilson asked.
“If you piss off now and leave us alone”, Favor reacted fierce.
A curse was lying on the tip of his tongue but he could control himself. His face spoke volumes. For a moment was it quiet in the camp.
“We are going away until my other daughter is here too”, the reverend decided.
Wishbone whispered to Favor,“Mr Favor, I want to poison them for you with arsenic.”
“Good idea Wishbone, but no. It is a waste of the arsenic. First Pete and Mushy must be back. Then I don’t give any damn about what happens to them. Hopefully they get teared apart by the coyotes”, Favor said.
“I don’t think that the coyotes tear apart Reverends with their daughters. They want to save their strength for the real wild”, was the reaction of Joe.
Careful and unnoticed Pete crawled to the front and Mushy followed him without making a sound. Susannah rode the wagon to the shelter where like arranged the army weapons would be hidden. Later they would be sold in Mexico. Because she had to watch the road Susannah didn’t notice that her two hostages were sitting behind her. Pete gave Mushy a sign where after he gave Susannah such a hard push that she fell off the box.
By the fall she gave an awful scream and died at once. Pete quickly stopped the horses.
When the wagon stood still the two men jumped from it and then walked to the mortal remains of Susannah.
Pete examined her and said, “She is dead, a broken neck. I am sorry Mushy.”
The cook’s mate blinked a few times with the eyes and said, “It was something else again than with only men around you.”
They lifted up the body of Susannah and put it upon the rifles. Hereafter the couple rode back to the camp.
In the camp the tension was good to feel. It was Favor and his men clear that the reverend was no real reverend. Nancy did look at Rowdy but didn’t say a word. The trail boss was very worried about his scout and cook’s mate. The cattle drivers went back to work again but they kept their eyes focused on Reverend Wilson and Nancy. Wishbone was not in a good mood because now he had to do everything himself. Though he was worried about the welfare of Mushy and Pete.
“It goes completely wrong. Susannah should have been back by now”, Nancy said to her accomplish.
“You are right. We must take harder measures and well right now”, Reverend Wilson said.
Nancy looked at him with a questionable look.
The reverend said, “We grab the power now. Favor may have a big mouth but he doesn’t have the guts to stand up against us.”
Reverend Wilson clearly underestimated the guts of
Favor. The trail boss was already thinking about a plan to eliminate the unwanted fellow travelers. That this would be no piece of cake, he already had experienced. Nancy was not a nice pussycat and Reverend Wilson was a tough cookie too.
Though Favor knew that he could rely on his men.
Suddenly Rowdy saw to his stupid amazing Pete and Mushy coming. For safety’s sake he remained calm and he walked towards them.
“Pete, Mushy, what has happened?”, Rowdy asked when Pete had stopped the wagon.
The scout said, “Susannah kept us hostage. From the beginning that they travelled with us they have smuggled a big pile of army weapons along.
“Fine that you say that because now I can help you to get to the other world”, they heard the reverend saying at that moment.
Rowdy turned around and got a bang on the head with the rifle which reverend held in his hands. Pete quickly drew his revolver and shot the divine dead.
“So, he is already in the better land”, was his comment.
Rowdy slowly woke up again. By the shot Favor and Joe came to them. One look at the body of Wilson taught then what had happened.
In the meantime Nancy was convinced that the reverend already had elimated a few of their enemies. What she didn’t know was that Wishbone stood behind her with a frying-pan in his hand. One blow with it and Nancy had moved to another world. Favor and the others came to him.
The cook said as an apology, “ An accident Mr Favor. The frying-pan nearly slipped out of my hand”
“I haven’t seen anything. The most important thing is they are out of our hair and that they stay that way”, Favor said calm.
The men buried the threesome and Pete brought the rifles back to Fort Texas.
Now the reverend and his daughters were gone the pressure had disappeared as well in the camp. This was a great joy of Favor.
His voice had then a true glad relief when he shouted to his men the following morning, “Head ‘em up! Move ‘em out!”