volume one IN THE D U D L E Y C L A R K - Ohio Vine Tours

“Yes, ma’am, reckon so.”
She laughed.
“How do you plan on sending her letters, or receiving any back?”
He hadn’t considered this.
After a moment of thought, he replied,
“I shall send this with a return of General Delivery, Denver, then the
others will serve as my journal for her upon my return.”
She shook her head.
“If you return, you mean. I was you, I’d have a drink with my last
meal.”
In the bath—the first indoor one he had ever visited—he again thought
of returning to Mod, and dashing his insane scheme.
But the sun, as it broke the horizon, found him in his saddle, speaking to
Wilson.
“Thank you kindly for th’ room. I’m fed an’ well rested and ready for
work.”
Wilson chuckled.
“And so you shall have it in spades—Lucius!”
A short lick of a man spurred his sorrel to join them.
“Boss?”
“Take this boy in hand. He’ll be ridin’ drag with th’ other young’un.”
Lucius, his given name—Lucky, his appointed one—eyed his new
charge with serious mien.
“That’s fine, boss. Come with me, buck.”
Wilson raised his hand and stopped him, then turned to the Young
Cowboy and smiled.
“Goodnight runs the best damned outfit in this country, son, and you’re
fortunate to have employ with him. You’ll meet him after a bit. Until then,
when you talk to me, you talk to him. We got us a few simple rules here.
The main one is, you shoot a man and you’ll be tried by the outfit on the spot
and if found guilty, hang. You understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You can’t drink whisky an’ work for us.”
“No, sir.”
“You can’t play cards an’ gamble an’ work for us.”
“No, sir.”
“You can’t curse an’ swear in our camps or in our presence an’ work for
us.”
2 0 ROY ROGERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY