Last Chance Cowboys: The Drifter Read Online Free PDF Page A

turned in on itself. It slowed them down, but…”
    â€œAny idea how many we lost?” Maria asked, resigned to the fact that in a stampede, the weaker and smaller animals were in as much danger of being trampled as any fence might be.
    â€œWe’ll know more once it gets light out.”
    â€œWhat started it?”
    â€œAw, Miss Maria, you know it could have been anything. A cowhand striking a match is enough sometimes, and the herd was already restless with the coming storm and all.”
    â€œI suppose.” She glanced outside, where the sky roiled with storm clouds but as of yet, not a drop of rain had fallen. “You don’t think it might have been deliberate?” There had been more than one occasion when a rancher’s refusal to sell to Tipton Brothers had been followed by a fire or a stampede or a tainted water supply just when the owners seemed most vulnerable. Maria didn’t want to say aloud what she was thinking, but the fact was that for all his good qualities, Roger had a temper, and he did not like being crossed. Might this be a warning he’d decided to send her to prove that he was right? “Eduardo, did any of the men say they saw—”
    Eduardo shrugged. “Like I said, Miss Maria, there’s no way of knowing for sure what started things going.” He turned to his wife. “The boys said they would stay out there rounding up the strays and making sure the rest of the herd is all right. I just came back to get Javier and the wagon. They’ll be needing breakfast,” he added.
    Juanita nodded and began packing food that her husband then loaded onto the wagon he’d brought to the kitchen door. Then she wrapped towels around the handles of two large coffee pots and handed them to him. “This should hold them until you get the fire going,” she said.
    Eduardo leaned in and kissed her cheek. “I’ll send Rico back to help with the milking,” he promised.
    â€œAmanda, Trey, and I can handle that,” Maria assured him. “Just let the men know how much I appreciate their quick action. That as much as anything probably saved everybody some loss.”
    â€œIt was that Florida fella that made the difference. The night riders were having a devil of a time getting things calmed down. If it hadn’t been for him…” He just shook his head, then flicked the reins to set the team in motion. “You shoulda seen the way he snapped that whip of his.”
    â€œSeems like that drifter might be good for something after all,” Juanita said as she waved good-bye, then turned back to the kitchen.
    Maria was surprised that Juanita would even consider this sudden change of heart. Most of the time, once she made up her mind about a person, it took a lot more than something like this to get her to switch opinions. “Maybe I should offer him a job after all.”
    â€œDon’t go getting all carried away, mi hija . My guess is that Roger Turnbull and those others will be back here wantin’ their old jobs back once they see that working for Tipton Brothers is no barn dance. And then where will you be? You were the one all worried about making the payroll.”
    Juanita was right, of course. On the other hand, if Roger and the others did not return and if the drifter was as good as Eduardo said, wouldn’t she be foolish to let him go?
    * * *
    The rain started around six that morning, and it was what Maria’s father would have labeled a “right smart gully washer,” soaking the ground and filling the creek in what seemed like no time at all. It was still coming down when the men who’d been out the longest finally came back to grab a couple hours’ sleep. “Based on the tally we did a couple of days ago, there’s only three more missing, Miss Maria,” Bunker reported. He had been on the night shift when the stampede started, and now he stood under the overhang outside the