“Pa won’t bother us,” Katie said. “He’s probably just looking for strays.”

Billy Bone stood there looking shy, awkward, ugly, and small. He seemed to be on tenterhooks: on the one hand, he wished Katie would go away; on the other, he wanted her to stay.

“That damn fool Tully Roebuck, why will he run that horse?” he said. It was the only topic of conversation he could come up with, and it didn’t last long, because a minute later Tully Roebuck yanked the lathered horse to a stop right between Joe Lovelady and Billy Bone.

He was a lanky fellow, Tully, with a charming smile and sweet brown eyes.

“Hello,” he said mildly, as if he had raced like fire across the prairie just to invite us to tea.

“Why, Tully,” Joe Lovelady said. “How’s your health?”

“My health’s dandy,” Tully said, lifting his hat to Katerina, “but I admit I’d be more relaxed if we was up in Santa Fe drinking toddies.”

“You can get toddies right here in Greasy Corners,” Billy said. “Dez makes toddies that’ll take the feathers off an owl.”

“Dez is gonna wish he was an owl when Old Whiskey gets here,” Tully said. “If we ride off right quick maybe we won’t get implicated.”

“I bet you’d like it in San Isidro,” Katie said to Billy. “Those fat goats are mighty tasty.”

Billy looked embarrassed. He was at a loss for a reply. “I expect I’ll visit soon,” he said politely.

Katie knew when to let be. She laughed and wheeled her mare.

“Joe, don’t let Pa provoke you,” she said, and a moment later los Guajolotes were raising their own dust cloud as they headed down the long plain toward Mexico.

18.

“What’s the news?” Joe Lovelady asked, once Katie and her men loped off.

“Isinglass means to clean out Greasy Corners—that’s the news,” Tully said.

Billy immediately took offense. I think he realized that he had not acquitted himself too brilliantly with Katerina, and he seemed inclined to make others pay—the others being anyone he met who rubbed him the wrong way.

“Clean it out! What business is it of his how dirty it is?” he asked.

“Well, it’s on his ranch,” Joe said. “He owns all this. I guess he figures he can do what he wants with it.”

“I say it’s too much land for one man to own,” Billy said hotly. “He oughtn’t to be allowed! Why, they say he owns all the way to Kansas. They say he owns Texas, or a lot of it. Now, that’s a disgrace—why should one ugly old bull get to own everything?”

Tully Roebuck dismounted. He seemed mildly taken aback by Billy’s passion.

“Why, Bill, he just bought it,” he said. “Once you pay money for something, you own it.”