With a nod he bade Rusty to follow him to where the rest of his ranger contingent waited. One of the men, rangy and hungry-looking, leaned forward, bracing his hands on the horn of his saddle. He wore a tattered buckskin jacket, crudely patched. His face was heavily freckled, and his eyes laughed. “Couldn’t you talk us into a fight with them Yankee boys and their Indians, Dutch? We need the practice.”

“I have ridden with the Tonkawas as allies. You would not want them for an enemy.” Burmeister’s moustache lifted at both ends. “Besides, Tanner, you are too skinny to interest them. Not even good soup would you make.”

The man named Tanner turned his attention to Rusty. “Looks like they rejected this one, too. He ain’t got much more meat on him than I have.”

Burmeister introduced Rusty to the group. “David Shannon. Tom Blessing has sent him to join our little company.”

Tanner shook Rusty’s hand. “Welcome, David.”

“Call me Rusty.”

“Hope you brought money enough to run us awhile, Rusty, because pay don’t come often around here and don’t amount to much when it does.”

Rusty had only four dollars but saw no reason to admit to poverty. Many in this group had a ragged appearance, which indicated they could not show even that much.

Tanner pointed at Chapultepec. “Worst come to worst, we can always eat the mule.”

Somebody shouted, “Ain’t that cannibalism, Tanner, eatin’ your own kind?”

Rusty decided he was going to like this bunch.

CHAPTER

NINE

Before they reached the tent camp, two men passed them, racing horses at breakneck speed across the open prairie and shouting in glee. It looked like fun to Rusty, but Burmeister frowned. “They have not enough to do when they do not ride the line. They will break a horse’s leg one day, or a man’s neck. But I cannot forbid them. Two months’ pay they are owed.”

The camp crowded against a clump of timber a short distance from Fort Belknap. The military post that had lent the small settlement its name had been vacated by the army a few years earlier. Rusty suspected the rangers had been placed away from the town so they would be less exposed to urban temptations. However, lack of spending money accomplished that purpose. The state required each man to furnish his own horse and firearms, and it was to supply the other necessities. The spartan nature of the camp indicated to Rusty that the state’s definition of necessities was poor and lean. Texas was rich only in ambition and spirit. Its leaders had nothing in their pockets except their hands, but they gave voice to extravagant dreams. Texas was a great someday land.

Burmeister watched Rusty remove the pack from Chapultepec. “I wish I could say the state will pay you for use of the mule. Promises I can give you. Money I cannot.”