“Yes ma’am.”

The bunkhouse was nicer than most Henry had been in. Cleaner and more spacious for sure, as well as having indoor plumbing, which was rare. The facilities at most of the outfits he’d been on usually consisted of a one-hole privy some two hundred feet from the bunkhouse that was easy to smell when the wind was right, or perhaps just a grove of trees somewhere in the distance. The shower, if there was one, was often little more than a hose on a stick. Not only did this place have a shower, it had four of them with hot and cold running water in separate stalls in a separate room off the back of the bunkhouse. It also had four toilets in separate stalls in the same room, as well as two sinks, also with hot and cold running water, with real mirrors hanging above them.

The building itself was sixty feet long and thirty-five feet wide, with six beds along the back wall, a large footlocker at the end of each one, and another six beds with footlockers along the front wall. A pot-bellied, cast-iron wood stove was in the middle of the room, it’s smokestack jutting out through the roof and a small stack of mesquite wood split and piled nearby. In the corner there was a well-used wooden round table with several wooden chairs around it, an old deck of playing cards and some poker chips sitting on it. On a smaller table nearby there was a coffee pot on a hotplate with several coffee cups scattered about. There were two large windows on either side of the front door, two smaller ones in the back wall, and one each in the sidewalls.

Outside, a large covered porch stretched from one end of the front of the building to the other. On it sat four cane rocking chairs, two on either side of the door, and a small table, also made from cane sat between each pair. It was a nice place by anyone’s standards, but by Henry’s it was a palace. Upon entering, Henry noticed three empty beds, one in the corner by the poker table, and one each on either side of the door. If he’d had to guess where the empty beds would have been, those are the places he would have chosen. The last bunks to fill were always the ones next to where the most late night activity might take place, like a poker table or a door. Everyone wanted to be involved in the late night goings on but nobody wanted to sleep next to it. Henry dropped his satchel, rope bag and saddle on the bed just to the left of the door. He didn’t figure to be sleeping much anyway, so folks coming and going wouldn’t bother him. Besides, if he needed to sneak out at night to drain a bottle, it would be easier for him to get out unnoticed if he were close to the door.