She asked Dan for another joke. “A joke makes time fly.”

“Good ones do,” Bowman said.

“Cowboy rides into town in a cloud of dust,” Dan said as he sat down heavy on a rock that presented. His legs sprawled. He let the sun cook him as a smallish slog of words unspooled: “The townsfolk come running into dust of their own making, climb their hands up the Cowboy’s dirty jeans. Help us, Help us. A man’s robbed our bank. All our savings.

“Where’s the bank? he says. Which way? The townsfolk point him in the correct direction. What’s he look like? The devil?

“Like the devil, they say. Yes, that’s right!

“They press their hands to their faces in fright and dismay. They describe the monster, fast on the draw, a face very different from theirs, dark and hairy and dangerous.

“Actually, he looks a bit like you.”

Saul checked the knots tying the blue chair to the yellow horse.

“The Cowboy is the Prince of the Land,” Dan said.

“Is that right.”

“Cowboys wear white hats for a reason.”

“Is that right.”

On the Switchbacks, the mules walked slowly. The second little gray walked with his mouth open. The tallest mule limped but not bad. The buckskin jenny balked at a hairpin. Maul dragged but she wouldn’t budge. He offered handfuls of oats and then she did. The black mule wanted to pass. Maul reasoned with them on ledges without thinking of the nothing behind him. Water jugs were ballast and drummed their ribs. The packhorse carried the deputy’s gear. The yellow horse came last with the chair.

At the steepest switches, the underbellies of the animals could be seen from below, the leather circumnavigating their bodies, the stirrups, the heels of boots. They could be identified by scent now: Saul, sharp sour sweat. Bowman, a piney nub, caramel and eggs. Maul, mules and creosote. Ella’s braids were new and tight and she smelled like braids, like Ginny at times, looked like her too from certain angles naked in ponds. She’d seen Dan looking, turned her back to his stares, thinking he wanted her maybe, not knowing he was engaged in simple assessment. The hair between her legs was pale brown and not thick at all, which surprised him. Her sister’s was thick. Her ass was round and smooth still. “Stop looking,” she’d say but then turn and drop her hands. Once offered, he looked away. He himself was greasy with mule balm. Maul had plenty of balm. Dan balmed the mules as Maul commanded.