“We haven’t seen him.”

Previously:

Taken aback, the tall fellow couldn’t help remembering an old earworm, “Away out here they got a name/For rain and wind and fire/The rain is Tess, the fire Joe,/And they call the wind Mariah…”*

“Now what, Mariah?”

“We wait for him to pass, and then begin to follow him.”

“Seems like a good idea to me.”

“A wise human always listens to his horse.”

Indeed!

*From Paint your Wagon, 1951, written by Alan J. Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe
Season VI, Chapter 5 Coldwater Ranch, Episode 6

Samuel Carpenter was unaware that the tall stranger had moved into the brush and a series of small dips and rises in the road prevented him from seeing all that far ahead—they also prevented him from seeing the approach of Boomer and Larry until they were upon him.

“Good afternoon, Carpenter, nice to see you again…”

“Good afternoon, Carpenter, nice to see you again,” the sarcasm in Boomer’s greeting could not possibly be missed, but Sam’l missed it.

“You seen a tall feller on th’ road?”

“How tall?”

“I dunno, six feet, I s’pect.”

“You see a tall fellow, Larry?”

“Everyone looks tall from my point of view.”

“That’s true.”

“Feller said his name’s Cooper.”

“Why didn’t say so in the first place?” Boomer asked, smiling.

“Yeah, heck, that really changes things,” Larry chimed in, laughing, “You should have mentioned that.”

“So ya seen him?” Carpenter was more than a little exasperated, “Where’d he go?”

“We haven’t seen him.”

About halfway through the conversation with Carpenter, Mariah quietly walked away until they were past the next hill and returned to the road where she stepped up the pace to a trot, “We’ll be at the ranch in just a few minutes.”

“You are one clever horse, Mariah.”

They trotted up to the ranchhouse and were immediately greeted by Windy, “Hello Sis! I see you found your human!”

“Hello Sis! I see you found your human!”

Sarah and Susie were on the porch and it took a split-second for Sarah to exclaim, happily, “Jay Cooper! It’s about time you got here!”

“You know this tall drink of water?”

“I should—I’m married to him!”

To be Continued…