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It was a beautiful day. A brilliant blue sky arched overhead, punctuated by a few fluffy, white clouds. There had been just enough rain that the hills were covered with a verdant green as they stretched to the horizon. Off in the distance, a herd of cattle were contentedly grazing and Nick Barkley felt at peace with the world. Nothing was better than this, riding the range on his favourite horse with his brother by his side. Life was sure fine. Glancing over at Heath, riding just as easy in the saddle, Nick chuckled to himself. It was amazing how easily Heath had worked his way into his life once Nick got over the resentment of their father’s failings. Now it was like Heath had always been there and Nick looked forward to getting to know his new brother even better.
Suddenly, Coco half-reared and let out a shrill whinny, Heath’s Charger doing the same. Nick tried to get his mount under control, but Coco was having none of it. He fought Nick and eventually bucked him off, streaking for the nearest trees.
“What the devil…?” Coco had never acted like that before, well, not since those first few months when he threw Nick at least twice a day until they got used to each other. Nick slowly got to his feet, picked up his hat and slapped it on his leg a few times to get the dust off before putting it back on his head. Heath was still mounted, but Charger was snorting and rolling his eyes and looked like he wanted to do to Heath what Coco had done to his rider.
“You okay, Nick?” Heath asked, trying to get the bay settled.
“Yeah, nothing hurt but my pride,” Nick grumbled. “What in tarnation got into that horse anyway?”
Heath pointed and Nick looked in the direction of the low rise he was indicating. A strange looking animal was standing there and Nick wasn’t sure what he was looking at. “What the devil is that?”
“Camel,” Heath said simply.
“Camel?” Nick repeated, not believing his ears. “You mean those humpbacked critters they ride in Egypt? What the devil is a camel doing on my range?”
Heath finally got Charger to stand, but the bay’s ears were flat against his head and he still shifted restlessly. “Reckon there’s a few of them still around. Didn’t know about any making it this far north, though.”
“I…” Then Nick shook his head. “I dunno if I want to know how you know that, Heath.” He gave the camel, who had put its long neck down graze, a glare before looking around. He saw Coco standing at the edge of the trees and walked slowly over to the trembling animal. Nick rubbed the glossy neck. “Ain’t your fault, Coco ol’ boy,” he crooned and Coco briefly flicked an ear forward. “Reckon anyone could get spooked by an ugly critter like that.” Continuing to stroke the dark hide and make soothing noises until his horse stopped shivering, Nick gathered up the reins and hauled himself back into the saddle. He turned to Heath, who’d come up beside him. “What did you mean, there’s still camels around? I ain’t heard of anyone ranching camels.”
“They did down south near Los Angeles a bunch of years ago, at Fort Tejon,” Heath told him as they rode slowly and once they got a fair distance from the camel, both horses settled down. “Army brought them in.”
“And I suppose you worked there.” Nick was just teasing, since somehow it seemed Heath had done a little bit of everything in his young life, but was mildly surprised at Heath’s simple, “Yep.”
“Okay, okay.” Nick shook is head in exasperation. “So along with being a miner, a cow prod, a jingler, stagecoach driver and whatever else it is you’ve done, you’re telling me you were also a camel wrangler.”
Heath chuckled at that. “Too young to be a wrangler. Reckon I was, oh, just shy of twelve. The mine in Strawberry was played out so I hit the road looking for work to keep me and my mama fed. Helped a trader with his string of mules and ended up down south. The old trader, he was going to Fort Tejon. When we got there, they was looking for people to help care for the camels, seemed not too many trusted them or wanted to get near them. Pretty ornery at first, but once you get used to them and they get used to you, they ain’t too bad.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “ ‘Ain’t too bad’,” he repeated. “Heath, that ugly critter spooked our horses and is likely to start spooking our cattle.”
“Well, you know horses, Nick,” Heath reminded him. “They’ll spook at anything with an unfamiliar scent and shape, but they can get used to it if it sticks around. And cattle might get twitchy, but they’ll settle quick.”
“Hmph.”
“Unless…” Heath gave Nick a sidelong look and one of his lopsided grins. “Maybe the Barkleys could add camel ranching to everything else we got going on around here.”
That made Nick snort. “You’re not funny, Heath.” But then he got a wicked idea. “Although…”
Sighing, Heath asked, “Although what, Nick?” Then he held up his hand. “Nope. On second thought, I don’t think I wanna know.”
Nick chortled loudly. “What, you don’t want to see the expression on Jarrod’s face when we tell him we’re going into the camel business?”
That did make Heath laugh. Nick fixed his hat firmly on his head. “C’mon, race you home!” He slapped Coco with the reins and his dark horse eagerly moved into a gallop, Heath not far behind.