Duckfoot jabbed his massive hands at his own chest. "Look at this, you lumpy moron! Am I supposed to run around half naked?"
Warts held out his hands. "We'll just have to come up with a bigger robe for you, Duckfoot. I'm sure wardrobe can come up with something. They have plenty of cloth."
Duckfoot stabbed the Pendiian in the chest. "Dammit, Warts, if people're goin' to insist on namin' this town after me, I don't want to be made to look like a fool!"
"I understand..."
Little Will walked up and looked at Duckfoot's knees. The boss canvasman scowled at her. "What're you lookin' at, sprout?"
Little Will looked up at Duckfoot and grinned. "Sheer dee-light." She turned and walked back to her bedroll and husband, laughing.
SEVENTEEN
On Workday, the First of May, the beginning of the third year since the crash, the column of bulls was forming for the trip back to Miira. The bullhands all wore their new gray and maroon striped robes, although most wore their trousers as well. Shiner Pete had gone ahead with the horses. Little Will and Packy were checking a slight scrape on Reg's left front leg when a delegation of eight bullhands came up behind them.
"Packy, we want a word."
Packy stood, turned around, and looked at the speaker. "What's up, Moll? Why didn't you folks leave with the horse-wagons?"
The woman pointed her bullhook at the houses of Tarzak. "The bunch of us here, and our families, are staying. We aren't heading back to Miira."
Little Will stood. "What do you mean, not going back? You have to. Miira is where the bullhands live."
Moll smiled and shook her head. "Little Will, I haven't been a bullhand since Number Three went down killing Big Nance." Moll cocked her head toward the others standing behind her. "None of us has bull to push."
Packy rubbed his chin and shook his head. "Moll, there's still the White Top Mountain Road to build."
"You can build it without us. We want to stay in Tarzak. There's more people here; more things to do. Better ways of making a living than cutting dust on a chain gang."
Packy nodded. "We'll miss you." He looked around her at the others. "All of you."
"We'll get together next Season."
He looked back at Moll. "What're you going to do?"
"I think I'll try my hand at fishing. I've been looking at those boats in Sina; talked to a few people."
Little Will slowly shook her head. "Moll, won't you miss the bulls?"
"Sure. But we'll get a glimpse of one every now and then." She cocked her head back toward Mad Man Mulligan. "Mad Man is keeping Ming in Tarzak."
Little Will held her hands to her mouth. "Not Ming."
Packy's face darkened as he walked around Moll and grabbed Mad Man by the front of his robe. "Like hell you are!"
Mad Man pulled the boss elephant man's hands free from his robe. "Like hell I'm not!"
"Ming isn't yours. She belongs to the show."
"Show me the papers, Packy! There ain't no show!" Mad Man took a deep breath and exhaled as he smoothed the front of his robe. "Packy, I ain't been paid a lousy quarter-note since the crash. I been pushing bull for two years, and no pay. I figure I earned that bull. You figure different, we can have it out right here and now."
Packy looked down the column of bulls, then down at the ground, shaking his head. "Damn."
Little Will touched the boss elephant man's arm. "Packy?"
He pulled his arm away and began walking slowly toward Robber. "Mad Man's right, Little Will. Damn him, but he's right. I'm sorry."
Little Will saw Mad Man look down at the sight of her tears. He looked up again. "I know what Ming was to Bullhook, Little Will. You know I'll take care of her."
Robber began moving toward the first delta bridge. Little Will turned away from Mad Man and started walking after Packy. "Let's go, Reg."
Her pachyderm lumbered after her, followed by the rest of the column.
On the second night from Tarzak, the bullhands were preparing to make camp outside the timber town of Porse, when a wagon pulled by a pair of Perches thundered down the road from Miira. The driver pulled up the team just outside of camp, then jumped down from the wagon as the cloud of dust that had followed him slowly covered the horses and moved through Porse's only street. The driver was Shiner Pete.
"Packy!"
Little Will rushed up to her husband. "Pete, what is it?"
"Where's Packy?"
She pointed toward the trees. "He's over there hobbling Robber. What's wrong?"
He shook his head. "Not sure." He ran toward Packy.
The boss elephant man stood and brushed off his hands as he saw Pete and Little Will running toward him. "Hold your bosses. What's this about?"
They stopped and Pete held up his hand as he caught his breath. "In Miira. Can't go into town. Mange says to head the column down the Kuumic Road as soon as you hit the edge of town. He's already headed the hostlers, horse teams, tools, and wagons that way."
"Spill it, Shiner. What's goin' on?"
Pete shook his head. "A disease. Right now that's about all Mange knows. Just about everybody who was left behind in Miira when we went down for The Season's got it. Snaggle-tooth, The First Lady, and Walking Rug are all dead." He looked down and closed his eyes. "I don't understand it. Waxy and Dot the Pot are down with it, and they were with us in Tarzak."
"What about Cookie Jo?"
"She went out with the hostlers."
Packy placed a hand on Pete's shoulder and looked back toward where the bullhands were gathering around fires to cook the evening meal. "What's this bug like? Nothing unusual, but we've had a few hands griping about headaches and stomach cramps."
Shiner Pete's shoulders slumped as he nodded. "That's it. Dammit, but that's it. Mange said that if the bullhands show symptoms, you should separate those who have it from those who don't. Drop the sick ones off in Miira, then the rest of you head out to build the White Top Mountain Road." He pointed down the road toward Tarzak. "That means that everybody picked it up at The Season. All the towns'll have it."
Little Will placed her arm around Shiner's waist. "Can't Mange do anything?"
Shiner Pete shook his head, then looked at Packy. "I can take the sick ones in the wagon."
Packy looked toward the campfires. "Dammit all to hell anyway." He looked back at Pete. "If Mange wants the sick separate from the healthy, I'll get one of the sickies to drive the wagon. You stay with us." He looked back at the fires. "Guess we better go and tell 'em." He began walking toward the fires.
The next evening the column turned at Miira and entered the Great Muck Swamp, the smell of Miira's burning houses still in their nostrils. In the days that followed, as they moved along the Miira-Kuumic Road, three times they met wagons filled with the sick, heading the other way.
When they reached the place where the road crossed the Upland Mountains, they found the hostlers and road gang already at work, carving their way up to the frozen lakes at the foot of White Top Mountain. That night Little Will and Shiner Pete sat at the same fire as Packy and boss hostler Skinner Suggs. Skinner had just passed a map to Packy, and as the boss elephant man studied it, Skinner talked to the fire.
"We got Kraut Messer's trail half blazed, but it's going to be a rough road to build." He reached back, picked up a rock, and handed it to Shiner Pete. "We have at least four ridges of that stuff to cut through."
Little Will looked at the rock in Shiner's hands. It was cloudy, and speared with shafts of black mineral, but the light from the fire could be seen through it. She looked at Skinner. "What is it?"