up a piece of a paper with a number written on it. “Each sheep in the fenced area will have a number clipped to it. Your job will be to sort only the sheep wearing this number into the pen as quickly as possible.”
Silas leaned closer to Jonas. “Like separatin’ the mama’s and babies for brandin’.”
“Yep.”
“Third competition is dally ribbon ropin’. Team competition. One man on horseback ropes the ram’s horn. One man on the ground as the runner has to remove the ribbon from around the ram’s neck after it’s been roped and he then runs to the finish line.”
“That’s new,” Silas said.
Allen said, “And the last event: sheep shearing. You’ll shear your own sheep. This is an individual competition, not a team. And if you didn’t bring sheep, you can’t participate.”
Some smart-mouth said, “That means you, McKays.”
Jonas rolled his eyes. “It’s odd that they only have three events.”
Silas snickered. “Because it’d be indecent if they had them publicly compete at what sheep-fuckers are best at.”
“Jesus, Silas.”
“What? You were thinkin’ the same damn thing, Deputy.”
Jonas’s lips twitched. “Yeah, but thinkin’ it and sayin’ it…”
While the parents prepped their boys for the sheep dip, Zeke West stormed over.
“What in the hell do you two think you’re doin’?” Zeke demanded. “You ain’t runnin’ sheep. Which means you ain’t allowed to compete.”
“You ain’t runnin’ sheep either, West. You work for the railroad, remember?” Silas pointed to Zachariah. “You don’t even live on his place anymore.”
Zeke glared at him.
“Besides, we cleared it with Allen. He said we were welcome to compete. You don’t like it, take it up with him.” Silas stepped closer. “And I hope you do. I’d like to see that temper of yours flare up and get you kicked outta this competition entirely.”
“We won all the events last year,” Zeke bragged. “They ain’t about to deny the reigning champs a chance to repeat.”
Silas watched Zachariah amble closer. “You saw the cattleman’s competition. So you’re aware that a few of the bronc bustin’ guys weren’t ranchers. No different for us not bein’ sheepf”—he paused, as if to stop himself from finishing that thought—“farmers.”
Jonas choked back a laugh. Then he offered his hand to Zachariah. “Good luck.”
Zachariah grunted his response, but he did shake Jonas’s hand.
Neither Silas nor Zeke pretended they could put their differences aside even for a simple handshake.
The whistle blew as the signal to start the sheep dip race.
Silas and Jonas both busted a gut watching kids being tossed around as they attempted to ride fluffy sheep. The winner had gotten thrown off four times but had climbed back on and had ridden to victory.
But there was a collective booing in the crowd when the winner was revealed to be Edna Mae and not Ed. The second-place finisher was awarded first place, which Silas thought was a bunch of sheep shit.
It was time for him and Jonas to mount up again. As they walked back to their horses, they heard someone shout “McKay!” and they both turned around.
Dinah waved to him. Silas hadn’t seen her because she’d been under the shade of a lacy parasol, standing next to…Madam Ruby…who was holding the parasol.
Jonas went utterly still beside him. “What the devil are the two of them doin’ together?”
“Dinah’s likely checkin’ to see how Miss Ruby fared. ’Bout two weeks back, Miss Ruby showed up at Doc’s needin’ stitches and Dinah ended up stitching her up.”
“I know that,” Jonas snapped.
Silas stopped. “How do you know? You weren’t on duty, since it happened the night we were in Gillette.” Then he paused. “Guess I never thought about the sheriff’s office getting involved, but it makes sense since someone got hurt. Anyway, don’t worry about it. Dinah can hold her own. Come on.”
Since only five teams were competing for the penning prize, they drew straws to see who went first.
“West brothers, you’re up first. Followed by Andrews and Hall. Then the McKays.”
With a team buffered between them, Silas and Jonas could watch the Wests compete.
And Silas almost felt sorry for the West brothers.
Almost.
If Zeke would’ve listened to his brother, they probably would’ve done fine. But Zeke’s horse kept fighting him. Finally Zachariah yelled, “Just get number eight outta here.”
As soon as Zeke was out of Zachariah’s way, he had the six sheep penned.
Silas started to shout, “Better luck next time!” as the West brothers rode off, but Jonas snapped, “Leave it.”
They mounted up and took their horses away from the crowd, giving them room to move.