What had prompted that "shameful" incident, had occurred a week before. She'd been out riding with four of the cowboys who had been assigned the task of herding some of the cattle down from the mountain pastures in order to brand the calves. That night, all four of the cowboys kept winking at each other and snickering like young boys. She had assumed that they were more than likely making lewd remarks to one another concerning her feminine attributes or something of that nature. She didn't mind so much, she was used to men and knew exactly what they thought about with regard to women, and especially her. She didn't exactly act like a lady, so they were in many ways far less respectful of her in that regard then they would have been had she carried herself differently. Certainly, they treated her with respect, and not as though she were some kind of whore. Moose would tear them limb from limb were they to do otherwise. However, they joked around with her almost as if she was one of the boys; in fact, Charley encouraged such behavior towards herself. She wouldn't have it that they would treat her any differently than they treated themselves.

As far as she was concerned, she WAS one of the boys, or as close as she could get to being one without actually being one. The cowboys all loved her because of this and thus rarely pulled any punches with regards to pranks, jokes, or even their usual vulgar bunkhouse vernacular which none of them would dream of lapsing into around any normal female. They did treat her with respect though, and heaven help the man who made any truly lewd advances toward her. However, it wasn't anything regarding her feminine attributes that they had been snickering about. Later on that night she awoke feeling something slithering up her body underneath her blanket.

It turned out that the cowboys had earlier captured a bull-snake, and were laughing about the best possible way to put it to good use as a prank on Charlene. One of them had waited until she had fallen asleep and then slipped it into her bedding where it had cozied up to her body for warmth. Upon awakening later that night, Charlene had not dared move, certain that it was a rattlesnake. She had lain there silent, motionless and terrified the rest of the night.

The next morning, the cowboys woke up and began making coffee. They were again whispering and snickering among themselves. After a while one of them drawled loudly, "Time ta get yer lazy tail outa bed, Charley. We ain't got all day ya know."

Charley hadn't moved and was afraid to even speak for fear of getting snake bit. The cowboy approached her and looked down at her wide open eyes with a half-smirk on his face. "What's the matter girl? You ain't gettin' lazy on us are ya?"

She tried to silently form the word "snake" with her lips and kept gesturing at her body with her eyes. The cowboy played dumb at first, then said, "Oh, snake? Shit boys, I believe our poor purty miss Charley has a rattler in her bedroll. Land sakes alive, what can we do?" he drawled with exaggerated concern.

Another one replied, "Hell, there ain't much we can do. If we move er, that rattler will bite her so many times she'll be dead afore we can get the blanket off. We'll just have to wait until the damn sun comes out and gets hot enough for that thar snake to wanna crawl out and get where its a little cooler."

The leader of the group agreed but added, "We cain't wait around here for that though. Moose gave us plenty of work to do and we'd best get to it, or he'll have our asses fer lunch! Saddle up boys and let's get goin'. Charley, when that thar snake gets tired a smellin' ya and crawls out, come ahead and join us. We'll be right down in that canyon a couple miles yonder.'Til then, just be mighty still. I reckon you'll be just fine." With that, they abruptly rode off.

Charlene waited for what seemed like hours and finally, had to urinate so badly that she feared she would do so in her underdrawers. She had tried silently to explain with her mouth to the cowboy that he should carefully draw back the blanket, and the snake would simply crawl away. He had seemed to pay no heed though. When the snake had finally crawled away, she had immediately hopped up to make use of the nearest available bush. As she was just about to lower her long-johns, she heard howls of laughter coming from the bushes only a few yards away.

"Damn, I never did see anyone get so all-fired worked up over a little ole bull-snake afore!" One of them exclaimed.

"Yep, shore enough, that thar Charley was so scared she bout pissed herself." another one chimed in amidst a raucous din of side-splitting laughter.

Charlene then realized that she'd been had, and let out a string of curse words that would have made a mule-skinner blush.

Bull-snakes are harmless to man, but are about the same size and coloration of some rattlesnakes. They even wiggle their tails in the brush to simulate the sound of a rattlesnake's rattle, for protection. They are however both harmless and useful, killing rodents, and even rattlesnakes themselves. On close examination though. it is easy to discern the difference between the two. Anyhow, she swore she'd get them back. She had to wait about a week before she got her chance though.

By that time, Charlene had pretended to have gotten over the joke, and even laughed about it herself. It was after all, genuinely funny she thought. Nevertheless, the desire for revenge had if anything, only grown stronger. But she continued to pretend that she'd practically forgotten about it and that she had no hard feelings. When their work was nearly finished, she said that she was going to head back to the ranch house. After all, she wasn't a hand, she only helped out because she liked to. No one questioned her and she rode off.

She rode to a place that was on their way back. It was a spot in the Barilla Mountains known as Apache Springs, scarcely a half day's ride from the Murdoch ranch-house. It was a little spring that emptied into a natural rock basin about thirty by twenty-five feet wide. The water was about four to twelve feet in depth before spilling out through a crack in the wall into a little stream. The stream below was easily accessible and often used to water small bunches of beeves while the cowboys customarily used the basin to bathe and swim in. Charlene had done the same many times herself.

She'd known the cowboys would stop there to water the cattle on their way back, and thinking her gone, they would probably decide to get in a bath and a swim as well.

She had to camp out there for two days before they'd shown up, but they did, finally.

After leading the cattle to the stream bed, they left them there and proceeded to climb up to the rim of the basin. The basin was situated where the water spilled out through a small crevasse several feet below the crest of the rim. The cowboys had to descend a steep rock embankment in order to get into the pool, and it was the only way in or out of the basin without securing a rope somewhere and lowering one's self down by hand. It wasn't a really difficult descent or ascent if one were barefooted, but next to impossible with leather soled cowboy boots. Also there wasn't a good place for one to leave one's clothing anywhere on the descent into the basin. Thus, they usually disrobed and left their clothing higher up on the rim and then climbed down into the basin. That time, turned out to be no exception.

Charley observed this procedure while concealed in a clump of desert willows near by. After the last one had left his clothing to climb down into the water, Charley slipped off her boots so as not to make too much noise, and began climbing up to the rim. At the top, she crawled on her stomach to where their clothing was strewn around in disarray, and began gathering it up. It took her a couple of trips, but she managed to round up all their clothing without being either seen or heard.

She left them their boots and hats though, since she already had almost more than she could carry on her horse. She then had quickly loaded the clothing securely onto her horse, and next climbed once more to the top of the rim and shouted down at them, "My oh my, ya'll look so cute in them outfits. Looks an awful lot like the ones ya'll were born in."

The cowboys were all trying as best they could to cover up, scrunching down in the water which was crystal clear. "I sure hope you boys like them outfits, 'cause that's what yer gonna be wearin' fer the rest of yer trip." she said laughing. She then scrambled back down off of the rocks, climbed in the saddle, and galloped off a short distance, and halting, turned around and faced the spring. She watched the cowboys clamoring around the top of the rim, cursing and searching for any clothing she might possibly have left behind. She did purposely leave behind one pair of long underwear, just to watch the men fight over that one scrap of clothing. She was not to be disappointed on that score since a couple of them actually did.

The cowboys had been in quite a fix. They'd had no choice but to drive the cattle the rest of the way back to the holding pens where Moose could inspect them, and the calves could be branded. Their destination was only about a three and one half miles away from the main ranch house.

Naturally, Charlene had seen to it that as many people as possible would be on hand to observe the cowboys' amazing display of "bareback" horsemanship. It had been quite a joke, and one that had the whole territory roaring with laughter. Charlene had insisted that each cowboy come to her personally and apologize for the incident with the bull-snake before she would return his clothing.

It had been quite a site, each one approaching Charley with his hat held over his unmentionables and head hung low. All of the cowboys would now think twice before ever pulling any more pranks on Charley Lancer. Moose Murdoch had been unable to stop laughing off and on for an entire week afterwards.

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