The Gasconade River was running high and brown after two days of rain. Near Vienna, Missouri, Darrell and Tina had pulled off at a gravel bar so their old bluetick hound could get a drink. The edge of the bar gave way under Pancho.

knees.

At the far end he got both arms around Pancho’s chest, pulled the hound up onto the rungs and held on. The way back took a lot longer.

A camera on the cabin’s back deck caught all of it. Up on the bank Colt wouldn’t set the hound down, not even after Tina got there. Pancho rode home that night wrapped in one of the crew’s tarps.