Valley of Bones

by Dusty Richards

  “I won’t let him know you told me this.”

  “Thanks. I really care about you and thank you for all you do.” She soon had a meal of scrambled eggs, ham, and biscuits on a plate in front of him.

  After his meal he went by the ranchmen busy setting up tables under the huge tent he had bought from a circus stranded in Prescott several years earlier. One of the wives was making sure they were spaced just so, two more washed them and were critical of any with a problem. Everyone was cheery and happy.

  Hispanic people knew how to celebrate. They could have less than anyone and still celebrate. It was in their blood. His wife, too, had the same blood flow in her when it came time for the excitement of a party. He loved it.

  His gringo friends would all attend, sharing the fun of eating with him, his crew, and their families. It was tradition.

  All his operations ran so smoothly that when he had time to stop and breathe, he felt guilty about not doing something.

  * * *

  People began to arrive and the hands parked their buggies and rigs. Others came on horseback, and were tied up at hitch lines. Stallions were put up into pens to save a war starting. There was cold beer in kegs. Cold tea, sweet or without, lemonade, and even some good whiskey at the bar.

  The mesquite smoke of the cooker joined with the sizzling aroma of cooking beef and pork filled the air. Baked potatoes, boiling frijoles, garden veggies steaming, and hot bread and tortillas. For dessert, fruit or pecan pies and a towering cake.

  The musicians in the background were playing guitars, accordions, drums, and fiddles. The sun hadn’t set yet, but the Chinese lanterns were ready to light the night. The guests were hungry.

  Bo Evans, Chet’s real estate broker, who’d always done good work for Chet, arrived with his very pregnant wife, Shelly, and their young son, Lawrence. The boy ran to Chet like he really knew him. The three of them laughed.

  “Seems like you have lost your son,” Chet teased.

  “Oh? Then I will just need to make another.”

  His wife shook her head, “Two is enough.”

  It was all in fun and when Liz joined them she just had to say hello to the little boy.

  “He is sure growing. He will be a big boy sooner than you can imagine.”

  Chet motioned Bo aside. “You know those five homesteads we now own between Rustler’s Ranch and Sarge’s? Toby and his crew have already put up all the hay on those fenced-in ones and they are now ready for cows.”

  “Holy cow. That’s lots of acres to mow and stack.” Bo looked astonished at the news.

  “They said next year all of those places will be fenced and hayed.”

  Bo shook his head.

  “Toby and his wife are damn hard workers and are determined to have the best ranch in our whole bunch.”

  “I’ll find him and congratulate him.”

  “His wife, too. They are tough kids. Oh, and I met a man, John Slaughter, over near Tucson, who is gathering cows for the Oracle Ranch. He also told me about another man who will supply me cows for Toby and his Rustler’s Ranch.”

  “That is really getting things done. I understand you are looking at the Three V’s Ranch.”

  “My foremen are. I am asking their opinions on Tuesday.”

  “I understand there are several out-of-state people with deep pockets looking at it. But we both know it will take a real superintendent to make a ranch out of it like yours, and it needs to be someone who knows all about our Arizona seasons.”

  “Why, buddy, any old boy could do that,” Chet said, smiling.

  Bo shook his head. “You may know one, but I bet they don’t and it won’t work. When Mitch’s health failed that ranch began to go downhill and it’s been on a snow slide to hell ever since.”

  “I have entrusted consideration of this purchase to my foremen, and they will tell me what I must do to make it work. They know. They have been running all my ranches.”

  “I think it may sell too high.”

  “If I go for it, I will set a limit. If it goes over, they can have it.”

  “Good. And good luck.” Bo shook his head and told his wife, “Go get a plate of food. I will hold him.”

  “Good to see you, Chet, as always.” Shelly went off for the food and talked to two other women.

  “Bo, you have a nice wife.”

  “She was married for ten years to her first husband and never had a baby.”

  They both smiled.

  Chet left shaking his head. Bo was Bo, but he was sober and stayed that way.

  * * *

  Chet spoke to Ben and his wife, Kathrin, telling him they might have a record amount of hay cut with the new machinery.

  “Well, you sure have several of them.”

  “I know how hard you worked to get them out here.”

  “You have a babysitter tonight?” Chet asked.

  “We do.” She laughed. “Chet Byrnes, I still owe you for freeing me.”

  “Your debt is paid.”

  “No. I met Liz’s new in-charge of the house lady, Lisa. We shared some similar tales about coming to Prescott. She is another person who also owes you her life. And she seems special.”

  “Liz has a friend and partner in her. We miss Monica, but Lisa is great and she works hard doing most all of it herself. You two get busy eating and enjoying our party.”

  “We heard part of the story about the trials. Those two girls are at home now?” Kathrin asked.

  “Yes. Safe and I am sure they will be able to overcome anything in their lives, after living through that. Those criminals will serve long terms in prison.”

  “God bless you and thank you for having us as part of your family.”

  “Thanks.”

  * * *

  Lisa brought him a plate of food and told him to join his wife, like a schoolteacher would a sixth grader.

  He was still smiling as he sat down at the table beside Liz on the platform.

  “What is so funny?”

  He shook his head. “My boss, Lisa, told me I must get up here and eat with you.”

  “Good for her. She doesn’t want you wasting away.”

  “That won’t happen for a long while.”

  “It could. I know you like to meet and greet but you also have a position to hold.”

  “But I am very simply Chet Byrnes. A marshal and a rancher.”

  “Maybe you view yourself as that person, but you bear the burden of this whole empire on your shoulders. You don’t have to act like a king, but you are their leader.”

  “I like to meet my friends when they come to my house.”

  “I know. You did and now I felt you needed to be here.”

  “Ain’t worth arguing over. This is a lovely party. They did a great job with this beef.”

  Her hand squeezed his arm. “They always do.”

  She was right. His outfit knew how to make good meals and have fun fandangos.

  * * *

  Tuesday morning rolled around fast for the final vote on the Three V’s. After an especially nice breakfast, everyone moved into the living room, where two ranch girls kept checking on them, keeping them in coffee and anything they needed. Chet felt that it was good for the men to mix like this once in a while, and he was confident that his men would come up with the answers on the ranch.

  Lisa set Spencer up with a thin board to go across the Morris chair arms as a desk. Everyone was seated, and Tom began the conversation.

  “Several of us knew Mitch and he had lots of good ideas that built that ranch, but he should have retired and let someone else lead when age and his aches and pains took over his body. We all found lots of steers that should have been marketed. He sold some to me for Sarge’s project. He sold some to butchers down in the gold camps in the Bradshaws, but there are lots more that needed to be off his range and turned into cash.

  “Many old cows should have been culled. His watering holes need repairing. There are tanks that have holes so a lot leaks out into the s
and. Corrals are beyond using. I’ll yield to Hampt, who is next.”

  Hampt cleared his throat. Hunched forward on the couch, he shook his bare head and shoved back a curled lock. “That’s exactly what I saw. There are three guys there to irrigate and all they do is open a gate. The fields of hay are too small and unyielding. The alfalfa needs to be reseeded. Here it is midsummer and every one of us have our winter hay stacked. Just by a wild ass guess I’d say they have half enough feed as they need if we have a snowy winter. They need more hay land and I think it could be done. They have artesian wells. There is large sagebrush flat that needs to be cleared, sown, and a new well drilled to water it. Those small plots are fine for a small operation, but that place needs to be expanded. Can I add more later?”

  “Sure. Victor?”

  “I will say that Hampt saw the same thing I did. That place needs more farmland opened up. Those few-acre patches are not the answer for us to get up enough hay.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Chet, I’ll let the others keep going, and maybe on the end I can add some things.”

  “Thanks, Victor. Jesus?”

  “Their horses are all old. Most of his help is old, too. Mitch was old. One thing I would bet on is that not one horse in their remuda would buck.”

  “So we need a new string of saddle stock.”

  “My legs would get tired keeping them walking.”

  “Anything else?”

  “What count does the auctioneer give on the cattle they have?”

  “Approximately three hundred and fifty plus.”

  “And a hundred need culled.”

  “That’s one out of three?”

  “There are at least that many old ones I saw.”

  Nods around the room told him they all agreed.

  “Sarge, I won’t leave you out.”

  “I am learning a lot here. I take the good cattle you guys send me to the Navajos. That bunch I saw down there are a mess. I agree the hay business is not good. I didn’t see the new hay land when I rode the place because I am not a farmer. But to cut those small patches and even irrigate them is for a small farmer not a ranch operation.”

  “Spencer?”

  “Whoever buys it needs new help. Everything has fallen down, and nothing is being fixed. I woke up Sunday morning, here, to hammering. Raphael noticed the barn needed some repairs, so he was already out there fixing it, like it was that important. No one noticed or did anything on that place in years. His bulls looked like a ragged Mexican army. They are every breed and form of cattle known to man.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “Anything else?”

  “Yes, from a contractor’s standpoint. The new foreman will probably have to work every Sunday for a year to get things straightened out.”

  “Toby?” Chet asked.

  “Get the cull cows off it. Sell the marketable cattle. Replace the sorry bulls and let the range recover with the numbers left. Each year save half the heifers and grow it back into a working ranch. It will take three years and rain to make a difference.”

  “Thanks, Toby. Many of you know Toby has a two-year hay supply on hand for his new herd. His wife Talley was a big part of that job.”

  “Miguel?”

  “My father and I rode though the cows. I know Raphael is not my real father, but I feel he is. This man has an eye for things. He can ride though a herd of cows and tell you the ones that will calf and won’t. I suspect the sorry bull situation up there is the culprit, but according to his looking at many of them he’s saying only half will breed back. That means next year’s calf crop will be around a hundred and twenty. That number will not cover the labor costs alone.”

  “Do you have a solution?”

  “The bull situation needs to be fixed now. Try to get them all bred as soon as possible. Even later calves would be better than none. If we could get that many more bred, it would help next year. There are lots of cows that did not calf this year but they will next year.”

  “Miguel, we all need a class in how to tell if a cow will breed,” Hampt said. The others agreed.

  “It isn’t hard. I think he taught me that in one day.”

  “So we all heard this ranch is in decay. Can we make it work? Show me hands.

  “Spencer, may I ask why you don’t think so?”

  “We are stocking two ranches now. The Slaughter cattle were a good buy for the Oracle Ranch. Then we have a cattle drive from Socorro to Toby and the Rustler’s Ranch up on the General Crook Road. Personally I wouldn’t touch the Three V’s Ranch with a long pole.”

  “Spencer, look at my place. The Verde Ranch was more rundown than the V’s place. We ran off the foreman and made it work,” Tom said.

  “Yes, but you had the Verde River, too.”

  “That place isn’t badly watered though there are portions that need to be worked on. But for an Arizona ranch it isn’t a dust bowl.”

  “Before we clear that sagebrush, I’d damn sure want a strong artesian well up and working.”

  Tom agreed and sat back.

  Toby struggled up to his feet. “We have Rustler’s Ranch ready for cattle. Chet gave me all the means to clear land, build corrals, and fix the house. Bo bought us homesteads fenced that made perfect hay patches. We mowed and stacked them with hand laborers who work hard. Next year we will have two more fenced for hay. We get this herd settled we can build to eight hundred head of mother cows on that place. I say buy it.” He sat down.

  Miguel stood and nodded. “We can handle it.”

  Sarge stood next. “More work on your shoulders, Chet, but you are great at these takeovers. I vote buy it.”

  Jesus rose and nodded. “We have not failed at anything we have done. And I want to vote for Shawn, Cole, Robert, and may as well vote for JD, your nephew, as well. Buy it right and we can make it a great spread.”

  “Spencer, they change your mind?”

  “I say yes.”

  “I am not going through the roof on the price. Bo and I will set a goal price and if it exceeds that we will quit bidding. I thank all of you for coming. I’ll let you know what happens.”

  They all shook his hand and left but Toby, who hung back.

  “You have something on your mind?”

  “I do, and I want your permission. Talley and I never had a real honeymoon. I’d like to have a real one in Prescott at a hotel, eat out, get her some nice new dresses so she can wear them when she comes to town with me to get supplies.”

  “The whole deal is on me. Get a suit to wear for yourself. You’ve done well, and I am proud of the two of you.”

  “I have money set aside—”

  “My treat. Charge it to me. And have a good time doing it.”

  “Thanks a lot.”

  “You two take a buckboard to town and really enjoy yourselves.”

  They shook hands and Chet went to find Fred.

  He had a young horse in the round pen making him gallop. Horses running in a round pen think they can escape. Chet took a place to watch. When Fred stopped him, the horse looked confused. Fred never raised his voice but insisted the horse come to him.

  Twice the horse started forward and twice he tossed his head like he had enough and wished to be free, but Fred continued to talk to him. At last the pony came to him and they walked away together.

  “Nice horse.”

  “He will make one. Your nephew found him for me. I paid for him myself. I hope you don’t mind feeding him?”

  “No problem. I didn’t hear your ideas on the ranch.”

  “Personally it would scare me to death to be responsible for that mess. But I am not you and have no experience on fixing up such a down-at-the-heels place.”

  “You’d be afraid of the job?”

  “Chet, I hate to fail at anything. Especially since you gave me a chance to work here for you. I consider my being here my last chance to make it good in the world and to not have to sleep in the alleys of Prescott. I never owned anything worth ten c
ents that belonged to me. Now I have a saddle, a horse, and a job and, oh yes, a bank account.”

  “It all sounds good. What about the Three V’s?”

  “There was so much wrong I couldn’t start to fix. You see where someone shot up that rooster wind vane on the house?”

  “No, I missed it.”

  “Those featherless chickens running around that place—Jesus told me that was because they had poor diets. I have no idea what to feed chickens to make them grow feathers. The rosebushes all died because no one watered them and they never pulled the bare plants out. I bet when they bloomed they were beautiful. The peeling paint on the house, broken windows boarded over rather than replaced. That porch needs new boards. It’s a death trap. Only one hitch rack. The other two need a top rail. I could go on and on.”

  “No one else saw that. How would you have seen that place before you came out here?”

  “A poor place to ask for work. They could not afford to fix it and they probably could not pay me.”

  “You are getting an education.”

  “Oh, big classes of things. But I’d have voted with Spencer’s first vote. Forget it.”

  “There is something else that bugs you.”

  He chewed on his lower lip. “Yes, but I didn’t want to say anything. Now you’ve asked, I had a girlfriend when we lived in the alleys, who meant a lot to me and who I still worry about. I know we are kids, but we were more than that. I was so damn glad to escape that life I forgot about her. No, not forgot, but my thoughts about her were set aside. She may hate me to death by now, but is there a place for her here, if she will come with me?”

  “I am sure we can find a place, if that is what she wants.”

  “Lisa told me about you bringing her back from Colorado. Talley told me the same story and there have been others.”

  “Yes.”

  “Ben’s wife at the store told me you saved her life, too.”

  “You want to go into town and try to find her?”

  “Yes. I want to clean up, go into town, and try to find her and convince her to come out here. I will tell her not for me but for her safety and if we get together, fine, but if not she will have a way of escaping the way she is living now. I’ve got enough money I’d give her to escape if she won’t come.”

  “Do it.”