His top bid on big calves and cows was fifty bucks for a pair and all bred back.
Ernie Howard, whittling on a cottonwood branch, trailed along. “I been watching but I haven’t got the handle on how you are buying.”
“Oh I just buy what I like and what suits me.”
“No.” He half laughed. “You got a plan here, like always, and while I ain’t figured it out, you’re working on something more than that.
“Chet, you bidding on this lot?”
He shook his head.
The auctioneers’ help kept bringing five cows at a time plus their calves if they had one. It was a sharp way to sell and these auctioneers were good at it. He bought another pen with calves all bred under his price range.
Miguel had done a good job. If the theory worked he was doing fine. They were down to cull cows, and Chet didn’t want them. He bought some large lots of yearling heifers. Most were three-quarter British breeds for twenty-two dollars a head. And he bought three hundred yearling steers to older, for twenty dollars a head. In a year they’d be worth sixty at Gallup.
Everyone got a drink of water and they went up into the yard fanning themselves from the heat with fans marked PRESCOTT UNDERTAKERS.
Now it was the land’s turn. It consisted of ten sections with all the mineral rights intact.
The auctioneer wiped his face dry with a Turkish towel. “Do I hear five hundred thousand dollars?”
“No,” someone said and he didn’t.
“Four hundred thousand dollars?”
“Three hundred thousand dollars?”
“Two hundred thousand?”
“One hundred thousand?”
“What is your pleasure?”
“Forty thousand dollars.”
“Aw, hell you are going to kill me starting that low.” The auctioneer drew in a deep breath. “Forty thousand, who will give fifty?”
“Forty-one.”
“Forty-one who will give forty-two?”
A hot breath of air swirled the dust up.
“Forty-two.”
“Anyone give forty-three?”
Chet got up off his haunches.
“Mr. Byrnes, are you through?” the auctioneer asked.
“I’ll give you forty-five. And then I’m going home and do my chores.”
The crowd needed a laugh and they took it. Silence reigned.
“Anyone here give forty-six?” No answer.
“Mr. Byrnes, did you recently sell a ranch like this at Oracle for over a third of a million dollars?”
“Colonel, I sold a forty-section ranch with brand-new fancy headquarters, stocked with three hundred fifty cow calf pairs under four years old. This old place needs a new headquarters, has no cows on it, and it is one-fourth that size. I am actually paying too much, but it is closer to my house than that one.”
“Sold.”
They gave him a round of applause.
Cole came over and stood by him and stretched. “You higher or lower than you thought?”
“Close to it. That guy was about through. It would take too much more to fix it. We did all right.”
“Where do we start?”
“House. Spencer will be back. That is his business. This place is yours, so Val can have what she wants when they fix the house. We need Victor up here to look at a large patch of sagebrush. It might make a hay meadow with two artesian wells to water it.”
“I figured you looked at this place before. What comes after that?”
“If it is feasible to make a large hay field, we’ll try drilling water first.”
“If that doesn’t work?”
“We find some hay land to support this place.”
“A different challenge, huh?” Cole grinned.
“I’ll go write them a check.”
The four women were coming from the house.
“Val. When Spencer comes home you and Cole can come and meet with him here. He did wonderful with nothing to start down at Oracle. I am sure it was good enough to convince those guys to buy it. It will take some months, but it will be something you want.”
She smiled. “I understand. I had a real nice place up there, but I’ll have a better one here.”
“It will be good. Besides, Lisa and Liz love company.”
“We do,” Liz said
“I could live in it now,” Josey said.
The women laughed. “Your turn will come.”
“Josey, when I married Cole we lived in a rental log cabin in town for three years.”
“I slept in alleys that long.”
Chet hugged her. “In time we will find you a place.”
She grasped his hand. “Oh, I am plenty happy where I am. So is Fred. Don’t think we forgot where you found us. I just had to say I’d live here.”
“This is to be Val’s house. She, Cole, and my son Rocky will be here.”
“Oh, Chet, I never had folks do as much as you do. I just longed for a house of my own.”
“It will come, Josey. Trust me.”
“I do. Thanks.”
Chet nodded to them and went to settle with the auctioneers. He walked into the living room and papers were flying.
“Come in,” Sullivan said. “Like so many other sales, you have been fair to me. I really thought the history of the ranch would make it bring more. But you saw the needs and figured out how you can bring it back to its peak.”
“I say it showed too much wear. Rich men don’t understand how to rebuild. They will pay for the best, but they have no idea how to fix things. And when they do it costs them too much.”
“Obviously you know how. I understand you sold the railroad the telegraph wire and the stage line that they will eat when the tracks are strung. Only a genius figured that out.”
“I have some great business partners. North Arizona needed that wire and transportation while waiting for the railroad. We speeded up the train coming.”
“We will have the deed and a clear title. Can we meet at your bank in two days?”
“Fine. Bring the bill for the cattle I bought with you so we can do it all at the bank.”
“That is fine. Thursday at ten a.m.?”
“I will be there.”
“I hope you have enough left to pay us?” Sullivan laughed.
“We will. Somehow.” Chet shook his hand and thanked the auction bunch before he left.
When he joined Liz and the others he said, “They would not take my check.”
“Huh?” they asked.
“No. We settle it at our bank ten a.m. Thursday. Let’s go home. Miguel, tomorrow bring some vaqueros and scatter the cattle we bought. We can get them back and sort them later when we get the corral repaired and some cross fencing done. I didn’t buy any bulls, but we will deal with that next.”
“Lisa, can we celebrate this coming Saturday night?”
“You bet, boss man. We can have a big party.”
“Let’s go home.”
They applauded him and loaded up for home. Liz leaned on his shoulder. “You pleased?”
“I think so. I didn’t expect the telegraph-stage sale to happen so quickly, so that was a blessing. I could see us with stagecoaches no one needed. Oh, the loss wouldn’t have been gigantic. Now we don’t even have to think about them.”
“Is that a weight off your shoulders?”
“Definitely. I am just now realizing how big it was.”
“So I guess coming home and being a rancher full time isn’t in your future?”
“There are individuals we have helped that had no help coming. I can’t turn others down.”
“No and I understand. That is the man who stole my heart, his heart as big as a lion.”
“Just another Texas rancher who went west.”
“No, you are an Arizona empire builder. I heard you say you got here at the right time.”
“I really did. And now I have a very lovely wife I ride with, on down the trail laid before me.”
He checked the team going downhill o
n the narrow road hedged in by cedar boughs. Something had upset the horses. He had no idea why, and was wondering if someone would try something on this shortcut back road he’d taken.
His men on horseback were behind them shouting, “Let us by. Let us by.”
Chet could see that the road opened ahead. He stood sawing on the horses to slow them down, with them prancing and dancing. Liz was holding on to his belt so he didn’t fall off. They emerged into an open meadow.
Cutting across open space in full run was the source of their trouble—a black sow bear and two cubs.
Chet was laughing hard when he pulled off the road and was joined by the surrey and the laughing girls in it.
“Just a bear,” he said to the arriving riders who laughed, too.
Fred and Miguel took the lead home from there.
That evening he and Cole planned how to meet the new ranch’s people the next day. Since they didn’t know them, they’d have to find the leader first and then the workers.
“Early breakfast?” Lisa asked them.
“Yes, please.”
“No problem. Hey, that place will be completely different in a year.”
Cole smiled at her. “Tell you what is nice for me.”
“What is that?”
“No one turned over a buckboard or had a horse go lame today.”
She laughed. “I bet that is so.”
At Miguel’s elbow she went off to their room.
“How do you find them?” Cole asked.
“She and Toby’s wife Talley came from us rounding up the bunch that tried to stop the stage line.”
“Lisa is not Monica, but she holds down this house and does things Monica couldn’t do.”
“And very well. She and Liz have a dozen ranch children excelling at the Cherry School house. Those kids learned enough English to attend school and they are making their grades.”
“Rocky will start there this fall, I guess?”
“More than likely.”
“Everything going on around here is new to me. Can you catch me up?”
“When Talley came back from Colorado with us, you couldn’t please her. She acted like we had trapped her. Toby was more of a kid when he proposed to her. She finally accepted. But it was only so she wouldn’t be an old maid. None of us expected it to last. They went up there and with some teenage Mexican boys who needed work, cleared up acres of pasture to mow for hay ground, rebuilt the place to get ready for cattle, and took the mowing machines to the fenced-off homesteads and mowed and stacked them. They want seven hundred cows by next year. She worked shoulder to shoulder with Toby. They both can really work. They make a great pair.”
“Shawn is with Lucy?”
“Yes. They are expecting their first child together. The little girl loves him. Spud and his wife Shirley really help them. They are still catching maverick cattle. JD and Bonnie will have their first citrus crop this year. It won’t be large, but that place is moving, too. They are also selling lots of beef.”
“I am going to have lots to live up to on the Three V’s.”
“Hey, you and I put in lots of saddle time. That railroad bunch was damn stupid cutting your pay, but I bet they will have five guys running it in the next two months just to keep it going.”
“That would serve them right. Val and I belong here. I am anxious to get rolling. You have some great foremen. I am proud to be joining Hampt and Tom along with the others who built this operation. How are Susie and Sarge doing?”
“Expecting number two. Tom’s son-in-law Cody Day is taking the herd up to Gallup every other month to give Sarge some time off.”
“I better go to bed or I won’t make tomorrow morning. It had been so long since I rode a horse I’m a little stiff. Jesus coming back?”
“Yes. He and Spencer will be here tomorrow night.”
They went their separate ways to bed. It felt good to have Cole back. That dumb railroad bunch would regret his quitting them.
Chet lay in bed a while beside his sleeping wife and thought about finding his enemies. They’d do that.
Chapter 12
Lisa served breakfast to Chet, Cole, Fred, and Miguel with Josey helping her. They had already arranged for their horses to be saddled and ready.
“No damn bears today,” Fred said between bites. “Miguel and I plan to be at the head of the column instead of boxed in behind.”
“You guys did great. She didn’t hurt anyone.”
“Next time we will be in the right place,” Miguel said, with a sharp nod from Fred.
Holding his cup of hot coffee, Cole said, “Get Jesus talking when he gets here. We were the first ones to ride with Chet as guards, and he can tell you stories about that.”
“What was the toughest one?” Fred asked.
“Taking him, wounded, in a buckboard to Tombstone while he was shouting orders about how to contain the outlaws. Hell, we had that done and were scared he’d bleed to death before we got him to a doctor.”
“Brother, that was touch and go for me and Jesus and the others from the Force.”
“That wound ever bother you?” Miguel asked.
“Some, when I get real tired. Not too bad. Lisa, we will try to be back by supper time.”
“No worries. It will hold until you do. Josey, give Fred the saddle bags full of burritos and fruit.”
“Thank you,” Chet said. “You gals are terrific.”
Daylight was peeking over the eastern horizon when they mounted up. Cole’s horse made three crow hops and he rode him off while laughing among the cheers, “Welcome back.”
* * *
The man in charge at the Three V’s was Santos Carrizo. He met them at the corrals. He was a dried-up old man with few teeth but he was no doubt the boss. He spoke fair English.
Chet asked him how long he had worked on the ranch.
“I was a boy in Texas on his father’s ranch. The señor, he came to me and said I could go to a better place to ranch. Did I want to go? I said, ‘I am a boy. My mother is here. I hate to leave her.’
“Señor Mitch asked if I wanted to be a peon all my life. Then told me to get my things, that he will make me his majordomo.” A smile crossed his broken mouth, and he nodded with a wink. “And he did.”
“You have a wife?”
“No. I had three, but they are all dead. I would like to go back to Texas and die there and be buried next to mi mamacita.”
“This is not your home?”
“I only came here to be his majordomo. I have done that.”
Chet agreed he had done that. “I will buy your ticket home. Who could I hire to take your place from out of your men?”
“Farrell would do that.”
“I will hire him. You do not have to leave here, but if you find Texas too different you can come back and live out your time with us.”
Santos smiled. “They told me you’d throw me off the ranch when you came. You are a mucho bueño hombre.”
“We don’t throw anyone away.”
“Do you have a list of the workers?” Cole asked him.
“Reuben has one. He has kept the books. I have them in my head. He is at the house.”
“Fred, go find him and ask him to join us with a list of the workers.”
“Señor Byrnes, when I came with him here this was sagebrush and pines. But he and I got old. I know you will restore it. Ranching is for young men.”
“Thanks. We would like you to tell my man Cole about all things so he can run it. Then when you want to leave we will deliver you there.”
“Gracias.”
By then it was lunchtime. Chet and Cole were pleased with the ground they’d covered with the old foreman.
The accountant, Reuben Clark, a man in his twenties, showed up; he was limping badly. He wore thick glasses and his Adam’s apple jerked like a fish bobber in his throat.
“Mr. Byrnes, I have kept the books for Mr. Van Roy for five years. He never complained. I went to accountant school and every
thing.”
“How much did he pay you?”
“Fifteen dollars a month and my food and lodging. You look funny. Is that too much?”
“Cole, if this young man can do that I think we better double his pay.”
Cole finished eating, rose, brushed off his seat, and shook his hand. “Reuben, how about a raise to thirty dollars a month?”
Chet worried Reuben’s Adam’s apple might choke him to death.
“Oh. Oh. That would be wonderful. Would it be all right for me to get married?”
“Why, certainly. Who is it?”
“Emilia, who works in the kitchen. We didn’t have enough money before.”
“Go get her and tell her. We can wait.”
He handed his pad to Chet, thanked Cole, and limped off to the house. Fred had noticed this kind of handicap before.
“What is wrong?” Cole asked.
“He was too proud to use his crutches to come out and talk to you. He worried you might think him too much of a sissy. He had a disease they call polo as a boy.”
Chet knew something about it. “I think they call it polio. Bad disease for kids. Many die from it. One of you boys take him his crutches so we won’t worry about them.”
Emilia came—she was cross-eyed and looked at them with her head turned, crying. “I am sorry I cry but we have waited so long—I thought we would never get married. I won’t lose my job?”
“No, you will have a job. Tomorrow we are busy banking. Friday a cowboy will come get you early and you will go with my wife to see an eye doctor who can fit your eyes to glasses so you don’t see double. Then she will have a wedding dress made for you so you two can get married at my ranch.”
“Oh. Now I am crying more. Reuben, you tell him I am not a crybaby, but this is more than I can stand. Bless you. Bless you.” Reuben was hugging her, holding her tightly.
“We understand. Who else has a problem?” Chet asked of all the gathered workers from the house and the fields.
A take-charge woman stepped forward. “We are not used to people doing things for us.”
“That has changed. There is a new owner here. Everyone willing to work has a job. If you work hard, we can pay you more. We will fix things that are broken. If you don’t like us, you are free to go. But we don’t put up with lazy people or thieves. No fighting on the ranch. No bullies. No knife or gunfights.
Valley of Bones Page 16
