by AJ Newman
Granny B was silent as the discussion became livelier. Tom wrote all the concerns in his logbook, but took notice of how quiet his grandma was while the others expressed their concerns about staying and leaving.
Tom’s curiosity got the better of him. “Granny B, you’re being very quiet. I know the thought of leaving the ranch is heartbreaking, but we have to consider it as a possibility.”
Granny B’s lips thinned out, and her hands were balled into fists. Tom saw her cheeks flush while he waited for an answer. Then the dam burst. “I fussed at Jonas for twenty years about a backup plan in case we couldn’t stay here. He wouldn’t think of it year after year and wouldn’t even discuss it. In over forty years of marriage, it was the only thing that came between us for more than twenty-four hours. When he found out I’d bought nineteen hundred acres of land about eight miles west of here several years after we were married, he was pissed. He wouldn’t listen, so I bought some land that we could escape to if it got hot here at the ranch. I bought the whole danged valley for a song and didn’t tell him until much later. Boy, was he pissed. He wouldn’t go there for three years. The lumber companies had clear-cut the area back in the 1950s and didn’t replant the trees. There are trees and a lot of brush now, but when I purchased it back in the 1990s, it wasn’t much to look at.”
Tom’s eyes blinked, and his head shook at the bombshell. “I never knew you bought another plot of land. Could it be a bugout location? How did you keep it secret from Grandpa?”
“Slow down, boy. One question at a time! Jonas and I were equals at the ranch until the question of a plan B occurred. His attempt to run roughshod over me backfired on him. Two things happened that got his attention. I left him and the kids with only a note that said, ‘I’ll be back in a week to check on whether you’ve come to your senses and realize I’m your partner and not your daughter.’ The second part of the note explained how he would have a miserable existence if he kept treating me like my ideas weren’t worth discussing.”
Jackie was almost speechless, but finally spoke. “Where did you go for a week?”
“I checked in to the nicest hotel in Ashland, bought new clothes, and ate out at the best restaurants every night with the gentlemen flirting with me. That made me feel better. I accomplished purchasing 1,900 acres west of the ranch with two old cabins, and, more importantly, a cave that had been home to Indians a thousand years ago. The short story is the cabins weren’t much, but I stumbled onto the cave while walking around my new property. The cave goes way back into the hillside and has several rooms that are as big as our dining and kitchen area.”
Tom said, “Wow, 1,900 acres would cost millions today. That’s a huge estate.”
Granny B laughed. “It’s mainly bare rock with pine trees and scrub brush trying to hang on for dear life. It’s a valley about two and a half miles long by a mile wide at the top of the hills on either side. There’s soil and grass at the bottom. That’s maybe several thousand acres of good grazing land.”
Everyone had a dozen questions and kept interrupting each other. Granny B placed her hands together in the time-out sign. “Whoa down. We’ll go over there the first available time. Until then - Yes, it will work as a backup. My dad owned the land and sold it to me for half of my savings. He would have given it to me, but he was having hard times. He died two years later. He actually lived in one of the cabins when he died. I used my military savings I’d built up and invested before marrying Jonas to buy the place. I’ve been slowly stocking it for thirty years. Jonas didn’t want to have anything to do with it.”
Jackie asked, “Is it set up like our ranch?”
Granny B said, “No, it doesn’t have the supplies this place does. No electricity besides a generator. Not much to offer but running water, constant temperature, and security. Remember, I hoped to never use it.”
“Wow,” Tom said, then sat in the library in silence as he continued to listen to Granny B talk.
Tom stood up and said, “We need to go over there and see what we need to do to get it ready for a potential bugout if Carlos and his little army show up here.”
Granny B had gone to her room to be alone after their discussion, so June and Kate prepared lunch. They’d all sat down at the table when Jack and James burst into the dining area. “We know for sure now that we have rustlers. Alice is pulling up footage from the cabin’s surveillance system. Come take a look at this crap.”
They ran to the operations room and watched the monitor. Cattle appeared on the screen moving west, and right behind them were three men on horses. Tom blurted out, “The sumbitches are stealing our cattle!”
Tom noticed the time stamp indicated the theft occurred early that morning. “Why did it take you so long to report the theft?”
Jack looked down at the floor. “Sorry, James and I followed the tracks to see where they were taking the cattle. We stopped after an hour and a half, and high-tailed it down here to let you know.”
Tom’s head shook side to side. “Why didn’t you use your walkie-talkie?”
“I … left both of them down here.”
By then, Tom’s fists were balled up against his head as he tried to control his temper. He exhaled and then said, “We learn by our mistakes. In the future, you don’t go to the bathroom without your walkie-talkie. That goes for you too, James. Jack, I want the telephone line to the cabin moved up on your to-do list. James and Alice could be in deep trouble without being able to contact us.”
Tom saw Granny B had joined them. He didn’t want the women to go but knew he needed Granny B to take them to her cabin and caves. Tom knew Kate and Jackie would pitch a fit if they weren’t included. He avoided their wrath by saying, “Granny B, Rick, Jackie, Kate, and I’ll follow the rustler’s trail on horseback. We’d already planned to take a short trip to a location west of here in a few days. Let’s get our backpacks and enough food for three days and find the rustler’s home base. Jack and James, be ready to join us at a moment’s notice. Come armed to the teeth.”
The Ranch - at the old cabin.
Tom kept reminding everyone to stay vigilant while they rode up to the cabin. They said hello to Alice, who was standing guard while the others were installing the wire for their telephone service through the tree limbs. It was a pain in the ass, but they would be hard to spot fifteen feet up in the air. They followed Jack’s instructions and soon cut the trail of the cattle and turned west.
Jackie made an observation. “This trail is new. Look! There aren’t any old hoof prints. We had a frog strangler storm the other night, and that would have left some water in the bottom of the hoof prints. Every print is sharp and freshly made.”
Tom said, “That means we have two different rustlers or the one who’s rustling found a better way to get the cows to their destination.”
Kate said, “We might as well get this over now. What’s the punishment for stealing our cattle? If it were a cow or two, I’d vote for telling them to stop or get shot the next time. These guys are stealing dozens of cows.”
“We shoot rustlers and warn Joe Blow, who takes a cow to feed his family. Later, we’ll try trading beef for things we need,” Tom said.
Everyone agreed.
The trip would have been a three to four-hour ride if the terrain was flat and if they didn’t have to wind through the thick brush and trees. Several of the hills were steep, and the horses needed a breather at the top. They found several streams along the way and made sure to water the horses. Tom pointed out all the cattle tracks congregating around the streams.
Granny B said, “We could follow the trail of cow patties to the rustler’s home.”
Tom joined his grandma and rode beside her. “Are the two cabins close together? I’m guessing the rustlers are using one of them for their base of operation.”
“One’s on the northwest end of the valley up in the hills. The other is at the bottom of the valley on the southeast end. If they’re there, they’ll be in the one at the bottom of the valley
. The cave is behind the one up in the hills to the northwest. I’d planned to scout the rustlers and set up camp in the cave, if that’s okay with you?” Granny B said.
“Sounds like a good plan,” replied Tom.
*
Chapter 12
Granny B’s land – Granny B’s cabin in the valley.
It took five hours to travel the nine miles up and down the hills above Ashland, Oregon. They stopped about a quarter of a mile away from the valley cabin so they could scout the area to avoid stumbling into the rustlers. Tom took Jackie to check out the place while the others hid in a large stand of trees.
Tom and Jackie left their horses to cool off and walked into the woods where Granny B had told them to go to find the cabin. The trees were thick and the brush thicker as they fought their way toward their goal. Unexpectedly, they came to an old road. Tom stuck his head out of the brush far enough to tell there hadn’t been any vehicles or footprints in the dusty trail.
“This is an old logging road. I’m happy there aren’t any tracks on the road. It probably leads us to the cabin, but let’s stay in the woods,” Tom whispered.
They heard the mooing of the cattle before they saw the cabin or the cattle. A clearing opened up in front of them with hundreds of small trees and a hastily built corral full of cattle. Tom counted thirty-one cows and a bull. “Well, now we know where our cows went. Let’s move around the cabin to see if anyone is inside or in the barn.”
When their line of sight cleared the end of the cabin, they saw a large camper behind the place. “That’s been there for a while from the underpinning and ragged awning,” Jackie observed.
Tom watched the trailer for a few minutes, but was distracted by the sound of horses whinnying in the barn. “Something’s disturbing those horses,” Tom said.
Jackie looked over Tom with her hand on his shoulder. “That should bring the thugs to the barn.”
A few minutes later, a man came out of the trailer rubbing his eyes and buttoning his shirt. “They were asleep. Resting from an exerting night stealing our cattle, I’ll bet.”
The man wasn’t a ranch hand judging, from his do-rag, tattoos, and biker’s wallet on a long chain. He entered the barn and immediately yelled at the horses to shut up. Tom could hear the horses kicking the stalls and was confident the man was beating the poor animals.
Another man and a hard-looking woman came out of the trailer, stretching and yawning. The man stopped by the front of the trailer and relieved himself. The woman yelled at him. “You dirty asshole! Now, we’ll have to smell your piss every time we walk by the front of the trailer.”
The man smiled, walked up to the woman, whispered in her ear, and then slugged her on the jaw. The woman hit the dirt hard. She shook her head and got up to her feet, but was a bit unsteady. Then without warning, she drew a hidden pistol and shot the man twice in the stomach. She did an about-face and waited on the other man to run out of the barn. He ran up to the man who was now moaning unintelligible words. The man yelled, “What happened? Who shot him?”
The woman waited until the second man bent down to listen to the man and then shot him in the back until the revolver was empty. The man suddenly raised a gun and shot the woman. She stumbled and fell on top of the man. All three moaned as they were dying.
Tom and Jackie looked at each other. Tom exclaimed, “Dang, that was the easiest thug elimination process I ever saw. Did Darwin stick his thumb on the scale?”
Tom and Jackie laughed until they heard the thundering noise. The gunfire had caused the cattle to stampede, and they broke through the flimsy corral and headed southeast, down into the valley. Tom and Jackie were dumbfounded. “I’ve been to two county fairs and a goat roping. I ain’t never seen anything like that. The gunfire will scare the hell out of Rick and Kate. Let’s let nature take its course and skedaddle back to our loved ones before they come flying this way. The good news is the cattle will be halfway back to the ranch in an hour if they don’t settle down or run off a hillside.”
Jackie asked, “Shouldn’t we head to them?
Tom had already started walking toward the rest of their party. “No, there might be more of them around. We need to get away from here but be careful not to get run down by our people if they come running this way.”
They took off at a fast pace, taking a slightly different course back to their group. They had to fight their way through the brush when they heard horse hoofs in the distance coming toward them on the old logging road. Tom veered over to the road and saw Rick in the lead. Tom stepped out and flagged them down.
“Whoa! We’re safe. The rustlers had a difference of opinion about where to piss and had a circular firing squad,” Tom said.
Rick volunteered Jackie and himself to go back and tell Granny B what had happened and then to stay with her for protection. At the same time, Tom and Kate stayed to see if any more rustlers showed up.
***
Granny B heard the sound of the cattle breaking through the trees and brushes a short while before she’d seen them. She took the horse’s reins and pulled them behind a thick stand of pine trees, in hopes the cattle would go around them. The sound of the advancing cattle spooked the horses, but Granny B had tied them to the middle tree and tried her best to keep them calm. The cattle burst through the thick brush and thundered by her and the frightened mares.
It took Granny B a few minutes to get the horses calmed down, and by that time, Jackie and Rick arrived. Jackie jumped down and helped soothe the beasts. “Everything’s okay. Apparently, the rustlers had an internal fight and killed each other as we watched. Tom and Kate are okay. They’ll will stay and watch to see if anyone heard the gunfire and shows up.”
Granny B asked, “Where did you find them?”
“At the cabin in the valley. They were living in a camper behind the cabin.”
She went on to tell her how the fight started and ended so abruptly with devastating consequences. Granny B asked, “Did Tom say when they would return?”
“He told us about two hours because he wanted to get to the other cabin and cave before dark.”
Tom watched the cabin from the woods so Kate could take a short nap. Tom knew they had to be on their toes for the next few days and wanted everyone rested if they had to fight or flee. On the other hand, Kate couldn’t sleep but kept her eyes closed. Tom caught her peeking and admonished her. “You’re like a kid on Christmas night.”
Kate responded. “Only this time, I’m eager to see if anyone is going to care if these three dingleberries are dead. Is it time to leave yet?”
“No, it’s only been thirty minutes. Dingleberries?”
“Scum of the Earth.”
Just about the time Kate fell asleep after asking ‘is it time yet’ five times, Tom woke her to leave.
“Darn, that was a short nap.”
“Babe, you only fell asleep a few minutes ago.”
They shouldered their backpacks, and Kate adjusted her crossbow, which was attached to her bag, and left to join the others.
“Hon, how far can you hear a pistol shot in these woods?”
Tom thought for a minute. “I would think a half-mile clearly and maybe a mile for being able to barely hear it if you’re listening for it.”
“So, that’s a guess?”
“Yep. Maybe we’ll do some research one day, but I have more research to perform on your body first,” Tom snickered.
Granny B stepped out of the brush behind them. “I think I need to conduct a course on how to move silently through the woods while not talking about using the braille method.”
Kate laughed. “Granny, you might be able to shame Tom, but I can’t be shamed for talking about how much we love each other.”
Granny B snorted. “Well, at least y’all weren’t putting your clothes back on when we arrived.”
Tom ignored both of them. “Saddle up! Let’s move on to the cave. I want to explore it while we stay alert for the scumbags.”
Granny B
tightened her saddle and mounted. “It’s about a mile and a half, but we’ll travel about twice that making sure we avoid these criminals. We’ll head north further up in the hills, then go west and slightly down the hillside to the cabin. The cave opening is in a stand of trees on a steep hillside on the southeast side of a draw running down the hillside northeast to southwest. We’ll come down the draw from above the cave.”
The path up the hillside was rough, but once they arrived on top of the hillside, there were clear areas. Tom worried that while the clear areas made travel more manageable, they also made it easier for them to be spotted. Granny led them to a shallow valley at the top of the hill that spilled over to a draw that ran down the hillside. She pointed and said, “The cave is about a quarter-mile down there on the left wall. The home is another hundred yards down and close to the bottom of the draw. Let’s work our way down a bit closer to check out the cave first.”
The way down was a bit tricky because it was steep and rocky. Tom secretly thought, maybe if there were any bad guys, they would conveniently kill themselves as before. That would make life easier.
Tom heard the faint sound of motorcycles in the distance. “What the hell was that?”
Granny B tersely replied, “We’re only two miles from Dead Indian Road. That must be your friend, Carlos and his gang roaring up the canyon.”
Tom scowled, and then his nostrils flared. “How darned close is this to the highway?”
Granny B sat in the saddle and stared at Tom. Her jaw was clenched, and then she said, “Clean your darned ears out. I just said we’re about two miles from the road.”
Tom knew he’d pissed her off. He rubbed his forehead. “I meant to ask – can someone get from the road to the cabin quickly?”
