The O'Malleys of Texas

by Dusty Richards

  “You had lunch?”

  “I had some jerky; I’ll be fine.”

  He told Katy his plans and the two rode out.

  The first thing he showed was where the bullet barely missed him and how he came off his horse and armed himself. Then how, when he was out of sight of them, he changed positions. Harp showed how the one with the single-shot target rifle had stood up and he shot the man. Then, when his partner was in sight, Harper explained how he shot the second one.

  Roberts picked up the casings in the dirt and then Harp showed him where he ran up the hill to stop number three from escaping. He explained that the horses were fighting the rider or he’d been gone. Harp showed him where he stopped, couldn’t see the person’s face, and then shot him.

  They searched until Roberts found the last empty casing, where he made the long shot from, and he agreed that it all read like Harp said.

  “A helluva shot with your rifle.”

  “I knew I only had one chance and he’d be gone. When I got over there and saw it was a kid I got sick to my stomach. But what was he up here for, if he hadn’t showed the others where I’d cross?”

  “I agree. He was running with wolves in my estimation. That’s why I came up here to see the whole thing and to back your story. I can see it perfectly.”

  “One was concerned that I might be conscious and that they should wait to not risk that. Let me bleed to death he said. At the time I was looking right at those two through some brush.”

  “Thanks. It may be hell to prove, but they don’t have another witness to dispute what happened. To me, it is open and shut.”

  “We can get back in time for supper if we hurry.”

  Roberts agreed and they rode for the ranch.

  Roberts told Hiram that it all was like Harper had said and he’d picked up the empty cartridges on the spots. Everyone at the family table sighed with relief and thanked him for coming out.

  But the next day, when Harp drove his wife to town for a few things she still needed for the up and coming wedding, he was shocked to see hand-painted board signs posted on the way into town, and all over the town.

  O’Malley Murdered a fourteen-year-old boy in cold blood. Why deosn’t the law arrest him? Rich cowboy gets away with murder!! Help us find Justuce!

  The town marshal, Tyler, met him before he got off the buckboard in front of the store. “Harper, I hired two men to take down and burn them signs north and south of town.”

  “How much did it cost?”

  “Couple of dollars. I am so sorry.”

  “No problem.” He repaid the man and clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks.”

  He saw other painted boards asking for justuce. Damn. He might have to use his knuckles to show people what justice was.

  Word was out the JP planned to hold hearings about the three deaths. Justice of the Peace, Patrick Cassidy, was the man in that office and he had summoned Harp to testify at the hearing the next day. Harp said he’d be there. His crew, except for a few to guard the ranches, would be there as well. The men took a crow bar with them and removed the remaining high-up signs by standing on saddles and ripping them off the trees and buildings. Harp asked them not to fight unless pressed into it. He wanted the matter resolved, especially any bad feeling with the boy’s parents.

  Harp knew a lot was astir. But, as Darvon pointed out, Harp had many supporters among the crowd, folks that he had delivered cattle for in Kansas. A few spoke to him and said they were there to support him. Katy revealed, under her breath on the way to the schoolhouse where the case would be heard, that she’d heard the same information.

  He and Kate found benches while his men stood around at the wall. There was a crowd inside and outside the schoolhouse. His mother joined them and his dad was at the wall with the men.

  JP Cassidy pounded the gavel for silence. “This coroner’s hearing concerns the deaths of three individuals. Jonah, read the deceased names.”

  “Donny Joseph McEntry, age thirty-five, residence unknown; Kilmer Morgan, age thirty-two, residence unknown; and Roger Holder, age sixteen, a county resident.”

  “Thank you. Now will Doc Combs please step forward and give his information?” The physician was sworn in.

  “All three were dead when delivered to the local funeral home. McEntry had been shot from the front, the bullet passing through his chest. The wound was fatal. Morgan also received a fatal bullet in his chest. That bullet was forty-four-forty lead, too. Holder was shot in the back and his heart blown apart by a similar caliber bullet.”

  “Do you have anything else, Doc?”

  “No, Your Honor.”

  “You are excused. Harper O’Malley, please come forward and tell us your side of this situation.”

  “That gawdamn coward murdered my son—”

  “If I hear one more uncalled for outburst from you, you will be removed,” Patrick said to the boy’s father.

  “I’ll leave, Patrick, because you sons of bitches are going to turn my son’s killer loose. He’s bought you off like he and the other O’Malleys have done a lot of ranchers around here.”

  Patrick rose. “I am fining you twenty dollars for blowing your filthy mouth off in my courtroom.”

  “Arrest me. I ain’t got twenty dollars to my name.”

  “Deputy.”

  “Jack will take him to jail, Your Honor,” Kent Roberts said.

  “Fine. Any more outbursts will be handled like that one,” Justice Patrick warned the crowd.

  “Harper O’Malley, you have been sworn in. Have a seat in that chair. Tell us about the incident as you saw it happen, please.”

  “I was coming home by myself. At Loller’s Creek a bullet, which was intended for me, hit the bank. That cut the creek made there at that crossing is a deep one, so I was out of sight to any shooters on the higher ground. I dismounted and armed myself with my rifle from the scabbard and hurried up the creek to where some bushes would give me cover enough to try and locate them. I found cover, and heard this McEntry, who was standing up, talking about my demise to the other bushwhacker. I didn’t know him.

  “I shot him first—to be certain. Then I shot his partner who I also did not know. The third party was gathering the horses. The horses were resisting him, but I had no way to know it was a boy. He was up the hill a ways. Two men had shot at me and the last one was escaping. I shot him. That is what I told the deputy when I brought their bodies in and also told Deputy Roberts the next day when I showed him everything. I could have let them lie there and gone on home. I didn’t like the fact that a boy was shot, but if you ride in bad company you can expect bad things to happen, Your Honor.”

  “Anything else you have to say, sir?”

  “No, Judge. Nothing more.”

  “You are excused for now, but please remain in case something else turns up today.”

  “I will, Your Honor.”

  “Thank you. Deputy Sheriff Roberts is next witness.”

  The hearing continued. “Roberts, you are sworn in now. Tell us your side of this situation.”

  “Your Honor, the very next day I rode out to the O’Malley ranch and then rode with Harper O’Malley to the ambush site. We went there and I found the empty shells in all three cases right there as he said in his testimony. He exhibited his regret at the boy’s death, but that young man was participating in that ambush.”

  “You have proof ?”

  “Your Honor, Harper O’Malley brought those horses, carrying their bodies, into town. All were wearing the Holder brand.”

  The entire crowd oh’d.

  Patrick rapped the gavel on the desktop. “It is in the opinion of this court today that it was justified homicide. Case dismissed.”

  Everyone on Harp’s side reached in to shake his hand and tell him he’d done the right thing. He nodded, and in the case of a woman congratulating him, he removed his hat for her. Still he saw the hate-filled sharp-eyed hawks leaving the building, whose hearts, he had no doubt, were filled with e
vil feelings toward him since they were on Holder’s side.

  He stood in the cool sunshine, outside of the schoolhouse, making conversation. His mom and Kate were inviting folks to Chaw’s wedding. He spoke with Red and they talked about eating lunch at the hotel restaurant.

  He also learned that Holder’s friends had scraped up the money to pay for Holder’s fine.

  They were walking in a group when a shot went off half a block away. Harp and Red had the women behind them and were joined by his dad. A cowboy Harp knew rode by and said, “It’s all right now. Town marshal disarmed Mary Holder before she could use it. Went off in the air.”

  “Thanks,” Harper said, even more convinced that the boy’s death had not been set aside yet.

  Damn you, Long O’Malley, wherever you are at. I could use your backing here, right now. Holder’s horses were involved. Someone was footing the bill of those two dead gunmen. Harper knew his outfit couldn’t be hurting Holder by branding maverick cattle. Holder was in on the dirty work of someone powerful, and Harp couldn’t think who that was—but he’d damn sure find out who, hopefully sooner rather than later.

  The hotel meal went well. Red gave the men in town enough money to eat off the sandwich bar at the saloon and have a beer or two before they rode home.

  Harp spoke briefly with Roberts before leaving town. They both wondered who hired the shooters. For sure if Holder didn’t have the cash money for bail, he wouldn’t have it to hire shooters.

  Leaving town, he drove the buckskins home smartly, with his wife talking about Chaw’s wedding and what a fine foreman he’d make.

  Harp recalled the tough rebel veteran at Greg’s herd the first day when Chaw sided with him and Long against the drunk boss and bad cook. He’d made a good candidate for being a boss after two cattle drives. His gal had cleaned him up some more and that didn’t hurt, either. The O’Malley outfit was shaping into a good one.

  He simply needed eyes in the back of his head from there on, especially after the coroner’s court decision, which would not stop bad thinking on his opponent’s side of the fence.

  Long, you rascal, it is near mid-November and no sign of your hide.

  CHAPTER 35

  In the next two weeks, his well-organized army made two more successful drives. They had over a thousand big steers for the next spring’s drive penned over on the Diamond Ranch’s fenced section, and a buyer from down on the border sold Harp eight hundred big Mexican steers, well worth the money, to be driven to Kerrville after Christmas.

  Things went on fast and furious. Small pockets of reported maverick cattle were being gathered and branded by big and small outfits, so by now Harp knew the free cattle would be harder to find. His son, Lee, was trying to crawl and provided him with lots of entertainment.

  Hoot sent word some of his horses had been rustled and his men had lost the tracks. They were gone.

  Times were growing real tough. Lots of what were called grub line riders passed by looking for work. Harp fed them and they moved on but more came by, and more would come.

  Harp decided he’d never understand economics except he knew Texas was dirt poor and no one was helping to cure it. The government’s war debt was blamed. Texans blamed the carpetbaggers for ruining the state’s recovery. He knew that he and his brother possessed more money than most people in Texas had.

  Money talked and they’d used it to buy ranches. Cattle drives were their business while ranching was their anchor in Texas. He had several teams of men out searching for herds of wild cattle still unbranded. His team at home was inspecting quality of the stock from people who wanted the O’Malleys to sell in Kansas. That market did not buy culls. They were worthless and so no need to drive them to Kansas, as precious as those spaces were. Herders were paid for cattle that met market standards and were accepted by the buyers. Many herders discovered what they had brought up from Texas had zero value in the market. There were even some shootings over it in Abilene. Harper was aware of all that was going on, and he was wary.

  His bookkeeper worked hard on his new job, asking for information that Katy and his mother had to find. They made him feel at home, and one day he told them, “I’m really enjoying my work and the cowboys are great to me. I hate to go home on the weekends.”

  Harp was glad he had hired him. He could see his efforts in doing the books really looked very businesslike. It was getting to be a big business as they moved forward. Reg promised to have a report on all expenses they had going to Kansas on that last trip, so they would have better control over the next one. He promised to show Harp the costs for everything they had done so far.

  Doug, as the foreman at the Diamond Ranch, was upgrading it everywhere. When Harp last talked to the two sisters, they were excited at Doug’s handling of the job. He assured them they had a good man.

  After sundown one evening he and Katy sat on the front porch swing with Lee asleep in his crib. The chains creaked a little with his foot shoving to make it swing.

  “The shooting of the Holder boy is not settled yet, is it, despite the judge’s saying it wasn’t murder but self-defense?” Kate asked, snuggling up to Harp.

  “I know how you feel about this situation. I have no idea how to stop all the bad talk. I am almost glad Long isn’t here. He’d beat them over the head with those hateful signs. I really thought that when the deputy said they were all riding his father’s horses, folks would know that Holder was behind the killers or simply aiding them.”

  “I worry about your safety.”

  “Katy, I can’t crawl in a hole until the clouds pass. That is not my style. I will go do what I need to do for the ranch, for us, for our future.”

  “And even his wife having a shotgun and the town marshal disarming her.”

  “Katy, I have lots of faith in God. Saving Emory in the Arkansas River, he was there. It was a lot more dangerous than Mrs. Holder with a gun. They didn’t kill me in Missouri when I faced an army.”

  “Hey, you are my saver. You made me feel like a real woman and wife that I hope I am.”

  He hugged her close. “Katy, I am so proud of you I can’t say it enough. You filled a big hole in my life. Try not to worry, and I will be double careful for your and Lee’s sake. I am going to be here when he grows up, for his wedding, to see my own grandkids and lots more that this life has to hold for me.”

  “All right. I won’t trouble you anymore.” He kissed her and they rocked in each other’s arms for a while, then went off to their bedroom.

  Next morning at the cowboys’ breakfast in the big tent, he went over everyone’s plans and finished with, “Men, ride in pairs. The ambush on me has become a call for those people that hate us to take up arms against us. They could try and kill you. If that happens I will find that dog and he won’t live long, but please be careful night and day. Be aware of where you are and who is around you. This will pass, though I don’t know when. Everyone cover each other’s backs. We have a large spread-out ranch operation to run and a couple of herds to gather for our drive to Kansas next spring.”

  They gave him a loud yeah and stood up to applaud him.

  “Thank you. Be careful.”

  His father walked with him back to the house. “We have lots to keep an eye on don’t we?”

  “Yes,” Harp said with a shudder. “No telling what they will try next. They have threatened us on the road and told us we were rustling their stock. They had not lifted a hand to brand them even before the war like the three of us did.”

  “I told you boys owning those cattle would be a big asset to us. No one believed me until you and Long brought that money back. I hope he is back here by Christmas. He don’t have any idea how bad things are shaping up here, does he?”

  “Not unless he is talking to some bald eagle that flew out there to tell him.”

  Hiram chuckled. “I just saw that screaming eagle circling him, screaming at him. They need you at home.”

  “Maybe he can ride a cloud in,” Harp teased.

/>   “It might be like him to do that.”

  They both laughed at the idea, while the situation really stabbed Harp in the chest every waking hour of the day. All he wanted to do was to get on with his plans to ranch and have a large enough operation for his family to comfortably ranch the rest of their lives.

  “Everyone up and wide eyed?” Katy asked when he got back to the house.

  “I told them they better be.”

  “Are you still going into town today?”

  “I need to speak to the two men looking for more places we can buy. This is something we talked about before Long rode off on his own. We need to find and buy all we can, while we have the money.”

  “Who goes along with you?”

  “Red will find someone for me or I won’t go.”

  “Thanks.” She kissed his cheek, standing on her toes.

  He found some maps showing places he’d studied that they could buy, carried them out to where two guards, Jim Lawson and Tyrone Clayman, held his saddled horse’s reins. He put the maps in his saddlebags and with a kind thanks for them for riding with him to town, they rode off.

  He met lawyer Tommy Snyder and sat down at the seat in front of his desk.

  Tommy leaned forward. “I have a big map here that includes lots of country in the area of the big corral. Including it. It is all state land and since state land has not been selling, and you have adjoining land, the government says owners can buy the rangeland at a discount. I just learned this two days ago.”

  “How cheap?”

  “Two dollars an acre. That’s one thousand two hundred and eighty dollars a section, but don’t tell anyone.”

  “So, the land that we don’t have in that region, for us to tie it up, will cost around twenty-seven thousand dollars for twenty sections?”

  Snyder made a face. “It has to be designated as rangeland first. To get that stamped on that land may cost five hundred dollars. You see where that goes?”

  “I’d pay that but how sure are you we can do that?”

  “I’ll make a special trip to Austin this week to do it, and I’ll wire you when I have it done.”