The voice came out of the woods somewhere above them, but Monty didn't look for it. He kept walking toward the horse.
"There is no gold," Monty said. "There never was any."
"You're lying," Joe called as Monty reached for the reins of Carlos's horse. "I saw it."
"You saw a few hundred dollars, not the hundred thousand dollars you want."
"Don't touch that horse," Joe said, but he was too late. Monty had already untied the reins. "You're not leaving here until I get the gold."
"It wouldn't do you any good if I gave it to you," Monty said. "I'd just have to kill you. I can't let anybody steal from me, not gold, women, or cattle. If one man gets away with it, others will try. I wouldn't have any choice."
"Maybe you'd try, but maybe you wouldn't succeed." Joe didn't sound as confident as a minute ago.
Monty prepared to mount up. "You'd better forget about this whole thing, Reardon. If Carlos gets well, we might let you off." Monty swung into the saddle.
"Stop, or I'll shot!" Joe stepped from behind a tree trunk about hundred feet up the slope. "You're not going anywhere. Now get down off that horse, or I'll blast you out of the saddle."
What would have happened next no one would ever know. A blood curdling roar shattered the night, and the grizzly bear erupted from a thicket just a few yards up the slope from Joe. Gripped by pure terror, Joe whirled and fired at the charging bear. He managed to get off a second shot before the great beast reached him.
Iris hid her face in Carlos's back. Monty walked the horses a short distance away.
"Wait here," he said after the woods were once again silent. He was gone only a few minutes. When he returned, he was leading Iris's horse as well as Joe's.
"What happened?" Iris asked.
"He got the grizzly, but the bear got him as well."
Chapter Twenty-seven
"We're not going to have the wedding until you're well," Iris told Carlos. "I want you to give me away." They had brought Carols to the Circle-7 ranch. Fern was only too happy to give up her morning nap so he could have a bed.
"It'll also give George and Rose time to get here from Texas," Madison said, grinning at Fern. "You wouldn't want to tie the knot before you meet the head of the clan."
"Stop it, you'll scare the poor girl to death," Fern told him. "He's really quite nice," she said to Iris. "If he can approve of me, you ought to pass with flying colors."
"It's Rose I'm afraid of," Iris confessed. "According to Monty, she never does anything wrong."
"Rose is the dearest person you'll ever meet," Fern assured Iris. "She was the first friend I ever had. I have to admit she is practically perfect, but you'll love her anyway."
"And if you don't, you'll be living two thousand miles away," Madison said, "so it won't matter."
Fern gouged her husband in the side. He responded by laughing and putting his arm around her.
"Rose thinks all the boys ought to be married, so she'll welcome you into the family with open arms," Fern told Iris. "Just remember one thing. George is the most important person in her world. Do anything to make him unhappy and she'll cut your heart out. Otherwise, she'll love you with her whole heart."
"What a terrible thing to say," Madison told his wife.
"No, I understand," Iris said. "Nothing else you've said has made me like her so much. Except the story about losing that baby."
"Rose will never be happy until she has at least one more child," Fern said. "Maybe I'll give her my next one," she said, turning to her husband. "This monster told me I didn't have to have any children if I didn't want to. Before I could say, well, maybe, I was expecting. You'd think two rambunctious boys would be enough, wouldn't you? It was easier to keep track of a whole herd of cows."
"They're too much like their mother," Madison said, giving Fern a squeeze. "They're never happy unless they're in the saddle."
"That's one problem I won't have," Iris said, looking a little wistfully at Monty. "Monty doesn't want children."
"We don't know that," Monty said. "Everything's happened so fast I don't know what I want. It might be children, but right now a purebred Angus bull would come in handy."
Iris pulled Monty outside to protect him from Fern's vigorous attack.
"I probably will want some boys to help with the ranch," Monty said. He sat down on the steps. Iris settled next to him, her arm in his, her shoulder leaning into his embrace, her red hair in stark contrast to his blond fairness. "It would be cheaper to hire four or five hands, but it would make the relatives happy."
"I think Wyoming would be a great place to rear your sons," Iris said, an impish gleam in her green eyes. "They'll have plenty of natural playmates. There must be at least a hundred bears, panthers, and wild bulls on the place."
Monty bit Iris's ear.
"Of course they'll wear nothing but buckskins and moccasins. There're plenty of stones lying about to make weapons."
Monty nibbled her neck.
"There must be at least one cave in those hills where they can live. I wonder if they'll draw on the walls?"
Monty nibbled at Iris's lower lip.
"But I don't know what we'll do with them if Rose and George come to visit."
"Send them to Colorado," Monty muttered between nibbles on Iris's upper lip. "They've got even more caves and bears down there."
Iris laughed. "Be serious. Do you want a family?"
"Probably, but right now I'm content with you."
Iris shivered with pleasure. Monty was doing fantastic things to her ear. "Are you sure? I know I'm not the kind of wife you wanted."
"I didn't want a wife of any kind."
"I'll never learn to cook like Tyler, and I can't keep house like Betty."
"Then it's a good thing I don't expect it."
His kisses along her neck made her want to melt into his arms.
"And I'll probably disagree with you fairly often."
"I love a good fight."
He kissed the back of her neck. Iris had to push him away or disgrace herself right there on the steps.
"I'll want to go wherever you go. I don't want to stay home and make beds."
"I'll build you a new travel wagon. Then we won't have to make love in the brush."
Monty attempted to undo the top button on her shirt, but Iris removed his hand.
"We're not going to make love on the steps either, so you might as well sit up and behave yourself."
"Only if you tell me you don't love me."
"I could never tell you that."
Monty attacked Iris. She responded with a shriek.
* * * * *
Inside the cabin, Fern looked up. "Do you think I ought to do out there?"
"No."
Fern started to rise from her chair.
"Don't go near the window either."
"I don't trust Monty not to take advantage of her right there on the porch."
"There'll be nothing but cows to see if he does." Madison slipped his arm around his wife and scattered kisses on her cheek. "Besides, I think he's got a great idea. There's more than one bedroom in this house."
"You're hopeless," Fern said. "All of you Randolph men are hopeless."
"I know, but we're cute."
"But I'm pregnant," Fern protested
Madison pulled his wife toward the bedroom. "Yes, but not very much."
* * * * *
The sat on the porch, their arms around each other, staring at the sunset. It wasn't anything spectacular, just an ordinary orange streaked with blue, but it seemed wonderful to Iris.
"Do you mind if I give Carlos the ranch?" she asked.
"I thought you had."
"Only half. I mean the whole thing."
"Sure. Why?"
"Robert Richmond wasn't my father, but he gave me a name. This is the only way I can pay him back."
Monty started to chuckle. "And after all the trouble it took to get them here."
"Hmmm, it was a lot of work wasn't it."
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"Never noticed it."
Iris punched Monty. He chuckled softly.
They sat quietly for a while. Then Iris started to laugh.
"Do you realize how desperate I was to hang onto that herd? Now I've gone and given it away. I'm penniless, the one thing I feared most in all the world." She laughed again. "I'm just as crazy as you Randolphs."
"Welcome home," Monty said, and kissed her softly.
Author's Note
At the close of the Civil War, Texans came home to find their most immediate wealth in the form of millions of unbranded longhorns which inhabited the brush country and swampland between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers. But a steer worth three dollars in Texas for hide and tallow might be worth thirty dollars at an eastern market. Unfortunately Texas longhorns were hosts to a tiny tick which caused splenic fever -- commonly called "Spanish" or "Texas fever" -- to which the longhorns were immune but which wrought havoc among northern herds. In 1866, Kansas and Missouri quarantine statues forbidding entry to Texas cattle caused many herds to be turned away at the state line, some by vigilante action. The Texans had no way to get their fortune in beef to market.
In the spring of 1867, the Union Pacific Railway swept along the north bank of the Smokey Hill River in Dickinson County, Kansas, passing through the tiny town of Abilene. These two circumstances might have remained forever unrelated but for Joseph G. McCoy. He envisioned Abilene as a shipping point for an endless supply of Texas cattle.
Despite the fact that bringing cattle into Abilene was illegal, McCoy obtained a verbal commitment from the Union Pacific officials, built a stockyard, and sent agents south to convince drovers to bring their herds to Abilene. By mid-August Texas longhorns nibbled the lush upland grasses of Dickinson County.
However, the continued opposition of farmers and local ranchers combined with the advancing agricultural frontier to make 1871 Abilene's last season as a cattle market. The market moved west until it reached Dodge which remained the major market until 1885 when the increasing influx of immigrants into western Kansas closed the trails forever.
Thus ended the short history of the Kansas cattle town, one of the West's most enduring legends.
About the Author
Leigh Greenwood is the award-winning author of over fifty books, many of which have appeared on the USA Today bestseller list. Leigh lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Please visit his website at http://www.leigh-greenwood.com/ .
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