“You threatening me?”
“Mister, you’re a simple camp robber in Colorado at this time.”
“I’m—”
“How far is Kansas from here? A couple miles?”
“I don’t know.”
“I guess there isn’t a fence. I never saw a sign for the past fifty miles. Why don’t you ride back to Kansas?”
“I’m going to arrest you and your men for trespassing.”
Chet dropped his head and shook it. “No, you don’t understand. You’re not in Kansas. You try to arrest us where you have no authority and I will say you were camp robbers and we killed you in the act.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Lower your voice. Those boys killed Comanche ’cause they tried to rob our camp. All I have to say is ‘shoot them,’ and you’ll be dead. Now, get back across that line. Walk back to your horse and mount up and go back to Kansas.”
Chet rose and held out his hands to stay his crew. “These good men are riding back to Kansas. No one has got hurt.”
“You ain’t seen the last of me.”
He walked him to his horse and the lawman mounted.
“I better have.”
When the three men turned their mounts to the east, Chet reached up over his head like he had a gun and pulled the trigger. His men mimicked his action with their rifles, and their shots made the riders’ horses near bolt out from under them as they tore off for Kansas. The crew cheered and laughed.
“That was more dangerous than the Comanche,” Liz said, holding his arm, standing beside him.
“Not when you have an army.”
“I guess we better stay in Colorado till we get to Nebraska.”
Chet agreed. “We better.”
“Sorry I got you in that situation,” his scout Lou said, riding up and dismounting.
Chet shook his head. “We’re moving north in the morning. Things are fine.”
Lou nodded.
Decker had his arms folded and nodded. “They really be that dumb?”
“They had no authority over here. But most folks listen to them and go in and pay a fine. I didn’t have time for them today.”
Decker snorted out his nose and slapped his pants legs. “You sure be dee man.”
“I want Lou and Cole to head for Nebraska and find us some pasture, so we can sort these cattle into three classes. Yearlings, two-year-olds, and the big steers.”
“You ain’t going to just sell them?”
“No. Those big ones are a premium class. Midwest farmers want them to fatten. The twos can be wintered easy and sold next year. Those yearlings will require lots of feed and are two years from turning a profit.”
“Why, we be weeks sorting them.”
“I don’t think that long. No matter, we need to sort them.”
Decker left him, shaking his head. Yeager caught Chet later. “What be happening?”
“I told him when we get up there we’ll have to sort the cattle into the three classes.”
“That will be work.”
“My share of this deal depends on the total sale. I want the most out of them.”
“It pays everyone’s wages, huh? When we be down dere, I never thought I’d get a penny fur dis job. Now it looks better, we can sort cattle.”
“We’ll get them sold.”
Yeager agreed.
The next day, Lou and Cole went to find or rent sorting ground. That day, the cattle buyers rode out to meet them and frowned at the mixed herd.
“We’ll sort them when we get there,” Chet assured them.
The next day a man with three cowboys rode out and spoke to him.
“Rusty Harold. These are my boys. Not sons, my cowboys.” He laughed.
“This is my wife, Liz. I’m Chet Byrnes. What can I do for you?”
Harold removed his hat. “Ma’am, buenos dias.”
“I speak English, Mister Harold. Nice to meet you.”
“I was a little homesick for some el español.”
She rattled some Spanish greeting off and he laughed. “Thanks. Made me homesick already. How did you two get hooked up?”
“She stopped at a ranch where I stayed to buy a Barbarossa horse in southern Arizona.”
“You from Arizona?”
“From Texas first.”
The man narrowed his eyes in deep concentration. “You have some Barbarossa horses?”
“Yes.”
“You have her and some of them, too. That makes you a real lucky man.”
“I am. You looking for cattle?”
“They said you had yearlings?”
“I have.”
“When you sort them off, I’d like to bid on them. We have a helluva lot of hay and grass.”
“If my count they gave me is right, that could amount to a thousand head.”
“You said the count?”
“A friend of mine in Texas asked me to find these cattle and get them up here.”
Harold frowned some more.
“They were stranded down there in the panhandle.”
“I came up here two years ago. Did Kansas catch you across their line?” Harold asked.
“They rode over in Colorado and accused me.”
“You pay a fine?”
“No. They had no authority over there.”
“You’re right, but they buffalo a lot of guys.” Harold pushed his hat up some and laughed. “I really can’t believe your beautiful wife has ridden all this way and looks that pretty.”
“She is a trooper. Join us for supper. We can feed your men.”
“Thanks, we will. Where did you say you ranched?”
“All over Arizona,” she said. “He has many ranches in the territory.”
“Mrs. Byrnes, do you have a sister?”
“No. I was an only child.”
“Damn, there go my chances.”
She laughed and bumped her shoulder into Chet. “Hear that?”
“I am listening. But I have the Barbarossa horses, too.”
She agreed. “He does have some good ones.”
“He must have some good foremen, too?”
“Oh, yes. I have a hacienda myself in Sonora. But he has some grand ones.”
“You two just met?”
“Six months ago. I heard this man who had sold some of those horses was at a ranch below Tubac, which is south of Tucson. I stopped with a coach and my entourage, and here was this big guy who ignored my pleas to sell me one.”
They all laughed.
“He had lost his wife and I fit in.” She shrugged her shoulders. “And he has this huge extended family.”
They all laughed.
“Well, you ever need a roof, come see me. Are you from Texas?” he asked Chet.
“I went out there so I could find her,” Chet teased. “No, my family was involved in a bitter Texas feud in the hill country. So I sold out and have been busy ever since.”
“Those feuds were real bad.”
“Yes, we thought the Comanche were bad, but feuds were much worse.”
Harold agreed. They talked about cattle prices and conditions. Later when Chet and Liz were by themselves, Chet told her she had a place to go if she left him.
She laughed. “He is a big flirt like you are. I am not leaving you.”
“I know that. I can’t believe he does not have a woman.”
“She hasn’t come by yet.”
He hugged her. “As long as you don’t leave me, I don’t care.”
“Don’t doubt about me, hombre. I never thought I’d see so much country. I like Nebraska. It has lots of wonderful grass, too.”
“Cattle growers can see that at a glance.”
“Yes, yes. But I fear it gets cold up here.”
“I bet it does. I will take you to town in a few days, unless you want to go and the guys can take you.”
“I am fine. I enjoy sorting cattle.”
“I don’t want you to be bored to death.”
‘That will never happen in my life with you.”
Cole and Lou made a land rental of two sections of grass on the Platte River for three hundred dollars a month. Chet hoped in a month they’d be finished and ready to return home.
“We could’ve rented it cheaper for a year,” Cole teased him.
“No, thanks, you two did great. We’ll move up there and start sorting in a day.”
Hampt and Lou rode over to look it over and figure out how to use it.
Traffic from potential buyers picked up. Chet figured out there weren’t many cattle sent up there that had not been sold. That could mean he had some advantages in marketing these cattle, but they were in mid-August. He wanted to be home before winter set in, and they were a long ways from home by horseback.
He wired Sam Severs at the First National Bank in San Antonio that they were at Ogallala. The cattle were in an improved condition, and they would sort and sell them in the next two weeks, if they could.
In reply, Severs said he was relieved and to keep him informed.
THANK GOD FOR YOU CHET BYRNES.
He also wired everyone in Arizona they had made it to Nebraska and were planning to sell the cattle in the next few weeks. Monica answered that she, Anita, and Rhea were all burning candles for their safe return. Tom said the ranches were doing fine. They even had some rain. May said she cried and prayed for all of them. She and the kids really missed Hampt.
Cattle sorting began. They had three teams to handle the divided herd. Several unemployed cowboys came by asking for work and Chet hired the best of them. So he had a dozen more real cattle sorters with them on the crew and things began to go faster.
Apache Joe knew the best cutting horses in his remuda and issued them to the best riders each morning. Hampt was in the center, with Cole and Yeager both taking on a herd. Things went fast and furious. Chet and Liz helped, too, plus met the cattle buyers and discussed how many cattle they expected to have for sale in the three herds.
“You think the split is about a thousand head in each bunch?” Wayne Bolt asked him, sitting a good using horse with them.
“They left south Texas with thirty-five hundred head. I took over control of the herd in the panhandle. Since then we’ve lost a few head.”
“How come you took over this bunch?”
“No one could find them. They were out of horses, food, and water.”
“They look pretty good today.”
“Liz bought them all clothes. They were pretty shabby dressed.”
Bolt laughed. “I can imagine that.”
“You ready to bid on them?” Chet asked.
“Not serious. I planned to offer you twenty bucks a head.”
Chet shook his head. “Those big steers are worth eighty dollars a head.”
“Oh, no. More like forty.”
“The twos are worth that.”
“How high you got those yearlings?”
“Twenty-five a head.”
“Oh, they’re trash.”
“Well, I am not taking that for them.”
“I can see I can’t buy your junk. I better go back to town.”
“You have ten days to put a price on them. They’ll be separated and ready by then.”
Bolt shook his head. “Before this is over, you’ll come and talk to me and take my prices. I bid forty, fifteen, and ten on them.”
“Thanks, we’ll see,” Chet said.
His wife sounded mad when Bolt left. “Boy, he is conceited, isn’t he?”
“Oh, just a cattle buyer, and they come in all forms. I have had my backside chewed off before because I didn’t sell to a cheaper buyer.”
“Really?”
“Oh, they will do anything.”
“I’ll be glad to get the sale over.”
“I agree. We will and head home.”
“Wonderful.” She threw her hands in the air. Then she hugged his arm. “I still appreciate you having me along.”
They lost a good horse that day. A wreck with a wild steer, and the horse and steer both had to be destroyed. The white cowboy was alright, but Chet figured he’d be sore in the morning. The weeks dragged by and the cattle were at last sorted.
Two days later, he met with the buyers in the Elkhorn Saloon at ten in the morning. His wife shopped for some things she wanted, while he held court in the near empty saloon.
“The top bid on the big steers is seventy-eight dollars. Anderson and Schmell have that bid. Any more bids?” He waited for any move—none. “I will sell those big steers to them.”
Both men waved from where they sat.
“Two-year-old steers sell for sixty-eight dollars. Hiemer, Cook, and Donaldson get them. Rusty Harold bid twenty-five dollars on the yearlings. No more bids, he gets them.” He paused. “Beers are on me. Thanks.”
The cattle processing required four more days. The sales amounted to one hundred ninety-six thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars. Chet’s share amounted to over forty-nine thousand. After payroll expenses and the costs were deducted from Severs’s account, Chet sent him the bank’s share to Texas via Wells Fargo.
He told his three men he would pay each of them three thousand apiece when they got back to Preskitt. He wouldn’t listen to their protests that they didn’t need it, and Liz backed him.
Severs wired him back.
I THANK GOD. THE BANK DID NOT LOSE
A SINGLE DIME. THE MAN WHO WE
MADE THE LOAN TO HAD BEEN SHOT IN
ROUND ROCK IN A CARD GAME BEFORE
DECKER GOT OUT OF TEXAS. IT MADE
FOR A LONG LONG SUMMER. THANK
YOU AND ALL YOUR EFFORTS. SAM
“We don’t need to talk about the money part around the others. They may think they earned a share,” he told Cole, Jesus, and Hampt. They all agreed with him.
Later, Liz asked how much he had left.
“Forty thousand.”
“Ten thousand a month, right?” she asked. “You were well paid.”
“Hey, I haven’t paid you yet.”
She hugged him. “I loved it. You don’t owe me anything. You know that. Well, let’s ride home. That banker should be glad that you sorted them; they’d never have made that much money otherwise. I heard that Bolt’s offer.”
“It isn’t always getting there with cattle, but how you sell them, that make things work.”
He dreaded the long trail going home, but he left the horses and wagon for Decker to sell and split the amount they brought with his crew. They’d been paid the money promised them, besides his gift.
His outfit crossed west to Denver, and Chet took Liz to an opera and some other highlights that really made her days spent there. Down the road, they went to Santa Fe and enjoyed the festive spirit of fandangos for a few nights. Chet thought his wife would bust over their stay there. She attended church every morning and they danced till the last song each evening.
His wife was wading in the Santa Cruz again in his eyes. When she was high on things like the fandangos, he loved watching her. Then, back in the saddle again. They rode on, crossing arid western New Mexico, but the nights grew cooler and the days shortened. They stopped a day and reshod some of their horses in Continental on the Great Divide, then went on to Gallup. By the time they got there, his herders would already be back at the Windmill from their September delivery.
Five days later, they met an excited Susie who tore out of her house to hug Liz and him. They had a great reunion, telling her about the long ride. Susie also hugged Cole, Jesus, and Hampt.
Chet heard Susie ask Liz if she was pregnant.
His wife’s answer was, “No, but we haven’t given up.”
He went off listening to them laughing.
That night in bed, she asked if they were going home or staying at the Verde.
“Oh, we better stop here for the next night. You and I, and Jesus, can talk to Sarge. Hampt and Cole will leave early for home, and I don’t blame them. If you weren’t here, I’d have rode all night to get back
to you.”
She hugged him tight. “And I’m so glad I got to see so many things and places. But after I first saw that tramp camp of those black cowboys and those gaunt cattle, I said to myself, ‘What will my poor husband ever do with this mess?’”
“It wasn’t a picture of paradise, was it?”
“That little man in San Antonio, who wears those low shoes that your two men talk about, owes you a lot more than you charged him. I thought you were robbing him when you first told me what you planned to charge him. But he would not have ten cents on his dollars you got him if you hadn’t straightened it all out.”
“Oh, everyone worked on it.”
“Everyone worked, but Hampt made them soldiers. I know you have good men, but they are like keys that all unlock different things. Cole and Jesus knew he was the man you needed, but they think like you do. The whole thing awed me. And taking me along was such an adventure. I will never forget.” She was shaking in his arms. “I, of course, had seen lots of Mexico, but seeing that vast land was what Coronado saw when he came up here exploring, centuries ago. I read those reports and knew where I was in them.”
“You never told me anything about that.”
“I did not want anything to distract you. I saw the set in your jaw, the determination in your eyes. You could have run Decker off, but you simply pushed your points on him. You have that aura, but you also have been the boss since you were a boy. I am so glad to be your mate.”
“You knew what they were singing in that opera?”
“Oh, yes,” she said in agreement. “Spanish and Italian are not that different. Oh, I loved it. My first husband would never have thought to take me there. He was never anything but nice to me, but the opera, that was so great for me to attend. Only you would have thought to take me there.”
“The only person who didn’t see it, who would have loved it, was May.”
“Oh, yes. She is such a treasure and I never even thought about her and the opera.”
“You will someday know these people like I do.”
“I listen. Your sister asked me tonight if I was pregnant.”
“I heard her.”
She whispered, hardly able to keep from laughing, “Let’s go to work on that.”
Arizona Territory Page 16
