by Lou Bradshaw
“How will I know which one is Rosa’s?” I asked innocently, and got rewarded with a glare.
“Rosa doesn’t go to our church. She has Sundays off and her son comes to get her Saturday after supper.”
“I suppose that scamp of a brother of mine will be there. He never misses a chance to socialize with the young ladies.”
“Oh, he’ll be there all right. It’s the only time we ever see him in church. And if for any reason he wasn’t there, I know of at least ten young ladies who would go get him.”
“I’ll bet the first thing he does when he gets there is take his hat off.” And I laughed at my own joke. Patty looked at me peculiar, so I told her that it was my own little joke and even Andy didn’t know about it. “But,” I said, “if you tell me which box is likely to be from the best cook, I’ll tell you the joke.” She said she didn’t care if she ever heard the story.
When we pulled into the ranch yard, Andy came running out of the barn, hopped over the fence rail like an antelope, and rushed up to the buckboard. “You all right, Ben? One of the rockin J boys came by and told us about the bank robbery and what you did. He said you took a shot.”
“No.” I told him. “He’d have shot me, if I’d been ten feet tall, but he missed by a mile. I’m okay. You know what it’s like to get shot at or do the shootin’. I didn’t have time to think about it, I just did what I had to do. Lucky for me, I had that express gun in my bedroll. I was takin to the sheriff for you.”
“Well, just as long as you weren’t hit. I could wring that stupid Bernie’s neck for scarin me like that. Folks seem to get half the news, and make up the rest to suit themselves… Stupid Bernie.”
We walked away a little bit, and I told him that afterwards, “I almost got sick thinking about what I had just done. But I hadn’t any choice other than walking away and letting them rob the bank, and I wasn’t about to do that either. I just did what I thought was right, but a man died because of it, and two other lives are ruined because of what I did.”
“Ben, sometimes you can be so dim for someone so bright. You’re not thinkin straight. You think that if you hadn’t taken a hand in that game, everything would have been all right. But really everything would have been wrong if you hadn’t done what you done. If you hadn’t stepped in when you did, those fellas would have made off with the bank’s money and a lot of people would have been poorer. What if a posse took off after them, and got into a shoot out and some town fella got killed. And that could have easily happened.”
“Whenever a man takes up a gun and tries to steal or harm or kill, then he has to know that his life is on the line, but he does it anyway. Those boys weren’t doing a single thing good for the world; they were only hurting the world.”
I thought to myself that that must be the longest bunch of words that Andy had ever said at one time. And what was even more amazing was that he was right. That was good solid reasoning and it came from Andy. Maybe I did teach him a thing or two along the way. Or it could be that he had just gotten more sense as he grew older… No, I figured he had to have learned it from me.
I felt much better, even though, I still had some pangs of guilt for pulling that shotgun instead of a six gun or a rifle. With a shotgun it was whole hog and let the devil take the anything that was left over, but I never dreamed that idiot would try to buck it. I guess he wasn’t smart enough to survive as a bank robber.
We talked for a bit longer, he went back to what he had been doing, and I went in with Sam and Patty. Sam and I sat in the big front room. I never knew whether to call it a parlor or a living room. We had always called it the front room… I didn’t even know what a parlor was. Soon, Patty came in with a pot of coffee and three mugs. She sat down in a chair across from us and poured the coffee. Everything was kinda awkward for a few long drawn out seconds, and then Patty opened the ball.
“Ben, I know for a fact that I had never seen a more down looking cowboy, than when I saw you on that boardwalk outside the sheriff’s office. I was afraid you were hurt or in some kind if trouble over the shootin.”
“No,” I told her, “I was sick at heart for having to kill that fella. I’ve killed before, and had been the cause of several men having to face the gallows. I suppose it should get easier, but it seems to get harder. Someday, we will see more men walking around Taos without guns than with them. And some distant day, we won’t see anybody carrying a weapon around town. I firmly believe that and hope I live to see it. But for a while, we’re going to still be packin iron, but I don’t have to like it. I just have to live with it.”
“I guess, I’d been in some kind of shock, and when I walked out of the jail, it just all sort of hit me at once. It pretty much turned my stomach. I don’t know when I had seen two more welcome faces than you two sittin up on that buckboard.” I told them that I’d be all right after a bit and asked if they would say a little prayer for those men.”
Both Patty and Sam looked at me for a second and she said, “You really mean that don’t you?”
I assured her that I did, and told her that I had said prayers for every life taken because of me. Even those who deserved to die or needed to die, including those who were legally killed at the end of a rope. It was the only chance I had at being able to live with myself. I said, “Patty, I killed two men when I was only twelve years old. I had no doubt that they would have killed me and Andy if they’d had the chance. One of them had just killed one of the finest women I’d ever known, while trying to take her away for God only knows what purpose. When he started to wake up, I put a gun to his heart and pulled the trigger. We couldn’t have handled him if he had gotten to his feet. Had I been older or smarter, would have probably used a chunk of cord wood on him to keep him out, but I wasn’t older or smarter.”
“Now those memories hang heavy on my mind in the middle of the night. And, I’ve added more to the list because one of those men will surely hang in Socorro. A little prayer for their souls is the least I can do for my own.”
I had been looking down into my coffee cup, and when I looked up she was wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She got to her feet and said, “I think Rosa needs my help in the kitchen.” and left.
Sam was busy messing with his pipe and said, “Hmph. Yep, she likes you.” I felt my ears get warm again.
I asked him if there was any way he could tip me off to which box was Patty’s at the church social. He hemmed and hawed a bit and said it couldn’t be done. “That box preparation was a bigger secret than the Dutchman’s lost gold mine. I won’t even be able to see it. She was always afraid that I would bid on her box and embarrass her. No girl wants to eat at a box social with her pa, brother, or grandpa. Sorry son, but I can’t help you.”
Well, there had to be a way. I just didn’t have any idea what it was. I asked him what her favorite color was, and he said, “I think it’s green, or maybe it’s yeller.” I could see that Sam wasn’t going to be any help at all.
After supper, I thanked them for their hospitality, said I’d see them at the church on Sunday, which was only three days away. I had approached Rosa while she was putting food away, and asked her for help. At first she acted like she didn’t speak English, so I asked her in Spanish and she said, “No hablar.” And then she said, that Patty had told her, “If that big lunk can’t figure it out, then he can just eat an inferior meal with someone else.” Whatever that meant.
Riding back to the MB I had a lot of time to think about the happenings of the day. It had been a day of highs and lows. Waking up I had been so up after the surprises of the day before, then the shooting, the remorse, the support from my friends, and then the game that Patty was playing. Well, I just might wind up eating with Brenda or Nelly.
Early the next morning, I was up and out of the house. I wanted to catch up with any of the Domingo riders if they were at the northern most cabin, which they used as a line shack. I was interested in finding out about any lion or wolf problems in the valley. Pablo, one of the vaque
ros was just saddling up when I came into the yard. He told me that there hadn’t been any sign of cats on the lower ground, but they could be expected as the weather got worse higher up. He also said that wolves could be a problem as it got colder, but they would more than likely try to feed on the few flocks of sheep that would be back in the canyons. We rode out together to the herd which was pretty well mixed with both brands by now. I scouted around among the scattered groups of cattle to find MB stock, and I was well pleased with what I found. They were fat and slick.
Bidding good day to Pablo, I rode on down toward the southern cabin. Between the line shack and the house, I spotted movement back in the timber. My first thought was a deer, and I could use some venison. But it was too low to the ground for a deer. So I slid my Winchester from its boot and got down from Bob. Scanning the area where I’d seen the movement, I waited… and waited. Finally it moved again. A half grown pig grunted and snuffled around among some deadfalls. “Well I’ll be forever damned.” I said to nobody, and I eased my way up toward it. It shied away a bit but not like a wild animal. I guessed that the Clememts boys had lost some of their pigs in the move or else like a lot of the folks back in the hills had done just let them fend for themselves.
I said, “Hello, there bacon and moved closer. He hadn’t gone wild yet, and I wondered how many there were up in the timber. I wasn’t fond of raising hogs, but I was partial to bacon and ham. I didn’t particularly like the idea of wild hogs roaming around with those long razor sharp tusks. A wild boar can go five or six hundred pounds and will eat almost anything, including a calf. So they had to be gotten rid of because they breed like rats.
Part of my mind was telling me to get in there and start rooting them out, but the more rational side of my head was telling me to think this thing through. My rational side was saying, “Ben, you’ve got cash in the woods there if you can build a smokehouse and spend the winter hog hunting.” So I could kill two birds with one stone just by hunting and curing the meat.
I knew just where to go next, so I rode on south past my house and down toward the other cabin. There was an outbuilding there, which would make a dandy smokehouse. In fact that may have been what it was originally. Those boys did things together like kinfolk often do. If I could get it up off the ground and get some skids under if, I might be able to drag it up to the house. Or I could use it where it is. That wouldn’t be convenient, but it was an option. And if there weren’t many hogs around, I could still use it for deer and elk. The meat would keep better.
As I was jogging along coming to the gap, I nearly ran smack into a couple of riders. I quickly pulled my rifle and laid it across my saddle bows before they saw me. I wasn’t a trusting soul. I approached them at a walk, and when I got into the open, I saw that they were followed by a mighty big herd of cattle. There must have been a good three or four thousand head in that bunch coming up the slope.
I hailed them and they stopped and waited for me to approach. I pulled up at about fifteen or twenty yards. The leaders had stopped behind them at the mouth of the valley. “Howdy boys,” I said, “you fellas bringing me presents? And it ain’t even my birthday.”
The one out front said, “What the hell you talkin’ about, mister?”
“Well… mister, since the only beef in this valley belongs to me or Senor Domingo and you don’t look Mexican and you ain’t me, I just assumed that you was bringing me some cows. Or maybe you want to sell them to me. I’ll give you two dollars a head where they stand, but if they come through that gap, you won’t get a dime. All you’ll get is a belly full of pain.”
About then, two more riders rode up and joined the first two. The spokesman said, “These are Mr. Abe Pickering’s cattle, and we have orders to put them on this range. Maybe you ain’t noticed yet, fool, but there’s four of us to your one.”
I nudged Bob a little to the right so that my rifle was pointing at that tight little group. I said, “And you may not have noticed, fool, that my rifle is pointed right at your belly. I’ll bet even money that I can empty two saddles before anyone can draw iron. This horse has seen more bullets fly than you boys have ever shot… he’ll stand. Can you say the same about your critters?”
“When the shooting starts, those cattle are going to turn and stampede, so anybody back there with that herd is going to be up to his eyeballs in horns and hooves. Now I don’t give a damned about your mister Dickering or Snickering and what he told you to do, but you can’t enter this valley without crossing deeded land… mine. And any cow that comes in here comes in because I want it to, and I don’t want none of these unless your boss makes it worth my while.”
“What’s it gonna be?” and I pulled the hammer back on that Winchester.
They put their heads together and finally the spokesman said, “Okay, you son of a bitch. You win this round.”
I raised my rifle and took a bead on the middle of his forehead at twenty yards and said, “You just called my mother a bitch. Where I come from, back in Missouri, those are killin words, but we’re not in Missouri, so I’ll give you a chance to take it back… a mighty short chance. Talk or die.”
He turned white as a sheet and started babbling about not meaning anything by it, and I lowered the weapon. They started moving the herd back down the slope.
I sat there and watched them go, wondering what I’d done if that hombre had called my bluff. I doubt that I’d a killed a man because of a loose tongue and a bad choice of words. What if they’d stood their ground and made a play. That I knew, I’d a shot it out with them. I was protecting my home and property. There could be no give in that.
What I needed was a fence to protect this gap. It was only about a two hundred yards wide, and a pole fence wouldn’t stop a determined bunch for long, but they would be put on notice. My smokehouse would have to wait. I turned Bob back toward the house and barn.
There was a good stand of lodgepole pines north of the house; in fact that’s where that pig was rootin’ around. I stopped at the corral and got the sorrel and Brownie in harness from odds and ends that the Clements had left behind. We spent the rest of the day snakin deadfall down to the gap. Those two worked well, even though, they didn’t seem to like it. By end of day we had a plenty of poles for what would be needed. I spent the next day with shovel, ax, and a lot of rope and rawhide.
That night I heated some water and took a much needed bath and scraped about three days of whiskers off my jaw. Tomorrow was church social day, and I didn’t want to offend anyone by being a little too gamey. Then I took down my black broadcloth suit that I’d bought last winter, after I’d stopped growing. I brushed it down and hoped that all the creases and wrinkles wouldn’t show much. Next I shined up my boots as best I could.
Sunday morning I put on my suit pants and my practically never used white shirt with a black string tie. Those pants and that shirt fit like they had been tailor made for me. I slipped into that coat and buttoned it up. It was a bit snug across the top and through the shoulders. Maybe I was still growing after all. Well this was no time for surprises, so I tried to stretch it a little by pulling my arms forward. That loosened up the whole back of the coat… ripped her right up the spine. I was about three hours away from preachin time and no Sunday suite. I reckoned that I was going to have to go to the shindig in shirtsleeves and vest.
Then I remembered the short Mexican jacket that Don Carlos had given me because I had admired one that he had. It was made of braided leather and dyed a rich red brown color. I took it down from the shelf and held my breath as I tried it on. It fit perfectly. I topped it off with old stupid Turkey’s black felt hat and looked in the mirror. I had to look again. I hadn’t really looked at myself since I was about fourteen or fifteen. That was when I had decided that I was incurably homely… I guess there was a cure after all. Not that I was any shade of handsome or good looking, but I was damned sure not ugly.
Bob and I rode into the church yard and there was a passel of people already there milling around th
e door. Sunday school had just let out and folks were getting ready for the preachin and the plate passin. I spied Sam, Patty, Andy and a few of their other hands.
I stepped down, and walked toward the Esses bunch. They were all staring at me, and finally Andy said, “Well looky here. Is that my little brother or is some rich good lookin New York play actor? Boy, you sure clean up fine. I ain’t never takin you to the Silver Dollar saloon, them gals won’t even look at me.”
I laughed and turned red. Patty was all eyes and pretty eyes they were. Just as blue as the sky, and big as dollars. She had a little bonnet on and that dark curly hair just kinda framed her face. I suppose I was staring as hard as she was. I’d never seen her look so pretty. Yes, pretty was the right word. Yesterday, I would have said cute as a spotted pup, but today, she was nothing short of pretty.
Sam cleared his throat and knocked the dottle out of his pipe and said, “Wal we better be gittin’ inside so we don’t miss the preachin.”
I offered Patty my arm and she slipped her hand in it. We turned toward the door and started up the steps. I could hear snickering behind us. After church, I may have to whup Andy and his sidekick Charlie, but right now, I didn’t care.
At the door, Sam introduced me to the parson, as Mr. Ben Blue, a newly established rancher in these parts and the hero of the recent attempted bank robbery. The Reverend Millner, welcomed me and said that he had heard many good things about me. I told him that I hoped to be able to live up to them, and we went inside to our seats. We were getting a lot of attention as we walked down the center aisle. It was all I could do not to look down and make sure I had my pants on. Then it dawned on me that they were just checking the new guy. I guessed they probably didn’t care much for the new rancher coming in bold as brass with one of their prettiest girls on his arm. Well they could just get used to it. Even the women folk were staring. I guess they wanted to get a look at this new fella also, so I just smiled and took my seat.
