Guns of the Canyonlands

by Ralph Compton

  “You’re the boss,” Tyree said. “I’m willing to risk the Sharps to get off of this buckskin for a spell.”

  Fowler urged the horse down the slope, then crossed the flat to the near bank of the creek. There he reined up and cupped his hands to his mouth. “Hello the cabin!”

  Immediately a lamp inside was doused, the door opened a crack and a man’s harsh voice yelled, “What do you want? I got me a Sharps big fifty here and I ain’t a-settin’ on my gun hand.”

  “Luke, it’s me. It’s Owen Fowler.”

  A few moments of silence, then, “Owen, it’s you? Why in tarnation didn’t you say so in the first place instead of settin’ out there gabbing? Come on in.”

  Fowler kicked the buckskin into motion and splashed across the creek. The cabin door opened wider and a squat, heavily bearded man who was somewhere in his midsixties stepped into the yard, a rifle in his hands.

  Smiling to himself, Tyree decided that Fowler had been right—Luke Boyd wasn’t a trusting man.

  Fowler reined up when he was close to Boyd and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Got me a friend with me. He’s been half-hung and shot up pretty bad.”

  “Then light, Owen, and bring both of you inside.”

  Tyree climbed off the buckskin, staggered a little, then glanced beyond Boyd to the cabin where a shadow was standing in the doorway. He looked closer, his eyes trying to penetrate the gloom . . . and beheld an angel.

  Lorena Boyd stepped quickly to Tyree’s side, her lovely brown eyes dark with concern. “I saw you stagger. Are you all right? You seem very weak.”

  Tyree managed a tired smile. “I’m fine. Tired is all.”

  “Then let me help you inside.”

  Lorena put her arm around Tyree’s waist and helped him step up onto the porch and into the cabin. He was very aware of the woman’s warm closeness and the firmness of her breast against his side. She was, he decided, the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen in his life.

  Her thick mass of auburn hair was drawn back from her face and tied at her neck with a pink ribbon. Her cheekbones were wide and high, her mouth full, the lips generous and voluptuous. When she smiled her teeth were even and very white. Hers was a mysterious, haunting beauty, the kind that lingers long in the memory of a man, and Tyree felt his breath catch in his throat as she lit a lamp in the cabin and the light fell across her face and body.

  Lorena was dressed in a severely tailored white shirt open at the neck, showing a triangle of flawless, lightly tanned skin. Her straight, canvas skirt was split for riding. Neither garment did anything to conceal the generous curves of her body.

  She pulled out a chair and said, “Sit here, mister. . . . Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

  “There’s no mister.” Tyree smiled. “The name is Chance Tyree.”

  Lorena tasted the name on her tongue, then said, “Chance Tyree, I like that. It has a ring to it.”

  Luke Boyd stepped into the cabin and froze in his tracks when he heard Lorena speak. “Chance Tyree,” he said. “Would that be the Chance Tyree out of Texas? DeWitt County maybe?”

  “There’s unlikely to be another,” Tyree said, his eyes guarded as he studied the stocky rancher. “De-Witt County and other places.”

  “Heard of you,” Boyd said. “Heard a lot about you over the years.” The rancher was silent for a few moments as though making his mind up about something. Finally he set his rifle down on the table and held out his hand. “Luke Boyd.”

  Tyree shook the man’s hand; then Boyd said, “I don’t hold a man’s past against him. What’s done is done. But when you’re well enough to ride, I’d consider it as a favor if you’d move on.”

  It was in Tyree’s mind to say, “Old man, there’s nothing to keep me here.” But when he looked at Lorena, the woman he’d all of a sudden made up his mind to marry, the words died stillborn in his throat. Instead he managed, “I don’t aim to be a burden on you, Mr. Boyd. At first light tomorrow I’ll leave.”

  “No need for that,” Boyd said. “You can stay here for a few days, a few weeks if need be, at least until you’re well enough to ride. But then you got to be going.” The older man smiled, his teeth flashing white under his beard. “No hard feelings I hope, Chance. And mister don’t set right with me any more than it does with you. The name’s Luke.”

  The old rancher had offered the peace pipe, and Tyree took it. “I’m obliged to you, Luke,” he said, matching Boyd’s smile with one of his own. “But I figure I can ride in a couple of days—that is, if you can sell me a horse.”

  Boyd nodded. “We’ll talk about that when the time comes.” His eyes lifted to his daughter. “Lorena, can’t you see this young feller is wounded? Judging by the amount of blood on his shirt, it’s bad, so see to him, child.” Without waiting for a reply he turned to Fowler. “Now, Owen, what the hell are you doing out of jail?”

  In as few words as possible, Fowler told Boyd about the jail’s cholera outbreak that won him his freedom, his finding Tyree south of Crooked Creek hanging more dead than alive, then their fight with Quirt Laytham and his riders along the bank of Hatch Wash. He also mentioned Sheriff Tobin parroting Laytham’s accusation that he’d been rustling his stock.

  Lorena, who had been listening intently as she gently bathed Tyree’s wounds with warm water then bound them up with a bandage, gave an audible gasp at the mention of Laytham’s name.

  “That doesn’t sound like the Quirt Laytham I know,” she said. “For heaven’s sake, Owen, why would Quirt accuse you of rustling his cattle and then attack you?”

  “He wants my land, Lorena,” Fowler said evenly. “His cows are already grazing in my canyon.”

  Lorena’s chin lifted in a stubborn tilt. “Quirt told me about that. He said he mixed his stuff in with yours and that he planned to give you a share of the profits when you got out of jail. He was doing you a favor, Owen. Can’t you see that?”

  “And was Laytham doing me a favor when he told Sheriff Tobin’s deputies to hang me?” Tyree asked, annoyance starting to niggle at him. Lorena seemed so sure of Laytham’s innocence, and that burned him.

  “That was obviously a case of mistaken identity,” the girl flared in return. “The canyonlands are infested with rustlers. Quirt is trying to run them clean out of the country. Just ask Pa. He’s lost cattle and he’s losing more by the day.”

  Boyd nodded. “Can’t argue with that, Chance. I don’t quite know how many head I’ve lost, but it’s a passel. That’s why I graze my Hereford bull close to the cabin.”

  “Lorena,” Tyree said, keeping his voice level despite his growing irritation, “Laytham knew who he was shooting at along Hatch Wash. He called Owen and me by name.”

  The girl bit her lip, then shook her head defiantly. “I’ll ask Quirt about this. I know there’s been some kind of terrible misunderstanding.” She hesitated a moment, then said, “However, cattle are being stolen from the range and you are a stranger in these parts, Chance. And . . .”

  Lorena swallowed hard, as if what she was about to say was not coming easy. “Owen, you’ve known me since I was a little girl in pigtails, but you are a convicted murderer.” She waved her hands helplessly. “Oh, I’m messing this up completely, aren’t I? But what I’m trying to say is that you can understand how Quirt might have jumped to certain conclusions, wrong as they might be.”

  Tyree lifted his eyes to Lorena’s flushed face. The cabin was very quiet, the only movement a tiny silver moth that fluttered around the oil lamp above the table.

  The girl was obviously sweet on Laytham and was determined to defend him to the bitter end. Did that mean she was in love with him? Did I, Tyree thought bitterly, jump to my own wrong conclusion that I could make her my wife?

  Boyd’s voice, gently chiding, cut across Tyree’s thoughts. “Lorena, I’ve told you often that I didn’t think Owen was capable of murder. I believe someone else killed and robbed John Kent.”

  For a few moments Lorena stood still, her eyes revea
ling a knot of different emotions. Finally she walked swiftly across the cabin and threw her arms around Fowler’s neck. “Owen, I know you’re not a killer,” she said. “You’re a gentle, loving man. When I was young, I used to marvel at how animals came to you, especially when they were sick or injured. Animals have an instinct about people—they can sense goodness in them, just as I have always sensed the goodness in you.”

  She kissed Fowler on the cheek, then stepped back and brushed away a stray lock of hair that had tumbled onto her forehead. “It’s just . . . just that when I heard you and Chance say all those terrible things about Quirt I got quite angry.” Her eyes moved from Fowler to Tyree. “I can’t explain it, but when I’m with him, I also sense a goodness in Quirt.”

  Tyree thought about Laytham, with his handsome, brutal face, his expensive clothes and his cattle and blood horses. He was a suitor of wealth and power, the kind to turn any young woman’s head. Lorena had not yet learned that it’s fine to judge a wild-flower or a butterfly by its appearance, but not a man.

  He was about to say so, when Boyd interrupted him. The rancher slapped his hands together and grinned. “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you folks, but I’m getting real hungry for supper.” He turned to Lorena. “What are we having, daughter?”

  Later, as Lorena busied herself at the stove and Owen and Luke talked and smoked their pipes outside, Tyree stepped beside the girl and lightly touched her shoulder. “Lorena, I’ve got something to say to you. The first is yes, I’ve ridden a few owl-hoot trails in my life, but I’m no rustler and neither is Owen Fowler. The second is that someday I plan to make you forget all about Quirt Laytham and take you as my wife.”

  The woman’s back stiffened; then she slowly turned to face him. “Mr. Tyree,” she said, her beautiful eyes blazing, “I certainly wouldn’t count on that if I was you.”

  Chapter 7

  A week drifted by and Tyree’s strength grew as his wounds began to heal. He moved his gear into the bunkhouse, no longer wishing to crowd Lorena and her father in the cabin.

  Lorena still bathed and bandaged him every day. She even washed and mended his shirt, but she was frosty and distant, polite to a fault, the looming shadow of Quirt Laytham lying between them.

  Tyree was yet to tell Lorena that he planned on destroying Laytham, wiping out even his memory from the canyonlands. He would have to let her know soon, but he feared how she would react. There was a distinct probability she’d run into Laytham’s arms and he would lose her forever.

  His frustration growing, Tyree considered another possibility—he could step away from his showdown with Laytham and ask Lorena to leave with him. But even as he mulled over this option, he soon dismissed it. A devil was driving him and it would not let up until justice was done. He had been a stranger passing through, but Crooked Creek lawmen, men Laytham kept in his pocket, had seen fit to hang him. There could be no going back from that. Tyree was a man who measured things only in the light of his own experience, a seasoning he had gained among tough, uncompromising men. He had no other yardstick. He knew he had been badly wronged and for that, there must be a reckoning. It was a principle as old as the Bible—an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Even his growing love for Lorena, coldly distant as she was, would not sidetrack him from his purpose.

  On the morning of the eighth day of his stay at Luke’s ranch, Tyree stepped out of the bunkhouse door after breakfast and saw the old rancher and Fowler saddling their horses in the barn.

  He strolled over and Boyd answered his unasked question. “It’s high time I made a tally of my herd, Chance. I’ve been prospecting some this past three months and during that time they’ve scattered to hell and gone, them that haven’t been rustled. I’ll drive them out of the canyons toward the creek and count them there.”

  Interested, Tyree asked, “You planning on making a drive, Luke?”

  The old rancher nodded. “I figure come spring I’ll hire me a couple of men and push a herd to the Union Pacific railhead at Salt Lake City.” He shrugged. “Money’s been tight for a spell, and I want Lorena to be able to afford some nice things, women’s fixin’s and the like.”

  “I was once pretty handy with a rope,” Tyree said. “Mind if I tag along today?”

  “You up for it, boy?” Luke asked. “That bullet wound in your side has some healing to do yet and you still look a mite peaked.”

  “I’ll be all right,” Tyree said. “I’ll need a good cutting horse, though.”

  Luke thought the younger man’s offer through for a few moments, then said, “We could sure use another hand. Glad to have you along.” He nodded toward the corral. “Throw a saddle on that steeldust. He’ll buck a time or two just to keep you honest, but after that he’ll settle down. He’s a first-rate cow pony.”

  The old rancher’s eyes moved to Tyree’s waist. “Better wear your gun.”

  Tyree smiled. “I thought we were rounding up your cows, not shooting them.”

  “Wear your gun just the same,” Boyd said, his face solemn. “Back in seventy-eight, Governor George W. Emery told the legislature that the Utah Territory had more rustlers to the square mile than any other place in the country. It was the only damn thing I ever agreed with him on.” Boyd’s eyes met Tyree’s. “Wear your iron, boy. I’m not saying we’ll run into shooting trouble, but out there among the canyons a man never knows.”

  Tyree saw the logic in what Boyd was saying. He went back inside the bunkhouse, retrieved the gun belt from the peg and strapped it around his hips, then lifted his Winchester from the rack. When he passed the cabin the door was open. Lorena had her back to him, putting away dishes, and she didn’t turn.

  “We’re heading out to make a tally of your pa’s cows,” Tyree said. “Will you be all right here alone?”

  “I can use the Sharps about as well as Pa,” the girl answered, still without turning. “I’ll be just fine.”

  Tyree pulled his canvas suspenders over his shoulders and settled his hat on his head. He was about to step toward the barn again, but Lorena’s voice stopped him.

  “Be careful out there, Chance,” she said. “Those canyons can be treacherous.”

  Lorena still had her back to him as Tyree said, “Worried about me, Lorena?”

  The girl turned to face him. “Yes, you and Pa and Owen. All of you.”

  Tyree could not read Lorena’s eyes. But was there something there, real concern, maybe? Was it something he might hold on to, to give him hope? He had no time to ponder those questions. The girl turned away again, her back straight and stiff.

  He stepped through the bright light of the morning, confused, feeling no closer to Lorena now than he had for the past eight days.

  Luke Boyd had been right about the steeldust. The horse bucked a few times, enough to justify his reputation, then settled down and seemed eager for the trail.

  “We’ll head east along the creek and search the canyons,” Boyd said. He wore a battered black hat, a plaid shirt and corduroy pants tucked into muleeared boots. An old cap-and-ball Remington rode on his hip and, like Tyree, he had a Winchester under his knee.

  His Henry shattered and inoperable, Fowler had Luke’s Greener scattergun tied to the back of his saddle with piggin strings, and he wore a Green River knife on his belt. A copy of Thomas Carlyle’s History of Frederick the Great was stuffed into a back pocket of his pants. Seeing the book, Tyree smiled. It seemed Owen planned to do more reading than cowboying.

  Lorena stood at the door of the cabin as Tyree and the others rode out, and he waved to her. She waved back, but whether to him or her pa he did not know.

  Under a flaming sky streaked with banners of dark blue cloud, the riders followed the creek south. Around them spread a desolate, silent land of high, serrated ridges, great flat-topped mesas, rocky basins and slender spires and pinnacles of pink, red and yellow sandstone. Sparse growths of Douglas fir, mountain mahogany, scrub oak, sagebrush and mountain shrub grew high up the canyon walls, piñon and juniper
at the lower levels.

  It was still early, but the morning was already hot, the steep, rocky crags on all sides beginning their shimmering dance in the heat. Dust devils spiraled ahead of the riders and sand began to work its way inside their clothes and make their eyes red and gritty. Among the canyons phantom blue lakes glittered, mirages formed by the strengthening sunlight and the clear, dry air.

  Along the creek, grazing in the shade of cottonwoods or standing knee high in the cool water, they counted eighty Herefords, all carrying Boyd’s LB brand. The cattle were fat and sleek, wary and wild as deer.

  But as they rode Boyd’s eyes were shadowed with concern. He had yet to cut sign of his bull, and that bothered him.

  Now the easy part of the tally was over. It was time for the three men to fan out and begin their search of the canyons and draws for the rest of Boyd’s cows.

  Tyree took a sandy switchback cattle trail up a sloping ridge and rode down the other side into a narrow gorge. The trail showed signs of recent use, the cattle tracks overlaid with those of deer and antelope. Because of the canyon’s steep walls, little light penetrated to the bottom and Tyree found himself riding in a strange, violet gloaming. Here, away from the sun, the air was much cooler—one reason cattle were so attracted to canyons, including the slots that were just narrow, twisting fissures in the rock.

  Tyree found half a dozen cows lying around a shallow seep on the canyon floor where grew a few stunted willows and scattered clumps of sagebrush. The Herefords were reluctant to move back to the heat and flies, but the steeldust knew his business and soon had them up and headed for the canyon mouth.

  Tyree hazed the cattle toward the creek and saw Fowler driving another small herd. Boyd, looking grouchy, had ridden into a canyon to the east and had returned empty-handed.

  “Damn it all,” the old rancher growled, the heat and dust making his patience wear thin. “I haven’t seen hide nor hair of my bull. Now where in hell has he wandered off to? He always liked to stay close to them cows.”