Deadly Is the Night

by Dusty Richards

  After an early breakfast the following morning, they rode north with bedrolls on behind their cantles. Jesus had some good beef jerky and dried fruit for them to eat. Canteens full, they left Tucson behind and went around the mountains for Oracle and on north.

  This region had saguaros, prickly pear patches, lots of grass, plus yucca stalks. It also had the century plants that bloomed once in a lifetime and died. Apache squaws used to dig up the plants and make a weak beer out of the roots. Chet never knew how, but he heard stories from some Apache army scouts who told him this is what the squaws did. An occasional patch of tall gnarled cottonwood marked the watering spots for wildlife and livestock in washes and even where springs popped up.

  He was impressed when he saw several tanks of mortar and rocks had been built below a spring to water stock, too. There was plenty of grass and he liked the rangeland. The cows they saw when they reached what he considered the property line bore the W—W brand. They were old longhorn cows with great horns, and the bulls were mixed in with the longhorn stock. Certainly not the genetic route to better beef cattle, a big factor in what their offspring were worth on any market.

  “Them cows have lots of age on them,” Spencer said. “I’d be surprised they can still have calves.”

  “There was talk about old longhorns in Texas that were able to have calves until they were thirty-five or older.”

  “These are getting close. Why so many old ones?”

  “He probably bought them as cheap cows to mortgage. Bankers are not cattle graders.”

  “He always has been a damn crook, hasn’t he?” Spencer asked.

  “Taken the easy way to go.”

  Near dark they reached the shabby headquarters and met the foreman Nye had told him about, Frisco Johns, a squat-built Mexican who greeted them with a big smile. “What can I do for you, señor?”

  “Mr. Nye said to come meet you. My name is Chet Byrnes. The good-looking guy is my man Jesus and that other hombre is Spencer who rides with us.”

  “You come to look at the ranch, señor?”

  “Yes. For several reasons. One is what can be done with it? The second one how to do it and what can we do to get that done?”

  Amused by Chet’s words, Frisco smiled at him. “Most gringos come here ask where the ranch house is?”

  “I can see that. Where should it be?”

  “The man who owned it before Weeks bought it never lived out here. He and his wife lived in Oracle and his vaqueros lived out here. He said his wife thought this place was too close to hell for her to live way out here and too far from town to drive for groceries.”

  “You worked for him?”

  “As a boy, yes, but I left when he got too old and my uncle who ran it retired to Mexico. I came back here later to run the ranch, but when Weeks bought this place he fired me. Said I made too much money and he hired boys in Mexico for little money to be his cowboys. He fed them beans and paid them ten dollars a month.

  “I talked to Señor Nye when his bank repossessed it, and he hired me and I found some good men to work, but now there are only eighty cows left. Before we ran four hundred cows and had grass. But now—

  “Come inside. My wife will fix all of you some food. We can talk more. There is hay and water in the big pen for your horses.”

  “I can put up the horses,” Jesus said in the last red light of sundown.

  “No. One of my men, Baca, can do it. Come, the three of you, be my guests.”

  Chet thanked the man taking the horses. Then they went inside the adobe house.

  A bright-faced woman with a straight back greeted them. She was considerably younger than her husband, her dark hair pinned severely back, but her smile was warm and she was very attractive.

  “This is Rosa. Rosa, these are Señor Byrnes, Jesus, and Spencer.”

  “Chet, ma’am, and nice to meet you.”

  “Welcome to my house. I don’t have much company so it is a pleasure to meet you three men. Why are they here, Frisco?”

  “Señor Nye sent them to look over the ranch and see what could be done with it.”

  “Did you tell them to go to Apache Springs and start all over?”

  “Where is that, ma’am?” Chet asked.

  “He can show you. Long ago the Apaches used it as a shrine or something. Everyone is afraid the Apaches would come back and burn him or her out if they built there. But now they are about all gone, who would care?”

  “That danger is past.”

  “I can show you the place tomorrow,” Frisco said.

  “Good idea. Thanks, Rosa.”

  She smiled. “See, Frisco, I told you someday a smart man would come here and believe me.”

  He laughed. “She has said that for years.”

  “You two have been married for years?” Chet asked.

  “Yes. Bandits killed her family in Mexico. I found her.” He turned to her. “You were how old?”

  “Thirteen. He really did save me or I would have died.”

  “I told her she could not live with me. She said marry me. I had no one. But I said I can’t I am old enough to be your father.”

  “I said he was not my father and had no family to stop him.”

  Frisco agreed with her story and continued, “So we went to a priest and told him to marry us. He said no she is too young.”

  She came back. “So I said, no problem. I would go on living with him as his wife anyway. So he married us.”

  “That was a lie, but he married us. And we have been man and wife for fourteen years now.”

  “No children?” Chet asked.

  “Not one ever lived.”

  “My wife lost one before I left Preskitt. She was married before, but her husband was killed and they never had any children.”

  “That is a shame but nothing you could do,” she said, motioning for them to sit at the table. “The frijoles are hot.”

  “And we’re hungry,” Jesus said, then bowed his head and crossed himself.

  “You have a wife?”

  “A new one, Anita, yes, and she lives in Preskitt.”

  “I bet you men have pictures of them. After supper show me them.”

  “I don’t have one of mine but she is a nice lady,” Spencer said.

  Chet showed her his wife’s photo and she oh’d and ah’d. “My, such a beautiful woman. Where did you meet her?”

  “Tubac. She came by our camp looking to buy a horse, and after that we were married.”

  “And your wife?” she asked Jesus.

  “Anita was her maid.”

  “Wonderful stories. And yours?” she asked Spencer.

  “We met on a stagecoach going to Preskitt.”

  “Oh, my, not one she-lived-next-door stories among you three.” She laughed and took a seat.

  “See, she has no one to talk to out here but me,” Frisco said. “And she knows all my stories.”

  “Hey, she’s a great cook and a sweet lady, you better appreciate her while you have her,” Spencer said. “Good women are hard to find.”

  They all laughed.

  He offered them hammocks set up in the yard and they accepted. She promised she’d have breakfast ready at daylight.

  They woke early, saddled the horses, washed up, and ate her breakfast of oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar. Chet had a plan that three of Frisco’s vaqueros joined them.

  Chet told Frisco he wanted each of his men to ride with a ranch hand and see as much as they could. He and Frisco would go to the springs Rosa had talked about. She cheered at that announcement. The hands laughed.

  For a while, there was nothing but some hills. Chet and Frisco rode side by side until, all of a sudden, they rode up a canyon lined with huge gnarled cottonwoods. There were lots of places for a big house and a spring-fed lake in the middle. Most would’ve called it a cow tank, but it was natural and maybe covered an acre or more. The water spilled from the spring into a real long man-made rock and mortar trough that could be accessed from either s
ide for animals to drink. The water went out the end of the structure and disappeared in the ground.

  Yes, this cove would make a great headquarters. It would need a road cut into it and some arranging, but it would be so much better than that dust bowl where they built the original, where Frisco’s jackal stood.

  “Did Nye ever see this?”

  Frisco shook his head. “He was not interested in spending a nickel more on this place.”

  “How much to build a road into here from the current one?”

  “Five hundred dollars.”

  “Do it. Rosa will have her wish.”

  He shook his head. “She will be hard to live with until it is built.”

  Chet laughed and clapped him on the back, returning to their horses. “Ah, a good wife. We are lucky we both have great ones.”

  “You are a much different man than I expected to meet. I have heard about the big ranches you own and how tough you are. I don’t doubt you could be tough, but you didn’t come up here and insult me, push me away, or swagger around like Weeks always did.”

  “Why do that? If I take on a business I want it to make money—fair enough?”

  “I see that. You listened to my wife. Most men would have scoffed at her words. You turned your ears up to hear her part. But you knew women many times will make their men do what they want. The present ranch headquarters looks like a place in Sonora you’d find in the desert. This looks like Fort Huachuca.”

  Chet nodded. “The cottonwoods and with a large two-story house with sleeping porches.”

  “What will you do now?” Frisco asked.

  “Tell Nye to spend some money. Build a headquarters to show people and buy three hundred mother cows to stock it along with a dozen good bulls. Cull the barren cows. In two years he can sell this place for a fortune to a real rancher.”

  “If you believe that, then why not buy it yourself and I’ll do the rest for you here.”

  “Where will you get the cows?” Chet asked.

  “Socorro, New Mexico. I can buy half to three quarter Hereford and Shorthorn cows up there next fall. Cost twenty-five dollars apiece. None over five years old and bred to a good bull. Now, the road will cost you five hundred dollars or less. How big a house?”

  “Six bedrooms.”

  “I can get some good carpenters up here from Mexico. Cheap but I really would need a gringo to buy the material. If I tried, they would rob me. Do you have one like that works for you?”

  Chet nodded. “We can talk to Spencer. He could do it and knows building. Tonight we will ask him.”

  Frisco grinned. “Gracias. I came here because I love this ranch. My family has run this ranch for many years. I would like to run it when it is stocked and a real ranch.”

  “If I buy it, you will have that chance to make it work.”

  “Gracias.” They shook hands to seal the deal.

  That evening he spoke to Spencer and Jesus. “Frisco wants to run the ranch if I buy it. But I would need a construction supervisor for about a year to build the headquarters over at Apache Springs. Frisco is afraid they would cheat him buying material and the like. He can get all the help we need from Mexico.”

  “Who will ride with you?” Spencer asked.

  “Jesus and I will pick up a hand if we need one. Get the house up and you can come back to us. What about Rebecca?”

  “She can marry me and be my wife or go her own way. What was this springs place like?”

  “A cottonwood tree canyon with maybe an acre or more of natural lake in the center, spring fed, and has a hundred-foot-long watering trough below it someone built years ago. It is a place where the headquarters should have been built.”

  “Can I go home and ask her first?”

  “We have time. I can get a construction man if you don’t want it. We can ride by and see the springs place on the way going back.”

  “I damn sure want to see it. And Frisco wants to be the foreman here I bet?”

  Chet nodded. “I don’t figure you want to sit up here and simply be the boss.”

  Spencer chuckled. “You know me too well now.”

  “If I can make a deal with Nye when we get back to Tucson, then you decide after we get home. I think this ranch can be a really damn good one.”

  “Those cows that I have seen are all old. That is no problem. We will buy three hundred cows in the fall over at Socorro, New Mexico. Frisco knows how and when. Meanwhile you put up the headquarters building and we can sell it if we want, or keep it and make it bigger.”

  “It is damn sure a real grassy place.”

  “I think the same. Jesus, what do you think?”

  “I like it. More water development would help, but we can do that in time, too.”

  “Good. We will look at things on the way out. Next day see what Nye will take for it. Then we’ll know what to do?”

  “What is it worth today?”

  “I think anywhere from ten to twenty thousand for the land.”

  Jesus nodded in agreement.

  Rosa made them breakfast early and told them to come back and bring their women. She wanted to meet them.

  Chet shook the men’s hands and thanked them for their help. He told Frisco to look for a yes or no answer at the Oracle post office. The man smiled. “Good to meet you, hombre. I will look for it.”

  They rode off but didn’t make it back to Tucson that day, due to delays like looking around and stopping at the springs. His men agreed that the spring’s site would make a real salable ranch headquarters. The next day they rode into Tucson, put their horses in the livery, and had lunch. Then Chet went to find the banker.

  “Well.” Nye closed the office door. “What did you think?”

  “Tell me the bottom dollar you’d take for the ranch?”

  “Twenty-five thousand.”

  Chet shook his head. “Too high.”

  “Twenty?”

  “No.”

  “Fifteen?”

  “Twelve thousand,” Chet said.

  Nye shook his head. “You are a man that I know makes money and I know you can operate ranches. What will you do with it?”

  “It is going to require lots of money. Frisco said you didn’t want to spend any more money on it.”

  Nye nodded. “But I can’t give it away.”

  “I’ll leave you with an offer of ten thousand dollars for thirty days, clear title and the cattle.”

  “You offered me twelve once. You are getting cheaper?”

  “I’d pay twelve today like this—-three thousand now and three thousand every year on January first until the twelve is paid off.”

  “I’d do that on fifteen thousand. No interest, huh?”

  “Thirteen?”

  “No. Fourteen and the way you break it down—your deal. You know you are robbing me now.”

  “Draw up the papers. I will be here in the morning to sign them for fourteen at that same payment schedule.”

  “What in the hell are you going to do with it?”

  “Make it a working ranch.”

  “Can I have your ranch bank account on it, so I can make some money?”

  “I can’t move the Diablo one over here. Those folks have been good to me, but I will put this place to bank here.”

  “What will you call it?”

  “Apache Springs Ranch.”

  Nye shook his head. “We can do all that paperwork tomorrow. I think a master of the arts of finance has scalded me. And I went to college to learn all that.”

  “Just think, you won’t have owning it on your mind anymore?”

  “How many men do you have with you?”

  “Two of my men who always ride with me.”

  “Meet me and my wife Helena at the Bull’s Head Restaurant at seven thirty. I am buying supper for you and your men.”

  “We can’t dress up. We have no dress clothes with us.”

  “Tell them you are my guests. It will get you in.”

  “I heard it was a real fancy
place?”

  “They take money like the rest of the places. Enough said, see you then.”

  Chet joined his men. “We have a ranch.”

  “How much?” Jesus asked.

  “Fourteen thousand.”

  “Wow. You did good.”

  “I told him to accept it or my next offer was ten.”

  “And he did,” Jesus said. “Well, Spencer, the job building the house is in your pocket.”

  Spencer looked concerned. “I don’t know what Rebecca will say.”

  “Guess we will learn that later,” Jesus said. “Where are we eating?”

  “With him and his wife in the Bull’s Head Restaurant, seven thirty.”

  “In our clothing?” Jesus asked in shock.

  “We are his guests. He has the money to pay for us he told me.”

  “I always wanted to eat in there. Tonight I will,” Jesus said. “No one I know will ever believe that I ate there.”

  “I will,” Chet said, and they laughed.

  CHAPTER 4

  Two days later the ranch deal was settled and they rode the stage home. Chet sent Frisco a letter—telling him they’d bought it. A boy was hired to take the horses back to Tubac. The day presented some light rain and cooler weather in their travels. But moisture was a treat to ranch people. So little fell on the territory every drop was appreciated.

  He wired from Hayden’s Mill about their return. Three buckboards met them. Anita on one for Jesus, Rebecca on another for Spencer, and his own wife, Liz, on the seat of the third one. All were dressed up for the cold spitting snow.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked, climbing aboard.

  She held the reins. “Very good. Better now you are back. Your things loaded. I can drive. You can tell me about what happened and how Ortega is doing.”

  He kissed her on the mouth. “Drive on. He is healing fine and they are setting up some guards on the south end to stop any rustling there. We are waiting to see if news of those rustlers’ deaths will stop further cattle thieving. And I bought another ranch.”

  “I expected that. Tell me about it.” They rode on under the stars back to the ranch.

  Liz said she was interested in seeing it. He agreed to show it to her. “It is a grassy desert ranch, and has a great foreman to run it. His wife, Rosa, asked me to bring you down there. She is a lot younger than he is. Bandits slaughtered her family but she survived the attack. He found her in Mexico and wanted her to go, I guess, to a church shelter. She told him no, she was going with him. He said then she had to marry him. They asked a priest who said at first she was too young. Thirteen I think. She told him that was no problem that she’d live with him anyway. So the priest married them.”