Sharpshooter

by Dusty Richards

  “My wife really enjoyed that place.”

  “Everyone has that I know about.”

  “You hear about the lion attack yesterday?”

  “No. Where was it at?” Chet frowned at the notion.

  “He was over at the west end of town. Snatched a young boy and started to carry him off. Two workers with shovels beat him off the boy and he is expected to live.”

  “He must be near toothless and couldn’t catch a deer.”

  “Folks in town are upset.”

  “Good job for the sheriff to settle.”

  Jesus agreed.

  * * *

  They rolled north on Tuesday. One wagon this trip, and Jesus drove it to the Verde Ranch to pick up Tad, who drove it north from there. Billy Bob appeared excited about joining them. They pushed and stopped on top of the rim on the north side of the Verde. After supper, they all went to sleep. Chet figured they wouldn’t need a night guard that isolated, and everyone woke sleepy eyed.

  “We ain’t used to work yet,” Cole complained.

  While Tad and Lisa cooked breakfast they loaded all they could and saddled the horses for everyone. It went smoothly. No sign of rain the night before so they never raised a tent. In no time, they hit the road and passed Robert and the sawmill without stopping. By evening they were set up on the ranch property past the stage stop facilities.

  It was cool enough there to wear a denim jumper or a blanket. A man in a business suit came down and spoke to Chet.

  His name was John Cosby. He was an official, he said, with the Atchison Topeka Santa Fe Railroad.

  “Saved me a trip to Prescott. Is Mr. Emerson still your employee?”

  “Yes, he’s with me today.”

  “Good. I need to speak to both of you. But first let us talk—you and I.”

  “Fine. What do you need?”

  “Well, my predecessor on this job obviously knew very little about running a stage line or telegraph wire and his idea to cut Mr. Emerson’s wages was shortsighted. I saw right off why Emerson quit. But the man who cut his wages is no longer on our staff. What would it take, do you think, to get him to come back and run it again? We can see the rail laying taking many years more than we first anticipated or the men who were in charge then thought that it would. But they lived in castles and have no idea what is out here.”

  “Cole and I talked about that at the time.”

  “Well, we are being threatened by the federal government to lose our permit unless both the stage and the telegraph businesses are improved. See, the money for them came from Congress and they have an iron hand on it.”

  “So you need it fixed—now.”

  “I am not standing here because I like the thin air. Yes, now.”

  “I can’t speak for Cole. But if I was Cole I’d tell you to shove it.”

  “You don’t know how serious I am. Could I hire you to convince him?”

  “No. Cole is too good an employee for me to convince him to retake the job.”

  “May I talk to him?”

  “Sure, it is a free country. He’s past twenty-one. I can go find him.”

  “Can we go have supper someplace here?”

  “We can eat at my chuck line. Come on.”

  “I wish to pay you—”

  “No, I am not some broke cowboy. I can afford to feed you.”

  “I am sorry. I know you are a very successful rancher and connected to the U.S. Marshal’s office in DC, but—”

  “Just eat with us. I will introduce Cole Emerson to you as well.”

  “All right.”

  “Fine. Let’s go back and I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

  “I don’t mean to be a burden—”

  “Mr. Cosby, you are in Arizona now. I feed who I want.”

  “Come to DC and I will treat you.”

  “I doubt I’ll ever go back there. I was certain I had my last kerchief out of my hotel room when I left.”

  “Many times, I wondered why I even took this job.”

  “Oh, how is that?”

  “I was not born rich but like to live the style. You know what I mean?”

  “Exactly. John Cosby, meet Cole Emerson.”

  The two shook hands and Cole tossed his head south. “You with them?”

  “I am and I came here specially to talk to you, sir.”

  “I quit those cheap bastards a year and a half ago.”

  “Well, the stupid man who fired you is no longer with the railroad.”

  “He never fired me. He came, like some swaggering king, into my office and said, ‘We’re cutting your pay in half and if you don’t improve this operation I will cut it that much again.’ I told him where he could put it, took my things, and left.”

  “He no longer works for us. But you don’t have to be a genius to drive by that facility and see how much it has gone downhill since the king ran you off.”

  “I have a job.”

  “I have a better one to offer you.”

  “I made over sixty thousand dollars doing it this year.”

  “You are lying. They don’t pay big corporation leaders that much.” He turned to Chet. “You paid him that much?”

  “It was a windfall. We found a Spanish treasure and I split it with the men who were with us.”

  Cosby laughed. “Who else in this tent made that much money?”

  Tad put the heaping platter of cooked steaks on the table and shoved his felt hat back on his head. “I did.”

  “What about you?” Cosby asked Billy Bob, standing there with a plate and silverware service for the man.

  “I made that much. It’s all in the Preskitt Bank, save for the twenty-nine dollars I give for a guitar.”

  Cosby, shaking his head, sat down in the camp chair. “What in the hell was in that Spanish treasure?”

  “A bucket of rubies, a half bucket of emeralds, and, oh, forty gold bars and that much in free gold.”

  “Chet, you need any help?”

  “No, not today.”

  “Cole, I can pay you forty thousand dollars a year on an ironclad ten-year contract to run the two businesses. We will have tracks to California from the coast by then and will have the railroad completed. That job hinges on those two companies breaking even or making money when you run them.”

  “I want two years to get it running again. Then time to make it better each year, with a fifty-thousand-dollar salary a year for the entire term of the contract.”

  Cosby stood up and stuck out his hand and they shook.

  “Can Rocky come back up here with us?” Cole asked Chet.

  Chet nodded. “Rocky wouldn’t quit Val. I know that. Let’s say grace, eat supper, and then we can talk business.”

  “Is that how you get those kinds of jobs, Jesus?” Lisa asked him.

  He shook his head. “You see that mess down there we came by?”

  She nodded.

  “He may have a good-paying job but he’s going to have to find some more damn good help.”

  Chet said, “Everyone bow their head. Our heavenly Father, we are gathered here in the pines. Forgive our sins, take care of all our people, and bless this food. Amen.”

  Cosby took a bite of his steak. “You need a job cooking under a roof, sir.”

  Tad grinned big. “Mister, I don’t even need to work anymore. I wouldn’t trade this outfit for the whole damn railroad.”

  They laughed.

  “Great food.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You are his wife?” Cosby asked.

  “I am Chet’s wife.”

  “How did you get with him, if I may ask?”

  “Oh, like a silly girl I ran off with some outlaws and Chet caught them in Colorado. He offered me a job as camp helper and a packhorse to ride back on. I took it and I have been working for him ever since.”

  They all laughed.

  “She’s telling you the truth,” Chet said.

  “I’m sorry. I have been laughing so hard I am crying. Now I ca
n see how Cole ran a stage line and a telegraph wire so well that we bought it.”

  “How is that?” Chet asked him.

  “He’s just like you and her. He doesn’t take too much seriously and still gets it done, right?”

  “Lisa is not lying. We arrested those rich playboys who had raided one of Cole’s stage stop stations and with two posses we had chased them down into the Four Corners country. They are in prison for ten years.”

  “Their parents have begged us to have them released,” Cosby said.

  Lisa put down her fork. “Don’t let those sorry bastards out until the very last day. They hurt lots of people, including me, and didn’t care about anyone they ran over or killed.”

  “I will see they serve their full sentence,” he promised.

  “John, I bet you never took an evening stroll and met such an outfit along the way, have you?”

  “Chet, you have a neat outfit. Food is excellent and I have what I came for. Your ex–vice president.”

  Chet shook his head. “We just call them ranch foremen out here.”

  “No, I can see, from your wife on, that you have a helluva outfit even if the air is thin.”

  “You get better at breathing it the longer you stay.”

  “What is needed next, Cole?” Cosby asked him.

  “Well, sir. I need to ride back down to the Quarter Circle Z and tell a short woman, she and that boy are moving back to Flagstaff. Is the telegraph working?”

  “Fair.”

  “Damn, that ain’t good enough.” Cole chewed on his lower lip. “Can I borrow Spencer for six weeks, Chet?”

  “Now we’ve got the rustlers in jail, I believe Fred can run the place for that long. If he will go along with it.”

  “He’ll go along for a fee. Cosby. Spencer is the man strung it in such record time and he knows it. I believe with support he can get it running a lot quicker than anyone else.”

  “Sounds great. I will pay.”

  “Now I need to ask for one more person, Chet.”

  “He won’t be back from his honeymoon until next Sunday.” Under the lantern light Chet shook his head as if he was real disappointed about Cole’s request.

  “Salty Meeker is who can get the horses and coaches in line. What’s wrong?”

  “Who will take your place at that ranch?”

  Cole shrugged. “Sarge may kill me. Cody Day, Tom’s son-in-law.”

  “My sister might be madder at me than him if they lose him. He is the first guy Sarge ever trusted to move a herd to Gallup by himself.”

  “Who else do you have?”

  “I guess Spud and his wife, Shirley. But then Lucy and Shawn will need help. I will find them someone. Cosby?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I bet you right now, in two months those headquarters down the way won’t look like a junkyard.”

  Cosby laughed. “I have never been around cowboys before, but I know you aren’t the ordinary ones. I can’t believe all we’ve gotten done in a tent here tonight.”

  “Have you relieved your current management?” Cole asked.

  “No, I wasn’t sure I could hire you to come back with us.”

  “Save it for a few days. I am coming but I want to be right behind them going out the front door,” Cole said.

  “Probably the best thing. Will all of you keep it a secret?”

  Everyone around the table nodded.

  “Fine. They don’t know who I am. They think I am an auditor. Those people have been sent here by the dozens trying to stop the losses but this operation has been a sieve. I saw the books they gave us when we bought the operation and you were in charge. It didn’t take a genius to see the difference by comparison.”

  When Cosby rose to leave, Chet said, “Jesus, you and Billy Bob walk him back to his facilities. It’s a dark night and Cole doesn’t want anything to happen to him.”

  “I will be fine.”

  “No, you are in our land. A little precaution won’t hurt. It is long ways out here between places, and further to police protection.”

  “Thanks. What will you do next?”

  “Send Billy Bob out to tell my ranchers out west we will come another time. Turn around and head for home and resettle some things. I may go ask the man that strung the line if he’d join Cole on the telegraph business until it got going right.”

  “What will he charge?” Cosby asked.

  “I am sure he would be expensive but getting it back on right is important, too.”

  “If he is that good, try five thousand a month for three months’ work. Time is crucial.”

  Chet agreed that was a fair sum. “I am certain he would take it.”

  “Good. My dear, thanks for your hospitality. I want to see your home place someday.”

  “I’ll be there. You would be most welcome.”

  “I am serious. And thanks, Cole. I’ll be glad to have you in charge and know things will be getting straightened out.”

  Jesus and Billy Bob walked him back to the living quarters. Lisa and Chet told them good night. Plans were to be decided in the morning to lay out the future.

  “He came out here to hire Cole.” Lisa chuckled. “I about choked when Cole told him what he would take the job for.”

  “He may be losing that much or more under this bunch he has in charge now. The federal government’s involvement makes it important to a railroad. They count on them so much to get it built.”

  “I love Cole as a person. I hate to see him go back but he can make a fortune in those years. And do whatever he pleases in no time.”

  “Wild, isn’t it?”

  “Chet Byrnes, I love you so much and life is so exciting being your wife.”

  He smiled.

  CHAPTER 19

  The first decision was for Billy Bob to take a letter to Lucy and Shawn. That letter explained what had happened, said it was all done in secret, and asked, if they could spare Spud and Shirley, then to send them to headquarters. Chet had a ranch for them to run. He went over things with the young man taking the message. It was two and half days’ hard riding for him to get out to Hackberry. Chet told him to be careful of strangers and keep going. To buy meals instead of cooking them but to be aware that eating places were miles apart out there. To rest up after he got there and then come back to the Preskitt Valley ranch.

  Billy Bob rode out. Later Cosby came by. Cole was ready to go south and shook his hand. They decided to meet back there in ten days, ready to take over the stage line and telegraph operation. They would use one of the empty houses that Chet owned for Cole to move into up in Flagstaff, before he took over. He would get Salty and Oleta over there and get him into the stagecoach business.

  Jesus, Chet, and Lisa were going to see about Spencer taking the three-month job working on the wire to straighten that system out. They took bedrolls and food like raisins and peanuts to eat on the trail.

  “Fred’s wife, Josey, is having a baby in the middle of that,” Lisa said when they finally got on horseback and rode east.

  “We can move her to our house a month early. Those boys will work for him. We’ll do whatever we can to work that out,” Chet said.

  Tad was taking the buckboard back to the Verde Ranch and shook his hand when they parted.

  Two days’ hard pushing to get to the Wagon Wheel and a slow, chilly, light rain was falling when they reached it. Jesus told them to dismount at the front door and he’d put the horses in the barn stalls.

  Fred opened the door and looked for more people.

  “Jesus is putting the horses in the barn. There are only three of us.”

  “Okay. Come in. The rest are in the kitchen.”

  “What did we do wrong now?” Spencer said, hugging Lisa. A completely different guy from the man they’d found several weeks earlier, a man who’d been plagued by rustlers.

  “Did you get the house girl married?” Lucinda asked.

  “Last Saturday, but we have more plans. Everyone, sit down. Jesus will be
here shortly.”

  They sat around the long dining table, and the large fireplace had a warm fire going.

  “The railroad hired Cole to run the stage line and telegraph company again. There are some problems in the wire. Cole said you knew more about it than anyone. I know you are happy here. But Cole needs you to cover them and get it all straight. The railroad is willing to pay you five thousand dollars a month for you to find the weak spots from New Mexico to California and you have three months to do it. I told them I could spare you for that long and Fred could run the ranch.”

  “Wow, that is lots of money but it will be winter soon.”

  “It will give you some money for emergencies with your ranch wages. I’ll keep paying you and all. It isn’t finding gold but it isn’t bad.”

  “When do they need to know?”

  “Within a week.”

  “Honey, that would give us a healthy bank account. Tell him yes.”

  “Fred, if you need help when he’s gone telegraph Flagstaff. You can reach Cole and he will have men up and down the line who could come help. The last month we will move Josey closer in, perhaps to Flagstaff, and have her stay with Val and be near a doctor. Just in case.”

  Fred thought that should be safe enough. Josey agreed.

  “What kind of problems are they having in the line?” Spencer asked.

  “I think connections. Loose wire in places.”

  “I will need some pole-climbing rigs and some Navajo boys to help.”

  “Find them and have them ready to be on the payroll ahead of your going to work. Make a list of equipment you will need. In two weeks, Cole will be in Flagstaff and in charge.”

  “Pretty damn nice of you to find us a job while we work for you.”

  “Listen, you guys are making these ranches work. You know Cole quit them when they walked in and cut his pay in half. Well, that dumb guy is gone now. They made Cole a helluva deal for ten years to run it, which fits what I thought. They’d be that long getting to California. The last years of that term they will be building tracks east from California. The government told them to fix the stage and the telegraph service. They can’t afford the government to be mad at them.”

  Spencer chuckled. “Hope it’s an easy winter. But I get it done and I get my money?”

  “You will get three payments and all your expenses.”