Dead Aim

by Dusty Richards

  “Dad’s back,” Harp said, coming in the house. “They bought four draft mules to pull the chuck wagons; that’s what they call them now.”

  Reg came into the kitchen in his wheelchair. Smiling, he spoke to everyone. “We have the whole crew here tonight I see.”

  “Hiram will be here shortly then,” Easter said. “Everyone sit down.”

  The women and a Mexican kitchen girl brought out the food. A large sliced prime rib, canned green beans, and frijoles with freshly baked sliced bread and butter. There was hot coffee to drink and lots of talking was going on when Hiram joined them.

  “Did you find some good mules?” Harp asked his dad.

  Passing the meat tray on, Hiram nodded. “Two good teams. Ira and I didn’t expect to find two teams that sound and really well broke. They cost a hundred a team, which was a bargain. Closer to herd takeoff time I’d bet they’d cost five hundred apiece. Real good mules are scarce.”

  “Why, Hiram, people won’t pay that for mules.”

  “Easter, they would if they needed them bad enough. People have lost their minds over this cattle-driving business. I know it is financial salvation for Texas, but there is still reasonable ways to do it.”

  “How are we doing on getting herds ready?” Long asked.

  Harp nodded. “That is why we needed more mules. There are four thousand head at the Diamond Ranch. We have that many of our own now and signed up is near a herd and a half already.”

  “Six herds?” Long asked, a little awed by their success. “No wonder you bought mules.”

  “And more ranchland,” Harp added.

  “This is going to take a lot of hands.”

  “We will have to hire them now to have any. People who hire them only for the drive won’t get very high-quality drovers. We need several good hardworking men and put them on the payroll now.”

  “How will you do that?”

  “Katy and I are going to San Antonio next week and see how many we can hire there. We did good finding them there in times past. Our black cowboys are out hiring some more good hands. They know the good ones from the sorry ones better than I do.”

  “I sent Hoot and his wife to Mexico. He thinks he can get some tough vaqueros out of there. He knows lots of folks on the border and I expect him to find us several hands down there.”

  “Harp and I think that the cattle market will be saturated and we may only receive around sixty dollars a head this year,” Reg the accountant said.

  “He and I have been following the market close,” Harp said. “There are lots of predictions about a lower market. Reg has looked at contracting some sales ahead if we can beat that price.”

  “Does that mean we sell them before we leave here?”

  “If they want to pay a reasonable price, yes. But we get a deposit in the bank so that even if they don’t want them we still collect.”

  Long shook his head at all the complications showing up. “Jan and I will continue to try and settle with landlocked ranchers.”

  “So far you two have done great. I think Oscar’s sale will bring others forward,” Harp said.

  “There will always be holdouts. But the fear of being fenced in will also help us convince more to take our offer.”

  “Right. We knew it wouldn’t be easy. Shortly we need to start road branding those selling cattle at the Diamond Ranch.”

  “These new hands going to do that, too?”

  “Doug has some day workers coming, and with his own help he thinks he can handle it, but I want him to have plenty of assistance. That is no small job,” Harp said.

  “Don’t it amaze you two any at all?” Hiram asked, shaking his head over the matter.

  “How’s that, Dad?”

  “Well, Harp, two years ago there were only eight hundred steers to go north. And today twelve thousand head busting at the gate to get up there in six herds. Laddies, I can’t believe you two have done this much business.”

  “We’ve thought about it, Dad,” Long said. “In fact we’ve thought about it a lot.” He shook his head—he even recalled the night that Harp fired the cook. That was a long ways back but was what started it all.

  CHAPTER 13

  Dressing in the morning by the bedroom lamp’s light because the sun wasn’t up that early, he asked her, “You sleep all right last night?”

  “Fair. I am still dazzled by the numbers you all talked about last night.”

  “It is big business. We are deeply emerged in it. I don’t know how but cattle prices could fall away. The economy of this country has not came back to pre-war standards. Some say it is the war debt, others say it is those high-risk takers plunging into things. But things flow in life like a river; it may flood and you have to float or go dry and then you haul water.”

  “I understand that. Now if I am not with child when the time comes, can I go north with you?”

  “A woman in an all man camp is kind of—hell, yes. I wasn’t even thinking. It can be dangerous but I’d love to have you along.”

  They hugged and kissed. Good, they wouldn’t be separated for months. She’d spoiled him enough that he knew he’d really miss having her.

  At breakfast, Harp said he needed to do some banking business in town that their mom had pointed out needed doing. Harp suggested that Long and Jan go over to the Diamond and visit the “girls.”

  “We can do that and I can talk to Doug about his plans for the road branding. I expect he has it all lined out, but I want to make sure all the bows are tied on the deal. Take someone with you to town today.”

  Harp made a face, then agreed.

  “There is way too much riding on both of us not to have a guard along. Shame but it isn’t the simple two O’Malley brothers from Texas anymore.”

  Harp agreed.

  Long drove Jan in the buckboard with two men along on horseback.

  When they drove up to the mansion, Jan elbowed him. “I still would love to live here.”

  “Someday you and Katy can draw for high card to who gets to live here.”

  The women and their butler met them at the door all excited, and he knew he was in for listening to lots of chatter and tea. But someday all this would be his and his brother’s ranch if they managed to hold on.

  After lunch he drove her home. Jan was in a flitter. The girls had promised her, when she got her own house, they had a set of gold-rimmed French dishes and crystal glasses to stock her cabinets with.

  “Sounds wonderful,” he said, wheeling the horses up his family’s drive at the H Bar H.

  “Can you imagine me serving a dinner on those plates?”

  “No. But if it tickles you it would tickle me.”

  She fake-pounded his arm. “There you go thinking I am not good enough.”

  “You are plenty good enough the way you are, and you know it.”

  “I don’t doubt you one bit. But you know a farm girl like me can dream can’t she?”

  He chuckled. “You aren’t hardly one of those now.”

  “What are your plans for tomorrow?”

  “Get on horseback and check things here and up at the CHX place. I just want to see how things are going.”

  She nodded her head. “I’ll stay home and help your mom.”

  “Good. Thanks for today. Those girls can get to be an earful after a while. You with them let me check that Doug is doing a good job.”

  She hugged his arm and went into the house. He went by and told Red he needed two men to ride with him in the morning, while he checked some other things out.

  “Things going to suit you?” Red asked.

  “Yes, I just want to check on things.”

  “We have lots of cattle to road brand this year.”

  “We have lots of cattle to ship this year, too.”

  “Guess that’s how we pay the help huh?”

  “Yes, it is. Thanks. Those boys did well today.”

  “I am just glad you didn’t need them.”

  “Things are pretty edgy. M
aybe we can learn something from Harp’s plan this weekend.”

  Red agreed and Long went on up to the house.

  Harp was back and explained everything at the bank was doing fine. They needed to shift some money to different accounts. The bank was holding Oscar’s money in a reserve account that had Harp’s name on it, too, in case something happened to him.

  He guessed the old man had no plans for it at the present time.

  “I’ll be riding, with two men, for the next few days to look over things and make sure it’s all going right,” Long said.

  “I need to look harder at the consigned cattle portion tomorrow and be certain how many more we can accept.”

  “Nice problem to have.”

  Harp agreed.

  In the cool morning, Long found a layer of thin frost in places as the sun peeped up. His Comanche horse bucked hard when he stepped aboard him. Jake and Erve laughed as they accompanied him out from under the gate cross bar.

  They were up on Fin Creek when Erve noted several horse tracks crossing the open meadow from east to west.

  “Take a look here. Shod horses have crossed there. Reckon they are the ones that rode with Newman?”

  “Let’s check it out,” Long said.

  They crossed the ridge and found some buzzards eating on a fresh large calf carcass. Harp reined up and searched the country. He knew from the evidence, even at the distance, someone had a milk-fat, four-hundred-pound calf. That meant they shot it and took the hindquarters and peeled off the back strap, leaving the rest to the buzzards to feast on.

  “Pretty damn fresh,” Erve said as he dismounted, sending some of the squawking birds of carrion bounding away and others flying off. “It has our brand on it.”

  Jake rode his horse around looking for any tracks leaving. Long wanted the guilty to pay for their deed. Sitting back in the saddle he squeezed the horn with one hand—he hated a damn thief worse than most anything.

  His inspection over, Erve mounted up. “Follow them?”

  “Damn right. Where did they go?” Long asked Jake.

  “On west I guess. The tracks go that way.”

  “Let’s find them. That is flat out cattle rustling in my book, and they need to pay for it.”

  “Damn right,” Erve agreed, and whipped his horse to make him run.

  Jake had the lead, and Long’s powerful Comanche pony was catching him fast as they tore over the rise headed west. The tracks headed that way, and they rode hard until a hint of smoke struck Long’s nose and he told them to halt.

  They looked around the open areas between the cedars and saw nothing. His anxious horse circled under him and was breathing hard.

  “They’re south of us. Go slow. We don’t want them to know we’re coming,” he said under his breath.

  Both agreed and checked the load in their Colts, holstered them again, and moved forward at a slower pace. Long felt certain the campfire was just over the rise. They hitched their horses, took their rifles out of scabbards, and spread apart to climb the hill.

  Before they reached the top, Long took off his hat and set it on the ground and, carefully in some grass and weeds, crawled up to look at what the next space held. He saw the suspects’ unsaddled horses first—grazing in the open. Then he spotted the campfire and the meat cooking on a grill. They were lying around resting. He counted five men but there were six horses. If this was some of Newman’s bunch, maybe they should wait. No. This was all of them, he felt certain.

  “Erve, work west and come in from that direction. Jake, you go east. There is enough cover there, too. When you two are in place, I’ll shoot down into the midst of them. Then I’ll shout ‘you’re covered,’ and if they go for their guns, Jake, you shoot them.”

  “I can do that,” Jake said, and headed out. Erve nodded and left. Both had good Winchesters. He waited to give them plenty of time to get in place.

  Satisfied they should be there, he rose and fired a rifle round into the camp close to the cook’s feet. “Hands up, all of you. We have you surrounded.”

  “The hell you say,” one of them replied, and whipped out his pistol to shoot at Long.

  Two rifle shots spun him around. One came from each side and the fight was over before he struck the ground.

  Long set out downhill for the camp on his boot heels. His men moved in from both sides and had the rustlers facedown on the ground. Erve tied their hands behind their backs and Jake held the rifle on them.

  “Where’s Newman at today?” Long asked.

  “Who?”

  “Come on. Two days ago you rode onto my new ranch with him and demanded we leave. Now you rustled one of my cattle and are planning to eat it.”

  “We never—”

  “We tracked you here.”

  “What’re you going to do with us?”

  “Have a trial and hang you like we do all rustlers.”

  “You don’t have the authority to do that.”

  “Oh, yeah we do. Now tell me what Newman’s plans are.”

  “He said to meet him Friday at Willow Crossing.”

  “Shut up, kid—he’s going to hang us anyway.”

  Erve gave the talker a hard kick in his gut. Hard enough he grunted and shut up.

  “Keep talking, kid,” Long said. “What was he going to do from there?”

  “Burn you out for starters, he said.”

  “Who does he work for?”

  “I don’t know, mister. I just needed work.”

  Long nodded like he understood. “You simply joined the wrong bunch.”

  Erve got their names and in pencil wrote them in Long’s small herd book, including the dead man’s. Meanwhile Jake was busy making nooses from the men’s ropes and their own lariats.

  “Going to have enough rope?” Long asked, using their cook’s long fork to fetch a strip of back strap off the grill to eat.

  “It ain’t a tall tree. I think so.”

  “Who does the extra horse belong to?” Erve asked, returning.

  “Henson was off taking a shit.” The wise-mouth outlaw lying on his belly laughed. “He got away.”

  The meat tasted good. It drew the saliva into his mouth. They’d get him. There were six gun sets in camp. The escapee didn’t have a gun or a horse.

  Horses were saddled and three were fitted with nooses, then each outlaw was set on a horse. Erve rode in and knotted the ropes on the thick oak limb, then he reset the knots beside their left ear.

  When he rode away, Long and Jake sent the horses off with a hurrah and a slap to their hindquarters. Ropes jerked tight, necks snapped under the weight, and they hung limp. Two more were handled the same way under another tree. The horses driven out. One danced on his neck collar but soon he, too, expired. The last one cussed them out until his neck broke in the fall.

  “We better catch the horses, take them to one of our ranches, and advertise them as loose horses. If those ponies go home, Newman might decide not to meet them Friday.”

  “The one rustler that got away is headed south on foot.”

  “We’ll find him,” Long said to Jake. “Erve, can you catch the horses?”

  “Sure. Go find him. I’ll catch you later and bring the horses.”

  Long spurred the big horse around and they took off. Two ridges over, they spotted a hatless man wildly running down a meadow. Jake shot his pistol at him.

  “Hold up,” Long said, slid his horse to a halt, got off, pulled out the Winchester, and laid the barrel on the saddle seat. He took aim at the fleeing man’s back, and the outlaw went down with his first shot.

  “I’ll go see that he ain’t alive,” Jake said, and ran off in the downed man’s direction.

  Long jammed the rifle back into his scabbard and mounted up. His man was coming back nodding his head. A few less rustlers on their ranchland.

  If he was lucky on Friday, Newman would join them in hell.

  It was a damn grim day, but at least they hadn’t burned the damn ranch down.

  In t
he yard Jan greeted him wearing a shawl on her shoulders to stave off the cold. “You look upset.”

  “Some.”

  “What happened?”

  “We found six rustlers today. They were eating our beef they’d slow-elked.”

  “I understand now why you are upset. Learn anything more?”

  “One of the rustlers said they were going to meet Newman Friday to go burn Oscar’s headquarters to the ground.”

  “You will meet him then?”

  “I plan to.”

  She stopped and hugged him. “Long, I love you. I am here when you come home. All this will pass.”

  “I know. I know. They got what they deserved and are gone now. They didn’t have to do that—there is other work—”

  “Long, you did what you had to do.”

  “I know I did the right thing. But it still hurts me—inside.”

  “It always will. I am sorry.”

  “Don’t be. You are the tree I lean on and I love you.”

  CHAPTER 14

  That evening he, Harp, and Hiram all had a quiet discussion about his day. They all agreed it was the way—not always nice, but it solved the threat.

  “There are still four more not with them?” Harp asked.

  “Three or four. I’ll be set up at that crossing to meet and greet him if he doesn’t get word his men have gone to the hereafter.”

  “Hell all we wanted to do was ranch not fight range wars or court cases,” Harp said, shaking his head in disgust.

  “It goes with the deal, bro. If you get something, then jealous people want it all for themselves.”

  “I agree, Long.”

  “It may take me forever to get these insiders settled.”

  “You are doing better than I imagined we could do. You are getting a high percentage of them selling you their ranch or willing it to us. I never imagined that happening. And Friday you try for the Newman guy, huh?”

  “I plan to get him.”

  To his force he added three more ranch hands. They drifted down to Oscar’s in pairs not to draw attention. Wednesday he took Jan in the buckboard and two men went along. They hauled supplies to feed everyone, making it look more like a supply trip than a reinforcement detail.