Dead Aim

by Dusty Richards

  Red agreed and they parted. So many of those guys who went to Sedalia turned into good managers. He recalled the guys who lived around there who told him he was crazy trying to run the blockade with that herd, and to this day they still had nothing. He realized the ones that went along had guts and a desire to succeed. Anyone could sit on his butt at home, but it took backbone to tackle an untried deal and then make it work.

  A couple hours later he was headed for supper. He hung his canvas duster, hat, and gun belt on the hall hook and washed up. The house was warm from the crackling fires in the big fireplaces that his father built in the house. His mother said it was exactly like he had across the waters. Long could remember himself, as a boy, using a crowbar to pry the huge flat rocks up, then teamed with Harp, loading them into a wagon to haul back to the new house site. They gathered way more than their dad needed because he insisted he needed them. They made walks and even garden walls with the leftovers.

  Before he could get angry thinking about all the extra work his dad made him do, Jan ran over and kissed him in the hallway.

  “Have a good day?”

  “Yes. How was yours?”’

  “We measured Gladys for a wedding dress and she sobbed all day. Said she never had one and no one ever worried about her having one. Missy is as excited as she is. We also found out about Boone’s choice, and when he proposes to her and she accepts he will tell her we will sew her a wedding dress.”

  “Sounds like you are handling it all.”

  “Harp is going to be late. He’s been doing some investigation regarding a large ranch that might be for sale,” Katy said, walking down the hall with them toward the dining room.

  Jan looked at him to see if he knew anything about that.

  He shook his head.

  “The food is hot and ready. Everyone, take a seat and we shall say grace. Long?”

  He said a quick thanks and everyone said amen. Then they passed platters and bowls around. Hiram was talking about a new colt born that week and how great he looked.

  Easter came around with a coffeepot to fill cups. “I think he just rode in.”

  Katy stood up. “Excuse me. I’ll tell him we are eating and to come on.”

  “Fine. He may have news for us,” Hiram said. Everyone agreed. She went out on the porch to summon Harp and soon returned and took her place. “He’s coming.”

  “Hi, everyone. I rode hard and fast. It has been a stirring evening. I went to see our land agent today. He had two lawyers in his office, and I was ready to leave since he looked busy. Instead he came out and stopped me. Now this is a secret. You knew Rupert Glass, who owned the Three Star Ranch, died six months ago?”

  “His place is larger than ours, isn’t it?” Long asked.

  “Yes. And that doesn’t count his ranches in Mexico.”

  “How much is down there?”

  “Two large operations.”

  “What is happening with the family?”

  “His wife Juanita is running it now. His only son by his first wife is a drunken playboy. His name is Scot Glass. She wants to sell all of it.”

  “For how much?” Long asked.

  “Three hundred thousand. But she will take payments from us.”

  “That sounds too cheap,” Long said.

  “She wants to live out her life in the main house. We would have to keep it up for her, and when she dies it will be ours. But we will need to protect her from anything happening to her. She thinks he had enemies and she wants our protection. People told her we were real doers and good businesspeople.”

  “What about the Mexican properties?” Long asked.

  “I think they are rundown from the bits and pieces I got from the lawyers today.”

  “Who runs it?”

  “Some nationals.”

  “I would have thought so. Mexico is in financial ruin just like the States. They are fighting wars among themselves. We might be in the path of some homemade general, and he might destroy the ranches if we took charge.”

  “Hell, Long, the Union Army at Arkansas on the Butterfield Road could’ve done that to us.”

  “Or killed us south of Sedalia if we’d let them.”

  “Yes. I am thinking the sisters might help us. I want us to go talk to them as investors.”

  “How soon do we have to decide?” Jan asked.

  “Not over a week. She is very nervous according to the lawyers. I offered to send her some protection now.”

  “What did they say? The lawyers?”

  “They have hired some men, but lawyers are not leaders of such a force.”

  “One of us needs to go up there if we buy it.”

  “Yes. Draw straws?”

  “No. You have a son and a wife. Jan and I can go. She gets along with women. I can figure out if her threat is real or imagined. At least we can put her fears to rest since she will be our ward. Has she sold any cattle in Kansas?”

  “I think that needs to be organized. Some trader took fifteen hundred head scraped up on the place according to his lawyers. She got less than thirty thousand. Those two lawyers knew I knew all about cattle sales.”

  “Hell that was only twenty bucks a head.”

  “That is why she wants us to take it over.”

  “Stop now. You boys, eat supper. Everyone is missing their meal over this conversation,” Easter scolded them.

  “Yes, ma’am. Mom, we’ll talk later. This is a monumental deal, but, like going to Missouri, I believe we can do it,” Harp said.

  “Like your father said, that whole task was insurmountable for two Texas ranch–raised boys in their teens to deliver cattle past the Union lines.”

  “He never told us that,” Long said.

  “I doubted you would’ve listened,” Hiram said.

  Long shook his head. “We didn’t expect to have to take over, or we’d probably not gone, especially if we’d realized we’d have to do it all. We inherited a mess. The good guys were not back from the war. We thought if we got paid fifteen dollars a month we’d be rich.”

  “Boys, at that time anyone paid fifteen dollars could hire the best labor in town. No veterans were home. The war was still on.”

  Harp agreed. “And no one had fifteen dollars to pay anyone.”

  They all laughed.

  Plans were made to talk to the sisters the next day, taking their wives along, hoping to get permission to use their fund to buy the Three Star. Or a portion of that money.

  In bed that evening, he and Jan whispered about all the things that could happen or not happen with them getting this large a ranch. He fell asleep, his head whirling about the purchase of the Three Star outfit. When he awoke, he sat on the edge of the bed, his mind still spinning.

  “You ready for the war?” his wife asked.

  “I have no excuse not to be.”

  They both laughed and joined the others downstairs.

  Harp, still taken aback said, “I never thought about that ranch being in our reach.”

  “You know his wife?”

  “No. She must be in her thirties. Her parents were Mexican and that may be how he got those Mexican ranch holdings. Hey, before we went to Missouri we were like the rest of Texas—poor farm boys. They were the rich folks.”

  Jan smiled. “Well you two have moved rather fast into becoming big businessmen.”

  “The way I figure, we still have lots to learn, but we are doing real well.”

  “Today is the day it all starts.”

  He hugged and kissed her. “Wish us good luck.”

  After breakfast they took the two-seat buckboard and went to the Diamond Ranch with Harp and Katy. Red sent along two hands to cover them.

  Mid-morning Long reined the team up the driveway and told the two guards their business might take some time. The men took the team up to the stables and told him they’d be ready whenever to go back.

  The sisters were excited about the visit and ordered tea and small cookies.

  Settled at the di
ning table, Harp spoke in a very businesslike way to them.

  “We are here on a mission. A very respectable large ranch is up for sale at a very low price because of conditions. You knew Rupert Glass who died about six months ago?”

  The older sister said, “He was a good friend of our father.”

  “And we went to his ranch for his second wedding to Juanita. Ten years ago?”

  “About that long ago.”

  “Her lawyers came to us and asked if we would be interested in the property. It sounds like the place is badly mismanaged. She is concerned for her safety and wants to live out her life there. She would have the main house as long as she desires but is willing to sell it for three hundred thousand dollars on the condition we look out for her.”

  The older sister nodded and her sister did, too. “She is right where we sat before you two took over our ranch management.”

  “Thanks. We have been buying lots of land. In time we could absorb that ranch, but facing more cattle drives and ranch expenses we wondered if you would agree to us buying it using your ranch-upkeep funds?” Harp asked them.

  The pair looked at each other. The younger one asked, “Is there enough money in it?”

  “Certainly,” Harp said.

  “Well, if you run short in that fund you tell us, and we will replenish it.”

  Harp looked across the table at Long. “Bro, we will own the Three Star and their Mexican holdings by dark.”

  “So quick?” big sister asked.

  “The deal will be sealed anyway.”

  “Can’t you stay for lunch?”

  “Long and I need to meet those lawyers. I promised them an answer today. Thank you very much. Ladies, you stay for lunch. Long and I will run into town, and the men will see you back to the ranch. And again, thank you both.”

  They hugged both women. On their way to the stables, Long was shaking his head at the ease of the agreement they reached.

  “That was a tough job over,” Harp said.

  “I expected it. It was very generous for them to do that.”

  “You and Jan ready for Three Star?”

  “I want those two boys I left down on the Burnett place. Wives and all I need them. That wouldn’t leave you too stranded would it?”

  “No. Has Boone proposed to his girl?”

  “We can speed all that up. I am going to need some tough support, and those boys are the kind of men to do it.”

  They took their men’s saddle horses, told them to drive the wives home when they got ready, and lit out for Kerrville in a gallop. It was past 3:30 p.m. when they reached the hotel and found the two lawyers in the hotel lobby.

  Harp introduced the bald-headed one as Anthony Cripps and the heavyset gray-haired one as Curtis Taylor. They shook hands, drew up some upholstered chairs in the lobby, and talked in quiet voices.

  “How does she expect the money?” Harp asked them.

  “A hundred thousand down. She has some bills to pay. Twenty thousand a year at five percent interest.”

  “Four percent,” Harp said.

  “Four percent,” Taylor agreed.

  “Pay off any time no penalty,” Harp said.

  “Yes.”

  “Will we own the Mexican properties as well?”

  “Yes. They are included. All the deeds will be free of any attachments.”

  “Does she know the names of the parties threatening her?” Long asked, sitting forward on the chair and searching both men’s faces.

  “She is not sure. But several people were at odds with her late husband.”

  “What did he do to them?”

  “He was not in his right mind the last six months of his life. It may have been business plans he made and then didn’t do what he said he would.”

  “Have they threatened her?”

  “Yes. That is why we hired guards for the place.”

  “No idea what it was exactly?”

  “A contractor named Colgate was one she said had threatened her. The other is a Mexican national named Florence somebody.”

  “That is his last name?”

  “This is all that we know. We are lawyers not sheriffs or Pinkerton men.”

  “I savvy that. But knowing who they are would help me stop the threatening.”

  “You two have the power to handle this sale?” Harp asked.

  Cripps nodded. “When can one of you take over this guarding business of her?”

  “Three days,” Long said. “I will have some men with me. Are the men you hired worth anything?”

  “They are supposed to be. Two were former lawmen. Deputies I believe,” Cripps said.

  Hell anyone could be an ex-deputy. Long figured to go armed and supplied. That was why the lawyers wanted one of them there—they had no faith in their hires. This might be a bigger mess than the first herd deal they had run.

  Harp wanted his local lawyers to read the final agreement, and their land man needed to look the contract over as well, before he’d sign it.

  Long wanted to gather some men, immediately, and go north to the Three Star, which was a good distance from the H Bar H. The new place was north of Junction. He left Harp and rode home. His brother could handle the paperwork . . . he needed to see when he could get Boone and Robbie to go up there and take over the ranch.

  Red could find some men to take care of Cash’s ranch. This was a lot more important. He found Red down at the blacksmith shop watching the work being done on repairing a wagon wheel.

  “We need to talk outside.”

  “Sure. I’m not doing a damn thing here but chousing him on.”

  Once squatted on their boot heels in the warm sunshine, Red asked what he needed.

  “Robbie and Boone. Harp and I are buying the Three Star Ranch and the two Mexican properties. They have some big problems up at the Three Star, and I need some real tough hands.”

  “How soon?”

  “I need to be up there in charge in three days.”

  “Wow, that’s fast.”

  “Yes. I know there is not much time.”

  “I can send the guy who ran the Diamond Ranch while Doug was gone on the drive. Poncho Sanchez is a good man and speaks Spanish. He should get it all done at the Burnett place.”

  “The house is usable and we can help him move. I think he has a wife and family.”

  “I suppose I better send someone to hold it down until then. Get these two up here, fast.”

  “I do need them. They can still get married but this widow of Glass is real worried for her life, they say. The lawyers hired some guards, but I don’t think anyone knows how good they’d be if they came under fire.”

  “I’ll send two men to run Burnett’s until Sanchez can get down there. Rob and Boone should be here tomorrow night. You can leave the next day or if you need to go up there. I can cut some men out to back you and they can meet you up there.”

  “I know this is all fast, but keep it all under your hat.”

  Red shook his head. “Wasn’t it yesterday when Harp fired the cook?”

  “Bet you never figured, in this short a time, you’d be heading up our main ranch, either.”

  “Hell, no. I was worried if I’d even draw them fifteen bucks a month he promised us.”

  “Thanks. I see my wife is back so I better help her pack. She’s going with us.”

  “You’re lucky. I don’t know anyone’s got a good hand for a wife as you.”

  Long agreed and went to join her.

  She had a million questions to ask him.

  Where would they live up there?

  What would she have to do up there?

  What would be his position up there?

  He promised her she’d like it, and they were going to run that ranch and the other ranches Glass owned. Period.

  With all the fussing and fury, they had all her belongings and things they’d need packed and tarped down in a strong farm wagon. A hand would drive it up there. His men would arrive from down south the follo
wing evening.

  The next evening he, Jan, Robbie, and Boone sat at the dining table. He explained all he knew about the Three Star and what he wanted from them. They didn’t need to cancel any plans. They’d just get married in a different place. But, first, he wanted them to ride up there with him and secure the place.

  “Two days ride huh?” Boone asked.

  “About that. It is north of Junction,” Long said.

  “I want to go see Marsha and tell her my plans. I am sure she will be fine, but I can join you tomorrow on that road?”

  “That will work. I think in two weeks we will have things under control and you can marry her.”

  “Good.”

  “I guess Gladys is at the house?” Rob asked.

  “We told her you’d be here today.”

  “Good. What time will we leave tomorrow?”

  “Daybreak.”

  “I’ll be ready. Excuse me,” Rob said, and headed for another part of the house. Boone saluted them, left, mounted his horse, and rode off.

  Long and Jan came out and sat on the bench in the warm sun.

  “New adventure huh?”

  “I been having lots of them lately. Found a wife. Bought some land. Fought some Injuns and now have a new adventure. The Three Star Ranch next. No telling what we will find up there.”

  “But my husband will straighten it out.”

  “Glad you have that much faith.”

  She clapped his leg against her. “I do. You saved me from the impossible.”

  “Oh, that was no big deal.”

  “Four men shot and killed. I was impressed. What did you and Harp talk about?”

  “Things I might face and need to do. Get a list of the employees. Try to solve that messed-up cattle deal they got into last year. I can’t understand that cattle sale. That was robbery. And I don’t know what they scrabbled up to make the drive. And I have to figure out what to do this year. Learn how many cattle they have. Solve this threat she is so upset about. Lots of things going on.”

  “I can help listing the help and those things.”

  “I am counting on it. I may need an accountant, too.”

  “I guess we have all that to learn. It’s a two-day travel from here?”

  “Yes.” Long really felt he should be there already. He needed the backing. Rob and Boone would be that. It was the unknown bothered him the most.