“Exactly. Tom, can you and your men manage all this for as long as three months, with me gone?”
“Sure, no problem. I’m getting ready to hire a farm crew for here. You said we could plant twenty acres of field corn this year. Are the draft horses coming?”
“Frye says that California bunch are bringing them. I want you and whoever to choose enough teams for all four places.”
“I have some I’m hauling hay with, but I’ll need two more pair,” Sarge said.
“The mowers, rakes, and beaver board hardware are coming for you, Hampt, and Reg. Tom has his old equipment and John has them repaired. Raphael has two farmers make his hay, and that works for now. One of those machinery setups is at my top place—Ivor repossessed it from Kay. We can send it, I guess, to Reg so he can put it together. Two mowers, two rakes, and a hay sweep. He has some wagons, but, Tom, you check on what he needs. I’ll meet with Hampt tonight.”
Tom nodded. “We can handle it smooth. I guess you’re going ahead and do this?”
Chet nodded. “Sounds like something needs to be done. If we’re ever going to become a state, we need these outlaws handled.”
“I don’t envy you at all.” Tom shook his head as if he thought it would be a real tough job.
“I still need two more men. If JD shows, I’ll ask him, if he really wants to go. I have no idea about his answer. So far, I’m going to ask Roamer, Cole, and Jesus, plus Shawn McElroy who rode with us to get his sister back. If he doesn’t want to go, I’ll need one or two more.”
“Shame Hampt Tate can’t go,” Sarge said. “He’s the best fighting man I know, besides you. He’s tough and a good shot, too.”
“May would kill me, and who would run that place?”
“And we may get the Rankin place thrown in on him, too,” said Tom.
“Yes, there’s that, too,” agreed Chet.
“Hey, I want to check on those cattle we have bunched to go up to Windmill. I don’t want any crippled ones.” Sarge grabbed his hat and headed outside.
“Be careful,” Chet called after him. “No life is worth risking herding them. We’re doing great, even as slow as the government is paying us.”
Sarge turned at the door. “I will. You be careful, too. The four of us sure need you to keep this place together.”
“Oh, I will.”
Then he and Tom discussed everything from payroll and labor needs to the cost of farming and buying more British breed bulls. Their Hereford yearling bulls they’d have coming in the spring were not, in Tom’s words, going to be strong enough to turn out on the open range. They’d be better, Tom suggested, holding them off till the next year and buying some older bulls.
“Then you better start looking for them now. They will be high-priced and hard to find.”
“I’ll start doing that.”
“That rounds this up then. I think we’ve covered everything.”
“Looks like it.” Tom stood, ready to leave.
“Hey, I have lunch about ready. Where’s Jesus?” Susie asked from the kitchen door. “I know my husband went to check cattle, but I can feed him later.”
“I’ll send Jesus back here, and thanks, but I’ll eat with Millie,” Tom said, and excused himself.
“Tell her hello. With Sarge here, I don’t get much chance to talk to her.”
Tom winked at her. “I understand.” Then he left with her scowling after him.
Chet laughed, but quickly smothered it when Susie turned to glare at him.
After lunch, he and Jesus rode back to the upper ranch. They were home before sundown and Hampt’s unhitched two-seated buckboard was already parked by the house.
The big man came outside and joined Chet at the hitch rail, shook Jesus’s hand, and exchanged greetings. Jesus took their two horses toward the barn.
“Any sign of Cole?” Chet asked Jiminez who had also come to claim the horses.
“Not yet, señor.”
“They’re coming, I’m sure.” He turned back to Hampt. “They’ll be here by dark, I bet.”
“They probably will,” the big man said. “Marge told me about the Marshal asking you to take on those border bandits. Damn, I wish I was free to go along, but I’ve got so many irons in the fire. Fencing is slow, but it’s bull tight. I have thirty some acres ready to seed to alfalfa and barley for a nurse crop. Hay feeding. And all the rest, but I just hate you going off and me not riding with you.”
“Add three kids and a pregnant wife, looking for number four.”
“I never thought I’d get to be a dad to anyone. See, my mother raised me. He got killed in a drunken gunfight when I was little. Oh, I had some dads, but they weren’t like a real one—uncles and cousins tried to fit in—but not someone to talk to me like I talk to them two boys. And they tell me some tall stories about their uncle Chet.”
“In Texas, them boys trailed me around asking questions.”
“Yeah, they do the same to me, but, damn, I’m proud they accepted me.”
“I’d sure like to have you, but I knew you couldn’t go. I have some good boys. I want Roamer to go, but I need Simms to hold his job till he returns.”
“No telling how that will come out, but if he thinks you will be out of here, he might promise anything.”
“That’s true. I got word that JD is back at Reg’s and may be coming down.”
“He’s been a worry, hasn’t he?”
“He may want to go along. I’m unsure about it, but, in the end I’ll have to decide.”
Hampt nodded. “Just remember, if you ever need me, send word and I’ll be there for whatever you need done.”
“I appreciate your saying that, though I always know that. But Tom and I count on you. You’re doing a great job as ranch foreman. And your marriage to May has been a song in our hearts.”
“I ever tell you I come home one day, tired as dirt, and she was singing and never heard me come in.” Hampt smiled, remembering. “She about swallowed her tongue. I said, ‘Girl, sing like that to me,’ and kissed her. And she did.”
“A miracle. Susie and I never heard her sing one note in all those years she was married to my brother.”
“You told me once you thought he only married her to take care of his three kids. But she’s never complained once about him. We have a good fun life together, and she’s an angel to me. I’m so glad God sent her to me.”
“I am, too, pard. If I’m ever going to be gone off to the Mexico border, we better go inside and talk about ranching.”
“Chet, we’ve all been put on this earth to do a job. When you came here, I was so glad to be back cowboying. I thought my life couldn’t get any better. Next, I got up my nerve with May and, holy cow, that worked. Then this job running the ranch. Those kids, and now one of my own coming. Great life, every day.”
“I have one, too. We’re both lucky.”
About then, the boys ran over to hug Chet, with sister right behind. He swung Donna up and kissed her. “You all right?”
“Yes, the boys take care of me,” she said.
“They’re doing a great job.” He set her down and hugged May. “How are you, sister?”
She smiled up at him. “You’ve never called me that before.”
“Well, I always thought of you as my sister.”
She hugged him tight and buried her face in his shirtfront. “I love it. I love it. Oh, I will worry about you being down there. He’ll be worse for not getting to go along. But I can’t run that ranch, not carrying him.” She stepped back and pointed at her round belly.
“I understand. I count on you two. I told Marge that when all hell breaks loose I’d rather have Hampt with me than anyone I know.”
“How long will it take you to do the job?” she asked.
“If I knew that I’d be the smartest man in the world.”
“I think you are.” Then she blushed.
After supper, an exhausted Cole and Shawn rode in with the horses. Marge fixed them supper and told Shawn he c
ould sleep in the house or the bunkhouse. He chose the latter and thanked her.
When they finished eating, the room was cleared and the men left by themselves to talk. Chet explained the border problem and the Marshal’s request. The two of them agreed they’d like to join him.
“How many days do I have before we leave?” Cole asked.
“Maybe two or three. Why?”
“I want to marry Valerie and have a couple of days with her before we go.”
“When are you going to marry her?”
“Tonight or tomorrow. Can I have two days and catch you?”
Chet shook his head at the young man’s situation. “You can marry her, but you may be gone for a while.”
“No problem. I made up my mind coming home that if I don’t marry her now, I may never get another chance.”
“The boiler is on, Cole,” Marge interjected from the open doorway. “You can go upstairs when you’re ready and take a bath. I have some of Chet’s clothes ironed that will fit you. Leave yours and we’ll wash them. Are you sure she’ll marry you?”
“Yes, ma’am. We’ve talked enough about it.”
“Don’t break your neck, but you can take our buckboard. Get a room at the Brown Hotel, and eat at Jenn’s. Chet will pay for it. Now, Chet, show him the bath.”
“I—I don’t know what to say,” Cole sputtered, looking flabbergasted.
“Say, ‘will you marry me’ to her,” Marge said.
Cole fell back in his chair. “I know that.”
They all laughed and sent Cole off to bathe and shave.
“Who will marry them this time of night?” Marge asked.
“Marrying Sam,” Chet said. “He don’t care what time it is, as long as you have two dollars.”
“Oh, my, we could have saved some money doing that,” Marge said.
In thirty minutes, Cole was on his way to town. They waved him on his way, and hoped he didn’t fall asleep and out of the buckboard.
The kids were in bed and Hampt and Chet sat in leather chairs before the fireplace. Logs crackled in the fire and spewed sparks that blazed in arches.
“We’ve all come a long way,” Hampt said. “In my darkest hour, you came with a job for us ex-hands. Poor old Hoot, he broke the ice back then when he called us all up here so we could take this big place away from Ryan and his outlaws.”
“Man, oh, man. I wondered if I’d ever get this ranch straightened out, even after they sent him to prison.” Chet wagged his head, thinking about all the problems they’d overcome.
“You and that boy, Heck, went clear to Hackberry and got him.”
“I guess I’ll wonder the rest of my life what Heck would have grown into.”
Hampt agreed. “We was proud of him making a real hand. He sure cowboyed up fast working cattle with us.”
“One of my big mistakes.”
“Hell, no, it wasn’t. Lady Luck shifted cards on you.”
“Thanks, Hampt, but I’ll always labor over Heck’s death.”
“Listen, boss man, we can’t do everything right in our life. But being sincere is important. In that case, you did all you could.”
Chet hated even thinking about the loss of his nephew. “Tell me about your alfalfa planting.”
“I’ve talked to three different ranchers that have successfully planted it. You need a grain nurse crop. Sow it less than a crop for grain, but still it’s needed to protect the alfalfa coming in. You need some kinda dust to treat the alfalfa seed. They sell it, too. I have it all ordered from Ivor, along with my seed. If I can get as good a stand as those three have, I’ll whoop my head off.”
“You’re going to have quite a bit of that acreage wise.”
“Yes, but the cattle really shine when we feed it to them.”
“Barbed wire and alfalfa. Folks will soon begin to think you’re a farmer.”
“Call me what they want. I’m going to make that place as good as the Verde Ranch.”
“You will, Hampt.” Chet smiled at the pride the man showed.
“May says we will.”
“Tom’s going looking for more bulls with some age on them. He’s worried the home crop isn’t developed enough to take the range conditions.”
“We’ll need them. And ten years from now, we won’t have any Longhorns left.”
Chet shook his head. “I never believed that, but it’s going to be that fast.”
“Hell, all the folks had in Texas were range cattle and they were more like deer than cattle. No one thought about crossing them.”
“You’re right. But change is coming.”
“I know that, boss. That’s why I want alfalfa.” He paused and held his hands out to the fire. “How bad are these bandits down there?”
“I don’t know, but this new US Marshal wants them mopped up.”
Hampt nodded, elbows on knees. “He picked the right man to do it.”
Chet wished he felt that certain.
CHAPTER 19
When they woke up in the predawn, Marge stretched and asked, “Where will they live?”
“Who live?” Chet asked, rising to dress in the lamplight.
“Cole and his bride.”
“I guess they’ll have to rent a place in town. Cole has his savings.”
“We better go find them one and a batching outfit.”
“I don’t know that she married him last night.”
“If they took a room at the Brown Hotel, we’ll know.”
“No, Jenn will know.”
“Sure, she lives with her. Hurry and finish dressing. We have lots to do today. You going to ask Simms today about loaning Roamer and not lose your temper?”
“That won’t be easy, but, yes, I intend to see him.”
“I’ll be downstairs in a few minutes. We’ll have to take the old buckboard. Cole has ours.”
“Bring a warm robe to cover you. It won’t be summertime out there.”
“Yes, I will.”
He looked up at her curt answer. “I only say such things because I worry about you.”
She rushed over and kissed his cheek. “I try not to be resentful.”
“Other words, you don’t take advice easy.”
Trying to suppress her amusement, she said, “Oh, I went to finishing school.”
“Yeah, Susie warned me.”
“I think that was so funny, her saying because of that I wouldn’t go camping with you. I’d of done anything to be in your hip pocket. You were hard to convince that you needed me.”
“Lucky I saw the light.”
Buttoning the front of her dress, she looked up at him and smiled. “I’m the lucky one.”
“We both are. I’m going down and see about Monica. Then fix the fireplaces, if she hasn’t beat me to it.”
He hurried downstairs and saw the fireplaces were filled before he found her cooking breakfast. “Well, we’re up.”
“I saw the light on up there and knew you’d be scurrying around this morning.” Hands covered in flour, she kneaded biscuits on the table. While she cut them with a shot glass, she shook her head at him. “There sure aren’t any simple quiet days around here anymore.”
“You heard we sent Cole off to get married?”
“There’ll be another woman that will miss her man,” Monica said, shaking her head.
Hampt was up by then and his threesome came tailing him into the kitchen.
“Did you sleep good, boys and girl?” Chet asked them.
“No,” Donna said. “Their feet were cold on me.”
Everyone was still laughing when May and Marge arrived to help finish setting the table.
“Monica says we’re too busy,” he said.
“We all are busier, I think, than we ever were in Texas,” May said. “But we have lots more to say grace over out here—and I like it lots better.”
“You said it, May. Thanks.” Chet hugged her tight.
“And I never would have said a word in Texas, either.”
“T
hat’s improved, too.”
“That day we packed it all up and had the auction, I wanted to cry. I wondered if I’d even fit in this outfit any longer with him and Heck both gone. But it turned out so much better than I ever imagined.”
“May, you blossomed in Arizona.” Marge smiled at her.
“Look at me. I sure did.” She indicated her growing belly and they all laughed about her increasing size.
The team they drove to town wasn’t as good as the one Cole had taken. Hampt and his tribe had gone home. The two boys were outriding for him, while he drove the buckboard. What an outfit.
They made it to Jenn’s first, and he helped Marge off and they went inside. Jenn met them talking. “I hope you two got some sleep. I sure didn’t. That pesky pair got married about midnight, and by the time we got through celebrating it was three a.m. and I had to open at five.”
Marge hugged her. “Did they look happy?”
“Happy as they could be. Yes, I think they were excited and lost at the same time. They’re at the Brown and may not come out until he needs to leave with you. He said that you all were leaving again in a few days and he wanted to get married first.”
“Can we rent a small house for them and get her set up, so she has a place to live while he’s gone?”
“Yes. There’s one near me for rent for seven-fifty a month. It needs some paint and a window fixed, but she can stay with Bonnie and me until we get that done.”
“Will she like it?” Chet asked.
“She’ll be bowled over by it.”
“Make the arrangements for it then. I need to go see Simms and act peaceful. I’d like for Roamer to go with us.”
“We can handle all that,” Marge said, hugging his arm. “You go ahead, but remember your temper.”
“As she said, ahead,” Jenn said. “Marge and I can handle the rest.”
He left and drove to the courthouse. The deputy on the desk looked up in shock. “You got more prisoners?”
“No, I need to talk to Sheriff Simms. Is he in?”
The deputy went to the office door. “Mr. Byrnes is here to see you.”
“Show him in,” Simms said, and met him with a handshake. “Have a seat.”
“I came to see you about a favor. US Marshal Howard Blevins wants me to form a task force and try to stop the Mexican bandits from invading southern Arizona.”
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