by Nancy Howard
For John as he thinks of her riding away back to the ranch. She is a daughter to him and to Catherine, now. Jennifer who died, was their born daughter. But John thinks about the one that may have been, the one he and Catherine lost at birth. She was still born two years before they had Jennifer. That child was a girl, too, and John thinks she may have turned out like Logan had she been allowed to live.
MEANWHILE, JUST A FEW hours before at the Running 'B', Tass Jones rides up in front of the Baker ranch accompanied by four other riders.
“Wait here,” he tells them, and dismounts.
He walks up to the front door and starts to knock, and again, is met by Brittany first. Henry is right behind her, he saw Jones and his men ride up. He's been expecting them.
“Tass, come in, I've been waiting for you to stop by.”
Brittany has gone off toward the stairway to go up to her room, where she's packing her belongings to leave. She and her father have been having strong disagreements lately, as to how he's been conducting his business ventures in the area. She knows that he's running a land grabbing scam again, and she wants nothing to do with it. She and Jay are preparing to leave, together, unbeknownst to her father.
Jay quickly became disgruntled at his new position. He learned from the cowhands what Henry is up too. He heard from all of them, that Jones approached each of them about helping him rustle cattle from Sanderson's Hill. They all refused telling Jones that they signed on to be cowhands, not cow thieves. As a matter of fact from the few men remaining at the Running 'B,' Jay has quickly learned that the Running 'B' is a con. He has learned that there are no European investors, as Henry claims to pay for the recent purchases of land in the area. As a matter of fact, Baker really only had enough money to mortgage the house he and Brittany are living in.
He has not been paid in two weeks and neither has the few men left in his crew. He has spoken to Henry about this and Henry just puts him off. Jay knows there's no money to pay anybody with. That Baker is a sham, and is nearly broke himself.
So with his savings from working at Sanderson's Hill running very low. He and Brittany have decided that they would be better off, leaving the area. Rather than having to defend her father, and his criminal associate, Tass Jones. They want no further part of Henry's con.
When Jay was told about Jones by his men, he again had the same sick feeling about his job as he did before at Sanderson's Hill, but for different reasons. He's not a criminal, and will not steal from good people that he knows. No matter what his differences are with them. Nor does he want Brittany to be involved in any of Henry's schemes either. So they're leaving as soon as she's packed. They're leaving the Folsom area, and getting as far away as possible.
Jones is in Henry's office, again the door is closed.
“I see you finally got some help. What took you so long?”
“Well, Mr. Baker, it's like this. The first three men I hired quit after one time. They feared Logan and Gavin—those guys knew about those two. So they quit. It's a tough sell, so I had to do some travelin' to find more men willing to help me. Who didn't know that much about Sanderson's Hill Ranch, or the fact that Logan is runnin' the place. I didn't tell them about her, cause I wasn't sure they'd heard of her or Gavin. Is that a good enough reason, Henry? Cause if you don't want me to still do this, then.”
Henry listened and accepted Jones's explanation as to why it took him so long to find men who were willing to rustle cows.
“Alright, Tass, I believe you,” he pauses. “Now, here's what I want you and your men to do.”
Baker told Tass to go back out to the mesa, to start the rustling of John's cows again. He told him to be extra careful this time, because he's sure Gavin has found out about the original fifty head he'd stolen earlier. He's also sure he's told Logan about it, so he tells Tass that they could be waiting for him. Jones being the wily criminal that he is, tells Henry he's aware of this.
“You promised me an advance, so I can pay my men.”
“Yes, yes, I did,” Henry responds, and then goes over to his safe and unlocks it, and hands Jones a fist full of cash.
“A thousand? Jones questions, after counting it.
“Yes, you'll get the rest as soon as you finish the job.”
Jones doesn't like it, but takes what he's been given and leaves the house. He mounts up and he and his men leave, but he doesn't pay them either, keeping the cash he just got from Henry for himself.
Brittany is watching them from the stairway landing. Jones gives her the creeps, and she knows what her father has hired him for.
Henry turns and sees her standing at the top of the stairs, “Brittany, would you come down here please,” He says, sternly.
She comes down, slowly, he's waiting for her at the bottom.
“From here on in, Britt, I will answer the door when Mr. Jones comes here. Understand?”
She looks at her father with a leery look on her face, and shakes her head. There's a knock on the door. Brittany knows it's Jay. So she quickly runs back up the stairs to retrieve her bag to take with her what she could carry.
Henry answers the door, he’s not expecting visitors. “Jay,” he says. “What is it you want?”
“Brittany.” He demands
He motions Jay in. They say nothing to each other. There is ice between the two men, because Jay knows about Henry's illegal activities, stealing cows from Sanderson's Hill.
Henry goes again to the bottom of the stairs and says loudly, “Britt, come down here. Jay is here for you.”
Brittany comes down the stairs again, this time with her bag in hand.
Henry looks at her, “What are you doing?”
She reaches the bottom step and says to him. “I'm leaving daddy. I, we, want nothing to do with what your doing to the Sandersons.”
"I thought, I told you, that what I do in my business life is none of your concern young lady. Now stop this nonsense and go back up and unpack that bag. You're not going anywhere—especially with him.”
“I won't. And, oh yes, I am, going with him,” she said, stepping down and forcing her way past her father.
“So, this is what you want?” He questions her, curtly.
“Yes, yes, it is.”
He pauses for a second, then says coldly, and nonchalantly, “very well. Get out, and don't ever come back. Either of you.”
He says this, and then calmly walks directly into his office, shutting the door behind him.
Jay and Brittany quickly go out the door to mount up and leave. Never to return to Folsom again.
Henry sets down at his desk and watches them leave, he puts his head in his hands momentarily, then gets up and walks over to the safe again. This time he retrieves the money that’s left, and decides that it's time for him to leave, too. The day before he let everyone on the ranch go, paying them what he could, as he realizes that he's played this out as much as he can. His land grabbing scheme has failed once again, as things have begun to quickly unravel for him.
JONES AND HIS GANG of four riders have arrived at the mesa, and could see it in front of them. It's about ten in the morning, as they wade their horses through the shallow water of the creek. Crossing to the other side and onto John's land.
They ride around a bend and up the side of the mesa to the top, to a huge expanse of open grazing land. There are about two hundred or so head of cattle scattered about in front of them. Off to their right about a hundred fifty yards away is a grove of trees and scrub brush. It is where John and Gavin are waiting for them, out of their sight. Right away they recognize Jones.
John and Gavin are quiet, but Gavin whispers to, John, “so much for him being a security man.”
“Yeah, he's security, all right,” John whispers back. “He's making sure of Henry's security, by stealing my cows.”
Jones sets on his horse looking around noticing the trees and brush. He's savvy to this type of thing. He has to be given his line of work, as he looks in that direction it makes him uneasy.
Thinking that it would be a great place for someone to hide and watch what they're doing. Waiting to ambush them.
He’s right, as the four other riders begin to herd up thirty or forty head of cattle to drive them back down the mesa. John and Gavin are mounted up, and ride around and out from behind the grove of brush and trees. Charging fast toward the rustlers, their guns firing. Jones immediately sees them coming and draws his six gun, and begins to shoot back at them. He misses as his horse rears up, but he continues to shoot at them anyway.
The rustlers look back, hearing the gunshots, and see John and Gavin coming toward them hard and fast in their direction. They quickly decide to make a run for it, as they disband quickly. Riding off in all different directions as fast as they can, not wanting to get shot or captured.
Jones has fired his six gun at Gavin and John and empties the chamber. So instead of getting caught himself, he puts his gun away and turns his horse quickly around and heads off back down the mesa. Going back across the creek, riding as fast as his horse will go. He thinks that he will be safe on the other side, because it's Henry's property.
John and Gavin have stopped in the middle of the herd, which is scattered everywhere. And turn their horses around, just in time to watch Jones ride off and down the mesa, in a full gallop.
“Want a go after him?”
“Yep.”
“What about those others.”
“Let em go, it's him we want.” John shouts to, Gavin.
They head out as fast as they can, chasing after Jones. He is riding hard, and headed straight for the Baker ranch house.
Jones nearly rides his horse into the ground, pushing it hard, trying to get away from Gavin and John. He needs to get back to tell Henry as fast as he can, and tell him what has happened. Ten minutes later he rides up to the ranch house and quickly dismounts. He walks up on the front porch and knocks hard on the front door. No one comes to answer. No Brittany this time either. He wonders. He looks all around him, and sees that there's not a soul to be seen. No one. Even Jay's horse is gone. What the hell's going on? Where's Henry? He knows he has little time to find Baker and tell him what has happened. He's not sure how far behind him Sanderson and Sloan are.
At this point, he says, to himself, “Fuck this, I'm gettin' the hell out of here.”
Then he hears riders. He turns and he sees John and Gavin riding at full gallop, and they're on him before he has time to mount up. He tries to draw his gun to shoot them, but the chamber is empty.
Gavin is off of his horse on the run, and is right next to Jones. Jones is still trying to mount his horse and get away. Gavin drags him off, and Jones takes a wild swing at Gavin. It's a right hook that Gavin blocks. Then he hits Jones squarely in the jaw, knocking him back against his horse.
John has dismounted and joins the fray, getting there just as Gavin drives his fist into Jones' gut, causing him to double. Then John aids Gavin as the two of them grab Jones, who is still violently fighting them, trying to get away. They wrestle him to the ground to where he is face down. Gavin drops down squarely with his knee in Jones' back to keep him from getting up. But he's still struggling hard against them, so John takes his six gun out and hits Jones in the head, knocking him out. Then he goes over to his horse and gets a rope out of his saddle bag, and walks back over to Gavin handing it to him to tie Jones up.
John looks up and all around, noticing that there's not a soul in sight. He says to Gavin, “where the hell is everybody?”
“Huh,” Gavin looks up. “what do you mean?”
“I mean, there ain’t a damn soul around. Stay here and watch him, while I check this out.”
John goes up onto the porch and knocks on the door. No answer, and like Jones he wonders what is going on? There's no Henry, no Brittany, no anybody. John then decides to walk the fifty yards to the bunkhouse, when he opens the door, he finds it deserted, too. He wonders where Jay is? Out on the range? There's still livestock in the corral about four horses, and there are chickens running around everywhere.
“Find anybody,” Gavin asks? As John returns to where he and Jones are.
“No, it's really strange, it's like everyone cleared out, all of a sudden.
Jones is now beginning to come, too, as the grogginess of the blow to his head wears off. Gavin sets him up, leaning him against the porch railing.
Then John asks, “you know where everybody is, Jones?”
“No.” He answers, sharply, not pleased at his predicament.
“Were you here earlier today, “Gavin asks?
“Yeah, this morning.”
“Was anybody here then,” John questions him?
“I only saw Henry and his daughter, when I was here.
“What time?”
“Hell, how should I know? Maybe eight or so, I don't know. I didn't see nobody else. I'm tellin' you the truth, I was as surprised as you are when I got here, and found nobody around. That bastard double-crossed me and owes me five grand.”
John looks down at Jones and says, “Yeah, for stealin' my cows. Right?”
John then goes and searches Jones's saddlebags and found the thousand that Henry paid him earlier.
“Hey that's my money,” he says, as John showed it to him.
“Well, not anymore. It's evidence that Henry was payin' you to steal my cows. And now we're gonna gonna take you to jail Jones and tell Sheriff Case about all of this, so he can arrest Henry, too.”
Jones is quiet. The smirks he exhibited toward Logan and Gavin, at the Sanderson party a couple of months ago, are long gone now.
“What about the fact that nobodies around,” Gavin asks?
“Well, Gavin we'll have to solve that mystery another day. Right now we need to get him into town and to the sheriff, so he can throw his ass in jail.” John says. Looking disgustedly at Jones.
On the way into town John and Gavin begin to chat.
“So Gavin, it's really none of my business, but you and Logan seem to be on the road to bigger things.”
Gavin pauses, before he answers, “If you're talkin' about us maybe getting married John, I will say this. Yeah we talk about it a lot, but we want to give it a little time. You know make sure it's for us, because right now we like things as they are.”
“I remember when you got here, you had a one minded attitude about catchin' Hogg and his gang of thugs.”
“That ain't changed. It's just that, now, Logan and me, we see that there's more to life than bein' bounty hunters. We like workin' and living here on the ranch.”
“Well, Catherine and I sure are glad you two like it here. It has certainly has made the two of you more stable in life.”
“Yeah, this is what she wants, John, I will tell you that. She wants stability and respect, and a family, and she's found that. Just as I think it's great what you and Catherine are doing for her, giving her the opportunity to run the ranch and all.”
"We love that girl—Cath and I do."
Gavin looks at him, and shakes his head, “I know that, and so does everybody else around here."
John grins hearing him say that, “So what about Hogg? You never really answered me, we got sidetracked talkin' about, Logan."
“Well, sir. As Logan says, if they choose to come around here anywhere, they'll have me and her to deal with. We ain't given up the thought of bringing them to justice, and the only way that is going to happen now, is for them to show up here.
John rides along side and listens, as he remembers this brash young man who came to the ranch looking for Logan, wondering why she took a job with him. He wasn't really sure he wanted to take John's offer. But he did it because he wanted to be where Logan is because she wanted him near her, too. And now that same young man, Gavin Sloan, is the ranch foreman.
22
Henry Baker quickly gathered some of his things and headed off to town. It is his plan to leave and not return. He had let everyone from his ranch go the day before, as he planned to leave the Folsom area. All of his business deal
ings while appearing on the up and up, were a scam. There are no European investors, as he told Bill Chatfield the bank president about. Telling him the bank would get paid its money for the land he'd bought, as soon as his investors could send him the cash. It was all nothing but an elaborate land grabbing scam.
Lately unbeknownst to anyone Bill Chatfield had become suspicious about Henry. He began to get concerned, because Baker was not paying off his land notes on a regular basis. He kept telling Chatfield about the hard times in Britain, and that it would be a while longer for his investors to get him the money to pay the notes. Bill had extended all of the credit he could to Baker, and the bank still did not get paid. So with his suspicions growing about Baker, he had the Sheriff do some digging around on him.
The sheriff sent telegrams and letters to as many law agencies, that he thought would have records on Henry. After over three months of waiting for an answer, the sheriff found out from the US Marshal that Baker is as suspected, a con man. That he has run this elaborate land grabbing scheme before. He is not rich at all, as Logan and John have surmised. He left England years ago because Scotland Yard was hot on his heels.
He has also ran this crazy land grabbing scheme in Oklahoma, before coming to New Mexico Territory. After he gained the respect and confidence of the local bank, there, like in Folsom he'd begin to buy up large portions of land next to a larger ranch. Using his British and European investor story, promising payment for what he was buying. Thus securing himself and Brittany a place to live, while he rustled cattle from the large ranch next to him with the sole intention of running them out of business. Once he had that ranch in his possession, he could borrow against it's value and payoff the land notes he'd signed for earlier. Then he would have cattle and land. He would be the biggest rancher anywhere. The problem is it never worked. Not in Oklahoma, and not here in Folsom.
