by Ed Nelson
This brought back memories of Texas and the cattle rustlers. I decided to check with the rancher.
I circled back and landed on the ranch runway. I barely rolled to a stop and a man came roaring up in an open-topped jeep. He was dressed like a real working cowboy; denim jeans, work shirt, boots, and a battered straw hat.
“Problem son?”
“I’m not certain, are you having a round up over near the county road on the backside of the ranch?”
“No, why?”
“Well some guys have a semi there and are rounding up cattle.”
“Dang! Since your plane is all wound up let’s go.”
“Well I only have a student license, so I can’t take passengers.”
“No problem I have a license.”
He pointed towards an airplane that looked like mine, “Even checked out on this aircraft.”
We took off and were shortly over the truck. They were starting to put cattle on board.
“Well those are my cows they are stealing, let’s call the Sheriff.”
About that time, a Sheriff’s car pulled up. As we did a high lazy circle we could see some conversation and then it looked like something was being handed to the Sheriff. We weren’t really close enough to tell what was being handed over, and the only reason we thought it was the Sheriff or a Deputy was because of the patrol car.
“Maybe I won’t call the Sheriff. This looks like a job for the Highway Patrol.”
He used my radio to call his house. His wife was monitoring their home frequency. She patched him through to the State Highway Patrol. He was known to them, so he didn’t have to go through a lot of explaining.
After some discussion, they decided to let them load the truck, and we would follow them in the air to see where they would take the cattle. He did check to see if I had enough fuel.
It took an hour for them to reach their destination, a packing house out near Barstow. By the time they started to unload, the State Police had the area surrounded. From the air I could see forty or more units.
At a signal they all went charging in, the rustlers surrendered without a fight. At that I waggled my wings and turned to take Mr. Tunstall back to his ranch. He was upbeat about the whole event. He told me this was the most fun he had since Lincoln County.
Before I could ask him about that, the radio got busy. The State Police were going to meet us at his ranch to take our statements. By the time I thought of it again I was concentrating on landing. Not saying I wanted to show off, but I wanted to grease it in.
The tires didn’t even chirp it was so smooth. Sometimes things work out.
There were people waiting for us at the flight apron, three women from the looks of it. When we taxied up, I could see that it was a mother, probably Mr. Tunstall’s wife and daughters, who looked like twins. They were a few years older than me, but they were cute.
Mr. Tunstall introduced me to his daughters Jayne and Joan. One of them, I think Joan, said, “He’s cute can we keep him?”
The other daughter, Jayne blurted out, “I saw him first, and he’s mine.”
“Now girls, quit teasing the poor boy.”
I was thoroughly confused as to which was who, or was that which witch, but I knew I could never keep up with these two. It would be double the headache and half the fun.
It was interesting to meet them to say the least. They looked to be in their early twenties, so they were too old for me, which was probably a good thing.
Their Mom let me know they sang professionally, using her maiden name, had I heard of the Boyd sisters? I hadn’t.
One of the girls giggled as she told me they were famous, and I should get their autographs. They acted like it would be the greatest thing in the world for me.
Their Dad just shook his head, and turned to me.
“Sir Richard, I think I see the State Police coming up the drive way, let’s go meet them.”
I couldn’t get out of there quick enough. As we walked away I heard one of the girls say, “Sir Richard?”
Our interview with the State Police didn’t take very long as we didn’t know very much. They were very interested in the fact that there had been a Sheriffs vehicle at the scene. We couldn’t even swear that it was from this county, since all counties in California used the same color scheme for their patrol cars.
In turn the State Police didn’t know very much, other than they had received word from the officers on site, that this was big, really big. Mr. Tunstall’s cattle were being returned even as we spoke. They would appreciate if he met the truck at the same point where they had been stolen from.
He was to help count the cattle, and record the number off the plastic ear tags, so he knew that he had received all his cows back, and the police would have the evidence for court.
I started to offer to help, but Mr. Tunstall cut me off, and telling me I had helped enough today and that it would be a long and dirty job getting the cattle back into the pasture. I replied that I didn’t mind, but he insisted. I can’t say I was disappointed.
Walking back towards my airplane I cut towards the runway avoiding the twins. They made me think of double the trouble, double the …. What does rhyme with fun that means problems?
I returned to airport and told Mr. McGarry what had happened. He got a kick out of the whole incident. He told me that Mr. Tunstall had settled down since he had a family, but in his younger days ran with a pretty-tough crowd.
It made a good story at dinner.
After dinner I called Emily. Her mother answered and was friendly enough but said, “She told me to tell you she’s not here.”
I heard a “Mom!” in the background.
This really took me back, so I stood with the phone in my hand like a dummy.
“Rick, she doesn’t want to talk to you right now.”
“Oh, okay, I will try again later.”
I hung up and wondered what this was all about. After thinking for a minute I dialed Bill Spurgeon to see if he knew what was going on. He didn’t but told me he would call Jill to see what she knew.
I started on my school studies while I waited. After half an hour or so, Bill called me back.
“According to Jill she saw a picture of you in the paper kissing some girl. Also it turns out she already has a date this Friday night with Roman that quarterback you met at the rink last weekend. ‘
“Thanks Bill, I don’t know what to think right now the girl that I was kissing initiated it and I knew it might be a problem, but didn’t realize it would get me dumped.”
“Rick, I’m not sure that is the whole story. Emily has been mooning over Roman for a long time. She never stood a chance until he saw her with you. The timing of the whole thing stinks.”
“I guess you are right, thanks for checking.”
“Good luck man.”
And there was another relationship in the dust.
I lay awake and worried about it all night, well at least five minutes.
Chapter 28
At breakfast, Dad was all smiles as he read the paper.
“What’s going on Dad that has you so happy?”
You know that Sheriff I want out of office?”
“Yeah.”
“The State Police have arrested him for heading up a cattle rustling ring. The story also states that they are questioning a local judge, a county Prosecutor and a prominent business man.”
“You think it is our Judge and Prosecutor?”
“I would bet on it. I also can give a good guess as to who the business man is. There might be a newspaper for sale sooner than I thought.”
“That would be too good to be true.”
“Stranger things have happened.”
Mum wanted to know where Emily and I were going Friday night. She just shook her head when I told her my latest tale of woe.
“That is a problem you will face the rest of your life Rick, you won’t know who is real and who is just trying to use you. Just don’t let it make you too
cynical, or you will miss out on many of the good people in life.”
I granted that she had a point, but didn’t know how to handle it in the long run.
“That’s why you see famous people registering under false names and not going out a lot. They learn to be content with the people they met before the fame and fortune came along.”
That would be okay if you had met a lot of pretty girls before the fame and fortune. The next thoughts in my head were Cheryl and Judy. I owed them both letters. Maybe I should keep up my correspondence. I met both before fame and fortune. They were certainly both good looking.
After the meal, I went back to my room with the thought of writing to both girls when my private line rang. It was the studio.
They wanted me to come over right away to begin my appearance on Maverick. I learned that TV works to a different schedule than the movies.
When I arrived on set I was hustled into makeup.
In half and hour Ben Maverick was all set to be introduced to the world. It appeared that Ben is a nephew to Bret Maverick, son of his older sister Bea. Bret is at her home in St. Louis on a visit where the episode takes place. Bret had arrived on a huge sternwheeler steamboat from New Orleans. He had won a rather large sum of money on the trip. No surprise there, the real surprise was that he hadn’t got into any trouble on the way.
I was told all that in a hurry as we went to the set. It was a barroom set. I was taken onto a stage at the front of the room, handed a guitar and told to play, “Buffalo Girl.”
No problem, now if I only knew how to play the guitar! Well, I guess it would help if I knew the words to the song.
That’s where the magic of TV and the movies came into play. They had an actor dressed the same as me. He could play the guitar. The only appearance he would make would be shots of his hands as he played the song.
As far as the words, they had printed them out on large paper, and held up for me.
We had a couple of run throughs till I could fake it like I could really sing. Fortunately they had a couple of bargirls as my backup. That way my voice could get lost in the crowd. There were also four women who danced in front of me, doing a western version of the French Can-Can. That made a lot of commotion on the stage, which was the purpose of the whole scene.
We were creating a diversion for Bret Maverick while he did sleight of hand card tricks on another cardsharp. This guy was supposed to be really good and would normally catch Bret at it.
I never did learn that day why he was playing cards with the guy. I guess I would have to wait till the episode was on the air.
We spent all morning on that. Mr. Garner and I went over to the canteen for lunch. A lot of the extras in the various ongoing productions asked for his autograph and he was a gracious gentleman about it. A few even asked for mine. I was using, “Sir Richard”. The United States didn’t recognize titles, but that didn’t mean they weren’t cool.
At lunch I had to give a blow by blow replay of Saturday’s golf match. Mr. Garner loved it. He told me that the Judge had been a pain ever since he had met him. He was arrogant and demanding thinking his money and position earned him the right to look down on the world.
It didn’t take long before I was told to stop the Mr. Garners, it was Jim. Jim wondered if they could work a variation of the golf match into the series. It would make a wonderful sting.
After lunch we returned to the set. My scene for the afternoon was me being followed. I was shown coming around a corner and apparently disappearing.
They tried several variations. The first was ducking into a doorway. The doorway was too shallow. Another was lying down behind a water trough. It was too low, you could still see me. I really got nervous being near that water trough.
Someone pointed out that I could slip under the water. I was quick to point out that it was way too short for me to get in and submerge. That bright someone sent a runner to see if there were any longer troughs on the lot. I knew where there were at least three others, but I wasn’t about to tell.
This was taking place on a main street in St. Louis during the daytime, so they had extras walking down the street.
I asked the Director if I could try something while we were waiting for a longer water trough. He was okay with it. I had a quick conversation with one of the extras, a guy about my height.
I then demonstrated what I had in mind. I strolled around the corner from an alley with my followers not that far behind. When out of sight I ran up to the extra. I handed him a coin, it was a quarter but I would mention to Bret he owed me a double eagle later.
We then did a quick exchange of hats and vests.
He walked on and I sat down on nearby steps with my head looking down.
The two guys following came around the corner and passed me. One of them pointed at the guy wearing my hat. I then took off back the way I came.
The Director loved it. I knew those losing a tail lessons would come in handy. Thanks Mum and CIA.
Those were the action scenes in which I appeared, there was a dinner where Bret explained my role in distracting the bad guys. Bea did not like this. Of course Ben was all in. Bea kept calling Bret by her childhood nickname for him, Slick.
Then there were several scenes where I received my orders from Bret; and of course the happy ending where Bret calls Bea by her childhood nickname, Buzzy, as in Buzzy Bee. She swats him and all is good.
The best part was right at the ending. Early Bret had told Ben he was concerned that Bea might be in the match making mode. She had mentioned a young lady that had been sweet on him when they were younger. She was okay but a little stout for him.
He hadn’t told me her name (As Ben, I wouldn’t have had a clue) so I didn’t put it together when I heard Bea say oh Alice is here. I did see Bret take out the back door like his tail was on fire.
As he was going out the back an absolutely gorgeous young lady walked in the door.
Bea greeted her, “Alice I am so glad you came over, I’m certain Bret will be glad to see you.”
I had no lines so I kept my mouth shut. The two ladies went on for a bit then looked for Bret. He was long gone. Alice took her leave.
Bea shook her head, “That Bret, Alice so wanted to see him again, she has lost all the weight she had as a teenager and has kept it off these last five years. Well I guess that settles it, she has been dating that German brewer, Augie something or the other. I suppose she will marry him now.”
After they yelled cut, I ran over to the gorgeous young lady and lifted her off her feet in a hug. I wasn’t told that Sharon Branson was making an appearance.
Jim Garner came back onto the set and the three of us had a good chat. From the way Jim eyed Sharon I wondered, but she didn’t act interested. After a while they recalled previous appointments so we went our way. I couldn’t wait to see the show air, so I could find out-what the story line was. This TV piece meal of scenes seemed even worse than the movies.
It was a fun day, after I did all that work I had to sign some papers so I would get paid at scale. Heck I thought I was working for free as a walk on.
My day was of interest to everyone at dinner. The boys wondered if they could get a guest appearance. Mary was the one who stopped everyone cold. She announced she would appear as a girl who worked in the barroom. How I kept a straight face I will never know. Mum got a very pained look and Dad had to pretend he was wiping his face with his napkin.
After dinner we went in to listen to Walter Cronkite on the CBS nightly news. I loved his sign-off.
“And that’s the way it is.”
Of course that’s the way it is according to Walter Cronkite. But who was I to question the most trusted man in America?
Mary fell asleep during the show which was unusually early for her. I asked Mum about it.
She told me that Mary was going through a growth spurt and would be very tired and a little emotional for the next few months. The Doctor had told Mum that Mary would be very tall, maybe five foot eleve
n inches; that made sense as the rest of us were tall for our ages. I wondered if she could be a model when she grows up.
After the news, I spent several hours on school work. Then read one of my favorite authors before falling asleep.
I dreamed about the fat red bearded farmer waving Tailbiter at the dragon.
Chapter 29
On my morning run through the park I saw and waved at the people who had taken the lady with the sprained ankle to the hospital, but we didn’t stop to talk.
I took the time to examine the work being done on the stable. It looked good to me. I wondered when horses would appear. After the horses appeared there would be the product of having horses around. I had better behave myself or I would catch that duty.
After my shower I joined the family for breakfast. Dad had some interesting news. Apparently the Judge, the Sheriff, the Prosecutor and the newspaper owner had got involved in a land deal which went very bad. They tried to recoup their money by starting a rustling operation. We know how that ended.
The long and the short of it, to raise money for his lawyers, the newspaper was for sale. Dad had already this morning made some phone calls to try to buy it. This led to further conversation about the kid’s school. It seems after the first of the year the Jackson family, or its business subsidiary would own its own school.
Denny and Eddie loved the idea; they would always get passing grades. They were quickly disabused of that thought. Mary wanted to know if she could make them have longer recesses. Dad told her he would look into it. A glare from Mum scotched that.
This led into a very serious family discussion about how it wouldn’t be a good idea to tell anyone that we would own the school. Dad pointed out that it would still have an independent board setting policy, so that we may own it we weren’t running it.
I kept my mouth shut, Mum and Dad wouldn’t set policy, at least until the board tried to set bad policy, then Katie bar the door.
I decided to spend the morning at the studio. I was getting a little rusty on my various skills.