Riding for the Brand (Ss) (1986)

by L'amour, Louis

  He lunged for the gangway and raced aboard.

  It was foolish, it was wild, it was impossible, but it was their only chance. Grimly, he recalled what he had told Betty Bruce when he left the Valley.

  “I’ll get them cattle over, honey, or I’ll die tryin’!”

  “You come back, Steve”… She had begged.

  “That’s all I ask. We can always go somewhere and start over. We always have each other.”

  “I know, honey, but how about yore father?

  How about Pete Farthing? They’re too old to start over, and the ranches are all they have.

  They worked like slaves, fought Indians, gave a lot in sweat and blood for their ranches. I’ll not see “em turned out now. Whatever comes, I’ll make it.”

  As the riverboat pushed away from the dock, he glanced back. Jake Hitson was staring after him, his brow furrowed. Jake had seen him, and that was bad.

  Mehan put such thoughts behind him. The boat would not take long to get to Knights Landing, and he could depend upon Knight to help him. The man had migrated from New Mexico fifteen years before, but he had known Steve’s father, and they had come over the Santa Fe Trail together. From a mud-and-wattle hut on an Indian mound at the landing, he had built a land grant he got from his Mexican wife into a fine estate, and the town had been named for him.

  Would Jake Hitson guess what he was attempting?

  If so, what could he do? The man had money, and with money one can do many things, Hitson would not stop at killing. Steve had more than a hunch that Hitson had urged the Mohaves into the attack on the cattle drive that had resulted in the death of Chuck Farthing. He had more than a hunch that the landslide that had killed Dixie Rollins had been due to more than purely natural causes. But he could prove nothing.

  His only chance was to reach Portland before the news did. He was not worried about their willingness to pay him the money. The banks made a charge of one half of one per cent for all ,ii withdrawals over a thousand dollars, and it would look like easy profit to the agent at the banking and express house.

  Nor was it all unfamiliar country, for Steve had spent two years punching cows on ranches, prospecting and hunting through the northern valleys, almost as far as the Oregon line.

  When the Belle shouldered her comfortable bulk against the landing at Knights, Mehan did not wait for the gangway. He grabbed the bulwark and vaulted ashore, landing on his hands and knees.

  He found Knight standing on the steps of his home, looking down toward the river.

  “A hoss, Steve?” Knight repeated. “Shorest thing yuh know. What’s up?”

  While Steve threw a saddle on a tall chestnut, he explained briefly.

  “Yuh’ll never make it, boy”… Knight protested.

  “It’s a hard drive, and the Modocs are raidin” again.”… He chewed on his mustache as Steve swung into the saddle. “Boy”… He said, “when yuh get to the head of Grand Island, see the judge.

  He’s an old friend of mine, and he’ll let yuh have a hoss. Good luck!”

  Steve wheeled the chestnut into the street and started north at a spanking trot. He kept the horse moving and the long-legged chestnut had a liking for the trail. He moved out eagerly, seeming to catch some of the anxiety to get over the trail that filled his rider.

  At the head of Grand Island, Steve swapped horses and started north again, holding grimly to the trail. There was going to be little time for rest and less time to eat. He would have to keep moving if he was going to make it. The trail over much of the country was bad, and the farther north he got toward the line, the worse it would be.

  His friends on the ranches remembered him, and he repeatedly swapped horses and kept moving. The sun was setting in a rose of glory when he made his fourth change of mount near the Marysville Buttes. The purple haze of evening was gathering when he turned up the trail and lined out.

  He had money with him, and he paid a bonus plus a blown horse when necessary. But the stockmen were natural allies, as were the freighters along the route, and they were always willing to help. After leaving Knights Landing he told no one his true mission, his only explanation being that he was after a thief. In a certain sense, that was exactly true.

  At ten o’clock, ten hours out of Sacramento, he galloped into the dark streets of Red Bluffs.

  No more than five minutes later, clutching a sandwich in his hand andwitha fresh horse under him, he was off again.

  Darkness closed around him, and the air was cool. He had no rifle with him, only the pistol he habitually wore and plenty of ammunition.

  The air was so cold that he drew his coat around him, tucking it under and around his legs. He spoke softly to the horse, and its ears twitched. It was funny about a horse how much they would give for gentleness. There was no animal which responded so readily to good treatment, and no other animal would run itself to death for a man except, occasionally, a dog.

  The hoofs of the horse beat a pounding rhythm upon the trail, and Steve leaned forward in the saddle, hunching himself against the damp chill and to cut wind resistance. His eyes were alert, although weariness began to dull his muscles and take the drive and snap from them.

  Twenty miles out of Red Bluffs he glimpsed a fire shining through the trees. He slowed the horse, putting a hand on its damp neck. It was a campfire. He could see the light reflecting from the front of a covered wagon, and he heard voices speaking. He rode nearer and saw the faces of the men come around toward him.

  “Who’s there?” A tall man stepped around the fire with a rifle in his hand.

  “Mehan, a cattleman. I’m after a thief and need a fresh hoss.”

  “Well, “light and talk. Yuh won’t catch him on that boss. Damn” fine animal”… He added, “but yuh’ve shore put him over the road.”

  “He’s got heart, that one”… Steve said, slapping the horse. “Plenty of it! Is that coffee I smell?”

  The bearded man picked up the pot. “It shore is, pardner. Have some”… He poured a cupful, handed it to Steve, and then strolled over to the horse. “Shucks, with a rubdown and a blanket he’ll be all right. Tell yuh what I’ll do.

  I’ve got a buckskin here that’ll run “til he drops.

  Give me twenty to boot and he’s yores.”

  Mehan looked up. “Done, but you throw in a couple of sandwiches.”

  The bearded man chuckled. “Shore will.”… He glanced at the saddle as Steve began stripping it from the horse. “Yuh’ve got no rifle?”

  “No, only a pistol. I’ll take my chances.”

  “Haven’t got a rifle to spare, but I’ll make yuh a deal on this.”… He handed Steve a four-barreled Braendlin repeating pistol.

  “Frankly, mister, I need money. Got my family down to Red Bluffs, and I don’t want to come in broke.”

  “How much?”

  “Another twenty?”

  “Shore, if yuh’ve got ammunition for it.”

  “I’ve got a hundred rounds. And it goes with the gun.”… The man dug out the ammunition.

  “Joe, wrap up a couple of them sandwiches for the man. Got smokin”?”

  “Shore thing.”… Steve swung into the saddle and pocketed the extra pistol. He put the ammunition in his saddlebags. “Good luck.”

  “Hope yuh catch him”… The man called.

  Steve touched a spur lightly to the big buckskin and was gone in a clatter of hoofs. Behind him the fire twinkled lonesomely among the dark columns of the trees, and then as he went down beyond a rise, the light faded and he was alone in the darkness, hitting the road at a fast trot.

  Later, he saw the white radiance that preceded the moon, and something else the white, gleaming peak of Mount Shasta, one of the most beautiful mountains in the world. Lifting its fourteen-thousand-foot peak above the surrounding country, it was like a throne for the Great Spirit of the Indians.

  In darkness and moving fast, Steve Mehan rode down the trail into Shasta and then on to Whiskeytown.

  A drunken miner l
urched from the side of a building and flagged him down. “No use hurryin’”… He said. “It ain’t true!”

  “What ain’t true?” Steve stared at him. “What yuh talking about?”

  “That Whiskey Creek. Shucks, it’s got water in it just like any creek”… He spat with disgust. “I come all the way down here from Youreka huntin’ it!”

  “You came from Youreka?” Steve grabbed his shoulder. “How’s the trail? Any Indians out?”

  “Trail?” The miner spat. “There ain’t no trail! A loose-minded mule walked through the brush a couple of times, that’s all! Indians?

  Modocs? Man the woods is full of’em! Behind ever’ bush! Scalp-huntin’ bucks, young and old. If yuh’re headin’ that way, you won’t get through. Yore hair will be in a tepee “fore two suns go down!”

  He staggered off into the darkness, trying a song that dribbled away and lost itself in the noise of the creek.

  Mehan walked the horse down to the creek and let him drink.

  “No whiskey, but we’ll settle for water, won’t we, Buck?”

  The creek had its name, he remembered, from an ornery mule who lost the barrel from its pack.

  It broke in Whiskey Creek, which promptly drew a name upon itself.

  Steve Mehan started the horse again, heading for the stage station at Tower House, some ten miles up the road. The buckskin was weary but game. Ahead of him and on his right, still loomed the peak of Mount Shasta, seeming large in the occasional glimpses, even at the distance that still separated them.

  He almost fell from his horse at Tower House, with dawn bright in the eastern sky beyond the ragged mountains. The stage tender blinked sleepy eyes at him and then at the horse.

  “Yuh’ve been givin” her blazes”… He said.

  “In a mite of hurry?”

  “After a thief”… Mumbled Steve.

  The man scratched his grizzled chin. “He must be a goin’ son of a gun”… He commented whimsically. “Want anything?”

  “Breakfast and a fresh hoss.”

  “Easy done. Yuh ain’t figurin’ on ridin’ north, are yuh? Better change yore plans if yuh are, because the Modocs are out and they’re in a killin’ mood. No trail north of here, yuh know.”

  With a quick breakfast and what must have been a gallon of coffee under his belt, Steve Mehan swung into the saddle and started once more. The new horse was a gray and built for the trail. Steve was sodden with weariness, and at every moment his lids fluttered and started to close. But now, for a while at least, he dared not close them.

  Across Clear Creek he rode into the uplands where no wagon road had ever been started. It was a rugged country, but one he remembered from the past, and he wove around among the trees, following the thread of what might have been a trail. Into a labyrinth of canyons he rode, following the vague trail up the bottom of a gorge, now in the water, then out of it. Then he climbed a steep trail out of the gorge and headed out across the long rolling swell of a grasscovered mountainside.

  The air was much colder now, and there was an occasional flurry of snow. At times he clung to the saddle horn, letting the horse find his own trail, just so that trail was north. He rode into the heavily forested sides of the Trinity Mountains, losing the trail once in the dimness under the tall firs and tamaracks, but keeping on his northern route. Eventually he again hit what must have been the trail.

  His body ached, and he fought to keep his eyelids open. Once he dismounted and walked for several miles to keep himself awake and to give the horse a slight rest. Then he was back in the saddle and riding once more.

  Behind him somewhere was Jake Hitson. Jake, he knew well, would not give up easily. If he guessed what Mehan was attempting he would stop at nothing to prevent it. And yet there was no way of preventing it unless he came north with the boat and reached Portland before him.

  And that would do no good, for if the boat got to Portland before him, the news would be there, and nothing Hitson could do would be any worse than the arrival of that news.

  Egan and Smith would have their eyes on Jake Hitson, but he might find some means of getting away. Certainly, Steve thought grimly, nothing on horseback was going to catch him now.

  The wind grew still colder and howled mournfully under the dark, needled trees. He shivered and hunched his shoulders against the wind.

  Once, half alseep, he almost fell from the horse when the gray shied at a fleeing rabbit.

  As yet there were no Indians. He peered ahead across the bleak and forbidding countryside, but it was empty. And then, not long later, he turned down a well-marked trail to Trinity Creek.

  He swung down in front of a log bunkhouse.

  A miner was at the door.

  “A hoss?” The miner chuckled. “Stranger, yuh’re shore out of luck! There ain’t a hoss hereabouts yuh could get for love or money!”

  Steve Mehan sagged against the building.

  “Mister”… He mumbled, “I’ve just got to get a hoss. I’ve got to!”

  “Sorry, son. There just ain’t none. Nobody in town would give up his hoss right now, and they are mighty scarce at that! Yuh’d better come in and have some coffee.”

  Steve stripped his saddle and bridle from his horse and walked into the house. He almost fell into a chair. Several miners playing cards looked up. “Amigo”… One of them said, “yuh’d better lay off that stuff.”

  Mehan’s head came up heavily, and he peered at the speaker, a blond giant in a red-checked shirt.

  “I haven’t slept since I left Sacramento”… He said. “Been in the saddle ever since.”

  “Sacramento?”

  The young man stared. “You must be crazy!”

  “He’s chasin’ a thief”… Sd the miner Steve had first seen. He was bringing Steve a cup of coffee.

  “I’d want a man awful bad before I rode like that.”

  “I got to beat the steamer to Portland”… Steve said. It was a lie in a way, but actually the truth.

  “If I don’t the fellow will get away with fifteen thousand dollars!”

  “Fifteen thou”… The young man laid down his hand. “Brother”… He said emphatically, “I’d ride, too!”

  Steve gulped the coffee and lurched to his feet.

  “Got to find a hoss”… He said and lunged outside.

  It took him less than a half hour to prove to himself that it was an impossibility.

  Nobody would even consider selling a horse, and his own was in bad shape.

  “Not a chance”… They told him. “A man without a hoss in this country is through! No way in or out but on a hoss, and not an extry in town!”

  He walked back to the stable. One look at his own horse told him the animal was through.

  There was no chance to go farther with it. No matter what he might do, the poor creature could stagger no more than a few miles. It would be killing a good horse to no purpose. Disgusted and discouraged, numbed with weariness, he stood in the cold wind, rubbing his grizzled chin with a fumbling hand.

  So this was the end. After all his effort, the drive over the mountains and desert, the long struggle to sell out, and then this ride, and all for nothing. Back there in the Pahute the people he had left behind would be trusting him, keeping their faith. For no matter how much they were sure he would fail, their hopes must go with him.

  And now he had failed.

  Wearily he staggered into the bunkhouse and dropped into his chair. He fumbled with the coffeepot and succeeded in pouring out a cupful.

  His legs and feet felt numb, and he had never realized a man could be so utterly, completely tired.

  The young man in the checkered shirt looked around from his poker game.

  “No luck, eh? Yuh’ve come a long way to lose now.”

  Steve nodded bitterly. “That money belongs to my friends as well as me”… He said. “That’s the worst of it.”

  The blond young fellow laid down his hand and pulled in the chips. Then he picked up his pipe.

 
“My sorrel out there in the barn”… He said, “is the best hoss on the Trinity. You take it and go, but man, yuh’d better get yoreself some rest at Scott Valley. Yuh’ll die.”

  Mehan lunged to his feet, hope flooding the weariness from his body.

  “How much?” He demanded, reaching for his pocket.

  “Nothin’”… The fellow said. “Only if yuh catch that thief, bring him back on my hoss, and I’ll help yuh hang him. I promise yuh.”

  Steve hesitated. “What about the hoss?”

  “Bring him back when yuh come south”… The fellow said, “and take care of him. He’ll never let yuh down.”

  Steve Mehan rode out of Trinity Creek ten minutes later, and the sorrel took to the trail as if he knew all that was at stake, and pressed on eagerly for Scott Valley.

  The cold was increasing as Steve Mehan rode further north, and the wind was raw, spitting with rain that seemed to be changing to snow.

  Head hunched behind the collar of his buffalo coat, Steve pushed on, talking low to the horse, whose ears twitched a response and who kept going, alternating between a fast walk and a swinging, space-eating trot.

  Six hours out of Trinity Creek, Steve Mehan rode into Scott Valley.

  The stage tender took one look at him and waved him to a bunk.

  “Hit it, stranger”… He said. “I’ll care for yore hoss!”

  Stumbling through a fog of exhaustion, Steve made the bunk and dropped into its softness….

  Steve Mehan opened his eyes suddenly, with the bright sunlight in his face. He glanced at his watch. It was noon.

  Lunging to his feet, he pulled on his boots, which somebody had removed without awakening him, and reached for his coat. The heavyset red-haired stage tender walked in and glanced at him.

  “See yuh’ve got Joe Chalmers’ hoss”… He remarked, his thumbs in his belt. “How come?”

  Steve looked up. “Chasin’ a thief. He let me have it.”

  “I know Chalmers. He wouldn’t let Moses have this hoss to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.