Chaparral Range War (9781101619049)

by Richards, Dusty

  “Hmm.” Noble snuffled. “You don’t think a Whitmore gunny shot him?”

  “I’m trying to figure out why a Whitmore-hired killer would let himself get in this box canyon when he could have shot the man in an easy place to escape from on any given day.”

  “Damn, that’s why you were a Ranger and I was a day-working cowboy all these years. You’ve got me worked up now. Should we start searching?”

  Guthrey nodded. He went one way and Noble went the other. They began a systematic look at the ground for any signs of digging or mining efforts. Working their way through the greasewood and dry bunchgrass, they turned up little with their efforts until Noble called to him from a good distance up the north hillside.

  “What did you find?” Guthrey called out.

  “There’s a rose quartz outcropping up here.”

  Guthrey soon joined him. He knew about folks finding gold sometimes in such outcroppings. Out of breath, he stopped and Noble handed him a handful of rotten quartz. In the veins of quartz rocks, thin spider gold shone bright in the sun.

  “This has been worked some,” Noble pointed out. “There ain’t much gold showing here right now, but there could be the mother lode in this outcropping. Damn, now I believe what you started on saying about what might be up here. This may be what got him kilt instead of Whitmore’s men doing it.”

  “It sure might be a lead on why someone killed him.”

  “I’ll be a hornswoggled lizard if you don’t beat all. Simply thinking about all the damn reasons why Bridges was shot, and we come up with some gold. Whoever blasted this outcropping, maybe ’cause Bridges caught them, they shot him.”

  “There could or could not be more gold in this box canyon.” Guthrey surveyed the rest of the area, even the stunted juniper brush higher up on the mountain.

  He put a few small pieces of the quartz in his vest pockets.

  “Well, boss, what now?”

  “We’re still speculating. I hope that undertaker took the bullets out of Bridges’s back. Knowing the caliber might make our job even easier.”

  “And now every whiskered prospector stumbling around these hills is a suspect for his murder, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you going to tell Cally?”

  “I will somehow. I want us to do some more exploring in that rose quartz outcropping. We’ll pick up some blasting sticks, cord, detonators, and a rock drill in town.”

  “I know an old hand, Pete Karnes, who can keep his mouth shut and who will work this outcrop for a little something.”

  “No reason to waste time. Let’s get hold of him after lunch.”

  “I can damn sure do that.”

  “Let’s go back. This has not been a bad day, partner.”

  “No. It ain’t.”

  * * *

  AFTER LUNCH THAT afternoon, Noble excused himself and went out to check on the horses. Guthrey sat at the table sipping a last cup of coffee as Cally dried her dishes.

  “You have anything happen so far today?” she asked. “You and Noble both were pretty tight-lipped at lunch. You usually talk about a cow getting old or a calf with funny hide coloring. Just something.”

  “We went to Congress Canyon this morning. I’d never been up there before. And I was waiting till we were alone to talk about it.”

  “That was where Dad was shot.” She bit her lower lip.

  “Yes, and I’m not telling you this to upset you further. But when we got up there, I wondered why a hired gun would kill a man in such a place when he could have killed him anywhere in the open range and escaped easier than he would coming out of there.”

  “That’s a good question.” She folded her arms and waited for Guthrey to continue.

  “Well, Noble and I traipsed all over in the area hemmed in up there.” He reached in his vest pocket for the quartz and took her hand to drop the grains of rock in it.

  “What is this?”

  “Rose quartz, and see those spider veins?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s gold.”

  Her other hand covered her mouth and her eyes flew open. “Really?”

  “There’s not much more evidence up there than that. But that outcropping may contain some gold.”

  She slid into the chair next to him. “Is there lots up there?”

  “I don’t know. But according to the map you showed me one night, that is deeded land that you own. I also have a new theory of why your father was murdered. It was this—the gold.”

  “Are you are saying Whitmore didn’t kill him?”

  “He’s been moved down on the suspect list. How many men have been by here in the last two years looking for gold and silver?”

  “Several.”

  “Start making a list of all of them you can recall who came by.”

  “Oh, that’s horrible if he was killed over some gold mine and I’ve been blaming someone else.”

  She came into his arms and clung to him. He swept off his kerchief for her to cry into, then he squeezed her tight. “Whitmore’s done enough bad things. But right now I don’t believe he was responsible for your father’s death.”

  “How will you ever find who did it?”

  “Greed. Whoever it was, he killed for this gold once, and he will be back to find it again.”

  Gentle-like, he patted her back to reassure her. Damn, he was getting more and more pleased when she sought his arms for comfort. But she didn’t have the needs of some widow who had experienced deep intimacy with a man before and had needs for it again.

  War had taken the boy’s life away from him. The hand-holding and stealing kisses from some sweet girl had all evaporated in those years. All over the battlefields there had been women without men, some without a living husband. They had had to trade their bodies for food, for security, and some for simple love to heal their losses and replace their departed mates.

  Damn war anyway. A decade later, Guthrey was still haunted by memories of the beds he had shared with females desperate to swim out of the hell of those battles they found themselves in. Their lovemaking had happened under the chorus of artillery shelling the farmland around them. One sweet young woman, still exhausted from birthing only three days before, had her newborn beside them in the bed.

  She had mumbled, “It’s been a long time for me. Him gone. I had to have someone to hold and love me tonight or I’d die. I ain’t a whore, mister. I just need a man to love me.”

  His belly churning on the upset from the reminder, he whispered, “I’ll see you later,” to Cally and left the house.

  THIRTEEN

  LATE THAT AFTERNOON he and Noble found Pete Karnes in his sun-yellowed sidewall tent. Loaded on three packhorses they had with them were the supplies and things they’d need to search the quartz deposit, picked up earlier that afternoon.

  Pete was short, wore lace-up boots, and had white whiskers that had been trimmed so they surrounded his mouth when he grinned.

  “What’cha doing these days?” Karnes asked Noble.

  “Doing day work for the Bridgeses. This here is Cap’n Guthrey. He’s their foreman.”

  “Glad to meet’cha, Guthrey. Folks been telling me you’re an ex-Ranger and rounding up outlaws like jackrabbits.” He chuckled.

  “Well, we’ve put a few in jail. Noble tells me you know mining. We’ve found a quartz outcropping on the Bridgeses’ deeded land and need an expert to see if there’s any gold in it.”

  “That could take some work,” Pete said with a frown.

  “We’d like to hire you to explore the outcropping, and then we can decide about expanding the operation should we find enough.”

  “What would you pay two Mexican boys to help me? I ain’t that tough anymore.”

  “How much do they need?”
>
  “Fifty cents a day and food. I need a dollar and a half a day and found.”

  “We ain’t cooking for them.” Guthrey wanted nothing to do with that.

  “No, we can do that ourselves.”

  “Good.”

  “Where is this place?” Pete combed his silver hair back with his fingers.

  “Congress Canyon. West side of the ranch. Noble can come back tomorrow and pack you and them boys’ things up there. You have any firearms?”

  “Sure,” Pete said.

  “Plenty of ammo, just in case?”

  “I’ll buy a box of cartridges in town. You expecting trouble?”

  Guthrey shook his head. “Can’t be too careful in this country. There isn’t any law.”

  Pete agreed. Guthrey shook his hand. “What all do you want to pack up there?”

  “Two tents, bunch of my stuff. Take four packhorses. We’ve got burros to ride.”

  “I have three, but we’ll bring five,” Noble said, laughing as he turned to Guthrey. “He may have more to take than he thinks.”

  “Good. You two work that out. Pete, it’s good to meet you. I’ll look forward to having some success up there.”

  The older man squeezed his chin whiskers. “You can’t ever tell about quartz outcroppings. Some are good sites, others nothing.”

  “I know that, but we have the blasting stick, caps, and cord. Don’t blow yourselves up.”

  “I won’t. Good to meet you,” Pete said. “Now, I’ve got to get around to be ready in the morning.”

  Guthrey and Noble headed back to the ranch with their loaded horses. Noble spoke to him when they were out of sight. “Pete’s good, if there’s any silver or gold up there, he’ll find it.”

  Guthrey nodded. He twisted in the saddle on the next high spot and looked over lots of desert country. Why did he feel spied upon? Was someone tracking them? He didn’t usually have this feeling. Hell, it might be anything.

  “Something bothering you?” Noble called out.

  “Why do I think we’re being watched?”

  “Number of reasons. Whitmore may have someone watching us. The guy or guys who killed Harold Bridges may want us dead. Or some varmint like a big cat could be trailing us.”

  “I know that cougars do that. I was down on the border once, trying to catch some smugglers. It had been raining, and when I doubled back, I saw some tracks of a big cat that had been on my trail. His large footprint was in some soft soil and just filling up with water.”

  “What’cha do?”

  “Got on my horse and went back to camp. Couple days later, some vaqueros with dogs treed and shot a two-hundred-pound cougar tom in the same country.”

  “You get them smugglers?” Noble asked.

  “In time, but I wasn’t going back in there alone again knowing there might be more of them big critters that could be interested in me for supper.”

  “Well, I ain’t seen no sign of anything tracking us today.”

  “Good. I’m just edgy. Now we know that Whitmore may not be the only one to dodge.”

  Guthrey remembered to stop and talk to the funeral man in Steward’s Crossing about Bridges. Mr. Jones was busy at his desk when Guthrey and Noble entered the open front door. The place smelled of fresh-cut pine lumber, and Jones stood up behind his paper-cluttered desk.

  “Howdy, gents. How are you, Noble?”

  “Fine. Mr. Jones, this is Captain Guthrey. He’s helping the Bridges kids. We came to ask a few questions about their father’s body.”

  “Nice to meet you. What can I tell you? He had two bullets in his body. Take a chair, gentlemen. They were, in my appraisal, shot from perhaps a hundred feet away. Both bullets came from the same gun. He had been shot in the back. Someone told me his wallet was missing and a gold watch.”

  “I did,” Noble spoke up. “Or Hitch Caughman, who helped me bring the body in, told you. We’d looked for them up there ’cause Dan told us they were missing when he found him.”

  “I have the bullets right here.” He opened his desk and took them out. “I suspect they’re from a .44/40 rifle. One was in his heart. The other was in his lung. He was going to die from either, and I expect he didn’t suffer long.” He put the bullets on the table and Guthrey picked them up and inspected them. They both had similar rifling twists on their sides.

  “Might be a new gun,” Jones said. “That rifling looks new. From an older gun it ain’t that easy to see the marks on the lead.”

  Guthrey nodded. He weighted the two bullets in his palm. “How many of these rifles are around?”

  “Maybe a couple hundred.”

  Guthrey and Noble both nodded.

  “You two have any idea who shot him?”

  “Nope,” Guthrey said, still thinking hard about who’d want to kill Dan and Cally’s father. No telling in this lawless country. Gold, greed, and a range war all wrapped up together.

  Jones walked them to the front door. “I’ve heard rumors that you might run for sheriff.”

  Guthrey nodded. “That’s all they are.”

  “I’d sure donate some money to help you get in office.” He lowered his voice. “You think on it. Bridges was a good man. Never wore a gun ’cause of his convictions about things. Shot in the back, and you two were the first to even ask me about his death.”

  “I may be back. Thanks.” They went outside in the bright sunlight. Guthrey considered getting a drink across the street in one of the saloons. Instead he said, “Let’s get back. Cally will think we left her and aren’t coming back.”

  “Sure.” Noble mounted up. “I’ve got to move Pete and them two boys up to Congress Canyon tomorrow.”

  “No, bring them to the ranch. Time you get back up here tomorrow it will be too late to go to the canyon.”

  “Whatever you say’s fine with me.”

  “We can do it that way.” Guthrey made his horse trot.

  Noble caught up with him, leading the string. “You know, I ain’t seen Shad Norman in a spell.”

  “Who’s he?”

  “A fellow I thought was real sweet on Cally. Oh, he ain’t been around since before Bridges was shot. Kind of a cocky guy. He must have drifted on.”

  “Time is right, I’ll ask her about him. What did he do?”

  “Oh, his uncle Willy raised him and has a ranch up north of us. He helps out there.”

  “There’s lots of folks I still need to meet if I stay here.”

  “I hope you do. Well, I ain’t partnered with a guy I liked any better than you in years.”

  “It’s mutual.” Guthrey stood in the stirrups and looked back through their dust, but there was no one he could see.

  * * *

  BACK AT THE ranch, Guthrey and Noble unloaded the packhorses. Cally helped them.

  “We hired Pete Karnes and two helpers to work on the outcropping,” Noble told her. “They’re going to cook for themselves, but we furnish the grub.”

  She nodded, carrying the roll of cord toward the shed. “What did he think? Could there be gold up there?”

  “He said they’d look for it. Noble, what did he say about it?”

  “Quartz outcroppings were odd creatures. A few had gold, some didn’t.”

  “What that means is, don’t get your hopes too high and spend what you don’t have yet.”

  Cally laughed, and when Noble had moved out of sight, she paused for Guthrey to kiss her. After, with a big smile, she continued to the shed to put the cord up.

  Turning, she asked, “When will they get here?”

  “Tomorrow. Noble’s going to take some packhorses and get him up here, he hopes by sundown, then the next day he’ll go set them up in the canyon.”

  “I need to go see Dan too this week. Doc may send him home
.”

  “Be good to have him back?”

  “Yes. Dan and I have been like twins all our life. I do miss him.”

  They finished putting the things up. Guthrey and Noble unsaddled the horses and turned them out. Cally went to the house and took supper out of the oven.

  By the end of the meal it was dark, and Noble told them good night. Cally and Guthrey sat out on the bench and listened to the night critters. He told her all about the undertaker’s comments. She bit her lip some but listened close. When he finished he leaned over and kissed her. She hung on his neck for a time and whispered, “I hope we find that person.”

  “We will. All those kind slip up somewhere and sometime. Right now I am doing all I can.”

  “No, you aren’t. You haven’t kissed me in thirty seconds.”

  “Cally, don’t you have a suitor somewhere your own age?”

  She shook her head.

  “I think in the long run you should find one.”

  “Are you afraid of me?”

  “I don’t think so. I simply worry about you being a young woman with an old man to take care of someday.”

  “That won’t bother me one drop.”

  “Not today anyway—”

  Her finger pressed to his mouth silenced him and she twisted around to kiss him hard on the mouth.

  “All right, I lost that war.”

  “Good,” she said. “Now, you go to thinking about other things besides trying to talk me out of—”

  “Out of what?”

  “Spoiling you to death.”

  They both laughed. But his stomach roiled. Could he really stand a wife? She was cute, young, and sweet—but he’d never more than visited that situation with some nice older widow women. Damn, life got complicated at times. Cally offered him a life with her. Family came next, but he had no paying job and the ranch was not large enough to support much more than her and Dan. And he also needed to check on selling some steers for them. . . . Maybe after Saturday night he’d have an idea of what to do next. People had offered him financial support to stay there. Cally turned toward him, and he kissed her again. He felt like he was losing his whole war to hold himself back from her, but damn, she was like honey.