“Chet Byrnes. I own the Quarter Circle Z.” They shook hands.
“I’ve read all kinds of things about you. Nice to finally meet you. My boss would sure like to have a stage stop here.”
“Cole, we can look into that?”
“Certainly. I’m not certain about the final stage stops yet. We’re going to use buckboards at first to meet the requirement of our mail contract.”
“Well, let me know what we can do. We’re a main stop now and would like to stay that way.”
Things settled down and they went back to eating.
Chet, busy cutting up the elk steak, said, “Jesus, you got out of here quick enough.”
“I damn near was on all fours to get there, but I knew he’d come outside and I could stop him there.”
“Very professional. You two are great companions.”
“After all we have done, we should be good at this business.”
“Yeah, Cole saved the lady,” Jesus teased.
“Hell, I had to. You broke your plate getting out of here and I wanted you to eat when it was over.”
“Well, thanks.”
“Not that it did me much good. She kissed you, not me.”
Chet was shaking his head. “We will miss him when he gets his next job, won’t we, Jesus?”
“You might.”
They laughed some more.
Jill came by to check on them. “Is there any work in Preskitt?”
“You want to be a waitress?”
She looked around. “I simply want a better job. My ex-husband dumped me off here. No money, no clothes, nothing.”
“We—my wife helps a lady who has a busy café down there. She’d probably hire you. Her name is Jenny Allen.”
“Would one of you write that down and give me a recommendation?”
They looked at each other and agreed. Chet tore a page out of his notebook and wrote on it. “We recommend Jill—Last name?”
“Oh, Corpsman.”
“I have it. You two sign it.”
They did.
She tucked it in her apron. “I thank you. Maybe I’ll see you three again.”
When she was gone, Jesus made a face. “He sure must have been a sorry bastard. She’s a nice, clean young woman.”
Chet agreed. “There’re lots of folks who don’t know when they’re well off.”
“She will make a lot more money down there, I bet,” Cole said.
Chet and Jesus both agreed.
The JP had not arrived when they were ready to leave for their camp. Chet told Harry thanks when he refused to take his money. Chet gave Jill a five-dollar tip and her eyes about bugged out. “I hope to see you again.”
“You will, Mr. Byrnes. You sure will. Good night, fellows.”
Out under the stars, Cole said, “I think we got Jenn a winner again.”
“I bet we have,” Chet said.
“There must be a helluva story about her husband dumping her here.”
“Jesus, when she gets to Preskitt, she can tell you the entire story,” Cole promised him.
“I’m not certain I need it.”
“You two are a mess. Will we reach this person we are checking on tomorrow?”
“McCrown’s not far west of here. We should be there by noon.”
“If the weather holds. I also want to go on after that to see Lucy and Drew and be sure they don’t need anything.”
“I’m just curious why that guy never answered my letter. He may have problems or something may be wrong.”
“Good idea. I bet the guy who owns that store/bar back there might move to have his place be a stage stop.”
“He might. Everyone on this road is looking for more business or better work.”
“Just like Jill,” Jesus said.
They both clapped him on the shoulder.
“You still thinking about her?” Cole asked.
“Well someone needs to. Her dumb husband dumped her off out here.”
Chet agreed.
They made it to their camp and crawled into their bedrolls. Chet slept till just before dawn. The trio saddled their horses and packhorses, drank some fresh coffee, complained they were all still full from the last night’s meal, and hit the road headed west.
CHAPTER 31
A woman came out when they rode up to the low-walled log ranch house. She had to hold her prematurely graying hair back from her face with her hand to talk to them. Right off Chet felt something was wrong here.
“Ma’am, is your husband here?” Cole asked.
She shook her head. “He was shot and killed three weeks ago.”
“I wondered why he didn’t write me. I am so sorry.” Cole dismounted to go to her.
“No more than I am, Mr. Emerson. I got your letters, but I can’t read or write.” She began to cry. “He did all that.”
“Who shot him and why?” Chet asked, dismounting his horse.
“Come inside, please. It’s warmer in there.” She sniffed some more.
Cole showed her to a chair at the table, and she looked up with wet eyes and told them to sit down.
“Two men rode up here one day. Crown was off getting wood and I spoke to them and told them he was off cutting wood. But I could see that would not satisfy them. They dismounted their horses and roughly shoved me inside.
“There was nothing I could do to stop them. They both mistreated me on that bed.” She stopped and bit her lower lip. “When he came back, he discovered what they’d done. He didn’t wear a gun, but he went for the rifle over the fireplace. They gunned him down right there. Then they left. I had no clothes on and with his blood all over me, I told him I never caused them to do that to me.
“Before he died he said, ‘Kary, I know you never did.’ Then he died. I wanted him to know I never done wrong on him, with him dying and me not going to get another chance to ever tell him the truth. He forgave me.”
“I realize how sincere that was. Who were they?”
“Gilbert was one. I don’t know his last name. Got a scar on his right cheek. A bad one. His right eye don’t work. Maybe blind in it. He’s got hair all over him like a bear.” Her whole body shook in revulsion as she told them about him.
“And the other attacker?”
“His name was Lum. He was crazy, out of his mind. He’d say things made no sense to me at all. Had long blond hair that came to his shoulders. He never washed, either. He smelled bad enough I threw up when he was attacking me. Never stopped him any, but I about gagged to death. By then I wanted to die—just die. And then McCrown came in. I didn’t want him to come in—I knew they’d kill him. Then what would I do?
“They killed him like I said, then they rode off. Stole the paint mare and tried for the mule, too, but he kicked so hard they left him. Guess he thought they smelled bad, too.”
“Anyone come help you?”
“Old man Ivy lives north of here did. Took both of us to bury him. I didn’t care—I planned to hang myself. But I couldn’t. Then I was going to shoot myself. I couldn’t—”
“Did you report his death?”
“To who? I had only a mule to ride. Where would I go? Folks brought me food. Said they cared. What for? My man was dead and buried. And I could not kill myself and join him.”
“You know, Kary, maybe God didn’t want you to do that,” Chet said.
“There ain’t no God in this land. God would never have let those men rape me. He’d never let them kill my dear husband. Never done—” She slipped out of the chair onto her knees and went to crying hard on the seat of it. “Just leave me here to die. I have no will to live another day.”
“Kary, we all get dealt some tough hands in this life. We don’t ask for them or want them. But they happen. You obviously couldn’t kill yourself. So you must face the days ahead and you need to find your God. Somewhere, he’s the rock you need.”
“No. He abandoned me. No loving God would do that. Not have me go through that horrible day with those two raging mad ani
mals and then let them kill him.”
“Kary, we are going to try and help you. Do you own this homestead?”
“I guess I do.”
“Did he file papers on it?”
She climbed up with both him and Cole’s help. Then, blowing her nose in a rag from her apron, she went to a steamer trunk and came back with a paper.
“Here.”
“You own three hundred and twenty acres. This is the patent.”
She shook her head. “That means nothing to me. I can’t farm it or do nothing but cut some firewood and pack it in here.”
“Did he have any money?”
“No.”
“How much food do you have?”
“I got some in the cellar. I can shoot a deer.”
“Cole needs a stopover for his buckboard mail operation. Your husband promised him a stop here.”
She nodded. “But he’s dead. I don’t have—I mean—I can’t build it.”
“Is this where you need it?” he asked Cole.
“Yes. He dug a well and it works. The mileage is right. Her husband was a hustler.”
“But he’s dead,” she cried.
“Yes, we know, and we hate that for you and our purposes. Kary, would you sell this place if we resettled you?”
“Where?”
“Say Preskitt. We could find you a house and a job.”
“Doing what?”
“Cleaning people’s houses or working in a restaurant.”
“How could I hold my head up living among people?”
“How will they know unless you tell them?”
She shook her head. “I won’t tell a soul after today.”
“Now you decide. We could try to sell it for you?”
“I guess sell it. I can’t live here and be reminded of him.”
“Cole, you go speak to Harry’s boss and see if he wants this place and can afford it. It will assure him of being a stopover when the stage line comes and have success with his business for the next decade until the tracks come here.
“Jesus, you and I are going to look for the men who shot him.”
“Why do that for me?”
“Besides being stagecoach investors, we’re also U.S. Marshals. If they’re in this country, we will find them and make them stand trial for his murder.”
“Oh, you’ve said so many things my brain is about to explode.”
“There is no worry about that happening. Now, do you think they live in this region?”
“They never told me where they live, but they did mention Peach Springs.”
“That’s on the Indian reservation,” Jesus recalled.
“Yes. We may get some help on that one. Cole is going to talk to a man who might buy this place. Jesus and I are riding west. I own a ranch near that place and they may be able to help us find those killers.”
She frowned at him. “You really think you can find them?”
“We’ve found lots of criminals like them before. You keep the door locked and your gun handy. We’ll be back in a few days with some answers.”
“Oh, I’d give anything to have them hung.”
“Well, we are going to look into finding them.”
And so they split up. Chet and Jesus rode west. Cole headed east to find a new man for his project.
The next day, Lucy’s stock dogs barked at them as they rode up the land. She came out on the porch holding her daughter. Drew came from the horse barn and waved. Fern took the baby from Lucy so she could greet them.
Lucy came down the stairs and hugged the two of them. Chet noted she had begun to look pregnant.
“Why are you here?”
“One, to be sure you and Drew are getting along. We’ve been helping Cole with his stage stops.” She herded them up the stairs and into her house. “And we’re looking for two men. One’s called Gilbert. Big facial scar, blind in one eye, big hairy man. Number two is Lum, no last name, either. But he is daft.”
She made a face. “They live over near Peach Springs, don’t they, Drew?”
“Yeah, if they still are there. I can show you where they live.”
“Good. They killed this woman’s husband and assaulted her.”
“That sounds terrible,” Lucy said.
“It is worse than that. No one investigated his death or her deal. These men need to be arrested and tried.”
“We will do all we can to help you. Fern will make some coffee. Let’s sit at the large table.”
Chet talked to the new foreman. “Drew, you have enough help up here?”
“I told Lucy, we could use some more. Feeding hay take lots of hands to pitch it on the sleds and then off to the cattle. I could hire, say, three more boys to help us and use them on the hay crew next summer.”
“If they’ll work, hire them.”
“I also want to talk about how Victor is getting his mowers and his hay equipment rebuilt this winter. How do we get in that line?”
“Probably get a freighter to bring the mowers to the Verde Ranch and get them repaired.”
“They’re going into their third summer and the men say we need two more. We only have two, and if I can hire those boys we can put up more hay.”
“I’ll order them and hope they get here.”
“Thanks. I know my men will be glad. We should have a good-size number of cattle to ship next year. We’ve rounded up over a hundred head of mavericks since I came up here. Hay feeding, we should get another hundred and fifty that come in to eat. Those cattle could pay for most all the things we need.”
“You’ve done an amazing job. You and Lucy are doing well.”
“Reg had been laid up for some time before . . . otherwise he’d have done that,” Lucy said.
“I am certain he would have. Thanks for the job you two are doing.”
“If it’s okay, Fern and I are going to get married. Living in the same house is not the right thing to do.”
“You want to marry up here, or at the ranch?”
“Oh I think—Fern, where should we get married?”
“We can wait till March and do it at the ranch.”
“Is that what you want to do?” Drew asked her.
Looking embarrassed and a little red-faced, she tried to smile. “I’d marry you anywhere you want, Drew.”
“Me too. We’ll talk and tell you, Chet, before you leave.”
“Fine, you can get married anytime. I’m pleased you two are together again.”
“Hey, we talked about me going down to the Verde. My time with Tom Flowers was worth us being apart. Tom is a great foreman. He shared his secrets and experience on men and ranches. I learned more than a book full about ranching with him.”
“Drew, he speaks very highly of you. I felt you’d served the ranch well. Do what you want. I know my wife will put Fern in a beautiful dress, have a super ceremony, and a big deal afterward.” Chet felt that was settled. “Now, tomorrow I want to go try to find those two killers.”
“We can go up there,” Drew volunteered.
“Don’t you need to stay and feed cattle?”
“No, the men I have will be so happy that I’m hiring more help, they won’t notice I’m gone.”
Jesus and Chet laughed with him.
Later in the evening, when her daughter was asleep, Lucy had time to visit with Chet by himself.
“I should have talked to you last summer. I don’t know what I did wrong or if it was him or me, but Reg started taking off by himself for, say, a day. He wouldn’t tell us anything about what he did or where he went. I don’t think he had another love interest. Or at least, I never found anything, but I finally figured he was just avoiding life. Oh, the ranch operated. The men did the work. But they didn’t hunt mavericks, and the last time he did, that was when he had the wreck that hurt him so badly. I suspected he did that on purpose to destroy himself. I should have told you. But I couldn’t believe he wouldn’t return to what I thought were his senses. Do you see?”
“I see
your part, and I am sorry I wasn’t informed, but I doubt I could have changed his decision.”
“The last nine months, he was not the man I married, Chet. It was hard.”
“Lucy, you know you’re like a daughter to me and he was like a son. I don’t know what came over him. Perhaps I didn’t pay enough attention to him.”
She shook her head. “Something in him changed. He withdrew from all of us. Fern asked me what was wrong with him. If you asked him anything, he’d bite your head off and you’d done nothing.”
“I guess his recovery was hard on you all?”
“Bad. After Drew came, even with this weather, he’s brought in a hundred and some mavericks. And he’s not lying, he’ll bait in a lot more. Nothing I could do. But I don’t think if I had not had the baby it would have gone any better.”
“Did he resent her?”
“It was like it wasn’t his.”
“Oh, Lucy. I am so sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”
“I’ll be fine. I appreciate getting to stay here and help run the ranch. Drew was a good choice, for Fern and him and this ranch. He and I get along. I cherish your friendship and your wife’s. She really helped me that first week. I love her and I see why you do. When I heard you’d found her I first felt guilty for Marge and her memory. But I didn’t know her. Liz is what you said. An honest angel. But you knew that.”
“I am so fortunate to have her. If I had not given those horses for Bonnie’s return, I would never have found her. She saw them in Mexico, on that ranch, and came to find the man who had them. She thought he had bought them from me.”
“How are JD and Bonnie?”
“Best I can tell you, they pray together on their knees every night before going to bed.”
“Really?”
“I about cried when she told me that. Those two started out so wild and crazy, I hardly had any hope for them.”
“She wrote me such a nice letter after the funeral. I’m pleased they found each other. About makes me jealous.” Lucy bit her lip.
“No need for that. Life has twists and turns, but you will find a way and a life for yourself.”
“Thanks. I will look for that path.”
“Any way I can help, call on me.”
“I will. Thanks.”
He trudged upstairs, wondering why he wasn’t home with his wife—but they still had those two outlaws to arrest and the stage stop problem for Cole to solve. Things became more tangled all the time in his life.
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