“Yes, ma’am.”
“You are so hard to please. How do you put up with me?”
“It is damn hard.” He left her laughing and shook Hampt’s hand.
“You three—four—be careful. because you won’t have this big old man to back you,” Hampt teased Chet.
“I know. We may need you, but stay here, you have a good operation going.”
“I sure am busting my buttons on the whole deal. Will Ray need to go to some prep school to go to college somewhere?”
“Damned if I know, but I’ll find out.”
“You do that.”
‘Take care of yourself. You and May make a good team.”
Hampt nodded his head. “Crazy outfit, the two of us. But we’re getting along good right now.”
Chet and Liz excused themselves, went to the bedroom, and honeymooned. He did have a good life, and he thanked God for her before he fell off to sleep.
CHAPTER 19
The last thing he thought about was to not trust the weather. They had some winter clothes in the packs because, despite the sunny days, fall was sneaking up on them. The foursome settled their horses on the road the next morning in the cooler air and headed for Susie’s house in a long trot. The first day passed and they were at the Windmill by dark.
Susie, with Erwin in her arms, rushed out to welcome them. Cowboys took their horses and Jesus supervised them.
“Have a good party? We sent Victor.” Then she laughed.
Liz hugged both her and the baby. “Oh, he made it and danced with Rhea. Good to see you, even under the circumstances.”
“What are you after, another lost herd?” Susie asked.
“No, bank robbers.”
“That could be dangerous.”
Liz shook her head. “All we do is dangerous. We will be fine. The big man is in charge.”
“You’ve sure been hoodwinked. I’ve known him all my life.”
“Oh, Susie, he is the one to handle this, too.”
“Besides,” Chet said, “we haven’t found them yet.”
“Come inside. Sarge is gone to check on some cattle. He’ll be back in a few hours.”
“That boy is sure growing.”
“Oh, Liz, he is growing so fast. How was the party?”
“Very nice. We went to bed early to get up here.”
“How serious is Rhea about Victor?” Susie asked.
“Monica babysat Adam last night, so it looks pretty serious.”
“I’m glad she’s serious. Brother, how are things going?”
“Fine, if we can find these outlaws.”
“Do you think they came this way?”
“No, I think they went to New Mexico. There’s nothing north of Arizona but Utah. I’m sure they’re looking for more fun than that holds.”
“Be hard to buy a drink up there,” Susie agreed.
When Sarge came in he looked over Chet’s papers and the posters of the outlaws. “Pretty sorry pictures. I couldn’t tell who they were.”
Chet agreed. “I may have to ask them their names, huh?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t tell them from those pictures.”
“Most wanted posters are cheaply printed. But they’re real people, and if they came north, someone saw them.”
At daybreak, Sarge told Chet about the “good people” he’d met on the cattle drives there and who would help him on their route. He made a list of names and how to find them. They reached Joseph City, a sleepy Mormon village on the Marcy Road. Sarge recommended he talk to Alex Hamilton who ran the mercantile. The store was closed, but they put their horses in the livery, ate supper in a small café, and then slept in the livery hay section. His men did not think the so-called hotel there was worth anything.
The liveryman, Hogan, knew Sarge and had bragged on him earlier. Chet recalled Hogan saying, “Sarge don’t keep no hell raisers in his outfit. And Victor, neither. Them boys that come here are polite, and after they leave, you can’t tell they’ve even been here. Some of them Texas outfits come in here and all they’ve got is drunk, gun-happy hell raisers.”
He discussed it with his wife that night in whispers. “Nice to know your crew is polite, anyway.”
Snuggled against him, she agreed. “Those are both serious men. I really like Victor, and I know him better because he is a nice flirt to talk to.”
“Do you miss people who speak your language?”
“No. I came to Arizona to be your wife. I could have stayed in Sonora and spoke Spanish.”
“And slept in a nice bed with servants to wait on you.”
“Boy, that would get boring, after all this get up and ride business, huh?”
He hugged her. Even after all that, he couldn’t imagine any female not missing the luxury she left behind to become a saddle tramp with him and sleep in the hay. Well, he needed to count his lucky stars for finding her. That fancy lady that got off that coach was damn sure a prize, and his nose was full of sweet hay—wow, he was riding a cloud.
After breakfast in the café, he met Alexander in his store. No one there had seen the three wanted men in the area.
“So you’re Sarge’s boss?”
“He and Victor are my men. They’ve been a vital part of my ranching efforts.”
“I’d say so. But that is a good bunch of men. They’re like clockwork. You can tell the day of the month by their passage through here. And every head is in good condition. I get word from over there—those folks count on your men being there on time and right.”
“Sarge said he quit the Army because all they fed him was beans, but he knew how to work men and get a job done right. When I bought the first ranch, he came to me for work as a simple cowboy. He proved himself and never failed. Victor has done the same. Cooked for the crew, learned the business, and now he’s as good as his boss.”
“I don’t know if you know it, but you are a legend around here. Selling cattle ain’t easy this far from anywhere, but you do it every month.”
“We’ve been lucky. I wish we could talk more, but I need to find these robbers.”
“Come by. You need anything, I’ll try to get it for you. And, good luck finding them.”
“Thanks. We’ll need it. Nice meeting you.”
When he walked outside, Cole asked him, “He know anything?”
“No, but he thinks the Quarter Circle Z is a helluva outfit.”
Jesus nodded. “We hear that all over town, huh?”
Liz reined her horse around as Chet mounted. “They have a good boss.”
“Oh, yes,” Jesus said, and laughed.
They headed east. So far nothing, but they would be near the border of New Mexico soon, and he expected to learn something over there. Maybe they had seen them in Gallup. And there was a chance the threesome broke up. Not likely; with a successful robbery they’d probably stay together for more of the same.
“Don’t you get upset, not hearing a word about them?” Liz asked mid-day when they stopped to water their horses at a trading post.
“It’s like panning for gold. You have to swish lots of water around to find any color. Then one day, bang, you hit a mother lode. Are you discouraged?”
“I guess you’re right. They leave tracks two feet wide coming across a land of eternity.”
He smiled. “If they came this way, we’ll find them. These kind pop up like prairie dogs, to find women, pleasure, whiskey, and hell raising. As you well know, we haven’t passed through many islands of such paradise since we left Preskitt.”
Laughing at his words, she rode in and slapped his arm playfully. “You are a mess. What profound philosophy you have for us.”
“Was that what that was?” Cole asked.
She turned and smiled. “It was something like that.”
Jesus was laughing too hard to comment. He finally managed, “We like having you along, Liz. You can liven up this party in the snap of your fingers.”
“Well, near three days in the saddle and we have not even seen t
heir dust.”
“It does get boring at times, this law business. I keep thinking it’s worth it to rid this land of the trash.”
“Will they ever give this territory statehood?”
“Yes, but no one is impressed with all the empty land we’ve crossed. They are used to town after town, and farms. Unless the rain patterns change, we won’t ever have any dirt farming, except where they have irrigation, and there won’t be a lot of that.”
“Population?” she asked.
He nodded. “That, and we’re the last jumping-off place for all the criminals run out by the law east of here. Texas started back its ranger program in 1870, when they got rid of the federal troops. In time, the rangers will run every scalawag out of the Lone Star State. Where can they come but here?”
She laughed. “They better not, or my husband will find them.”
“That’s right, and we usually do find them.”
The men nodded in agreement.
“Chet?” Cole pushed his horse up with him. “There’s a small ranch over by Mayer that belongs to the Green family. I heard they wanted to sell it.”
“I don’t know them. How big is it?”
“They say a section. It’s in that juniper country west of Hampt’s outfit.”
“You thinking about it?”
“I’d like to.”
“Let’s talk to my land man and see what he thinks.”
“I told Valerie you’d help us.”
“If I can, I will.”
“Would Valerie live on a ranch?” Liz asked.
“She’s got her feet on the ground pretty good. She had a rough life growing up, but she has a big heart. Chet saw that when he loaded her on a stagecoach to come help Jenn in the café up here. She never forgot that, either. We’d like to have a place of our own, and someday run enough stock to be comfortable.”
Chet put his two cents in. “She didn’t like the business. But she was trapped in Tombstone, waiting tables, and it’s a raw place. I knew Jenn would treat her like a daughter and she did.”
“I was dumbfounded down there. Here was this lovely woman—in her eyes she looked lost,” Cole said. “But a few months later, she had completely changed. When I asked her out, she said she had to go to church. I said I’ll go along. She said fine. But she wanted me to know she wasn’t the same person we shipped up there.”
“So your first date with her was in the church?” Liz asked.
Cole nodded. “Here I was a poor cowboy. Not much schooling, except life’s classes, and talking to a young lady who had her feet on the ground. I was awed by my discovery. She never preached to me, but she let me know that she wanted a proper life, and church would be part of it. She also told me that God forgives us, and he had forgiven her.”
“Did that transform you?” Liz asked.
“I never raised much hell. My mother would have twisted my ear off. But she sent me to church and Sunday school. Then I started drifting, cowboying, and you know teenage boys can find mischief. Well, I wanted on with this new guy from Texas that bought the big place on the Verde.”
“The big man with the aura?”
“You know, ma’am, I never knew what that was about him until you pointed it out. But I met him and shook his hand, and something kinda held me. I wanted to work for him. Of course, it was later that Tom hired me and I got to go with him on that first cattle drive.”
“He has that aura,” Liz said, and grinned at Chet.
“And, brother, we had enough hell doing that first drive to last a lifetime. Cole shot two Indians,” Chet said.
“It was no peaceful cow-herding job,” Cole said. “That was for sure.”
“But you and Valerie are happy, and that is all that matters. I saw her that first night when she found you on the front porch,” Liz said.
“I guess poor Anita thought she was under attack when Valerie rushed past her. She was real glad I was back.”
“That was sweet. I saw her dedication to you. You don’t have to tell me. You have as good a marriage as I have with Chet.”
Cole nodded and grinned.
“Jesus, you have anything to report while we are catching up on everybody?”
“No, Chet, I like Anita and she is very kind to me. Maybe someday we can find our place together in this outfit.”
“I won’t speak for Anita, but she seems to me a very proper young woman. I thought maybe I needed a post to lean on in this new land, and that’s why I brought her along. I appreciate what she does for me, and she helps Monica a lot. I would not want to say she misses Mexico, but I think some of her heart is down there.”
“I agree. I know how much better it is to do what I do here, but I bet there are days when even you think it would be nice to be back in Mexico.”
“Only for a few moments, hombre. Then I look over and see him and say, ‘no Mexico, I have much more here.’”
They all laughed and rode on.
They found out nothing about the threesome, and in two more days were in Gallup. They stabled the horses, and Jesus arranged to have her horse reshod. Chet got them rooms in the Adams Hotel and ordered up bathwater for him and Liz. He told the men they’d meet in the lobby at six for supper.
After their bath, they took a siesta in each other’s arms and let the past long days in the saddle go by. Sarge had told them about the best restaurants, and they went to Gordon’s Mexican Food first.
“Your horse is reshod,” Jesus told Liz.
The man who owned the restaurant came by and introduced himself. “So you are the big boss of the cattle drives?”
Chet stood up and shook his hand and introduced everyone.
“I’m glad to meet you. Your men are so nice, and they eat here every month. I know what day it is when they come, but they all have good manners and act very civilized. What brings you to Gallup?”
“I’m also a U.S. Marshal. We’re looking for three bank robbers who held up a bank in Arizona, and I thought they might head this way.”
“After you eat, give me the information. I know many people in the barrio and places they might frequent, if they were here or are around.”
“We’ll stay a few days at the Adams Hotel while we’re in town. I would sure appreciate any help you can give us on these men.”
“Certainly. Eat your food and enjoy yourselves.”
A rush of waiters and waitresses came carrying large trays of food. Soon the crew quit talking and began eating, and with a few words bragged on how good the meal tasted.
Before Chet left, he and Gordon went over his list and descriptions of the three bank robbers. They shook hands, then everyone walked back to the hotel. Chet felt satisfied that Gordon might learn something from his contacts about the three.
“Breakfast at seven?” he asked Jesus and Cole in the lobby, and they agreed. “I think in two days, or less, we’ll know if they’re here, or have been here.”
“Think they may slack up, too, if they think the territory line means the law is behind them?” Cole asked.
“That would be our best bet to catch them.”
In the room, he hugged his wife around the waist and rocked her back and forth. “I know I tell you this a lot, but you are the spark in my life.”
“I am so glad. I have known two men intimately in my whole life. I don’t compare you two very much, but you squeeze something out of me that he never did. I don’t know why.”
“You speak often of this aura you see around me. I see a spark of fire in you that I have never seen in any other woman.”
“You had an affair with another man’s wife, you said?”
“She didn’t have that spark, but she was good and kind. Her husband ignored her and ran around on her. And she was finally going to leave him. Each time I went over, I crossed through that brushy country so careful not to leave a track. I found her in a bed of blood and she had written the killer’s name on the sheet in her own blood. She’d written a note to her husband before she was attacked, but I fou
nd it on her desk and he never got it. She didn’t mention me—but no need to torture another. Her death, despite his misgivings, shocked him. He really wept at her funeral.”
“Did they get her killers?”
“They were hung, and some folks blamed me for that.” Chet shook his head.
Liz buried her face in his shirt. “A feud going on and then that happened. You did have big problems.”
“I think it really was part of the feud, but I couldn’t prove it.”
“That was not the lady you had to leave when you came here?”
“No, she had parents to care for, and they couldn’t make the long journey here.”
“I know what Margaret saw in you when you and she rode the stage to Preskitt. Someone tall enough to dance with.”
They both laughed.
“And after you left me to go back to Mexico, I thought that cute little chili pepper is gone, gone, and gone.”
She squeezed him hard. “No, this little lemon said I wouldn’t never get him. But I did.”
They went to bed and slept till dawn. Dressing for the day in the cool hotel room, he felt certain they’d get some new information. At least they needed a dim trail to take up. His wife kissed him during the dressing process.
“Well, do you feel better?”
“I always feel better when my wife kisses me.”
She shook her head. “I kiss you all the time.”
Suppressing his amusement, he hugged her. “I feel good all the time.”
“Good. We both do.”
Damn right. He wished they could soon be on the outlaws’ trail, end this pursuit, and go home again. He hoped that would be the final outcome of their efforts.
CHAPTER 20
After breakfast in a café down the street, they split up. Jesus and Cole left to check the horse traders and saddle and gun repair shops. He and Liz were going to the county sheriff and the local police department to see what they could learn about the men.
The county sheriff, Lopez, was gone to Santa Fe on business that morning. His deputy, Meredith, had no information on the three, but he acted friendly to the two of them and took down the information from Chet.
Arizona Territory Page 20