Sanderson's Hill

by Nancy Howard

  The all shook their heads, and laughed in agreement, that, that would be a good idea.

  Eli Decker has been holding the bottles in a bag tied to his saddle horn.

  “Go get em, and take them off your saddle,” Doak orders Eli.

  Eli gets up off the ground from where he's setting, and goes over and unties the bag of bottles, and returns to the camp with them. He sets down and Hogg grabs the bag and opens it, joined by the others who grab a bottle and they open them.

  Eli takes the cork out of the top of the bottle that he has, and looks inside. He swirls the bottle around, and sees a small animal floating around in it, at the top.

  He says, “I ain't gonna drink any of that shit, cuz' they's somethin' floatin' around in that bottle.”

  “Gime that goddamn bottle you idiot,” Bailey growls. Reaching over and yanking the bottle away from Eli. He swirls the whiskey around, and looks inside of it, and sees the same small animal floating around in the top of the liquid. Then he takes a closer look and says to the others, “it looks like it's just a baby mouse.” Then he tips the it up to his lips, and takes a long swig of the nasty brew.

  “You fuckin' baby,” Hogg says. Looking at Eli, then laughs loudly, as the others join in.

  Then Eli decides he wants the bottle back and grabs for it, and Hogg pulls it away.

  “No. No. You goddamn didn't want it, so I ain't gonna fuckin' give it back to ya,” Hogg says.

  Eli doesn't want to hear to this, as he hears the others laughing at him along with Hogg, who is now rolling on the ground with laughter. But Eli still wants the bottle of rot gut whiskey back, so he gets up and goes over and stands over Hogg. Then he reaches down and grabs Hogg, and pulls him up by his coat collar, yelling at him.

  “Gime that goddamn bottle back you sonofabitch.”

  Hogg is surprised at Eli being so aggressive with him and says, “fuck you! If you want it you try to take it from me.”

  Then he grabs Eli back, pulling him to the ground. As they wrestle for the bottle, Hogg drops it in the process, spilling the whiskey all over the ground. Eli sees this, and becomes even more furious with Hogg. The two men are now rolling on the ground fighting over a bottle of whiskey, that has spilled out its content. The other three are now crying with laughter, watching Hogg and Eli go at it over the old spilled bottle of whiskey.

  “Hogg I told you to gime that bottle back. Look at what you done you sonofabitch..., you spilt it all over the place, now,” Eli says, through clenched teeth. Holding Hogg by his coat collar.

  “Git off a me you goddamn fool! I didn't spill nothin'. You said you didn't want it, now again git the fuck off a me, or I swear I'll kill ya Eli,” Hogg respond. His teeth clenched in anger, as he gets up. “One a these days Eli I'm gonna kill you, cause a what you did here today. I'll remember it.”

  Hogg says this, they're both standing up now, looking at each other squarely in the eyes.

  “Yeah Bailey, well let me clue ya in, don't ya ever try it, cuz' I'll fuckin' kill ya back,” Eli says, pointing his finger at him.

  The other three men have stopped laughing at these two idiots, as Doak hands them both another bottle of rot gut.

  “You fuckin' baby!” Hogg comments gruffly and then sarcastically laughs, and spits on the ground. Getting in Eli's face to say it. Then he takes a long drink of the bottle Doak just gave him. The two are still squared off. Eli makes a move at Bailey but has no intention of hitting him.

  “Come on you two cut it the hell out,” Charlie says.

  “You shut the fuck up,” Hogg says.” Getting into Charlie's face.

  And that is how it went as they drank all eight remaining bottles of the whiskey, until they were all dead drunk. All falling asleep on the ground, on their backs in front of their campfire.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The next morning Logan awakens to the enticing, aromas of coffee and breakfast being cooked in the kitchen, by the Sanderson's cooks, Jose' and Lena.

  The sun has already begun it's journey peeking up over the horizon, as Logan begins to wake up. She lays there opening and closing her eyes, watching the first rays of light streak across the wall, next to the door in the guest room. She has slept very well. It is very quiet and peaceful here on the ranch. She rolls over on her right side facing the window, and buries her head in the pillow. She closes her eyes, not ready to get up yet, and not completely awake either. Then slowly but surely she realizes that John is not paying her to lay here in bed all day, so she sets up slowly on the edge of the bed with her feet dangling. After a few seconds the grogginess starts to wear off, she rubs her eyes and stretches before she begins the process of getting dressed. With the window open, the cool morning air causes a chill in Logan, that makes her move just a bit quicker than usual. She did sleep deeply and very well, she thinks to herself. Something she has been able not to do lately, get a good nights sleep.

  She looks over to the high back chair and sees that her clothes have been folded and laid out neatly by Zelda. She picks them up and holds them to her nose and smells them. They are for once clean, not smelly, which causes Logan to smile. She gets her clothes on, picks up the hair brush on the vanity, that she used the night before, and begins to brush out the tangles in her hair. She pulls it back in a ponytail, which she usually does. Hangs her hat on her back then straps on her gun, and ties the holster to her leg, opens bedroom door and goes out into the hallway. Logan descends the stairs slowly, walking into the dinning room, where John is already up. He has been since an hour before sunrise, which is his usual schedule. He is setting at the table, when Logan enters the dinning room. He has already consumed two large eggs, steak, and fried potatoes and gravy, and is drinking his third cup of coffee, He looks up and sees Logan walk into the dinning room.

  “Well good morning Missy. Did you sleep well,” Sanderson says. Greeting Logan with a big smile.

  Missy seems to be John's favorite name to call her, when he addresses Logan.

  “Morning sir. And yes, yes I did. I slept very well.” Logan responds, still not fully awake. But smiling back at him none the less.

  “Have some coffee, it'll wake ya up.”

  “Umm,” Logan says. “Coffee.”

  She sets down at the far end of the table opposite of John and pours herself a cup. It's piping hot, just what she needs she thinks. Then sets there and sips it, at the same time quietly watching John, is busy figuring something on a piece of paper, that Logan figures is important.

  Both are quiet for a few seconds before John looks up from his paper work and says, “Logan after breakfast I'll have George saddle our horses, as promised. I want you and I to ride out to where my cattle are being stolen. You should probably eat something before we go, because it's a long ride out there and back, and we won't be back until mid-afternoon.

  Before Logan could answer saying she's not hungry, she heard Catherine's voice, as she walks into the dinning room behind her, “yes dear, eat. You need your nourishment.”

  Logan looks at her, smiles and jokingly says, “yes mother.”

  Catherine looks at Logan, and smiles back, shaking her finger at Logan in a teasing manner, admonishing her in fun, “yes you know mother knows best.”

  “So I've heard,” Logan responds, still smiling.

  Even though she was not that hungry, Logan took the Sandersons advice and ate an egg and some bacon, and drank another cup of coffee. Which she knows is not a good idea, because it will make her want to pee, once she starts to ride.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  In Rio Doso, the sheriff and his posse arrived back in town at two a.m. The men who rode with him were exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally. They are still in deep distress over the tasks they had preformed the day before. Having to bury not only adults, but little children too. That seemed to be what bothered all of them the most, having to bury little kids. That has taken a huge emotional toll on all of them.

  After returning to town, they quickly dispersed and began to retur
n their homes. Each of them one by one, returning to whoever it is, to hug, and to be with their own families. Knowing full well that the carnage they had just witnessed could have been them, and their loved ones.

  All of them are disquieted by the fact that Hogg and his gang of murdering thugs are still out there, still on the loose, and will kill again, when they get the chance. And each and every man in the posse, hopes that it is not them that Hogg and his gang choose to murder next.

  Gavin came back with the posse, and like the others he is spent mentally and emotionally too. Unlike the rest of the men in the posse, he has seen the handy work of Hogg and his gang to many times before, and yet he seems to never get over it. If anything, each and every time he is witness to the horror and destruction they leave behind, it makes him more and more angry. More and more determined to catch them, and kill them, each and everyone of them. Their viciousness lives in every corner of his mind. It makes him restless, interrupting his sleep at night. He will not stop his search for them. He will not to let it go, until he sees them all dead.

  Like Logan he wondered how he could capture and kill them alone, but now he doesn't have to do that. He has her with him, in his corner, and he knows like him she will do what is necessary to bring them in.

  Normally Gavin would be hunting Hogg just for the money, half of the reward. That may have been true when he first started to track and hunt the gang, five months ago, back in Texas. But now it's not just about money, it's about all of the helpless, defenseless people they have sinfully massacred. It is for the little children he had to help bury. Hogg is the lowest of low, killing kids. He is the devil incarnate. For Gavin hunting Hogg and wanting to kill him, is eating away at him, and he knows it.

  He hates Hogg. He's making it a personal vendetta to kill him and his gang, and that makes it dangerous for him. He like Logan is a professional. He knows that every bounty is business. No feelings. It's just about making a living. But with Hogg and his horrible acts against the innocent, that has changed Gavin's view. Gavin knows that once a bounty becomes personal, and your emotions are involved, it could get you killed. He wants to see them dead, and he is the one who wants to kill them. Very badly.

  This all weighs heavily on Gavin, he's very tired as he stables his horse at the livery. It is late and very dark, as he begins to walk to the hotel, a walk that is long and lonely. And the fact that he is so spent emotionally, makes it seem like a mile to the hotel, when in reality it's just a couple hundred yards.

  He enters the hotel lobby, and sees the night clerk slumped over and sleeping behind the desk. Gavin really didn't want disturb the man suddenly, so he clears his throat loud enough so that he hopes it wakes the clerk up, but it didn't. So Gavin clears his throat loudly again. No luck. Then he taps the desk bell as lightly as he can. The man nearly jumps out of his skin and to his feet like a jack rabbit. The clerk shakes his head several times so hard it rattles his jowls. Then he snaps too realizing that he has been sleeping. He turns quickly and sees Gavin standing there on the other side of the desk.

  “Help you sir,” he says, through a wide yawn.

  “Ya I'd like a room,” Gavin said. Trying not to burst out laughing, even in his exhausted state of mind. “Can you tell me something? Do you have a Logan Kincaid registered here tonight by chance?”

  “Nope. Nobody by that name is here. You can check the sign in book yourself.”

  “Do you have any idea where she might be? I mean you do know who she is, don't you?”

  “Yes I know who she is. I heard that she shot some guy today, that was trying to harm some saloon girl. Last I heard, she was seen headed out of town with John and Catherine Sanderson, out to their ranch. That's all I know mister.”

  “Thanks,” Gavin said. He signed into the hotel, and went upstairs for a nights sleep thinking that tomorrow he would ride out to the Sanderson ranch and find Logan. He's confused though as to what he just heard the hotel clerk say. He told Gavin that Logan went with the Sandersons earlier that day. Why, he thinks did she do that? Because he remembers what Sanderson said the day before, about not liking bounty hunters. What made her change her mind about him? He knows Logan, and he figures she had a good reason to go with them. But still he wonders. He thought she wanted to hunt Hogg with him, now hearing this he's not so sure what she's doing.

  Gavin decides he'll deal with Logan and the Sandersons tomorrow, right now he is very tired, and still dealing with carnage he saw at the Blakes, and Tanners. The deaths of those little kids, will make it very hard to get to sleep. Still he knows that once his head his the pillow, he will be out.

  JAY CANTER, THE SANDERSON's ranch foreman also came back with the posse, making the long ride back to the ranch, not arriving until after three in the morning. Like Gavin and the others he too is on empty. He unsaddles his horse, before making his way to the bunkhouse to sleep. He is unaware of Logan's presence on the ranch, and the fact that Sanderson has hired her for range security, to try to help stop the rustling of his cattle. He knows that he will only get a couple hours sleep, and it will be hard to do that with the images of the death he saw earlier that day, still firmly entrenched in his mind. When he finds out about Logan being on the ranch. And why? He will not be happy about it at all. He is the ranch foreman, the security of Sanderson's Hill is his job.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Logan and John arrive at mesa, on the north side of Sanderson's Hill Ranch at mid morning. It's where he's been having the trouble with people stealing his cows. When they stop their horses, they are atop a butte where they are looking down on a creek and the acreage on the other side, that Henry Baker now owns.

  Logan asks John why the mesa has not deterred the rustlers, and he said that he'd show her why. He points to his right and tells Logan to ride that way. After they ride a hundred yards or so Logan sees that the butte slopes very gradually downhill, and to the east. Making the climb to steal John's cattle very easy. Logan also observes, that once the rustlers have the cows at the bottom of the mesa, they can quickly herd them off to the east along the creek, and onto the Baker Ranch. Where they likely rebrand them, to look like they're Henry's cows.

  John tells Logan that he had planned on fencing off this area, but had not got to it, because he wanted to buy the land down to the river. Obviously that will not happen now, he tells Logan, because Henry has bought it. He tells her, that it's going to be up to her and Gavin to stop the rustlers.

  After spending an hour riding around the perimeter of the area, as John shows Logan his property boundaries. He wants to make sure she understands, where she can and can't go, if rustlers do show up.

  “So are they stealin' your cows in broad daylight?”

  “Apparently so. It's because there ain't nobody out here to stop em from doing it Logan. Like I said, I don't have the manpower to keep someone out here all the time.”

  Logan listens then asks, “What about at night?”

  “Well I'll have to send a couple of my ranch hands out here, I guess, sometimes. But understand, I don't want you out here at night.”

  “Gavin will be here with me sir. And I've camped out alone, on the trail all the time.”

  “I know you have Logan, but that's going to change here, this is a day job for you. And stop callin' me sir. It's John.”

  “Yes sir, Mr. Sanderson,” she responds, and smiles at him. He just grins at her and smiles back.

  Logan was quiet thinking about what she just heard him say, he didn't want her out here at night. Even with Gavin, and she and didn't argue with him about it.

  “How many head have you lost,” she asked him?

  “Almost half of the herd out here. I used to have over two hundred head out here, now it's about half that. It's costin' me a hell of a lot of money Logan.”

  “I hope we can help.”

  “I do too.”

  “So another question. What happens if Gavin doesn't want to help me do this? Even after I try to convince him.”

  “Then I'll
just have to have a couple of the boys come out here with you. But I hope we won't have to resort to that. Like I told you in town yesterday, they're cowpokes not policemen. I hope Sloan takes me up on my offer, like you've done. What do you think he'll do?”

  “I'm not sure. He's got his heart set on me and him catchin' Hogg and his gang, that's for sure.”

  “Do you think you can help convince him? To do this, I mean.”

  “I'll try my best, I can't guarantee he'll listen even to me, though.”

  On the way back to the house John talks to Logan, about the history of how he bought and acquired all of this land. How it took hard work and toil, to have a ranch as big as Sanderson's Hill, and it has cost him and Catherine dearly. John opens up to Logan, that he and Catherine lost their only daughter to smallpox four years ago, and that she was about the same age as Logan. As he told her all of these things, she could hear the sadness in his voice, as he talked about the loss of his child.

  Now Logan understands the void she's already filling in their lives, that she overheard Jane Chatfield talking to Catherine about the evening before.

  “What was your daughters name, if you don't mind me asking,” Logan questions?

  “No I don't mind. It's... was,” he pauses. “Jennifer.”

  “I'm sorry for your loss sir. I truly am.”

  “Thank you Logan.”

  Logan notices the empty far away look on his face, as he answered her, obviously thinking about the girl.

  John too is curious about Logan, wanting to know more about her. She told him her mother died when she was seven. Then she opened up to John about how her dad abused her growing up, though she chose not to tell him everything.