Deadly Is the Night

by Dusty Richards

  After a week, JD, Bonnie, and Maria decided Ortega could be moved back to his own home. He apologized to Bonnie for taking over her bed for so long. She hugged him gently and kissed his forehead. “We care about you, and you are such a great foreman this ranch needs you well.”

  “I need to be here, too.”

  They carried Ortega, sitting on a stretcher, over to his place, him shaking his head about the fuss being made over his move. All the children lined up along the way told him to get well. In his own house and bed at last he kissed his wife. “Thank you, Maria. It is so good to be back here.”

  “Si. So good and you are healing.”

  “I am and it can’t be quick enough.”

  “They say it was Buster Weeks’s men you tangled with. Rumor is he has put a thousand pesos up for you to be dead.”

  “Nothing cheap about him, is there?”

  She laughed. “He is serious I bet.”

  CHAPTER 1

  His day started with a loud bang. The sound of a loud rifle barking close by had Chet Byrnes sit up in bed and reach for his six-gun. Covers thrown back, he set the weapon on the blanket top of his cot and jerked on his pants. Listening intently, he began to hear voices of the men in camp. They sounded, to him, as being excited but not from a raid. Boots finally on, he stuck his head out of the tent. Armed men were gathered about thirty yards away. Their breath steamy, he could see and hear one say, “By God, that’s one damn biggest grizzly I ever saw.”

  He slapped on his hat. A bear had invaded Stage Coach Central at Center Point that early morning and obviously the night guard shot it. Chet’s jacket on against the cold, he joined them.

  His man and stage line superintendent, Cole Emerson, a tall twenty-some-year-old, greeted him. “Jock shot a helluva bear this morning. Did it wake you?”

  “I thought the Indians had raided us.”

  Everyone laughed. It was one huge boar bear, and if he’d been mad Chet wouldn’t have wanted to have to face him.

  The night guard, Jock, spoke up. “I tell you, boss man. I see him in de dim light and I know my pistol no kills him. So I went and got that .50 caliber from the office. It was the right gun, no?”

  “Jock, if you’d shot him with a pistol, you’d have been his breakfast right then.”

  “I am not so dumb, huh?”

  He hugged the man’s shoulder. “You are a great hero. Thanks from all of us.”

  Wrapped in a blanket, Val, Cole’s wife, soon joined them. “Wow that is one big bear.”

  “Where’s Rocky?” Chet asked about his four-year-old son that she cared for.

  “He’s fine. I made him stay in the house until I found out what had happened. That is a grizzly?”

  “Yes. Jock went and got the big rifle from the office.”

  “Well, I’ll go get your son dressed and let him see the big bear.”

  “Thanks,” Chet said to her. Val had been Cole’s wife for several years and they had no children. So when an ex-love of Chet’s back in Texas died of pneumonia, the dead woman’s daughter wrote him and told him about his young son back in Texas that he never knew about. She offered the boy to Chet. So Cole and Val went back to the land he left over a two-family feud, where no one knew of his connection, and they brought the boy back. Val asked if she could raise him and he agreed. Chet had just married his current wife, Elizabeth, and she thought it a good idea, too. His other son, Adam, by his first wife, Marge, was at the Camp Verde Ranch with Rhea and Victor. Chet had lost Marge in a jumping horse accident.

  Elizabeth, who he called Liz, was at the home ranch in Preskitt Valley expecting their first offspring at any time.

  “They have breakfast ready in the mess hall,” Cole said. “I had a thought about the bear. I am going to have him mounted and hang him in our office building.”

  “Great idea. Hannagen can come see the biggest threat to his stage line since we stopped the raiders.”

  “You going up to the west place and see Lucy?” Cole asked him.

  “I’d like to but I really better go back and check on Liz. Hannagen and I are still checking more on building that telegraph line across northern Arizona. He thinks the government will pay a large part of the costs.”

  “That would help. The last bid you got was a million dollars?”

  “Maybe higher than that.”

  “They are building stage stop structures at the first two stations east of here. Station number two coming from Gallup, New Mexico, is next. The Navajo trader with all the wives has his own at the first one. You know he is a real smart businessman.”

  “He has four wives and that may be the reason.”

  Cole looked to the sky for help before they went inside the mess hall. “I don’t need three more.”

  “Nor do I, buddy. One is enough.”

  “Our buckboards are running right close to time each day. It is all working smoothly, but we haven’t had much of a winter so far, and that’s probably why the big bear came out and wandered around.”

  Chet agreed. The two went through the line for scrambled eggs, side meat, German-fried potatoes, and pancakes on their plates. A boy brought them steaming coffee in mugs and asked if they needed cream and sugar.

  Cole said, “Thanks and no.”

  “Is your man Drew getting things done on the Colorado River side?”

  “We are building two stage stops over there. The other two have them, so by spring we will be ready for those stagecoaches.”

  “You are doing great so I’ll head back. I’ll stop at Robert and Agnes’ at the sawmill and be sure our log-hauling operation is doing all right.”

  Cole smiled between bites. “That boy is a helluva manager, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, he is. He makes money every month that he can haul logs, handles his own business, keeps books, orders his own needs, and has good men working for him. He is very efficient in his superintendent job.”

  “I heard they now have a baby girl?”

  “Carolina is her name. I laugh when I think about his wife. She’s a dedicated Mormon but she makes him coffee.” Chet had wondered when they were first married how that would work out, but when Robert set his mind to things they always worked well.

  “He takes her to church, too.”

  “Oh, they have a sweet life and she loves that big house. Not many young people in Arizona have a setup like that to live in.”

  “Hey, Val and I appreciate our house up here, too. But mostly we appreciate having the boy.”

  “I know. You tell Val that the new baby coming will not change things at our house. Rocky will be here with you two. Liz and I have discussed that and we think he is better here since he lost his mother and you two replaced her.”

  “I will tell her. She’s been worried it might change things.”

  Chet shook his head to dismiss any concern about the boy’s future custody.

  “Good.”

  Spencer and Jesus joined them.

  “Well, Jesus, you’ll be home with Anita shortly,” Cole said, teasing his longtime partner at guarding Chet.

  “I remember you getting back to Valerie whenever we got back from a job. Whisk and you were gone.”

  “When we’d get back from business, Cole would hightail it to his wife in town,” Chet said to the new man on the team.

  Spencer nodded. “I don’t blame him. Both these guys have sweet wives. Me, I am still trying to convince Rebecca Franks back in Preskitt that we can have a life together.”

  Chet knew the woman they rode back with on the stage awhile back, Rebecca Franks, who Spencer rescued from the brothel, was not convinced she could return to normal society and not be scorned by that same society.

  “Well, good luck, Spencer. I sure don’t regret marrying Val, and her past never comes up,” Cole said. “Of course you know the three of us have been together for years. I hired on and helped Chet take the first herd to the Navajos. A bunch of Apaches attacked us. They weren’t more than boys. I shot one and Chet captured anoth
er. He told me to bring him along as a captive, and he went off to see about the spooked cattle. The buck drew a knife and I had to shoot him. When I caught up with Chet, he asked where the Indian was. I said dead. That he drew a knife on me. I think he almost laughed and shook his head. I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t get fired for doing that.”

  Chet nodded. “That was our first trip to Gallup with a herd, and we learned a lot. Sarge took over running it after that. He has the whole thing down to a routine. We bought that Windmill Ranch since it is a quarter of the way over there. We mix the cattle before the drive so they don’t fight over who is boss on the trail, and that saves lots of work driving them.”

  “Sarge is married to your sister, right?” Spencer asked.

  “Yes. She was married before and her husband was with us,” Chet explained. “Good guy, he got killed in a horse wreck. They’d been married a year and a half and they lived in the big house on the Verde place. She was expecting a baby. I don’t think he was even buried and Sarge came to see me looking very serious.

  “‘When it is proper may I court your sister?’ he asked. I was taken by surprise and said sure, but she needs some time to find herself. Then I asked why he didn’t court her before her first husband did? He said, ‘I didn’t think I was good enough for her.’”

  “He’d wanted her all the time?” Spencer asked.

  “You don’t know Sarge. He’s a deep thinker. That really mattered to him,” Cole said.

  “Don’t ever say a word about it. But he politely waited on her hand and foot every chance he got. Best we can tell she finally asked him if he really wanted her for his wife. He said, ‘Oh, yes.’

  “They must have talked about her condition and the baby not being his. He said it didn’t matter; it would be his child. She said, ‘Then let’s get married; if you want me now in this condition, I know you will want me after the baby gets here.’”

  They laughed.

  “How did Cole get Valerie?”

  “Val and JD’s wife, Bonnie, had gone to Tombstone for the bright lights. Two wild girls going off to see the wild world. They were good friends. Jenn is Bonnie’s mother. She has the café in town and has found half or more of my men for me. You met Jenn. When Bonnie left, she did not write her, and Jenn was upset and worried about her welfare. We were going down there anyway, so I promised to check on her. Val had quit the business and she was working in a café. She hated the business she told us. I offered her a job with Jenn ’cause I knew Jenn needed help and she was a good worker. We bought her a stagecoach ticket to up here. She has always been grateful.”

  Cole began his side of the story. “Val was working for Jenn at the time. I kind of set in to convince her I was serious. She said she had gotten religion and would not simply live with me. I said I didn’t expect that and we got married.”

  Jesus came in explaining, “Chet hasn’t told you it all. After we had put Val on the stage back to here, some white slavers kidnapped Bonnie and planned to sell her in Mexico City. We got on their tracks about halfway down there—just the three of us—and Chet decided we didn’t have enough manpower to get her out of their hands, so he went to this powerful hacienda man and offered him three head of the Barbarossa young horses for her safe return. No questions asked. It worked. Though we did sweat it. And when we got her we ran like hell for the border.”

  Chet nodded. “When I’d originally met with her in Tombstone, she told me she didn’t want to go home and was pretty set on staying, but when we got her back, she was ready to go home.

  “I think Bonnie realized she would never be a real person in that business, just a slave and that her life would have no value to anyone except what they could get from and for her.”

  “JD got serious and she married him. We all wondered if they would make it.” Jesus shook his head. “But they finally found themselves, right, Chet?”

  “Tell you how serious the two of them are. They get on their knees every night and pray out loud before they go to bed.”

  “Wow,” Spencer said. “I’ll have to meet them. I love Valerie. She is a great breath of life simply being on the scene.”

  Cole said, “She’s changed my life.”

  Spencer agreed. “I can see that just being around you two.”

  “Speaking of changing men’s lives, we need to head back home. There is still no word on the telegraph wire deal and Cole has the buckboards running, so let’s the three of us head home tomorrow.”

  Morning came quickly the next day. Frosty after breakfast and on stiff-acting horses, they set out for the south. Spencer drew the bucker and he made some stiff-legged hops before he got him out of them. Everyone waved his hat for the pony to buck some more but he quit.

  They stopped and spent the afternoon with Robert, wife Betty, and the baby girl.

  Betty made them lunch and then they rode for the Verde place. They arrived late, but Rhea got up and fed them. Because Rhea was excited for any news, they told her all about Robert’s baby girl Caroline and how Rocky had grown some more. There were plenty of beds in the big house for them to sleep on, and at breakfast the next morning, Tom was there with Victor to talk about their operations. Vic told them the new place they bought east of the village was really going to help expand their hay business plus some corn he wanted to plant the following spring.

  Tom spoke next. “I know you probably don’t realize it, but the large number of range cattle are becoming a big problem. I don’t even recognize the brands on these cattle. They must have driven them up here and turned them loose. They break in when we feed hay. What can we do about them?”

  “Drive them down in the Verde wilderness I guess.”

  “There are really a lot of them. What say we get the ranchers together and all of us purge them out?”

  “Sounds good to me. Want to set up a meeting to talk about it?” Chet asked his foreman.

  “Up at the home place you mean? To have a meeting? They’d come to a meeting up there and listen to you.”

  “I don’t know about that, but we can try.”

  “Something needs to be done. How is Liz?”

  “Fine when I left her. You tell Millie hi for me.”

  “Millie’s good. Said to say hi to you and Liz.”

  “I’ll get the gathering deal started when I get there.”

  “Yes. We need to do something soon. Those cattle are a big pain.” Tom shook Chet’s hand and left to give instructions for the day to his ranch crew.

  “He’s a great boss. I never worked for a fairer man,” Spencer said.

  “He can work cowboys there is no doubt. I’m pleased having him run this big ranch that’s for sure. His wife loves their big house even with her daughter gone and married. They are up at Windmill right now. Sarge is teaching him how to drive cattle and feed the Navajos.”

  “Wasn’t Millie mad at you about that deal?” Spencer asked.

  Chet shook his head. “She got over it. She got married at fifteen. So did her daughter.”

  “I’m seeing having all these businesses is not just a matter of being boss, but you get into things I’d never dreamed about being in charge of.”

  “Part of the job.”

  Jesus shrugged. “He gets it all done.”

  “What about that boy on the east place you just bought?”

  “He’s doing good. He’ll have his hay land fenced and ready to mow come next spring. Have corrals built and I’ll need to find him a set of cows and bulls by fall.”

  “You think that place will be operating that soon?”

  “It sure will if he has his way.”

  Spencer shook his head, taking a short rein on his horse that had bucked leaving Center Point the last time he stepped in the stirrup. He damn sure wasn’t taking any chances about him this time.

  It was past noon when Chet dropped out of the saddle at the yard. A stable boy took Chet’s reins, and he looked wistfully at the back door for his wife to come welcome him.

  Instead a very seriou
s looking Monica came out, arms folded, and he hurried to see what was wrong.

  “She all right?”

  “Come inside. I’ll tell you what happened. She’ll be fine I think.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Monica shut the door and faced him. “She lost the baby last night.”

  She caught his arm. “The doctor was here. He says she will be fine and he had no idea why the baby died. Things like that happen. But he gave her a sedative and told her to rest.”

  “Thanks. Sorry I was not here.”

  Monica agreed and said, “I will have your lunch. Those men need to eat?”

  “No, they are going to check on their women.”

  “Good. Go look in on her. Maybe best she sleeps for awhile. Come back and eat.”

  “I’ll do that. Thanks, Monica.”

  Upstairs he quietly slipped in their bedroom. Her small form was under covers on her side and she breathed easy. Her face looked quite pale to him sleeping there. That might have been because of a loss of blood? He didn’t know enough about an abortion or miscarriage to understand what happened. But she was alive and breathing. He’d not disturb her and quietly left the room.

  Downstairs with lunch on the table, Monica brought him a letter from JD. Usually Bonnie wrote them with newsy things about the ranch operation and their life. This was in his handwriting.

  Dear Chet

  Today they brought Ortega Morales back from the border in a buckboard. He’d been shot in the leg by rustlers down by the Lady in the Church village. He tracked some thieves down there herding about thirty head off the ranch. With two boys they shot six or seven of them, and after he was shot they hung the last standing one. A real brave deal but what you’d expected from him and our men. One of the boys with him took charge, got a doctor to remove the bullet, and hired a buckboard to bring him home while they drove the stock back.

  Ortega was wounded, was lying on his back in a buckboard all night for the ride home. You know there are no real roads between here and there.

  What a ride from hell that must have been. He is recovering and will be all right.

  Your old buddy Buster Weeks is behind the rustling down here running some outlaws—now with seven less—but there’s plenty more down in Mexico that need work. That is the best information I could get on the situation.