“Okay, Fred, you don’t tell a soul what we are up to.”
“Oh, I won’t.”
“Fred made friends while they looked into the corruption over in Gila with a small ranch foreman who needs a larger job.”
“I will get to work on it fast.”
“Good. Give me a pen and paper. Thanks.” He wrote Russell.
They picked up the ranch mail and mailed the letter. Bo was planning to mail his letter later. The two rode home happy as meadowlarks dancing in the road dust.
Liz welcomed them and when they were going through the mail, she found a large envelope with his school picture inside. She looked up at Chet. “Your hair lays down better now than it did back then.”
“You found me in that picture?”
“Brother, I could find you anywhere I looked.” Then she pointed him out to Fred.
“That’s him all right.”
“This lady wrote me a nice letter, too.”
It was Chet’s turn. He had the ranch picture to show Liz. It looked like as big a deal as Preskitt Valley. Two windmills, a large house, good barns, and corrals.
“Look at this place.”
“Oh, where is it?”
“The place below Tombstone?”
“Did you buy it?”
“No, but we are trying to. It is a place where the old man who owns it wants to stay and die there, and then have someone continue with it.”
“Expensive?”
“No. Two thousand a year until he dies; he’s in his seventies now.”
“How big?”
“Over six sections.”
“More ranches, huh?”
“Yes. And then I write Jerry that we might have a job coming open.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
“I said might.”
“Stage lines, telegraph wires, and ranches; you are a very busy man.”
“They are building the railroad to Tucson and then California in two years. The cattle markets will be open on it in all directions. Cattle will be worth something then. Produce like citrus and the like will be worth growing. We are at the gateway to making money, my dear.”
“How far is this ranch from your old buddy Weeks below the border?”
“Close but if push comes to shove we can get him out of the way.”
She wagged her head side to side. “So he will be a problem to you and you will have to deal with that?”
“Dear, he’s an outlaw. They don’t last long when the law is on your side.”
“Long enough to kill you.”
Fred had been silent, but now he chimed in. “Miss Liz, ain’t no one’s getting close to killing him while me and others are around.”
“Fred, you and Jesus let him come home alone from Globe.”
“Yes, ma’am. We won’t let that happen again. No matter how bad he misses you.”
All three laughed.
CHAPTER 31
The big party was finally held for the returning men. Lisa came home with her husband from the Oak Creek Place a day early to help set things up. Everyone came and the music and beer flowed. Fred danced with about five hundred females by Chet’s count. Several men and women talked about the Globe deal and thanked him. A few even complained about the newspaper complainers.
Hampt and May joined them with her daughter and both of the little ones. May thanked him for taking her husband along. “After being with you, Hampt always comes home in a good mood. He really likes to go with you. Even on that lost herd trip he made. I missed him but he will never forget all you have done for us. I almost didn’t come out here, and it has turned out so wonderful. Ray is going on to become a professor and Ty is happy with Victoria on his own horse ranch. Their dad would thank you for all you did for them.”
“May, there would be something he didn’t approve of. May his soul rest in heaven. I have to talk to you about it.”
She went to laughing. “Yes, you are right. This young man Fred? I know he’s too old for her but Donna asked me about him. She’ll soon be fifteen. All of sudden, Donna doesn’t wear overalls. She has to wear dresses to all events and have to fix her hair. Hampt taught her to dance. I remember that age.”
“They grow up.”
“Oh, yes, but I want her to do it slow like.”
“Mothers don’t always get their way.”
“You need to know that Fred has been seeing Harold Faulk’s daughter Claire. The contractor’s daughter. Don’t ask me how serious they are.”
“Well. Thanks for telling me. I will make sure I am there if something happens and she gets hurt. It is part of growing up, you know. But good to be prepared.”
* * *
With the party over, it was time to leave for Center Point. He rented three buggies for the trip north. They had the ranch chuckwagon, used at roundup, to go ahead and set up camp at the base of the rim. Most of the men and large boys rode horseback. Susie and Sarge with Erwin had their own buckboard. Bo’s wife, Bo, and the baby rode in a buggy.
The second night’s stop would be in the great meadow ten miles south of Center Point. Then they’d go and on the last day arrive at the stage line around mid-day. Liz rode horseback and so did Lisa. Rhea, the nanny, and Adam rode in one of the buggies. Vic and Hampt were on horseback. May, Donna, both babies, Anita, Millie, and her daughter from Windmill all rode in another buggy. Cody had stayed back to watch that ranch.
Toby and Talley decided at the last minute not to go. But several of their cowhands and vaqueros went along to help set up tents and cots plus secure firewood. Victor played his guitar and sang each evening.
Cole and Val rang bells and fired off guns as they rode into camp.
Rocky rode his painted pony out to meet his dad. That tickled Liz and she got off her horse to get him. “My, what a great horse you have.”
“I can walk, too,” he told her as she got him off the horse. He got both her hands and led her to Val.
“They all came to see you.”
“Thanks, Rocky.”
“It finally is going to happen,” Chet said.
“Bet you are surprised it happened so fast?”
“No. I’ve gotten reports every day by wire since the first stage stop.”
“Even when you were at Globe?”
“I didn’t get them there. But they were sent to the house and Liz has them all.”
“Anything else new?”
“Waiting on word about another ranch.”
Bo stepped over. “I have a little something I want you to open.”
He handed him a letter from an attorney in Tucson he didn’t know.
Dear Bo,
Your request from Chet Byrnes to buy the BBR Ranch will be accepted by Mr. Davidson. I first contacted you because we knew you handled Mr. Byrnes’s land deals. I was not certain he would be interested since I know he owns lots of land and might not want it, but John is a very respected admirer of his work to make Arizona a better place to live. The terms are acceptable, and we can close when Mr. Byrnes has time to come down and sign the papers. We will have a complete list of all livestock, equipment, and buildings. There is an older man, currently the foreman, who would like to retire but said he could be available for six months.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Arthur Roberts
Attorney at Law
“Must be good news?” Cole asked.
“Where’s Fred?”
“Coming, boss man. What is wrong?”
He handed him the letter.
Fred read it. “Well, your third-grade classmate has a job, I take it.”
“The telegraph will be hooked up today. I’ll wire Jerry and Twilia to be prepared to move and that we have the large BBR Ranch below Tombstone for them to run for the Byrnes outfit. I’ll tell him you will be there in a week to ten days to move them down there.”
“They will faint when they get your wire.”
“They will have some time to recover.”
“What’s h
appened?” Cole asked.
“Oh, Bo and I have been looking at a large ranch below Tombstone. He wanted to wait until we got up here to tell me we had it.”
“You did buy it?” Liz asked.
“The letter said so. Fred is wiring Jerry that he’ll be coming there to help move them to the new place.”
“Good news,” Liz said. “They say Spencer is riding a different horse in here shortly.”
When Spencer Horne, Telegraph Construction Supervisor, rode into Center Point, he had his saddle cinched over a fresh-cut telegraph pole, sitting on sawhorses in a wagon bed, and was waving his hat and beating the log while the wagon was being driven by a laughing cowboy.
Hannagen had found them and laughed hard at the float. “Don’t ever send a boy when you need a man, Chet Byrnes.”
“No, sir. Spencer is a gem of a man.”
“Word gets out about this job, the success and speed we had getting here, it will be national news. You and I won’t be able to afford him.”
Chet agreed. “You be sure to tell him that. He’s done one helluva job. He needs to go on to bigger things.”
“He will. I guarantee you and I will help him.”
“Now all we need is business on this wire.”
“We will have connections coming from California and New Mexico as soon as we hook it up. Business will be no problem. I found three good stages, for a bargain, coming from California. So with the others we will have stage service three times a week. Wells Fargo will connect us on the east and west and we will get many coach tickets bought for our line. Chet Byrnes, do you have any idea how much more money we will make with the stage line?”
“I have no idea.”
“I expect revenues in the next year to reach a quarter of a million dollars for you and I to split fifty-fifty. Can you stand that?”
“He’ll only buy more ranches,” Liz said.
“He can buy the whole territory, as far as I am concerned, Liz.”
“Don’t encourage him.”
“You two are a strange match, you know that?”
“How is that?” Liz asked.
“I am not being a wise ass. He looks like a big cowboy and you look like Spanish royalty.”
“I thought we looked like Arizona, his big hat and my Hispanic foundation.”
“No, you two are lovely together. People told me that if I could ever make a stage line work across here, I had to get into business with this rancher from Preskitt. Well, I thought I don’t need a cowboy. But the deeper I went, not knowing those people were hired so I would fail, and seeing no end to the costs I was incurring, I asked for that meeting at Windmill. We met and I could see Cole and him were doers right away. We had not even found one stage stop and overnight they found several of them. They bartered, traded, and fought a war to make them work. I can’t even imagine what else they went through and resolved.
“Then he said we needed a telegraph; that it would suit our stage business, too, and here he came with another Stetson hat in the form of Spencer. Before I knew it they rolled out wire like carpet. Elizabeth, I never had a partner like this man. I am glad you found each other for your sake and mine as well. Tell me, what do you need at your house?”
“I can’t think of a thing.”
“Well, I will find something special that you do not have, when I am in St. Louis, and ship it to you. Now, excuse me please. I am going to talk to some reporters that are here special for this event of sending the first message from Center Point back east. I know it is going to disappoint you, Chet, but I saw the Atchison Topeka and Santé Fe Railroad planned route map through to here. They are changing the name at this point on their proposed lines and calling Center Point—Flagstaff.”
“I guess that will be the name, then, won’t it?” she asked him.
He tipped his hat and left to talk to the reporters that surrounded him.
“What do you think, big man?” She looped her arm in his.
“I couldn’t give one damn what they call it. This is done, and I have lots of other things to look after. Where is Fred? I need to check on the hay operations that will soon start. Make sure everyone is ready. Settle up on the BBR Ranch and get Jerry and Twilia down there running it.”
“Fred and Claire rode off somewhere. May’s daughter Donna went fishing in some small lake with three teenage kids from up here. They looked nice enough and they had parents we talked to. When I asked Donna if she could fish she frowned at me and told me in a haughty voice that Hampt had showed her all about it.”
“I bet he did. Okay, with Fred not here, I am taking a nap. The big party is tonight. Valerie, Lisa, and two Chinese cooks are in charge. I hope they don’t cut off their pigtails.”
Liz simply shook her head. “Chet Byrnes, I don’t know what I am going to do with you.”
“I guess simply keep me and put up with me. Wake me up in time for the party.”
Author photo courtesy of the National Cowboy Symposium & Celebration
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author of over 85 novels, DUSTY RICHARDS is the only author to win two Spur awards in one year (2007), one for his novel The Horse Creek Incident and another for his short story “Comanche Moon.” He is a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the International Professional Rodeo Association, and serves on the local PRCA rodeo board. Dusty is also an inductee in the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame. He currently resides in northwest Arkansas. He was the winner of the 2010 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction, for his novel Texas Blood Feud, and was honored by the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2009.
www.dustyrichardslegacy.com
Western Heritage Award-Winning Author DUSTY RICHARDS
VALLEY OF BONES
A Byrnes Family Ranch Western
The Byrnes family saga continues in this epic novel by Western Heritage, Western Writers of America, and Spur Award–winning Dusty Richards, starting with a trailblazing moment in our nation’s history—and ending in bloodsoaked vengeance . . .
A landmark feat of innovation is about to change the American West forever. With electric cables stretching from the Colorado River to Gallup, New Mexico, a new telegraph system will connect the settlers of the Arizona Territory to the rest of the country—a dream come true for rancher Chet Byrnes and his family. But laying four hundred miles of steel wire can be a deadly task. Chet has to face off with hired henchmen who would kill to sabotage the project. Chet’s nephew JD has his hands full with cutthroat rustlers on the Mexican border. And a pair of outlaws from Chet’s past have come seeking revenge for the hangings of the Reynolds clan—revenge that can only be paid with Byrnes family blood . . .
“Dusty Richards writes . . . with the flavor of the real West.”
—Elmer Kelton
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