“Dale Allen—”
She put a fingertip to his lips. “He’s fine. Doing more than he ever did. It just seems strange is all.”
“It will have to be. Besides, I’m getting married.”
“Yes, and I’m talking to her, too.”
“Well, what about you and the sheriff?”
“I don’t know. I think I flattered him by inviting him out here, but he doesn’t act like a man anxious to take a wife.”
“Disappointed?”
“If I don’t please a man, I don’t please a man. Better to know now than marrying one and discover it later.”
“I guess you’re right. I can’t hardly wait. Her daughter, Cady, and I get on fine. I think she’s as big a tomboy as her mother ever was.”
“Where will you live?”
“Now we haven’t ironed all that out. But we will.”
“Good to have a plan before you agree to be her husband.”
“You may be right, sis. I’ll work on it some.”
“I’m not trying to scare you out of it. Lord knows, I’d love you to have a wife.”
“Then I’d be out of your hair, huh?”
“Not so! Not so!” He retreated out of the kitchen with her pounding on him lightly with her fists.
The next morning, he rode into Mayfield and stopped first for a ten-cent draft beer at Casey’s to learn the latest gossip.
“Cassidy Boys were up here looking for cattle to take to Kansas.”
“They get some?”
“Yeah. Campbells, Farleys, and Reynolds folks are sending some up the trail with ’em. All folks that I figured wouldn’t go with you anyway. Though I never figured that Farley would fall in with ’em.” Casey shook his head. “I always thought he had his head on square enough.”
“Everyone has to choose sides in a deal like this for or against. I probably upset Jim Farley sometime about something.”
Casey nodded. “Keep on your toes. They get drunk in here, they talk tough about what they’re going to do you.”
“They can come any time. Three of ’em’s been hung, one shot, and the two’s on the run from the law.”
“Watch your backside. They won’t challenge you. They’ll shoot and run.”
He thanked Casey for his concern, and then he walked across the street leading Soapy, a tall bay, to the hitch rack over there. Mr. Grosman greeted him when he came in under the bell over the door.
“I’ll be right with you, Chester.”
The gray-haired Jewish man always had a proper way when he talked to people. The ladies were all Miss or Mrs. to him. Most men were Mister, but when he did use a first name, it was proper, too.
When he finished with the older lady, he smiled at Chet. “I guess you are ready to go north?”
Chet nodded and walked over. “Dale Allen’s taking them up there this time. I have so much to do, I better stay here.”
He agreed like a father. “So what can I do for you?”
“I want to finance the supplies I’ll need.”
“There is no problem there. I will give you the same terms as last time. That’s fifteen-percent interest.”
“I understand. Now here is my list. I brought this to you early so if you must order anything you’d have it.”
“Very good.”
“Since this problem continues, I won’t write my name or the ranch brand on any of these items. They might damage them to get at me.”
Grosman nodded slowly in agreement. “Such a shame. Such a shame that it goes on.”
“I can’t stop it. I try to avoid it.”
“Oh, I understand. When will you need all this assembled here?”
“He’s leaving for Abilene the middle of March.”
“Good. I will have it all here a week before. How is your sister, Miss Byrnes?”
“Susie is fine. She sent her regards to you and the Mrs.”
“She is such a wonderfully nice lady.”
“I count on her a whole lot.” The matter settled, he decided to swing by and see Kathren before he went home. He short-loped Soapy in the windy mid-morning sunshine. He discovered her herding a bunch of cows and calves eastward that had strayed to the western limits of her place.
Standing in the stirrups, she rode over with a smile. “What brings you out?”
He swung down and dropped the reins. She ran over and he hugged her. Then he swung her around in a circle and kissed her hard.
“Whew,” she said, sweeping off her hat with her blue eyes twinkling. “You sure beat shifting cattle back.”
“How’s Cady?”
“Fine. I have her doing math since they won’t have school this year up here.”
They squatted down. “How come?” he asked.
“Can’t find a teacher, they say.” She slapped the reins on her chaps.
“I had to order the supplies that Matt will need on the drive today so Grosman has it all.”
“Matt’s a nice man. I sure enjoyed him when they were over here.”
“Matt’s a good man. They’re hard to find. I’ll help you drift the cattle back. I’m certain that you have work to do.”
“I don’t usually have company. Thanks.”
Before they parted, he kissed her again. “Whew, it won’t be long till mid-April, will it?”
“Not near fast enough.”
“My thinking exactly.” She went for her horse.
When the cattle were gathered and resettled, they rode back to her ranch together. Cady ran out of the house to greet him.
“I thought you were mad at us,” Cady said after he dismounted and hugged her shoulders.
“No.”
“Well, anyway, you came by.”
“Cady, he has a ranch much larger than ours to run.”
“I know, Mother. I just like for him to come by and see us.” She held the reins while he undid the latigos. He tossed his kac on the corral and thanked her.
“Do any of those boys at your place dance?” she asked, walking beside him.
“Some. J.D. can dance. Why?”
“I’ve been learning how. Would you kinda mention it to him that I can dance?”
“Cady, if that boy wants to dance, he’ll ask you.”
“But Mom, how will he know I can dance if he doesn’t have word about it?”
“Boys can tell who to ask.”
“I’ll handle it,” he said in confidence to Cady.
The next morning after breakfast, he kissed Kathren hard in the cool windy predawn and felt pulled apart as he left her. In a short lope, he pushed Soapy for home. Arriving there at mid-morning, he dismounted at the house. Obviously, the hands were gone. He went in and checked with Susie.
“How did it go this morning?” he asked, putting his hat on a peg and removing his jumper.
“I didn’t hear you come in,” Susie said in the middle of making bread. “How’s Kathren?”
“Those girls are fine. How’s things here?”
“No problems. Dale Allen and crew left out to check on the cattle situation. He’s concerned they may have started pushing cattle on us again. Reg saw some other brands on our land the other day when he went to see Molly.”
“Good. How’s the house?”
“Fine. Louise went to Mason for the day.”
“By herself?”
“Yes, you know how she is. I wanted one of her boys to go along, but she waved that off.”
“She going to spend the night?”
“Yes.”
“I wish she’d’ve listened to you.”
“You know how she is.”
“Not your fault.” He shook his head. Maybe the Reynolds clan had given up on their actions against him. The notion that Louise was alone, though, going over there, roiled his guts. He better go check on Pepe and his farmers and see how the corn planting was coming on. Always lots to do.
Chapter 34
The night before they left, he and Dale Allen went over the list of cattle. They had five hundre
d steers from the ranch, five hundred from Mexico, Hodges’s one hundred, Morgan’s two hundred, Jenks’s one hundred, and Kathren’s one hundred.
“That makes the count,” Chet said.
“Fifteen hundred head.”
“Yes, that’s plenty. Enough that we can pay expenses off the five hundred if we can sell them all right and still make those folks some money,” Chet said. “Get some sleep. You won’t get much from here on.”
Dale Allen would need all the sleep he could get.
On a cloudy morning in mid-March, Dale Allen and his crew started off for Kansas. Heck rode in the chuck wagon with Matt as the cook’s helper. Whip Malloy was the horse wrangler. Sammy and Reg were the swing riders, and they guided the direction and the speed of the herd. They tried a big six-year-old black steer called Midnight as the bell leader. In a few hours they’d know about his leadership abilities. In no time they learned that the black steer was well chosen for the role of His Majesty.
Chet rode north with them the first day. The two younger boys rode double on their pony as far as the north end of the horse pasture. At mid-afternoon, the drive stopped at Cedar Creek, and the point riders threaded the cattle along the bank to drink and then let them graze the rest of the afternoon.
One busted cinch, and the unseated cowboy named Bailey had a headache after falling off his horse turning back an errant steer. The rest went smoothly. Chet played a quiet role, letting Dale Allen handle the operation.
“Good day,” Chet said. “There’s always some fighting the first few days of the cattle drive, even though they were thrown together a few weeks ago. Who’s the boss is name of the game.”
“And there’s always some steers that are troublemakers,” Dale Allen said.
“Eat them.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“I’ve even shot them and left them for the buzzards. Troublemakers aren’t worth two cents.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“You have things in order. A schedule to ride herd tonight. Good luck.”
“You leaving?”
“I figure you can handle it.”
Dale Allen nodded. “I’ll do my damnedest.”
“That’s all I can ask.”
Chet rode back toward the ranch in the twilight, relying on Roan to get him there because with the cloud cover, it would be a dark night. Not taking the herd made him feel guilty, but it would be good for Dale Allen. His brother needed to take care of something—he’d do fine.
Past midnight, bone tired, he fell in his bunk, and slept hard until the morning bell rang. Bleary-eyed, he washed his face and headed for the main house.
“How was the herd and crew?” Susie asked at his entry.
“Ready to fight a bear. First day went well.”
His ranch hands Rip and Toby, the shorter one, came in and smiled at the sight of him.
“Them boys get along okay yesterday?” Rip asked, straddling a chair to sit down.
“Doing good.”
“Late yesterday, me and Toby patched a break in the lower oat field fence. There were twenty cows and calves in there that we drove out.”
“Can’t blame ’em. Those oats are doing good since the rain began. Keep an eye on those fields. We’ll need that hay.”
“Yes, sir.”
May, looking a little red-eyed, and the baby came in to join them. She asked about her husband and Chet assured her he was fine.
“I’ll sure miss him,” she said, and forced a smile.
“He’ll be back in late summer all tanned and relaxed.”
“Yes, I imagine he will be.”
Chet cradled a cup of steaming coffee in his hands. He regretted that he hadn’t signed on more cattle to take north, but the fifteen hundred would be enough for Dale Allen’s first trip. He better saddle up and go check on his corn-planting operation after breakfast.
He was close to the bottomland where he expected to find them planting when he heard what he thought was crows fighting. But when he rode over the ridge, he could see three riders herding his white-clothed farmhands with their hands high out of the field. What in the hell were they doing?
He slipped off Sam Bass, slid the Sharps and the cross sticks out of his scabbard. Those three had their nerve chousing his help. He set the sight and studied the thick-set one on horseback ordering them around in the circle. The first trigger set, he squeezed off a shot with the second one. The man, his arms outstretched, flew off his horse, and the other two, trying to hold their mounts, looked wide-eyed in his direction.
Chet deliberately reloaded and took aim, but they were already on the run, whipping and driving to race across the plowed ground. He put the rifle on safety, then stowed it, and rode up to the Mexican men.
“What were they doing?” he asked Pepe as he dismounted.
“Señor, they were driving us like cattle. Telling us we had to leave here. Threatening us with our lives.”
Chet nodded and went over to the man lying facedown in the dirt. Fresh blood came from his vest where the bullet must have entered him.
“Who is he?” Pepe asked.
“Frank Dutton, he’s Earl Reynolds brother-in-law.”
“Why did he want us to leave?”
“So I couldn’t get any corn planted.”
“Who were the others?” Pepe asked as the tension on the men’s faces around them began to relax.
“One I think was his son, Garland. The other fella I’m not sure.”
“What will we do with him?”
“Sheriff Trent has a deputy in Mayfield. I’ll take Dutton to him.”
“Will they come back?”
“I don’t think so.” He raised his voice. “I don’t think they’ll be back. I’ll keep an eye on you.”
They began to talk among themselves and thanked him. He assured them they’d be safe and told them to go back to planting corn.
He rode into Mayfield with Dutton’s corpse belly-down over his horse. His appearance with his burden in the village soon had several curious folks coming out to see what he would do next.
At Casey’s, he dismounted, hitched the horses, and went inside.
“That deputy around?” he asked Casey.
“No. He went to see about a stolen horse.”
“Where’s Gunner?”
“What happened?” Casey asked, drawing him a beer.
“Dutton, his son, and another galoot were threatening my farming crew with pistols when I rode up. Telling them to leave or else. I took out Dutton and the other two fled.”
“What’s going on?” Gunner asked, coming in the saloon’s doors.
Chet shook his head. He’d go through this story several times before the day was over.
It was near dark when he rode in. Skirt in her hands, Susie ran out. “You all right? Astria’s friend Maria came and told us about all the trouble you had this morning at the fields and shooting a man.”
“Frank Dutton, Earl’s brother-in-law. Frank, Garland, and some hand were herding the men out of the field at gunpoint.”
“Is he dead?”
“Dead as a rock.”
She shook her head in dismay. “I have supper in the oven.”
“Good, I haven’t eaten a thing since breakfast.” He looked around. With Heck gone, he’d have to put up his own damn horse. It wouldn’t hurt him.
Four weeks went by without another incident. Their wedding plans were in place for the following Saturday. Nothing had happened since the hearing about Frank Dutton’s death when it was ruled a justifiable homicide. Kathren had agreed to a small ceremony at the ranch—Susie, Louise, and May planned to embellish it somehow.
Chet was in the blacksmith shop tacking shoes on Strawberry when Susie came screaming. “Oh, Chet, where are you? They’ve killed Dale Allen!”
Dale Allen? Killed? His heart stopped and he dropped the hoof he held in his lap.
Out of breath, she collapsed against a post in the building. “Heck’s here. He’s
exhausted to death, rode day and night, he said, they attacked the crew.” She swallowed hard. “Dale Allen is dead. Oh, my God—” She collapsed sobbing in his arms. “What will we do?”
“Where are they?”
“Across the Red River, he said.”
“Those sonsabitches waited till they were out of Texas.”
“What does that mean?”
“There’s not much law up in the Nations.”
“You better talk to Heck. What will we do?”
“I’ll need to go up there and see what I can do about the cattle and the men.”
“But your marriage—”
“Kathren will wait. She’ll understand.”
“Oh, Chet, why, oh, why have they done this?”
“Revenge. Cold-blooded revenge.” And he’d answer them with more of their own poison.
After he talked to the worn-out youth and learned the killers had also taken the horses, he knew he had more problems. Roan was saddled and he rode fast for Kathren’s. She needed to know what had happened and what he had to do.
At the sight and sound of him coming so hard, she rushed out. “What’s wrong?”
He piled off the hard-breathing horse and ran up to hug her. “They’ve raided the cattle drive. They killed Dale Allen, shot Matt, killed Pinky and another cowboy, and took the horses.”
“The Reynolds men?”
“Yes. Heck said Shelby, Earl, and Kenny were the leaders. I know we have plans, but I must go help those boys and get those cattle to Kansas.”
“I know that. I’ll still be here, Chester Byrnes. You take care and come back to me.”
“I will. I promise.”
He kissed her good-bye, then leaped on the roan and raced back for the ranch. With all that time during his ride, since he had Kathren taken care of, he began laying plans. Hire some more hands, find some horses and have them sent up there. He couldn’t wait for them. Whoever was left with the herd would need him as soon as he could get there.
Heck rushed out of the house when he rode in. Sleep had helped the boy. He looked rested anyway.
“What do I need to do?” he asked.
“Pick us out three horses apiece, so we can ride them in relays—what’s wrong?”
“I better let you choose your horses. You know them better than I do.”
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