‘This has been done deliberately,’ Eliot said. ‘Someone’s tryin’ to contaminate the water supply.’
‘Yeah, and I think we can guess who it is,’ Lowell replied.
They both dismounted and began to look about for sign. It wasn’t hard to find.
‘How many of ’em, do you reckon?’ Eliot said.
‘Probably half a dozen riders. They must have come in the night.’
The grass was flattened where the corpses had been dragged and the riverbank had fallen away.
‘Let’s see what we can do to get them out,’ Eliot said.
It required a considerable effort, but with the help of their horses they succeeded in hauling the dead animals out of the river.
‘Better get back to Fuller and let him know what’s happened,’ Lowell remarked.
‘There’s not much else Fuller can do,’ Eliot replied.
‘I wasn’t thinkin’ just about those cows,’ Lowell replied. ‘The way I figure it, Rickard has just declared war on the Long Rail.’
‘If so, he’s chosen a good time – when the boys are fully occupied with the roundup and gettin’ ready for the trail drive.’
‘Those varmints we fought off back at Granton weren’t just regular cowhands either. I figure Rickard ain’t averse to hirin’ a few gunslingers to back him up.’
‘After what happened, they’re likely to be wantin’ revenge. This is just the sort of opportunity they’ll be lookin’ for.’
The smell of the decaying cattle was strong in their nostrils as they turned and started to ride back.
When they reached the ranch, Fuller was standing by one of the corrals with his foreman, Conrad, talking to a little man in a black frock-coat.
‘Who’s that?’ Lowell asked.
‘His name is Dinsdale. He’s a lawyer. Rickard sure don’t waste any time.’
They rode up and dismounted. Fuller turned to them.
‘Hello,’ he said. ‘What are you boys doin’ back?’
‘We thought you’d better know. There’s trouble.’
‘What sort of trouble? Conrad asked.
In a few words Eliot told them what they had found at the river. When he had finished Fuller turned his fierce gaze on the lawyer.
‘That’s the sort of man you’re workin’ for,’ he snapped.
‘I don’t know what you mean. Are you trying to infer that there’s some connection between what your man has just told you and Mr Rickard’s latest offer?’
Fuller seemed to explode. ‘I reckon I’ve just about taken all I can from you!’ he exclaimed. ‘I think you’d better get on your horse and get away from here just as quick as you can. And I give you fair warnin’: you’d better not show your face round here ever again.’
The lawyer seemed to hesitate for a moment but as Fuller advanced on him he took to his heels and made quickly for his horse. As he rode away Fuller turned to the others.
‘He was tryin’ again to get me to sell up,’ he said. He was still furious. ‘By Jiminy, I should have taken a whip to the little skunk.’
‘What do you intend doin’ now?’ Conrad asked.
Fuller glanced over the corrals where the cattle had been left without food or water for a day to help tame them down. He regarded them with a practised eye, before pulling some papers out of his pocket.
‘I’ve been lookin’ through these bills of sale,’ he said. ‘Everythin’ seems in order. We’ve added some cows from a couple of the smaller ranches and the brand, number and earmarks of each are all set out. I figure we’re just about ready.’ He turned to Conrad, who nodded in confirmation.
‘Lowell figures we might get a visit from Rickard and his boys,’ Eliot said.
‘Especially now that you’ve turned down his latest offer,’ Lowell added.
‘Yeah, I figure the same. We’ll get right on with the trail drive, but we’ll make sure we’re ready for anythin’ Rickard might do too.’
‘It could get rough. Rickard has more men on his side, and that’s not countin’ the gunnies he seems to have.’
Fuller’s expression was grim. ‘Just let him come,’ he said.
Conrad looked from Eliot to Lowell. He knew the importance of the trail drive. He had worked for Fuller long enough to know what it meant to him and the other small ranchers. Without the money from this drive, they would be likely to go under; even without any added pressure from Rickard.
‘I need to talk to you boys further,’ Fuller said. ‘Come on over tonight after you’ve eaten.’
They were about to leave when Lowell heard the swish of a skirt and turned round to see Lorna approaching. He had barely seen her since his arrival and he was taken aback at how fresh and appealing she appeared.
‘Has that horrible man gone?’ she asked.
‘Yes. He decided not to stay around for too long.’
‘I’ve made some coffee. There’s plenty to go round.’
‘I’m sorry, ma’am,’ Conrad replied, ‘but I’d best be gettin’ on with the roundup.’
As he walked away Eliot and Lowell exchanged glances. Lowell would have liked to take up the offer but he answered for them both.
‘It’s real nice of you,’ he said, ‘but we’ve got things to do as well.’
‘You’re welcome to stick around for a while,’ Fuller commented.
‘Thanks, but we’d best get goin’,’ Eliot replied.
‘See you tonight, then.’
Eliot and Lowell mounted up and as they rode away, Lowell glanced back to see Lorna watching them with her hand to her eyes to shelter them from the sun.
‘That’s quite a lady,’ Eliot remarked. ‘And I tell you something. Fuller tries to wrap her up in cotton wool, but she’s a lot tougher than he thinks.’
‘What is she doin’ at the Long Rail?’ Lowell asked.
‘I don’t know the full story. Her mother was Fuller’s sister. Seems like both her parents died and Fuller took her in.’
‘So she’s been livin’ at the Long Rail for a while?’
‘Sure. Must be five years or more. She’s settled in real good. From what I gather, she really loves it out here. I don’t reckon she’d ever want to go back east again.’ Eliot gave Lowell a quizzical glance. ‘I don’t profess to understand these things, but she seems to like you,’ he said.
Lowell was hoping he might see Lorna again that evening, but he was disappointed. He, Eliot and Conrad had already eaten at the bunkhouse, and when they arrived Fuller led them to the veranda where a bottle of whiskey and four glasses stood on a low table. They took their seats around the table and he poured.
‘Well gentlemen,’ he said. ‘After what’s happened round here recently, I thought it was time we reviewed the situation.’
‘There ain’t much to review,’ Conrad said. ‘Rickard has been rilin’ us for a long time. We suspected it was him doin’ the rustlin’ and now Lowell here has confirmed it.’
‘He ain’t made any secret of the fact he wants to take over the Long Rail,’ Fuller said.
‘Just like he’s taken over half of Granton and put his own man in office.’
‘It’s thanks to him that the buffalo have about disappeared from these parts. I ain’t averse to shootin’ the critters, but slaughterin’ them wholesale like that just ain’t right.’
‘If he was successful in gettin’ hold of the Long Rail, there’d be nothin’ to stop him takin’ over the whole cattle trade.’
‘He ain’t gonna get his hands on the Long Rail,’ Fuller snapped.
‘If Rickard is really intendin’ to attack the Long Rail, when is he likely to do it?’ Conrad asked.
‘And what do we do about it?’ Eliot added.
Fuller thought for a moment.
‘The way I see it,’ he said, ‘is that Rickard will wait till we have those cattle on the hoof. It would be a lot easier than attackin’ the ranch. Besides, if it’s the Long Rail he’s after, he won’t want to damage the property. If he stops those cattle gettin’ to
the markets, he’ll have bankrupted the Long Rail. And maybe not just the Long Rail but some of the other ranches as well.’
‘I agree,’ Conrad said. ‘That’s the way I’ve been lookin’ at it too.’
‘We ain’t got enough men to try and safeguard the ranch and do the drive. Seems to me we concentrate on doin’ our best to protect the herd. You never know; we might be wrong and it might never happen.’
‘I don’t think any of us believe that,’ Conrad said. ‘But you don’t need to have any concerns about the men. They know the situation and just exactly what’s expected of ’em.’
‘Thanks, Conrad,’ Fuller replied. He took a long swig of whiskey. ‘There’s one thing puzzles me though.’
‘Yeah. What’s that?’ Conrad said.
‘I’d like to know to what extent Rickard is operatin’ on his own and to what extent he’s frontin’ for Mossman.’
Lowell was suddenly interested. ‘Mossman?’ he said.
‘Yes. You must have come across the name. He runs the stage line and now he owns a railroad company. They’ve just extended the line to Shoshone Flats. Mossman stands to make a fortune. In a way it’s quite handy for us. It’s a lot shorter distance than before.’
‘I guess Mossman must still own the Half-Box,’ Conrad mused, ‘otherwise why would Rickard have retained the M? I’d have thought someone like Rickard would pretty soon have changed the M to an R.’
Lowell leaned forward. Conrad’s words had hit him like a douche of cold water. It was so obvious too. Why had he not realized before the significance of that one letter?
‘The M in Half-Box M refers to Mossman?’ he said.
‘Yeah. He only signed it over to Rickard when he got his hands on the old stage line.’
‘The line that was originally scheduled to run to Buckhorn?’
‘That’s it. The old place never recovered. It’s nothing now but a ghost town.’ Conrad suddenly stopped. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘Of course, you’d know that.’
There was an anxious look on Fuller’s face. He glanced at Eliot.
‘Mr Lowell might not want to talk about events in Buckhorn,’ he said. ‘It can’t have been easy to see the place die.’
Lowell felt a stab of pain at Fuller’s words, which had a significance beyond his intended meaning. Fuller did not know the irony they contained. For a moment he felt like moving away and then something seemed to be released inside him. It was almost a physical feeling and he felt not only able to speak, but an urge to do so.
‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘There’s no need for awkwardness.’ He paused for just a moment while the others looked closely at him.
‘There was a fire in Buckhorn’, he continued. ‘I think you know that. People got badly hurt. People died. One of them was my wife.’
It was only once he had spoken the words that he realized their full import. It wasn’t just the blunt statement of fact. It was that he had never been able to talk of it before. He was surprised at the way he felt. There was still pain, but there was also a sense of relief, of a weight having been lifted from his shoulders.
‘I’m sorry,’ Fuller said. ‘None of us knew.’
There was silence for a moment, during which Lowell was thinking hard. Having been released from the burden of his secret, he wanted to leave it behind. There was no point in dwelling on it now, and he wanted to prevent an atmosphere of embarrassment from developing.
‘Tell me,’ he said, turning to Fuller. ‘What else do you know about Mossman?’
‘Nothin’ much. He spent most of his time at the Half-Box. He never came to town. You could ask anybody in Granton and I reckon they’d say the same thing. He was always somethin’ of a mystery. There was some talk about the manner in which he got his hands on the stage line. Funny, Dinsdale was involved in that negotiation too.’
‘Dinsdale! He sure seems to have some dubious clients.’
‘People thought that once he’d got control of the stage company, they’d see more of Mossman. But the next thing we heard was that he’d built the rail-line to Shoshone Flats. I guess that’s where he is now, although nobody knows for sure.’
Lowell was thinking hard. Since his wife died in the fire and he had withdrawn from the world, he had barely thought about those events. It had been too painful. Now he was beginning to wonder whether he hadn’t missed something quite obvious, in the same way as he had failed to see any significance in the letter M in the name of Rickard’s ranch. He looked at the others who were watching him intently.
‘What is it?’ Eliot asked.
‘That fire,’ Lowell said. ‘Maybe it wasn’t an accident. Maybe it was started deliberately.’
It had only just occurred to him and he expected them to raise objections, but to his surprise they didn’t seem to react in that way to his suggestion.
‘Mossman certainly benefited from that fire,’ Fuller said. ‘It was the final nail in the coffin for Buckhorn as a goin’ concern.’ He glanced at Lowell, concerned that he might have used the wrong words, but Lowell didn’t seem to notice.
‘I remember there was some speculation about the causes of the fire,’ Eliot said, ‘but it was only talk.’
‘There’s one way to find out,’ Lowell said.
‘What do you mean?’ Conrad asked.
‘You say Dinsdale was involved in the deal for the stage line. Now he’s Rickard’s lawyer. The way I see it, he’s likely to know the answers.’ He turned to Fuller. ‘Do you reckon you could spare me for a while?’ he said.
‘Sure. The roundup’s just about complete. We’re almost ready to go.’
‘What are you plannin’ to do?’ Eliot asked.
‘Pay a visit to Dinsdale.’
‘You’d be headin’ straight back into the firin’ line,’ Eliot replied. Fuller shrugged. ‘You’ve got the marshal to worry about as well. At least let me come with you this time.’
‘I don’t intend wastin’ time,’ Lowell replied. He glanced towards Fuller.
‘Eliot’s right. I can spare a couple of hands,’ Fuller said. He poured the last of the whiskey into their glasses. ‘Just make sure you get back in one piece. I’ll be needin’ everyone for the trail drive.’
They were about to call it a night. Conrad stood up to go down the veranda steps when the door to the ranch-house opened and Lorna appeared.
‘Have you boys not finished yet?’ she said. ‘I was wondering if you might like a bite of supper.’
‘Thank you, ma’am,’ Conrad said, ‘but I think I’ll call it a day.’
He was about to go when Fuller put a detaining hand on his arm.
‘Actually, Conrad,’ he said, ‘Could you stick around for a few minutes. Now that Lorna’s here there’s a word I need to have with you all.’
Lorna looked her uncle. ‘That sounds ominous,’ she said.
‘Pull up a chair, Lorna,’ Fuller replied. ‘This does concern you.’
Lorna took Conrad’s vacant seat while the foreman leaned on the balcony rail.
‘You can probably guess what I’m gonna say. I’m worried about leavin’ you here. I know we’ve agreed already that if Rickard launches an attack, it’s much more likely to be on the herd. However, I wouldn’t feel comfortable leavin’ you behind.’
‘There’ll still be people around,’ Conrad said.
‘Yeah, but even so I don’t like the idea of Lorna being exposed to any danger.’
‘Fuller’s right,’ Lowell said.
Fuller turned to Lorna. ‘I think it best that while we’re away, you move into town and stay with one of the neighbours. I know the Dawsons would be happy to have you. Or you might prefer to choose some of your own friends.’
Lorna sat in silence for a few moments. Lowell was looking at her but he couldn’t decipher the look on her features.
‘That’s very thoughtful of you, uncle,’ she eventually replied. ‘I really do appreciate your concern. But I have no intention of moving to town.’
‘Like your un
cle says, it wouldn’t be safe leavin’ you here.’
‘I don’t intend stayin’ at the Long Rail either. Since I came here, I’ve tried to take an interest in the affairs of the ranch. Well, now the time’s come for me to experience a trail drive at first hand. In fact, it will be an invaluable addition to my education. I’m coming with you.’
‘You can’t do that!’ Fuller said. He looked at the others for support.
‘And why not? I’m a good rider. I can rough it.’
‘It ain’t no kinda life for a girl,’ Fuller said.
‘I’m not a girl. I’m a woman full grown. Now, it’s no use arguing. I’ve made up my mind.’ Fuller seemed to be searching for words but before he could say anything more Lorna added: ‘And there’s one other thing. I can cook.’
There was a moment’s silence and then Conrad laughed.
‘She’s got you there,’ he said.
‘I’ve got a cook,’ Fuller said, but he was struggling. He sensed that on this occasion Lorna was inflexible. What she said was true. She had grown into womanhood and he had barely noticed it. He had tended to try and shelter her from some of the rougher elements of life on the ranch, but he saw that it was neither necessary nor appropriate any more.
‘Well,’ she said, ‘that’s settled then.’
She turned and walked away. There was no further mention of supper and Lowell wondered whether her arrival might have had less to do with supper and more to do with timing the announcement of her determination to accompany the trail drive. If so, Fuller had been pretty cleverly manipulated. It was true what Eliot had said: she was quite a woman.
‘Guess I’ll be turnin’ in too,’ Fuller said.
They all got to their feet to make their departure. As he made his way back to the bunkhouse, Lowell’s thoughts were on Mossman. He didn’t intend coming away from his visit to Dinsdale without having some answers.
Chapter Four
Early the following morning Lowell and Eliot set off for Granton. Lowell was on edge and they covered the ground as quickly as they could. When they reached town they drew to a halt outside the lawyer’s office and fastened their horses to the nearest hitch-rack.
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