Sharpshooter

by Dusty Richards

  “Damn. Having that much money means anything ever happens to me, she will have a nest egg. I never worried about it, being single. But with her and the kids I have to worry about that now. Damn good deal. You three staying a day or so?”

  “No. We’re going to Sis’s tomorrow and then home. I have to find a man to run the ranch Cole runs.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “I am going to try Spud and Shirley. He’s a hard worker. Shawn taught him a lot about handling cows and calves.”

  Spencer smiled. “I thought it might be Tom’s son-in-law, Cody.”

  “He is the first guy ever pleased Sarge enough to let him be the boss of the cattle drives. It gives Sarge every other month off. I’ll raise his wages. Give him a few years to get used to the role, and I’ll need another foreman.”

  “Hey, we love it. Getting those damn rustlers out of our hair made Fred and me a lot easier to live around.”

  “Amen,” Lucinda said. Josey agreed, too.

  * * *

  Next morning, they rode for the Windmill. It was cloudy and the trip took a long day’s ride. It was after sundown when they rode into the yard. Dogs barked and lights came on.

  A cowboy saw who it was and met them, then took their horses to put them up.

  “Back again?” Sis asked.

  She fixed the three of them some food and Chet told her about Cole going back to work running the stage and telegraph deal for ten years. Sarge was off to Gallup with the Navajo cattle.

  In the morning, Cody came up and was surprised at who was there. Chet and Cody had a short, private talk—Chet promised him a hundred-dollar-a-month raise starting in January and thanked him for the job he did.

  Cody about choked thanking him. Chet knew he’d made that boy’s day. Good enough.

  Next day they rode on to the big house on the Verde Ranch and after dark woke Victor, Reba, and Chet’s son Adam. They’d been at Salty’s wedding and also knew about Cole’s secret plans. Lisa was too tired to talk and she went upstairs to bed.

  Jesus said he’d leave early in the morning and for Chet to get a ranch hand to ride with them up the mountain. He was anxious to be in his own bed.

  So a cowboy named Earl rode up the mountain with Chet and Lisa, and they were home.

  They ate a meal Julie fixed, took a hot bath, and went to be bed before sundown.

  Damn glad to be home.

  CHAPTER 20

  Chet was up before the sun and grateful to be there. He dressed, went downstairs, and the girls jumped up from the table.

  He laughed. “I spooked you. Been alone so long I scared you?”

  “It has been very quiet while you were gone. What do you want to eat?” Julie asked him.

  “Mexican omelet, some German fried potatoes, and thin rings of fried onions with them. Plus, some coffee and hot biscuits.”

  “Yeah, Natalie, our breakfast customer is back.”

  “Glad you missed me.” He chuckled as they carried on like it was parade day.

  His first day back he talked to Vance and found out everything was going good on the ranch and on Cole’s as well. Billy Bob would be getting up to the Hackberry Ranch and in less than a week Spud and his wife would be down there looking over the ranch next door and deciding if he wanted to run it.

  Chet took Lisa to town to shop with a ranch hand riding along in the buckboard. A precaution he had promised to keep. His replacement of Cole as his other guard would not be easy to fill. His mind was searching and weighing the people he knew who might take the job. Someone that he could really trust, but none stood out as a real candidate for the position.

  While in town, he spoke to Bo and told him about the deal that was about to open for his ex-employee Cole. He needed a real sharp man who understood lots about other things. Perhaps wasn’t married so he could leave on a minute’s notice.

  Bo had no individual person for him to pick.

  Tanner at the bank was in the same boat as Bo about him finding a man to take Cole’s place. The possible candidates both had little children, and one of them might not like the travel. The end result was no name came to be seriously thought about that day. Chet drove the guard and Lisa home in the last light of sundown.

  At the ranch, a boy took the horses to put them up and told Chet there was a man over by the house waiting to talk to him.

  Chalk, his guard for the day, stopped Lisa and asked her to stand there until they knew who this stranger was.

  “Señora, we don’t know his name. One minute please.”

  She agreed to stand there. Chalk caught up with Chet. The man rose in the last shadowy light of day and removed his hat.

  “Chet Byrnes?”

  “Yes.”

  “I am Johnny Forge. We’ve never met but I was told you hired cowboys.”

  “Where you from, Johnny?”

  “Denton, north Texas, sir. I’m not riding the chuck line looking for work. I have some good reference letters and I want a permanent job. They tell me you are one of the best ranch operators in this Territory.”

  “Lisa, come on. It is all right. He’s looking for work. Thanks, Chalk.”

  “Sí. Muchas gracias, señor.” And he was gone in the night.

  “Forge, we’ve had some problems and that is why we are being careful.”

  “I completely understand. I can come back—”

  “No need. The lights are on up these stairs. The girls will soon have food cooking and no doubt you have not eaten. We can talk up there.”

  “I’m grateful for your hospitality. Thank you, sir.”

  “No sir here. I am Chet and the lady ahead is my wife, Lisa. We simply live here with our people. You have come a long way?”

  “Yes—I came from north Texas. Took my time but never realized it was such a long, dry ways out here.”

  Chet laughed and held the door for both Lisa and Forge to enter. “On a map, it doesn’t look that far.”

  “Not on the map. Right.”

  “Have a seat. Ladies, this is Johnny Forge.”

  The busy girls bowed toward him and went back to their preparations.

  “This is some place you have here.”

  “Lisa and I enjoy it. I guess you know I left Texas several years ago to avoid a family war and bought a place north of here in the Verde Valley. I moved my family here and it was a long way. How did you hear about me?”

  “A friend of mine, Sam Oliver, mentioned you one time. He knew you from the trail drives to Kansas. I was curious. He said you came out here and built an empire in the jumping cactus.”

  “I remember Sam and those trips to Abilene, Kansas. That was not all peaches and cream, either.”

  “None of them were. I took some to Dodge City later than that.”

  “Never made it to Dodge. I was out here before they moved those railheads. What did Sam say about me?”

  “He said I should go out there and meet you. Maybe you had room for a jingle bob boss.”

  “You have no family?”

  “More or less why I came. While I was on my last cattle drive to Dodge my wife and children were—murdered on my small ranch.”

  “Oh,” Lisa said. “That is horrible. Did you get the killers?”

  “The law did, and they were hung. One of them got away. Conroy Miller. No one knows where he went. I put out all kinds of rewards. Looked all over. He left no easy trails. And living and sleeping in that ranch house brought back too many memories. The ride out here was enough of a challenge to occupy my mind.”

  Breakfast was served despite the time of day. Scrambled eggs, fried potatoes and onions, crisp thick-cut bacon, biscuits, and flour gravy with fresh-perked hot coffee.

  “Johnny, I can’t even imagine the deep shock to come home to that. Any reason why they did it?” Lisa asked him.

  “They were simply that mean is all I could figure out of it, ma’am. They were drunk. I think they knew I was out in Kansas with a herd. My wife was pr—” His eyes were wet, and he shook his head a
nd pursed his lips.

  Lisa reached over and clasped his arm. “We don’t need to hear the rest. We understand—I am so sorry.”

  He blew his nose in an old kerchief. And he nodded in agreement. “So am I.”

  “Excuse me,” Chet said, putting down his napkin. He went to the back door and whistled loud.

  An armed guard with a rifle came to the bottom of the stairs. “Have someone put that man’s two horses up for the night. Water and feed them. He’s staying with us.”

  “Sí, señor. No problem.”

  “Gracias.” Chet went back in the kitchen to sit down and eat.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Johnny said.

  Chet smiled. “Ask my wife. I do lots of things I don’t have to do.”

  Lisa agreed, smiled, and then shrugged like it was normal.

  Both men laughed with her.

  “When we get through,” she told him, “the girls will have ready a hot bath upstairs. There will be soap, towels, and clean clothes for you to wear. Leave the rest of your clothes there. I am sorry. I do have good help but none to scrub your back. There are some long-handle brushes in there.”

  Amused by her comments, he smiled. “Most generous of you.”

  “The bedroom across the hall will be your room tonight. Be sure you are wide-awake in the morning. It is a long way from the top to the bottom of those stairs. A few guests have tumbled down them. It is not a nice trip.”

  “I will be wide-awake when I descend them.”

  “Good.”

  “We can talk more about the job deal in the morning. The girls will have coffee ready shortly after six a.m.”

  “Why, this meal, a bath, and a bed is worth the whole trip.”

  “I know it isn’t bad, but it is not worth you coming this far.” She chuckled.

  “It is, Lisa, when you didn’t expect to even be considered two hours ago.”

  “I guess it would be.”

  Chet smiled and began to tell Johnny about his wife. “I found her in a patch of sagebrush in Colorado. Told me she was broke, had no horse or way to get home.”

  “You did?”

  “He told me under no uncertain terms that for an extra packhorse he had for me to ride, I had to help the camp crew set up, take down, repack, and make meals. If I didn’t work hard he’d ride off and leave me at the very next stop.”

  “You must have done it. You’re here.”

  “She made a hand, but back then my second wife was alive. Elizabeth meant nothing to me.”

  “I hadn’t had a bath in weeks. My clothes were rags and my mind was barely working.”

  “We are going to bed and will continue the story line tomorrow.”

  “Thanks. I have to finish this coffee. It is so good.”

  “Arbuckle’s.”

  “Señor, there is no rush. We have more coffee,” Julie said.

  “Thank both of you. Good night.” Johnny rose to tell them that.

  Then he sat back down and the two of them left him with the house girls.

  At the foot of the stairs, Lisa stopped and looked back to the lighted kitchen door. “Hmm. He might get his back scrubbed, after all.”

  “You never can tell.” Chet laughed quietly. Forge was a nice-looking guy.

  CHAPTER 21

  Morning came early. Chet dressed and went downstairs. He found his guest in the kitchen conversing with the two girls and sipping fresh coffee. Its aroma filled the room, but he noticed that both girls looked polished for this early in the day. He sat down and Natalie brought him a steaming cup and took his breakfast order.

  “Sleep good?” Johnny asked.

  “No one had to rock me to sleep.”

  “The girls were telling me about your foreman Cole. Can you tell me about him and this giant job?”

  “Cole was one of my right arms. A few years ago, a rich man came to my sister’s ranch house to meet with us about me becoming a partner in building a stage line from Gallup to California over the Marcy Road. I was busy enough but that man knew we could do that better than anyone he could hire. So I put Cole in charge. It was not easy but we got the stage stops set up. They raided and burned them down to discourage us. That was why I chased down Lisa’s bunch way up there. They were some of the ones that did it.

  “We arrested them and brought them back and, despite their rich parents’ fancy lawyers and money, they are serving long prison terms. She had soon discovered that boy she went with on that journey was not going to marry her. Lisa came back here, worked for my second wife, Elizabeth, taught the Spanish children enough English so they were able to enroll in the public school nearby, and took over running this house when the lady who did that died. Lisa married one of my foremen and later he was shot by outlaws in a raid on the east ranch. Next thing, my wife died of cancer very suddenly and Lisa and I got married.”

  “Arizona, despite your successes, has not been easy on you.”

  “No, Johnny, I have had some tough patches to get over.”

  “Back to Cole. He is taking that job back over?”

  “Yes. My business partner and I knew we had some time before the rails came. But when it finally arrived up there the stage operation would be dumped. The telegraph would prosper but we owned both so when they started bugging us to sell the wire to them, I explained to my partner to sell them both. That way we would not have a dead horse. The railroad knew the telegraph would really cost them much more when it was on a train track, so the big corporation bought both companies. It was making good money when they bought it. Their man in charge at the time told Cole his pay was cut in half—Cole said, ‘Shove it in your ass’ and left.”

  Johnny laughed and agreed.

  “At one time after he left, they had six men trying to do what Cole did and they were losing money every day. They still may have that many. Don’t say a word— the chief officer for the railroad jumped us going through Flagstaff and he made a wonderful deal with Cole to take it back over on a ten-year contract.”

  “It sounds exciting.”

  “It has been but I lost Cole again as my sidekick and guard.”

  “Chet, I am looking for work.”

  “Obviously. I may send you out to the Hackberry Ranch to help Shawn McElroy and be his number two man and learn our ideas about ranching.”

  “That’s what I need—a chance.”

  “Or we may start you down at the Verde. Tom has two things you need to see. One is a blacksmith shop that makes barbwire and windmills for our ranches. He also has a great herd of purebred Herefords we are mighty proud of.”

  “I bet you are.”

  “He was my first foreman when we had to take the ranch back from a crooked foreman who wouldn’t let us have it.”

  “Man, you have had problems.”

  “A big share of them, but we rose from the ashes.”

  “Where can I start, then?”

  “You never asked what I’d pay you.”

  Johnny smiled and shrugged. “I figure you’d know what you paid folks right off.”

  “I do. Thirty bucks a month and I’ll feed your two horses.”

  “I’ll accept that. And, Chet Byrnes, if I don’t make the grade, fire me.”

  “Tell the boys to saddle two ranch horses. We’ll go to Tom’s first. You have lots to look at.”

  “Girls, my wife is sleeping in this morning. She needs the rest so tell her Johnny and I went to see Tom. We will be back.”

  Going down the stairs he’d noted that Johnny still wore a black-powder-and-ball .45 on his hip. “I have something else I need to do. I see my foreman Vance coming.”

  “Morning,” Vance said to them. “See you met him. He and I talked some yesterday. I encouraged him to wait for you.”

  “We finally made it back. Vance, he needs a cartridge model .45 from our armory to wear and a box of shells.”

  “I’ll get him one. And two saddle horses?”

  “Yes. We’re going to meet Tom. The boys put up his horses so th
ere is a saddle that’s his.”

  “They can find it. I’ll tell them and get the gun for him.”

  “You like those model Colts?” he asked Chet.

  “When Cole, Jesus, and I got my nephew out of jail and some crooked deputies tried to take us, we had a real gunfight and we won with those Colts. They are not breathing today.”

  “I heard it was too expensive.”

  “The cost is nothing if, when it’s over, you are still breathing.”

  Johnny laughed. “Thanks, then.”

  He carefully loaded five fresh bullets from the small cardboard box of cartridges into the new pistol, made sure the empty chamber was under the hammer, and closed the side gate. “Nice gun.”

  When the boys brought the horses, he put his extra bullets in the saddlebags.

  “They won’t fly out. I’d leave mine unbuckled so I can get to them in case I need some.”

  “That makes sense.”

  They swung into their saddles and headed for the gate.

  “Does this horse buck?” Johnny asked.

  “Cold morning, he might. Old man down in Texas told me, as a boy, any horse he ever owned who didn’t buck a little wasn’t worth his salt.”

  “He probably was right, too. Tell me, how did you got this neat setup you have here?”

  “My first wife was married to an army officer when her father bought this place. Her husband got shot and killed—I never remember the details. Marge came out to Arizona and was living here when I met her. She paid all my bills. Guess she thought, after we met, that I was broke. I had to make her stop that and take my money. At the time, I was committed to a woman in Texas. I told her so, but we kept going places and being friends. My nephew was with me—he was about fourteen. He’d been a problem to his mother, my brother’s widow, so I took him along.

  “We were headed back to Texas. Stage robbers stopped us fifteen miles south of here that night. They took him as hostage. I took a stage horse out of harness to ride bareback and borrowed a rifle and went after them.

  “I caught them in camp the next dawn. I shot all but one of them and asked him where the boy was at.”

  “He acted tough and said, ‘At that first canyon on the right we cut his throat and threw him in it.’ Well, I filled him with the rest of the bullets in that gun. Took one of their best saddle horses and rode back there—it was getting to be daylight and I found him deep in that canyon—dead.