Sharpshooter

by Dusty Richards

  Chet sent the U.S. Marshal, John Stone, a wire that he would look for him. When Jesus came by the house he had him look over the description of the man. Age 36. Stands 5 feet 8 inches tall. Partial bald. Brown hair with blue eyes.

  “I figure we can ride down to Crown King and start back-checking for him.”

  Jesus agreed. “Who else is going with us?”

  “Vic. Billy Bob had a friend down, I guess, at Hayden’s Ferry, who was laid up from a horse wreck. He wanted to go down there and see about him. Then a man’s wife at Mesa said her husband could draw me a map to the ruby mine up on the North Rim for a price so I sent him down on the stage. I think he planned to see his injured friend and then ride from Hayden’s Ferry to Mesa and test out the man with the map. He knows enough about the strip to know if the man is lying.”

  “Oh yeah, we rode over part of it enough. What will it cost?”

  “Not over a couple hundred and a share, if we get some.”

  “Sounds fair enough. We going down to Crown King in the morning?”

  “Yes. Set up two packhorses for the trip. We can cover it all, I figure, in three days if he’s around. Vic and I will bring them by in the morning on our way down. No need for you to ride out here and have to ride back.”

  “Thanks. I’ll get some more sleep, too.”

  “How is your operation going?”

  “Good. Anita and the baby are fine. I have thirty head to calf in the spring. Things are going great.”

  “One day we will wake up and there will be snow on the ground.”

  Jesus laughed and agreed. “It sure isn’t far away.”

  “Tell Anita hi,” Lisa said when he prepared to leave.

  He agreed and thanked her.

  Chet walked him down to his horse, and Vance must have seen them coming and met them.

  “We need two packhorses tomorrow, and Vic to go with us to Crown King and look for an embezzler. Billy Bob went down to Hayden’s Ferry.”

  “You know what the three of us need on those packhorses?” Jesus asked him.

  Vance nodded. “They will be loaded by the morning.”

  “We are on a U.S. Marshal request.”

  “I figured that. Vic will be glad to go along with you. They are working on cleaning out the horse stalls the rest of this week. He won’t miss that.”

  Everyone laughed.

  * * *

  Up early, Vic, the vaquero in his midtwenties, was at the breakfast table flirting with the house girls and sipping coffee when Chet reached the kitchen.

  “Good morning. They say you are missing all the fun?”

  “They are cleaning out the horse stalls this week,” he told the girls. “I won’t miss that job.”

  They laughed.

  “They may save the pigpens for your return,” Julie said, and then poured Chet’s coffee.

  Vic shook his head at the notion. “They’d like to, I bet.”

  “Scrambled eggs, fried bacon, and pancakes suits me,” Chet told her.

  “I will have the same.”

  “I have your orders. Is Lisa coming down?”

  “Yes. She will be here shortly.”

  “Good, we don’t need to leave her out.”

  “She coming along?” Vic asked.

  “Not this time. These run-off crooks we’re after can be dangerous.”

  Everyone agreed.

  Breakfast went smoothly. The two finished eating and stood up to leave, washing down the last cup of coffee when Chet’s wife arrived.

  He kissed her good-bye and the two men were ready to leave for Jesus’s place.

  Vance handed Vic the lead ropes for the three packhorses and said, “It would all not fit on two.”

  “Thanks,” Chet said, and waved to all the pitchfork cowhands about to start on the horse barn cleaning. “Save some for Vic to clean when he gets back.”

  They all laughed and promised him they would do that.

  When the pair went out under the gate bar they were in a trot and the horses were breathing steam in the cold mountain air. It had frosted over the night before and the grass along the road wore a silver cast.

  Out from under some pines going down the road, Chet studied the big cloud bank to the north over his shoulder. “I bet that’s our first snow coming.”

  Vic looked back, made a sour face, and nodded. “It is coming.”

  They picked up Jesus, who was already mounted, and moved on west to take the little-used trail that went up into the Bradshaw Mountains to join the main road that swung in from town. This cut off several miles and they were in the pine forest, climbing into the Bradshaws and the mining district that straddled the range, headed south.

  Noontime they took a break and ate some burritos wrapped in flour tortillas for lunch. By midafternoon they reached the town of Crown King. They hitched the horses and climbed the long steps to the Miner’s Glory Saloon. Once in the smoke and rotgut smelling air of the room, they went to the bar.

  Chet ordered two drafts and a sarsaparilla for himself. Then before he paid him he asked the bartender if he knew Rupert Cosgrove. He shook his head.

  “For ten bucks, have you seen him?”

  The bartender held out his hand.

  “Start talking and it better be good.”

  “He’s with the Harmon brothers. They’ve got a mine called Ozark Queen. About five miles north of here.”

  “I saw that sign,” Jesus said.

  Chet threw the ten down. “It better be the right place.”

  They went out the front doors and, going down the stairs two at a time, he told Vic to bring the packhorses, that the two of them were going on at a faster pace.

  Vic agreed and those two both made a quick bound into their saddles and headed north. Racing around lumbering ore wagons they headed up the rutted highway and scattered some vehicle-chasing dogs. The dust wasn’t bad but it grew thicker and there was more wagon traffic to duck and dodge through.

  They reached the sign for the Ozark Queen mine and reined up. The deep ruts led to some log buildings up a steep slope through some slashed timber. Chet took the lead and reined up at the office. He searched around. There were kids playing in the dirt and they grew quiet when they saw Jesus and Chet.

  Their horses hitched, Chet used the lever opener on the door. From his seat at a desk, a man in a white shirt looked up, surprised.

  “I am a U.S. Marshal. I am here to arrest Rupert Cosgrove.”

  “There—ain’t anyone here—by that—”

  A near-bald man came in the back door and demanded to know who those guys out front were.

  “Cosgrove? You are under arrest. I am a U.S. Marshal.” Chet’s pistol was pointed right at the flush-faced man. “One move and you are dead.”

  “How in the hell did you find me out here?”

  “Believe it or not, we looked for you.”

  “Who are you?”

  “U.S. Marshal Chet Byrnes, that’s my deputy Jesus Martinez putting cuffs on you. Where is the bank’s money?”

  “I don’t have any money.”

  “What did you spend it on?”

  “You have the wrong man.”

  “I doubt it. You fit the description. Prove who you are, then.”

  “John Green.”

  “Try harder. You, behind the desk. Yes, you. What is his name? You lie to me, you will do two years in the federal pen. Name him.”

  “Cosgrove.” The man was white-faced and shaking all over.

  “Listen, there are children outside. I don’t want anyone hurt. Is there anyone here might try to free him?”

  “No. I—I don’t think so.”

  “Jesus. Real careful, you check and see if anyone out there knows we’re here.”

  His man shoved their prisoner to the door, opened it, and he peered past him. “Looks clear.”

  Chet spoke to the seated man. “Don’t you try anything. Get away from the desk.”

  “I am going.” He turned his chair over backward getting ou
t of it.

  Jesus used the prisoner as a shield. Guiding him outside with one hand. His other hand had his pistol ready.

  Chet followed him, realizing it was darker outside than when they went inside. Then, when he stepped off the porch, something cold struck his cheek. It was snowing. The kids were shouting plus jumping up and down as the heavy snow began to really fall.

  Chet could hardly see anything for the snow. They needed another horse for their prisoner. Oh well, when Vic got there they’d use a packhorse even if they had to discard the load.

  Drivers on the main road were cussing their teams as the snow became a problem for their horses’ footing. The white stuff never let up falling. Where was their partner? Then he appeared like a white ghost.

  “You got him?” Vic asked as if shocked it was him.

  Chet was off his horse and stripping off the hitch. “We need a horse to get him back to town.”

  Vic joined him and they soon had everything but the cross-buck pack saddle unloaded. The two tossed the grumbling prisoner on that horse.

  “We going to leave it?” Vic asked.

  “Yes. We need to find some shelter next.”

  Vic threw up his hands.

  “Jesus, can we find the road off this one and go on to Preskitt?”

  “I think so.”

  “You lead the way. If we can use that side road we came in on we don’t need to go back to town. We can go back to the ranch and hold him there.”

  “You guys are crazy,” the prisoner said, and added some swear words to his complaint. “We’ll all freeze to death.”

  “Just shut up. You have no say. You could be walking on foot and I could still make you do that.”

  Jesus took the lead. Vic led the prisoner and his horse. Chet brought up the other two packhorses. The footing under the horses, in places, caused some slippage of hooves. But the situation was not real serious. Still, it made Chet very observant of his own horse and the ones he led. The steepest part of the road he could recall was where they turned north off the main wagon road.

  They passed several wagons and rigs in the ditch or turned over, along with ones that were stuck in the middle of the road—their teams unable to track them. With their prisoner, there was little they could do to help them. The snow let up only a little then more fell in the next deluge of flakes.

  Chet could see the pine tree branches bowed under the weight of the wet white stuff. He’d been in snowstorms before but never with a prisoner to guard. After perhaps an hour of descending the grade they reached the lower level and Jesus nodded. “Better footing here.”

  “Amen. We may make it, guys.”

  “You doubted that, too?” Vic asked over his shoulder.

  “Coming off that steep grade, I did.”

  “Good. Then I won’t worry about me fretting over it.”

  The three laughed.

  “Did anyone shoot at you two when you arrested him?”

  “No. Why?” Chet asked.

  “Fellers, this is the first arrest I ever was in on and I damn sure didn’t know what to expect.”

  “You did damn good finding us in that snow.”

  “I admit I worried some about finding you.”

  “We worried, too,” Jesus shouted back.

  After dark, they reached the main ranch. The snowfall had leveled off to small flakes falling but there was over a foot accumulated on the ground. They dropped out of their saddles and Vance met them.

  “You got him?”

  “Yes. We will need a guard and someone to feed him something for tonight.”

  “We can handle that.”

  “Jesus, give him the handcuff keys in case he needs to take them off.”

  “I’ll put the horses up,” Vic said.

  “No, we will do that. You look like a snowman,” Vance teased the vaquero.

  “Come on up to the house and thaw out,” Chet said, handing his reins to a boy.

  “But I’ve got snow all over me.”

  “Vic, they won’t care. Get up the stairs.”

  “Yes, sir. And don’t laugh, Jesus. I came home like this one time when I lived in Mexico and my mother beat me with a broom for coming in her house like that, with mud from a sudden rainstorm.”

  “My wife won’t do that. Get up those stairs.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Both of the house girls and Lisa were there to help them get off their outer clothes. And they used brooms to get some of the snow off their britches. Laughing and teasing one another, they soon were seated at the table.

  “Your trip must have been successful?” Lisa asked.

  “Yes, we were. Vance has the prisoner. Aside from a long, slick ride we had few other problems. We never got to interrogate the prisoner but we listened to his complaints all the way back here.”

  Lisa said, “I am glad you are back in one piece. This snow started here not long after you left and I worried you would be snowbound.”

  “No. Jesus, with his snow experience in Mexico, led us back to the ranch.”

  The house girls laughed.

  “The only snow I ever saw in Mexico was way off on a mountain in the Sierra Madres.”

  Chet thanked Vic after they finished eating, and he headed for the bunkhouse.

  After the meal, they showed Jesus a bedroom and said good night. Chet and Lisa were in their own bed, and she said, “I can’t believe you rode out and got back in one snowy day.”

  “I had enough of being away from you, I guess.”

  “Chet Byrnes, sometimes I could beat you with my fists.”

  “It’s the truth.”

  CHAPTER 27

  The next day Chet sent a ranch hand to ride into town to wire the U.S. Marshal that he had the prisoner Rupert Cosgrove and, due to snow, was holding him at his ranch, but he would transfer him shortly for holding to the Yavapai County Jail in Prescott, Arizona Territory.

  After breakfast, Jesus rode home. Chet had not made any plans about what they’d do next. There was no word from Billy Bob. With the snow that deep, Chet knew his man would be a few more days getting back from the valley.

  They got a telegram from him that he’d be there on the midnight stagecoach. Lots of the snow was gone and the temperature was high enough that it was not freezing at night.

  That evening he and Vic, riding a buckboard and with a robe on their laps, went to meet the stage. Plus, they’d brought a blanket for Billy Bob to wear back, because he left without much winter gear on his body and sure didn’t need that much down there.

  They got him and his war bag off the stage and started for home.

  “Hey, guys, I am damn grateful for this blanket to get under. Man, it was eighty degrees down there today. I had no idea you got that much snow here. But my buddy Earl, who had the wreck, is doing good. Better than anyone expected. And I bought the map to the mine. That old man seriously broke his leg after he found the mine. It healed stiff and he doubted he could get around to ever go back. Said he’d thought about doing it many times but never saw a way or anyone he trusted enough to go find it for him.”

  “What did you pay him?”

  “Two hundred, and he gets ten percent of what we get, less our expenses.”

  “What made you think about that?”

  “I knew we couldn’t go up there for nothing.”

  “Good thinking. We will have expenses. Think you can find it from his map?”

  “I do, Chet. You know those three buttes?”

  “We called them the Sisters?”

  “Yeah. Those are the ones and it is north of them.”

  “Well, if you think you can find the mine, great. But I am not going to rush up there in the wintertime. It has been there that long and it can wait until springtime. Coldest days I can recall in my life was coming back from Utah with prisoners on that road.”

  “Jesus wouldn’t go up there, either, in the winter.”

  Vic was driving and laughing. “Jesus told me one time that every cold day on tha
t trip he watched out for polar bears. Figured they’d eat him.”

  The snow soon melted and things leveled out. The U.S. Marshal sent two men to take Cosgrove back for trial. Between snows, Chet and his two men slipped into Flagstaff to check on Cole and see how things were going for him.

  They met in his office.

  “How are things going?”

  “Not bad. I have some new ticket agents. Some were stealing, others were going to work drunk, and one told an important man he didn’t care if the individual got to Gallup or not. Someone, unknown, chopped down two telegraph poles way west of here. We guessed he needed firewood. It took several days to replace them but Salty can splice them now, too. Spencer keeps fixing the small things that pop up and he’s training two people what to do.”

  Chet looked around before he said, “Billy Bob bought us a map supposed to lead us to the ruby mine.”

  “Is it good?”

  “The man found it says so.”

  “I hope you all do good going after it.”

  “That won’t be until next spring,” Jesus said.

  They all laughed.

  CHAPTER 28

  Billy Bob, Julie from the house crew, and Vic took a buckboard and a saddle horse along to the Wagon Wheel and brought the very pregnant Josey Taylor back to the Preskitt ranch to have her firstborn. Lucky for them, it didn’t snow or turn hard cold. She bragged on how good a job the three did, and it was all smiles when they helped her down.

  Lisa welcomed her to their house.

  Chet noticed that Julie and Billy Bob talked to each other for a long time after the others went inside the house. Business as usual for the ranch. A herd of cattle each month delivered to the Navajo at four delivery points and then the wait for government money to be paid. Tanner handled that part at the bank—he watched very closely for notices of availability of federal warrants to be paid. And he told Chet when each one came to his account.

  Chet settled with Ben Ivor when the last piece of farm machinery finally made it to Preskitt. Then he and Ben shook hands and the dealer thanked him for his business.