Dead Aim

by Dusty Richards

  “The tent can be a white one. But those men will stay and guard her.”

  “Rupert really spoiled her or she came that way.”

  “I suspect she was brought up spoiled.”

  Jan squeezed his hand. “You think?”

  After supper, they went back to the office. He stoked up the stove with wood and they got ready for bed.

  “I like this ranch. It is a kingdom. Whatever you want to do I will support you.”

  “Thanks, Jan.” He hugged her. “And I treasure your advice. Help me get this cattle drive together. You know things I may forget. We need to get it set up right.”

  The effort was under way. Carter went to Fort Worth and he found several hands. Over thirty more reported for work at the ranch after hearing they had openings.

  Long and the horse wrangler, Cole Henry, who he liked so well, went through the horses. They would need a hundred more for the trip was the decision. Carter agreed and they put out word for what was needed.

  Long was amused. Carter put Cole in charge, and traders came with strings of horses to sell them. Cole had four teenage boys on his team who could ride to try them out. They were damn tough hands. A bucking horse was not cut from the list, but a dead-headed plug was given the thumb to go away. The better horses were better because Cole know his reputation hung in picking the right horses. The teenagers Cole used also knew their coworkers counted on them to pick horses with heart and depth. Strong enough to turn a stampede in a helluva rainstorm.

  Long recalled the sorry ones they’d rode to Sedalia. These boys should be grateful they’d have real ones between their legs. Things moved on. The blacksmiths and carpenters fixed the two chuck wagons so any cook would drool to have one like it. The tarp covers and tents were bright and new. They’d go north looking sharp. Pride in an outfit helped them do things—he knew that was what got them to Sedalia and what got them back to the market the next summer.

  Sometimes it took a setback or a wreck to bring up the souls of the crew. Somehow he needed to instill that in both crews, and when his men got back from their honeymoons they could start heading the crew that way.

  Then it struck him. They would choose teams and start the competition during roundup and build on it. Carter had the men busy. They had started collecting the steers to go. In the future, Long promised himself, they would build a pasture enclosure to hold the steers they intended to ship. This year they’d have to herd them up and riders would be needed to keep them together, but it would work out. Just more help was on the payroll than a fenced place would need. He was working toward a real working ranch.

  It was bound to happen. At breakfast a fistfight broke out between two of the men over some little thing. Four others egged them along. Long stopped it, not too gently. He busted one of the fighters over the head with his pistol butt. He went down like a polled-over steer and the other fighter threw his hands up looking wall-eyed at the muzzle of Long’s .45.

  “We don’t fight with team members on this ranch. Absolutely no fighting. You four over there, get over here. You encouraged them. So the six of you will shovel manure out of the barns and sheds for the next two weeks and spread it over the fields. You start at six a.m. and don’t quit until dark. If you don’t work together and help each other, I will fire all of you. I will decide if you have done it all right and worked hard. You won’t do that, load your stuff and get off the ranch right now.”

  “We’re sorry,” one of them said.

  “I am not accepting that. Fourteen days of shoveling shit is your sentence or leave right now.”

  They all nodded.

  He looked to the rest of the men to see who would oversee them. Hugo Salazar agreed to do it, and Long told him to make sure they worked hard at it or fire them.

  Still steaming when he reached his wife, he slid onto the bench next to her.

  “I don’t think I ever saw you that mad, even when you straightened out my problems.”

  “You have to stop fighting right off at the start.”

  “Well obviously you did that.”

  One of the girls brought him a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and biscuits.

  “You want oatmeal?”

  “No, this is plenty . . . thanks.” He reached for the butter and fixed both biscuits.

  “I doubt they’ll fight anymore.”

  He stopped. “I intended it that way.”

  She elbowed him. “You damn sure did that.”

  He set the biscuits down and turned her face toward him, kissed her, and received applause from those that saw.

  Everyone laughed.

  The two honeymooners arrived with two wagons of their things. Harp had written him a long letter. Before Long opened it, he welcomed them and explained how hard his wife, Edna, along with the ranch workers, had worked to get the two houses ready and while all the sawdust had not been swept out they could move in.

  The new residents smiled at the remodeled facilities and furniture bought for them and thanked him. Long packed Missy on his hip during the inspection. She had many important things to tell him. Rob promised her a pony. Harp gave her a doll as a going-away present, and Katy said if she didn’t like it there, she could come back to them and play with her boy Lee.

  Gladys was shaking her head, and Long said it didn’t matter, he understood.

  Later the two men sat down with him and Carter and talked.

  Boone started in, “Harp told us that the deal up here sounded exciting.”

  “How is he doing?” Long asked.

  “He will have six herds. He said he had them set up and would miss you. He said two herds from this ranch first year would be a good deal and to congratulate you.”

  Rob added, “Several of the top foremen gave us some pointers.”

  “It all will help.”

  They agreed.

  He opened the letter alone in the office.

  Dear Long,

  Sounds like you have that operation working. Thanks for explaining what happened to the ranch’s cattle sale in Abilene last year. You have my best getting along with the widow. We knew she might be a problem, but the ranch is ours no matter what so you have my backing for however you handle it.

  We have to make the whole thing work and pay for it. Your plan to move two herds to Abilene unless they move it south of there like they talked about—I think it is too late this year to move it but in the future they will probably have a new point to load cattle.

  Tell Jan that Katy is expecting next year. This was not to upset her but Katy wanted her to know. Still having some rustler problems but we are managing. And the Austin lawyers don’t think we have anything to worry about regarding a court case over the land purchase. Once done, it will be good to have it behind us. No word what those troublemakers will try next.

  I will keep you informed.

  We all miss you but understand that this ranch needs leadership, and I hear you are doing great with it.

  Your brother Harp

  Long told Jan about Katy’s pregnancy.

  She started to cry, but he cheered her up by his hugging and holding her tight.

  Two more letters arrived for him in the next week.

  The first one was from an undisclosed sender and originally was mailed to Camp Verde, Texas, and hand-printed out. The postman had forwarded it.

  Long—

  Those two bastards you want are up around Ruby City.

  An amigo.

  Long stood for a long time wondering who sent the letter, and how did he know about them—he had to be someone who had worked for them.

  Carter found some experienced hands who had been to Abilene that last year. They asked if they would be paid coming home, and Long told them they would be, and possibly be paid for a month’s work if they stayed.

  Long said, “Yes, many outfits only pay for going north and the job ends in Abilene.”

  “Hell I saw why they were upset.”

  “We can afford to pay wages coming home if they s
tay and work.”

  “Whew, I never heard that before.”

  “Lots of things are happening and fast,” Long said.

  “They brought that slick wire back you ordered.”

  Long said, “I sent a boy to town to look at a setup I heard they were doing in a blacksmith shop on how to make barbed wire.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been running around and never heard what he said.”

  “He is pretty sharp for an ex-slave. I am not holding him back because he’s black. I believed him when he told me about the wire. That wire is to make barbed fencing wire. He says he can do it. There is big demand for it. Shops all over are making it. So we will see.”

  “You going to have to have this place surveyed, huh?”

  “To fence it, yes. And next year we will have some fenced acreage to hold our sale steers. We have eight ranch hands out there herding them now.”

  “I bet surveying costs a lot.”

  “It will have to be done. I’ll go to checking on it.”

  “Do you see all ten sections fenced in?”

  “Yes. Maybe more than that, as good as things are going right now.”

  Carter took off his cowboy hat and scratched his white hair. “You are what folks call a mover and shaker.”

  “We need to strike now. Things will keep getting higher and higher.”

  His foreman agreed.

  CHAPTER 31

  Long talked to Jan about surveying the place, so the next time he was in Junction he spoke to several people and got some names and addresses. She would write and ask them to bid on surveying the perimeter of the ranch.

  Things were shaping up fast for the drive. His two head drovers were getting more confident about the operation.

  Cooks were hired. Steers were still being found and driven in. Having that holding pasture next year bore on his mind. The bids came in explaining in order to survey his ranch perimeter they had to start the survey, and they estimated it was twenty-two miles in the northeast corner of the ranch. The estimates ran from fifty thousand down to twelve thousand if they had no troubles.

  “What troubles are they talking about in this lowest bid, Jan?”

  “How would I know? You choosing them?”

  “I don’t want add-on charges. That is enough money to survey the whole of Texas.”

  “I don’t understand the point to start?” Jan shook her head.

  “They have to have a known place to start a survey from and then to get to where our northeast corner is. Then they go from there to the next point and so on.”

  “Twenty-two miles?”

  “Yes. Ask them to list what they call troubles.”

  “Anything we do is lots of trouble isn’t it?”

  “Not everything we do.”

  She shook her head. “I will write. You are a devil at times, you know.”

  “I know that.”

  “How is Simon coming with making wire?”

  “It was harder than he first thought, but he is making progress. For a man who can’t read or write he is a craftsman and how you can do that without those skills impresses me.”

  “I don’t think Juanita is happy up there in that big house. She thinks, now, there are wolves going to attack her. Rogers said they were coyotes and he would try to move them off or shoot them.”

  His wife shook her head. “You need to move that widow off the ranch. She is a pain in the you-know-what. They have to boil all the water she uses, even her bathwater.”

  “You and the new wives are getting along?” he asked her.

  “Oh, yes. We’re sewing clothing for all the workers’ girls every other afternoon.”

  “That’s great. I saw you taking one or the other, in turn, each time you go to town.”

  “I want them to think they are wanted around here.”

  “Good. Things are shaping up better all the time. It looks like we will have more than four thousand head to ship in three weeks.”

  “How many?”

  “They are estimating close to five. Those men can handle twenty-five hundred each. This is another good thing coming our way.”

  “So five thousand at sixty dollars is three hundred thousand dollars, and that is what you paid for the ranch,” she said.

  “Hey, your math is getting better.”

  “I have a good teacher.”

  He hugged and kissed her. “This is all so surprising. But my conscience bites me at times that I am not helping Harp more. I hate it.”

  “You can’t be two places seventy miles apart. I think you are doing a superb job here.”

  “New word, huh?”

  “You betch’em.”

  He hugged her tight. “Jan, things are going good for us up here.”

  “I bet your brother is getting it all done without you. He has lots of great hands.”

  “The only thing we still need to do is form two businesses. One for ranching and one cattle driving. We will be using all our foremen to make the drive, and that makes us too thin at all the ranches.”

  “He never mentioned any problems he was having.”

  “No, but there are more people hate us down there for just being ourselves.”

  “You may be right.”

  “I’m going down to the blacksmith shop and see how progress is going. Meet you at lunch.”

  In the shop that reeked of burning coal he and Simon squatted down and talked.

  “That wire you done got us has flaws in it. Places thicker than I need and places so thin it breaks.”

  “I savvy. Poor quality. I will have the store people buy us better wire.”

  “I have made two twisters. They are getting better. Last trip into Junction, Jonsie told me his secret. I am building one like his.” He turned up his calloused palms. “All I can do.”

  Long clapped him on the shoulder. “I understand. You are doing good work. We will whip this business.”

  “Amen, boss man.” He smiled at his boss’s confidence in his project.

  “Thanks. We’ll get it done.”

  * * *

  Long had things all ready to go north. The weather warmed. The rains had been generous and new grass blades waved in the wind. They had a final send-off for his two men and their crews. Boone went first with his bunch. He and Rob both had good lead steers, probably one of the most expensive parts of the drive. They made river crossings and herding go much smoother. Their bell ringing summoned all the steers that it was time to get up and move. They cost four hundred apiece, but they were leaders. Boone had a red roan-hided longhorn. Rob’s was blue colored.

  Rob left two days later. Long rode out on the first day with both of the herds.

  After parting with Rob earlier, he told Jan that night in bed, “Things went too damn smooth.”

  “Good,” she said, and hugged him hard. “You deserved it.”

  CHAPTER 32

  In their letter, the survey company listed the many things that would cost more money.

  Raids by hostile Indians

  Too many rattlesnakes gathered in one area

  Vigilantes stopping work and threatening workers

  Harassment by people opposed to surveying

  Mad bulls charging survey crews

  Prairie fires

  Tornados and bad storms

  Long said, in his return letter, he accepted their terms and would meet them on the first day at the point where they would start. Long went to town and mailed that off. Next the mercantile. Mr. Garner, at the mercantile in Junction, told Long he had ten spools of smooth wire coming from a recommended supplier, and also apologized saying he had no idea people even made poor-quality wire. Long thanked him.

  When he got home that afternoon, Jan and Carter were in his office waiting for him.

  “Hi. What’s going on?”

  “Juanita wants to move to San Antonio,” she said.

  “Good news huh?”

  “She expects us to move her there.”

  “Rogers can do that and onc
e off the ranch she can pay him not us.”

  “She doesn’t know how much she will take along, but it will require three or four wagons,” Carter said.

  “I will gladly hire them to have her off and gone. When she is gone, do you want to live up there?”

  Jan shook her head. “That is not a warm house for me.”

  “It must be for all the wood she burns up there.”

  Carter agreed, almost grinning.

  “That is not what I mean.”

  “I know. But once she is gone we can do what we want to do with all those rooms.” He could still hardly believe it was that large.

  “Let’s get this going. What do we have to do?” Carter asked.

  “Get a date she will leave. Tell Rogers the plan, and she will be told if she wants him, she must pay him.”

  “She is so afraid of a shadow she will keep him,” Carter said.

  “My thoughts exactly. I’ll handle it in the morning.”

  “How did your day go?” Jan asked.

  “Like I expected it to go. I am pleased that Rob and Boone are running the two herds from here. I know they will get them there barring a big storm.”

  “You were lucky to find them two,” Carter said.

  “I put them in charge of another ranch and when they thanked me, they told me they could now afford to get married. Once I saw this place, I knew if I was ever going to get this ranch going right, I would need them here with me.”

  “Damn good move. I’m tired. Good night, Long.” He chuckled and left them.

  They went into the bedroom and climbed into their bed.

  “Aren’t you excited?” she asked him under the covers.

  “Yes. Two cattle drives smoothly out of here and Juanita leaving is a big load off me.”

  “Did I sound too bossy, in front of Carter, telling you that I didn’t want that house?”

  “No. I didn’t know if you’d changed your mind. This office is kinda shabby.”

  “No, not if you’re here.”

  That’s why he loved her so damn much.

  CHAPTER 33

  He had his meeting with hell about nine a.m. the next morning.