Way of the Gun (9781101597804)

by West, Charles G.

  “Papa!” Nancy squealed as she ran to greet her father, causing him to stagger back a couple of steps from the impact when they met. She locked her arms around his neck and they embraced for a long moment before she stepped back.

  “Nancy, darlin’, I don’t know if I can believe my eyes. Is it really you?”

  “It’s me, all right, and we’ve gone through one helluva time to get here,” she replied, beaming broadly. “This is Frank,” she said then.

  “Frank?” he responded, unable to remember at the moment.

  “My husband, Frank,” Nancy exclaimed.

  “Oh, Frank,” Cain replied, somewhat awkwardly. “Course it’s your husband.” He turned to face Frank, who stepped forward with his hand out.

  “Glad to finally meet you, Mr. Cain,” he said. “I guess we fell in on you kinda unexpectedly.”

  “Not a’tall,” Cain quickly assured him. “I’m so tickled to see my eldest daughter. I’m just wonderin’ why it took you so long to decide to come out here.” He turned to take a longer look at Carson, who was holding the horses. “And who’s this you got with you?” Then he remembered. “Where’s Jonah? I was expectin’ him. Did he decide not to come?”

  “My brother’s dead, Mr. Cain,” Frank announced solemnly. “He was anxious to come help you, but he didn’t make it.” He went on to tell the circumstances that had cost Jonah his life.

  “I swear, I’m sorry to hear that,” Cain said. “He was a good man and a good friend. I’m real sorry for you, too. I know it was a terrible tragedy.” He turned back to Nancy then. “Sounds like you folks had a rough time of it.” Then remembering, he said, “You never told me who this feller is,” nodding toward Carson.

  “This is John Carson,” Nancy said. “And if it wasn’t for him, Frank and I might not have made it.” She went on to tell of their chance meeting with Carson and his part in leading them to the Yellowstone.

  “Nancy’s telling it straight,” Frank offered. “We might not have made it if he hadn’t come along.”

  “Well, I reckon I owe you some thanks,” Cain said with a wide smile. He offered his hand. Carson didn’t say anything; he just shook the outstretched hand. “Well, if this don’t tie my day up with a ribbon,” Cain went on happily. He took another look at his daughter. “I swear, if you ain’t lookin’ more and more like your mother.” He gave her a wicked wink. “And she was the prettiest woman in the state of Nebraska. God rest her soul.” He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a hard squeeze. “Let’s get you folks settled.” He paused then and yelled out toward the barn, “Lucas! Get up here and say hello to your sister.”

  “Well, get over here and give me a hug,” Nancy told her brother when he came up from the barn, but only stood there, gaping at the three visitors. A shy boy of eight when she last saw him, and now a strapping boy of fourteen who only vaguely remembered his big sister. With an embarrassed grin, he stepped forward to submit to a hug, and waited patiently until he was released. “My goodness,” Nancy remarked, “you’re al-most full grown, almost as big as Papa.” Lucas grinned anew and stepped back to gawk at the two men with his sister. “This is your brother-in-law, Frank,” she told him.

  “Pleased to meet you, Lucas,” Frank said, and offered his hand.

  “Me, too,” Lucas returned.

  “Where’s Justin?” Nancy asked then. Justin, her big brother and eldest of Mathew Cain’s offspring, was always the serious one, perhaps because of his role in helping to raise his younger brother and sisters after their mother died.

  “He took a couple of the boys over toward the moun-tains to round up a bunch of strays,” her father said. “He oughta be back for supper. He’s sure gonna be surprised to see you.”

  “Well, what about me?” The voice came from the porch as a young girl stepped out the door and stood squarely with hands on hips. “Don’t I get a hug?”

  “Millie!” Nancy exclaimed delightedly. “Come here!” After a long hug, Nancy stepped back to look at her. “I declare, you’re a grown lady. I wouldn’t have recognized you.”

  “Trying to take care of this wild bunch will make you grow up fast,” Millie replied. “Either that or kill you.” She smiled at Frank then and said, “Welcome to the family, Frank.” Back to Nancy, she remarked, “You look as good as the last time I saw you. I believe married life agrees with you.” She cocked an eye in Carson’s direction, lingered for an instant, but said nothing.

  “Well, let’s get you all in the house so you can rest a spell,” Mathew Cain suggested. “Millie, you’d best tell Lizzie we’re gonna have extra mouths around the table.”

  “I already told her,” Millie said. “I sent her out to the smokehouse to cut some off one of those hams we smoked last fall.”

  Standing apart from the reunion, patiently watching, Carson said nothing until the family started to go up the steps to the porch. “I need to take care of the horses, Mr. Cain. Is it all right if I let ’em out in the corral?”

  “Oh, sure, young feller,” Cain replied, having forgotten about him in the midst of all the greeting and hugging. “Lucas, go help the young man with the horses. What was your name again?”

  “Carson,” he answered, “John Carson.”

  “Right, John,” Cain said. “You and Lucas take care of your horses, and then come on back and we’ll get you somethin’ to eat.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Carson replied, then spoke to Frank. “I expect you’ll wanna unload your packhorses here at the house, won’t you?”

  “Oh, I guess that would be the smart thing to do, wouldn’t it?” Frank responded, having forgotten about it amid all the excitement of the reunion.

  An interested witness to the exchange of words, Millie commented, “Why don’t you just unload it and leave it on the porch? We can take it in later, and Mr. Carson can take the horses to the corral.” She looked at him in an appraising manner, the way a buyer might look at a horse he was considering.

  “Yeah, Millie’s right,” Cain said. “Just unload it on the porch. We can do somethin’ with it later.” Carson got the impression right off that it was Millie who ran the house, and when he locked his gaze on hers, her expression told him he had guessed right.

  While the men unloaded the horses, Millie locked arms with her sister as they ascended the steps to the porch. “So, how well do you know this stray you picked up on the way out here?”

  Nancy told her that Carson had just appeared one night when they were camped on a creek near the Beaver River. “We were in a terrible fix until he showed up.”

  “Like an angel out of the blue,” Millie said, facetiously, “just sent down to rescue you and Frank.”

  “He happened to be in the right place for us at the time, that’s all,” Nancy said.

  “I just wonder what he’s after,” Millie insisted.

  “He’s after a job working with cattle, that’s all. Why are you so suspicious?” Nancy said. “John’s really a nice fellow, and he’s worked as a drover on several trail drives. And he’s certainly handy with a rifle. Papa would do well to hire him.”

  “Maybe he’d be more comfortable eating in the bunkhouse with the other men,” Millie said. “I mean, if it’s a job he’s after, that’s where the hired hands usually eat. Justin can talk to him about working on the M/C when he gets back tonight. He does most of the hiring.”

  “Well, tonight he can eat with us. He’s our friend, and he’s certainly earned our courtesy,” Nancy insisted, finding it hard to understand Millie’s attitude toward someone she didn’t even know. After what she, Frank, and Carson had been through together, she found it difficult to think of him as simply a hired hand. She’ll see when she gets to know him, she told herself.

  * * *

  When Frank and Nancy’s belongings were unloaded, and the horses were taken to the barn to be unsaddled and fed, they were turned out in the corral for t
he night. “We can let ’em out to graze with the rest of the horses in the mornin’,” Lucas said.

  “Good,” Carson responded. “I was gonna suggest the same thing.” He could tell that he was going to like the fourteen-year-old boy. Lucas seemed to have his head on straight, and he appeared to be pretty good with horses. Carson couldn’t help seeing a little of himself in the boy when he was about the same age.

  Leaving the corral, they saw a few of Cain’s ranch hands riding in. They gave Carson a nod, which he acknowledged as they passed by on their way to the barn. When they returned to the house, they went in the back door to a large kitchen where Lucas introduced Carson to Lizzie Krol. Lizzie, a slight German woman with streaks of silver running through her long black hair pinned up in a large bun, nodded politely to Carson. Sitting on a chair in the corner was the small towhead who had been sent to the spring to fetch water. Carson was to learn later that he was Lizzie’s son, Karl. When Carson said he hoped he hadn’t put her to too much trouble, having another mouth to feed, she responded with a pleasant chuckle. “It makes no difference to me. I cook for five people in the house and six in the bunkhouse. A few more don’t make no difference.”

  “Well, it sure smells mighty good, whatever you’re fixin’. I appreciate it,” Carson said. He followed Lucas into the parlor where the others had gathered.

  They walked into the room in time to hear the end of the story Nancy was telling her family about their meeting with Carson. “And then, when it looked like these outlaws were going to sneak up on us, all of a sudden we hear a rifle go off behind us, and one of the outlaws fell dead.”

  “Nancy and Jonah thought it was me that shot him,” Frank interrupted.

  “That’s right, we did,” Nancy continued. “Then another one of the outlaws tried to sneak up closer, and bang! Down he went. It turned out that there were only three of them, and the other one ran.”

  Mathew Cain turned to greet Carson as he found himself a chair in the corner of the room. “Well, that was a good piece of work, young man. I’m glad you came along when you did. You certainly have my thanks.”

  Carson acknowledged his comment with a slight nod of his head, unaware of the appraising eyes of Millie as she continued to study the young stranger. “Yes, sir,” she finally remarked, “like a guardian angel watching over them.”

  Her remark was puzzling to them all, and especially to Carson. Why, he wondered, did she gaze so suspiciously at him? She had eyed him the same way when he was still standing out in the yard when they had just arrived. Feeling he should reply in some fashion, he said, “I don’t reckon I’m much of an angel. It’s just lucky I was there at the time.”

  “Pretty handy with a rifle, are you?” Millie asked boldly.

  “I get by,” Carson said matter-of-factly, wondering where her questions were going to lead, and what he had done to get on the wrong side of the cynical young woman.

  “Nancy says you came out here looking for a job,” Millie went on. “Is that right?”

  Carson was growing more uncomfortable by the moment. He had hoped to get an opportunity to talk to her father about that at the appropriate time, instead of applying with his young daughter, who looked only a year or two older than her brother Lucas. “Well, miss,” he replied, “I expect I was fixin’ to talk to your daddy about workin’ for him, but I reckon that’ll be between me and him.”

  At that point, Millie’s father interrupted the interrogation. “For goodness’ sake, Millie, let the young man be. I’ll be glad to talk to him about goin’ to work for the M slash C, but now ain’t the time. We’re fixin’ to eat some supper in a minute, just as soon as Lizzie gets it on the table.”

  Millie was not willing to abandon her curiosity without at least one more comment. “I’m just hoping we hire men who know something about working cattle, and can help us out. We’ve already got too many gunmen in the valley who are handy with a rifle.”

  The conversation had gone a little too far by now to suit her father. “That’ll be enough from you, young lady,” he warned her sternly. “Right now Mr. Carson is a guest in our house, and what he does or is thinkin’ about doin’ is none of our business.” He looked at Carson then and offered an apology. “I’ll have to ask you to forgive my daughter’s lack of hospitality. She ain’t really saddle broke yet and sometimes she likes to buck a little bit too much.”

  “No harm done,” Carson responded. “But I’d like to let her know that I know how to work cattle. That’s all I’ve ever done since I was Lucas’s age. I can drive ’em, rope ’em, brand ’em, ride roundup, and most everything else except chuck wagon. I ain’t much of a cook. I ain’t sayin’ I’m better’n anybody else at it, but Mr. Bob Patterson thought I was good enough to hire for three years.”

  His statement brought broad smiles to the faces of Nancy and Frank, and a grin to Cain’s square jaw. “Well, I might have use for somebody like that,” Cain said, although he had no idea who Bob Patterson was. “We’ll talk after supper.” He paused to cock an eye in Millie’s direction. “That is, if it’s all right with my younger daughter.” That brought a few chuckles from everyone but Millie.

  “Horse feathers,” Millie said in disgust. “I’ll go see what’s keeping Lizzie from getting supper on the table. Lucas, don’t you go getting yourself settled down just yet. Lizzie oughta be about ready for you to carry supper down to the bunkhouse.” She left the room.

  “I know it,” Lucas called after her, then added, “Boss.” It was a regular chore since there wasn’t a cook shack and a separate cook for the ranch hands, and he didn’t have to be reminded by his sister.

  It was rather obvious that the young boy objected to his sister’s authoritative manner. Carson couldn’t help wondering if she was always this abrasive to every stranger who showed up at the ranch, or was it just him? He made up his mind at that moment that he would attempt to stay out of her way as much as possible.

  Supper that night was a grand affair from Carson’s point of view, his having become accustomed to suppers on the trail. Not surprisingly, there was beef, but there was also ham, potatoes, beans, onions, huge biscuits, and plenty of hot coffee. Carson helped himself as each bowl was passed, and lit into his plate with total concentration. Judging by the meal put on the table on his first night, he decided that he and Lizzie’s cooking were going to get along just fine in the event he was hired. He was engrossed in the process of trying to cut a large piece of tough beef in two when he suddenly glanced up to find Millie’s eyes focused on him. It gave him pause to wonder if his table manners were in need of polishing. He glanced around the table to see if anyone else was watching him, but everyone seemed to be busy with their own eating, and he couldn’t see any difference between their manners and his. When he glanced back in Millie’s direction, she looked away. That girl just flat doesn’t like me, he thought.

  After supper, the men retired to the porch while the women cleared the table and Lucas went to the bunkhouse to retrieve the empty pots. The gracious host, Mathew Cain brought out a box of cigars and offered them. “Albert Smith gets these shipped in from San Francisco,” he said, referring to the owner of the general merchandise store in Big Timber. After everyone was lit and a heavy cloud of smoke hung over the porch, Cain opened the subject of employment for Carson. “I can use a good man,” he said, “if you’re as good as you said you are in the parlor. I want you to talk to Justin, though. He’s been doin’ all the hirin’ for the last couple of years. It would have to be all right with him.” He turned his head to look down in the direction of the barn. “I’m surprised he ain’t back yet. I suppose he’ll show up before long. I don’t see no reason why he wouldn’t hire you. We need a couple more men—lost one last month, got bucked off a horse and broke his neck.” He paused as if to observe a moment of sympathy, but it was no more than a moment, and then he continued. “Anyway, you can grab you an empty bunk in the bunkhouse—there’s a few—an
d we’ll see what’s what in the mornin’. All right?”

  “Yes, sir,” Carson said. “I appreciate it.”

  Justin had still not shown up when it was time to think about calling it a night, so Cain announced that it was past his bedtime, which signaled an end to the men’s smoking session. Carson left to pick up his possibles from the tack room and transfer them to the bunkhouse. “I’ll walk down with you and introduce you to the men,” Cain said.

  Frank said good night and went to find Nancy. He found her and her sister in the bedroom, but Nancy told him she needed a moment more with Millie, and sent him to wash up for bed. When he had gone, Nancy sought to finish her conversation with her younger sister. “I want you to understand something, Millie. I know I’m your older sister, but I fully appreciate the fact that you’ve been the woman of the house ever since Mama died. And I know you’ve done a good job. I didn’t come out here to try to take over your job or your position with Papa. Frank and I came all this way to get a new start in life, and work with you and the family. We hope to build our own little house close by, and I certainly don’t want to take your place. I probably couldn’t do as good a job as you’ve done, anyway.”

  “Oh, Nancy!” Millie cried in alarm. “I don’t think that way at all. I apologize if I gave you that impression. I certainly didn’t mean to. I’m so happy to have you come home, and I wouldn’t care one bit if you wanted to be the woman of the house. I hoped that you and Frank would live with us here in this big house. There’s certainly room for you, and I know Papa would be pleased if you did. You’re my big sis, and you can pull your rank any time you want. Whatever did I do to make you think I wasn’t glad to see you?”