Empire

by Will Starr

  ‘Well, we done what he wanted and headed back after an hour or so. It took us another half hour or so to return to the camp and then we saw seen the damnedest thing ever . . . beggin’ your pardon, Mattie, for my rough words.’

  Mattie shrugged. ‘I’ve heard far worse almost every day. After all, this is a ranch. Go on with your story.’

  Bear nodded. ‘Well, there was Roy Styles, hangin’ by his neck from a limb of that there big oak, dead as dead can be, and sittin’ up there on that same limb was his brother, Junior, with a rope around his own neck and the other end tied off to the same limb. He said to tell you folks that he was plumb sorry about what he and his brother had done after you both was so good to him and then he just slid off and hung himself.’

  Clay nodded. ‘Me and Bear couldn’t do a thing to stop him and he was dead as soon as he hit the end of that rope. I know that they were both bad men, but it was an awful thing to see, just the same. They won’t be botherin’ you or them boys ever again, Mattie. Both of them are back there in the wagon bed.’

  Ben regarded his wife for a moment. ‘Well, looks like you got your wish, Mattie. Both of those bastards got hung after all.’

  Mattie walked to the back of the wagon and after a few moments, returned to her husband.

  ‘I don’t want them buried on the Rafter T, Ben. I don’t mean to be contrary or petty, but I want them taken far away. They kidnapped my sons, and planned on killing them. Please do this one thing for me. It’s important.’

  Ben nodded his agreement.

  ‘Have Johnny and Drew take them up to Marshal Harvey Davis, Bear. I’ll write Harvey a letter explaining what happened. He can have them buried in the prison cemetery.’

  He turned to leave and then paused.

  ‘You’d best have Joe make up a box to put them in and seal it up good with tar and pitch, inside and out. It’s still summer and hot.’

  CHAPTER 16

  Mattie sat in her rocker and watched the branding from the porch as she did her knitting. Her habit of wearing a bonnet, veil, and gloves all these years had spared her the raw, sunburned skin and leathery wrinkles of many other women her age and her hair was still black as coal except for a few odd strands of pure white scattered about. Socialites who saw her and Ben attending some event, thought Ben had married a woman half his age and secretly it pleased her immensely.

  The twins, Joseph and Jeremiah, now twenty-one and men grown, paired off as ropers while their younger brothers, Walt, nineteen and Henry, seventeen, helped the other hands work the irons and fires. Julie, the youngest at sixteen and the lone girl, sat with her father on the rails and made the tally.

  The house was low and rambling, the result of rooms added on through the years as the children came. The walls were solid timbers, cool of a summer and warm when the stoves glowed a cherry-red in the winter. Two large barns housed the horses and milking cattle. The barns’ haymows, normally full to the rafters, were nearly empty after a harsh winter, but the tall, spring grasses promised a bumper crop. The spring calving had been better than expected and the herd was due to be thinned soon by a large shipment to satisfy a contract with a meat packer in Kansas City.

  The original cabin was now occupied by Bear, or Uncle Bear as the children had come to call him. He protested that he was nobody’s uncle, but Mattie knew he was pleased to be thought of as family. Although he was now in his seventies, Mattie could see him hazing calves toward the corrals for branding.

  Ben, a tireless worker, had become an accomplished and shrewd businessman, and a good provider for his family. Together with Mattie, he had fought off land jumpers, high graders, and occasional cattle thieves. There had been talk of Ben running for office, but he turned them down. His life was his family and the empire known as the Rafter T.

  The small village of Cook’s Crossing was now a ghost town; just a collection of abandoned buildings and Ben had bought back most of the properties. The railroad had long since gone through to the north and most immigrants now came in by rail, leaving Cook’s Crossing without a good reason for being.

  Ben also bought out the sawmill and moved it to the ranch where he built a dam on the western slope to provide water power for the giant blade. Later, he brought in a far more efficient steam engine. He was now under contract to the railroad for additional ties and bridge timbers for all the new spurs being put in. He had also secured deeds for vast areas of timber far up the northern slopes by convincing the Governor that he could produce the needed lumber. His word was well-respected and the Governor ordered the State land deeded over to Ben for mere dollars to the acre.

  To the south was the small, neat town that housed the timber jacks, miners, shop owners, ranch-hands and all their families. There was a general store, a blacksmith shop, a post office, two saloons, a school and a church. The pastor was the same Preacher Hanson who had married Ben and Mattie. His wife was the school teacher and had taught all the Tower children.

  Once a month, Ben had his teamsters take wagons north to Berryville to deliver timber and pick up supplies and mail. The railroad was building a spur all the way to the sawmill as part of the timber contract, and there was talk of building a town where the Rafter T spur connected with the main line along with two other spurs. Ben and Mattie had talked it over and decided that if the town came to be, they would invest in a business or two to help get it on its feet.

  Mattie rose and went in to check on the noon meal. One of Ben’s cowhands had foolishly admitted that he was a fair cook and he had been stuck in the kitchen ever since, replacing a forever-grateful Clay Johnson. Big Farley Chatsworth had been a chef in Saint Louis before he had ventured west as a cowhand and once his secret was out, the other hands wouldn’t allow him to sit on a horse unless he was going for kitchen supplies. He was considered the most valuable hand on the ranch, bar none, and anything he wanted for the kitchen was immediately sent for, no matter how far off or expensive it might be. The Rafter T ranch-house dining room was considered the best place to eat, east of San Francisco and west of Kansas City.

  Chatsworth looked up as Mattie entered the kitchen. ‘It’s ready, ma’am, if you want to call them in.’ He nodded his head at the clock which stood at 12:00, high noon.

  Mattie walked to the back porch and tugged on the dinner-bell rope. Before the echoes died away, the ranch-hands were already elbow deep in the row of wash basins set up by the well pump. Mattie smiled at the good-natured ribbing and chatter from the hands, from Ben, the boys, and her daughter, Julie. One by one they dried off on the racked towels and filed in to sit at the big table.

  Julie always gave as good as she got. Like her mother, she was a lady at all times, but she could also hold her own with her rowdy brothers. She had spurned the sidesaddle as a child and called it silly, dangerous and unsuitable for a ranch girl. Mattie agreed reluctantly but soon followed suit and found the regular saddle far more practical and never used the sidesaddle again. It started a trend that quickly spread to the other wives and daughters on the ranch. After all, Mattie had ridden astride when Ben had brought her to the Rafter T so long ago, so why not now?

  Mattie adored her daughter and it took all her will power not to spoil her or dote on her, although Ben spoiled her enough for both of them. Even then, Julie asked for little and gave the ranch her all. She was as much a top hand as any of her brothers and they all knew it and respected her for it.

  Because of that, the brothers were all stunned when she came out of her bedroom early one evening, dressed for a dance at the school. They suddenly realized that their little sister was also a beautiful, young lady. Consequently, when her unsuspecting beau came to pick her up in a carriage, the brothers had a private moment with him outside. He drove away with the firm understanding that it would be very unhealthy to make her unhappy in any way or forget, even for a moment, that she was a lady.

  Mattie entered the dining room and quietly took her place at the end of the table opposite Ben as the hungry hands and her children waited
patiently and respectfully. After she was seated, Ben bowed his head and said grace. The hands added their solemn amens, and then the table exploded in a noisy frenzy of laughter and talk as the big platters made their way around the table.

  Ben joined Mattie on the porch after dinner and lit his pipe. His gray hair was thinning, and he had taken to cutting it short. She had noticed that while he still did a day’s work, his workday was shorter than it used to be and the work not so strenuous as it once had been.

  For a long time, they watched the branding in silence. Finally, Ben spoke without turning his head.

  ‘We’ve come a long way from that day on the prairie, Mattie, and we did what we set out to do. I said back then I had big plans, but even as a young man, I never imagined it would be this big. You made all the difference and that’s a fact.’

  Mattie folded her knitting and placed it on the table beside her. After a moment, she rose and moved behind her husband, placing her hands on his broad shoulders. ‘You’ve been a good man, a good husband, and a good father to my children, Ben. I thank the Good Lord that it was you who found me that day.’

  Ben chuckled and patted her small hand. ‘What could I do? You had the big rifle pointed at me.’

  Mattie smiled and kissed his graying head. ‘Yes, but it wasn’t loaded, dear.’