“I can’t believe you actually made it out here,” Boone said joyfully. “I thought you’d end up goin’ to Mexico with Shelby.” He pushed Joel back to arm’s length to take a good look at him. “You don’t look none the worse for wear. The army musta suited you.”
“I could say the same for you,” Joel lied. For in truth, there were lines in the weathered face that had no doubt been deepened by the war, and the hair across his temples had turned to gray. “Looks like you picked up a little snow around your ears,” he teased. He didn’t mention the leg.
“Wisdom,” Boone replied, laughing. “That’s what turns your hair white. Maybe it’ll happen to you.” The reunion was interrupted then by an impatient voice from below.
“Well, is it safe for the rest of us to come up?” Riley yelled.
“Come on,” Joel called back.
“What in hell did you bring with you?” Boone asked then. “How many’s back there?”
“When I decided to come out here, I figured there wouldn’t be nobody but me, but I picked up a few more on the way.” He briefly told Boone how each member of his party had happened along as they watched them move up to join the two brothers. “I picked up these horses, too,” Joel went on. “Figured I might wanna try my hand at raisin’ horses. These Indian ponies ain’t been gelded, so I’m plannin’ to put them to work. I’m gonna need to find some mares, though, so the stallions can do their stuff. Whaddaya think?”
“Well, there’s plenty of room for them to graze,” Boone replied. “Sounds like you and I have a lot to talk about. Damn, I’m glad to see you!” Then he turned to greet Riley, who was the first to reach him. “This the sergeant that served with you?”
“Say howdy to Riley Tarver,” Joel said. Boone greeted him warmly.
“Reckon you wasn’t expectin’ this bunch to show up at your door,” Riley said as they shook hands.
“It is a surprise, but I’ve come to expect surprises whenever Joel is concerned. There’s plenty of room for everybody,” Boone replied. He greeted each of the others in the same gracious manner, with nothing but a questioning glance at his brother when introduced to the Indian and the two females. When the introductions were done, he said, “Let’s go on up to my cabin. You folks are most likely hungry, so we’ll get something to eat. You can turn your horses loose up near the cabin. I’ve got a few head of cattle and an extra horse in a pasture up there. Just follow me.”
“I drive horses,” Red Shirt said.
“Good idea,” Joel replied, fell in beside his brother, and led his horse. “That wasn’t what I’d call a real friendly greeting with that rifle when I stuck my head out from behind those rocks. Wanna tell me about that?”
“There’s a lot to tell,” Boone answered. “Let’s let it wait till later when we’ve got time.” He glanced at Elvira and Ruthie walking behind them, then lowered his voice. “What I wanna know is what you’re plannin’ to do with the women and the Indian.”
“I’m damned if I know, to tell you the truth,” Joel answered. “Riley and I are the only ones who were supposed to be comin’ out here to work with you. The other three just decided to come with me. I told you how I happened on Elvira and the girl. I thought I was goin’ to get rid of ’em at Fort Hall, but Elvira had other ideas. You’ll see when you get to know her. She pretty much does what she wants.” He was quick to qualify his remarks. “Don’t get me wrong, though. She’s damn handy to have around, does the cookin’ and works like a man. I’ve kinda got comfortable havin’ her around. She takes care of Ruthie, and the girl’s a willin’ worker, too.”
“What about the Indian?” Boone asked.
“Red Shirt? He’s damn good with horses and knows the country well. I get the feelin’ he’d like to stay with us, even though that wasn’t the plan when we left the Snake.” He shook his head, knowing he had brought a lot of trouble with him. “I know you didn’t expect to have this bunch show up at your door. Hell, you didn’t even expect Riley. But I’ll deal with it, and get the others started somewhere on their own.” He paused to think out loud. “Red Shirt won’t be a problem. He was a loner when we met him. He’ll just go back to livin’ in the mountains like he did before, I reckon.”
Boone gave the matter some serious thought before he spoke again. “Well,” he finally said, “there ain’t any hurry about doin’ anything about it right now. Let’s just let it go till after supper and we’ll talk about it some more then.”
“All right,” Joel said. He knew his brother well enough to tell there was a lot more on his mind. He had a notion that it had a good deal to do with the warning shot fired over his head earlier.
Boone led them about three-quarters of the way up the mountain until coming to a huge outcropping of rock that appeared to reach all the way to the top. The path led around the mountain from that point, but they had only gone a couple of dozen yards when he pointed to an opening between two rock columns. “That’s where I’m workin’ right now.”
“Are you pullin’ anything out of this mountain?” Joel asked.
“I’m gettin’ a little more than grub money, but I’m sure that mine’s got a lot more to give. I just haven’t gotten into the heart of it yet, but it’s in there. I just need the time to get to it. With you here to help, maybe we’ll find out where she’s hidin’ the real stuff.” He pointed toward a ring of pines farther down the side of the mountain. “Tell the Indian to head those horses toward those trees. There’s a stream on the other side, and that’s where I built my cabin.” He then drew a revolver from his holster and fired two quick shots in the air. “Hold on!” he yelled when his shots caused his guests to start. “Just warnin’ shots.”
• • •
Standing at the corner post of the small porch, her eyes straining to stare at the path where it emerged from the pine trees, a .58 Springfield musket in her hand, the somber Shoshoni woman watched and waited. She grunted softly to herself when she heard the two shots in rapid succession and propped the musket against the wall. The first shot from Boone’s Henry a short time before had caused her to pick up the musket and go out on the porch. Now she turned to return to her work, only to pause, surprised, when the horses suddenly appeared in the opening between the trees. In a minute or two, the horses were followed by more horses with riders, and then she saw Boone on one of the horses behind another man. Astonished, she stood still and waited for an explanation.
“We’ve got company for supper, Blue,” Boone called out from behind Joel. The Indian woman made no reply, but stood watching the strangers dismount by the corral beside a small barn. Her dark eyes darted back and forth between her husband and the five strangers, lingering momentarily on the Bannock warrior as he slid deftly from the back of the bay horse. “I expect you’ll need to cook up that elk haunch hangin’ in the smokehouse,” Boone told her when he stepped up beside her. Turning to his guests, he said, “This is Blue Beads.” She turned to cast a reproachful glance in his direction, prompting him to add, “I guess you’d say she’s my wife. She takes care of everything inside the house, and I take care of everything outside. Ain’t that right, Blue?”
Elvira was the first to step forward. “We’re pleased to meet you, Blue Beads. My name’s Elvira. We’re sorry to pile in on you all of a sudden, but me and Ruthie here will be glad to help you with the cookin’.” She glanced at Boone then and said, “We’ve got supplies and food with us, too. We expected to take care of ourselves. We can make a separate camp down by the stream so we don’t cause you too much bother.”
“No such a thing,” Boone responded. “We’ve got plenty of room in the house. You and the little lady can use the storeroom. It’s mostly empty, anyway. And the men can sleep in the front room.”
“A corner in the barn would do for me,” Riley spoke up. “No need to put yourself out. I ain’t slept inside a buildin’ in so long, I wouldn’t know what to do under a roof.” He nodded to Red S
hirt then. “Me and ol’ Red Shirt will do fine in the barn.” Red Shirt shrugged.
“We get some pretty cold nights up here,” Boone said. “You might wanna stay in the house by the stove. But we’ll work all that out later. Come on, and I’ll help you with your horses.” The men went to the barn to unsaddle the horses and unload the packs. Elvira and Ruthie went inside with Blue Beads.
“Blue Beads, huh?” Joel teased with a wide grin for his brother. “So there’s a Mrs. McAllister now, you rutty ol’ dog.”
“Well, it ain’t exactly official,” Boone responded, “but I reckon she’s my wife. Hell, I needed someone to help me take care of the place.”
“Looks to me like you’ve built yourself quite a place here, and if you’ve thinkin’ about raising some cattle and horses, you’re sure gonna need more than you and a woman.”
“Well, I figured I could handle it till you got here, and to prove I counted on you, I filed for this claim in both our names, so you’re half owner. The territorial government approved our claim for three hundred and twenty acres just as long as I proved up the land. That meant improvin’ it and locatin’ water. I did all that, so it’s officially our land, and nobody else has any claims on it.”
“Well, damn, Boone,” Joel started. He had not expected to be an owner. “That’s mighty considerate of you, and you know I appreciate it, but I feel like I oughta earn it first.” He shook his head, amazed. “And you’ve done all this by yourself?”
“To tell you the truth, I had a couple of fellows helping me, but they got run off,” Boone said. “But at least it wasn’t until after we got the house and barn built.”
“Whaddaya mean, they got run off?” Joel asked.
“Well, that’s something I need to talk about with you fellows, and I reckon we might as well do it now.” He was watching Joel and Riley opening the packs and supplies. Eyeing the Sharps carbines and ammunition, he commented, “Looks like you’re fixin’ to start a war somewhere.”
Joel smiled. “We just had an opportunity to help ourselves to some firearms. I figured they’d be handy for trade goods.”
“You might be glad you brought ’em,” Boone said. “You just mighta rode right into a war that’s already started.” Thinking of Riley and Red Shirt in particular, he said, “You might not want to hang around.”
Seeing his brother’s obvious concern, Joel said, “I was wonderin’ what’s goin’ on.”
“There’s a fellow in town who owns one of the biggest mining operations around. His name’s Ronald Beauchamp. His men call him Boss Beauchamp, and I reckon he thinks he oughta be the boss of everything around Silver City. I didn’t have a problem with the man until about six months ago. And that’s when he decided I was sittin’ on a hunk of ground he wanted. He came to me at first and offered to buy me out, but I knew what he knew. There’s a seam of gold runnin’ half the distance of this mountain. Add to that, it’s the best acreage around for raisin’ stock—cattle or sheep. He wants to put sheep up on this mountain. What it amounted to, though, he was lookin’ to steal it from me. I told him I wasn’t interested. Well, he kept after me for more’n a month before he got it through his head that I wasn’t goin’ to sell. Then a little while after that, I had a streak of bad luck. Somebody shot two of my cows over on the other side of the mountain. Then my two hired hands left me. Seems somebody told ’em it was gonna be bad for their health if they stayed. A couple of months ago, somebody dynamited the entrance to my mine. So they’ve got me in a bind. I can’t work my mine and watch the stock and the house all at the same time.”
“Damn, Boone,” Joel murmured slowly. “You’ve really been in a fix. I wish I’da got here sooner.”
“I knew you’d be ready to help,” Boone said. “I counted on it, but you might not feel like it’s worth the risk,” he said, turning to Riley. “You not bein’ family, I wouldn’t expect you to wanna stick your neck out.”
Riley didn’t have to think about it before answering. “Hell, I like a good scrap, and things have been gettin’ kinda dull lately. Besides, I’ve been lookin’ after ol’ Joel here for so long that I’d feel guilty if I didn’t help.”
“Welcome, then,” Boone said. “I appreciate it. I can pay you wages in gold dust if you want, or shares of the take if you’d rather. What about the Indian?”
“Him?” Riley replied. “He’s his own man. I don’t rightly know what he’s got on his mind. He might notta been plannin’ to stay at all. Whaddaya say, Red Shirt?”
Red Shirt shrugged, and when Riley continued to wait for an answer, he said, “I stay. I fight.”
“Hot damn!” Riley exclaimed. “That’s the spirit!” He looked back at Boone then. “What about his pay?”
“Same as yours,” Boone said.
One hundred percent in on the deal, Riley was eager to get started. “First thing, why don’t we go have a little talk with this Boss Beauchamp?”
“Waste of time,” Boone told him. “I already went over to his ranch to see him. Of course he told me he didn’t know anything about the problems I was havin’. The lyin’ ol’ son of a bitch said he was right sorry to hear about my trouble. I told him I wasn’t gonna be easy on anybody I caught on my range after that. He said he didn’t blame me, said he wouldn’t either if he was me. I counted six hired hands when I was ridin’ out, all lookin’ at me like I was a hog on a tether. I don’t know for sure how many Beauchamp’s got workin’ for him, but I’m sure there’s more than six, and that ain’t countin’ how many are workin’ in his mine.”
“Seems to me like we need to split up so we can watch all three places,” Joel suggested. “If we can catch one of ’em snoopin’ around the mine, or messin’ with the cattle, and identify him as one of Beauchamp’s men, then we can carry the fight right to Beauchamp.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Boone responded enthusiastically. “In fact, I’ve been tryin’ to catch one of ’em in the act. Trouble is, when I was watchin’ the mine, they got to the cattle. Of course I was watchin’ the cattle the night they dynamited the mine. I reckon they musta had somebody watchin’ me the whole time to see where I was.”
“This all happenin’ at night?” Joel asked.
“That’s right. They ain’t had the guts to do nothin’ in the daylight yet.”
“Then I reckon we might as well get started tonight,” Joel said. “That all right with you, Riley? Red Shirt?” He got affirmative nods from both men. “I guess we’re set, then. You just tell us where you want us,” he said to Boone.
“Damn, I’m glad to see you!” Boone couldn’t help exclaiming. “I’ve gotta be honest with you, I don’t know if I coulda held out by myself. I just couldn’t be in two or three different places at once. We’re still badly outnumbered, but damn it, now we’ve got a reasonable chance.”
• • •
The discussion over, and plans laid, the men returned to the house to inform the women. “You’re in for a real supper tonight,” Boone told Joel and Riley. Blue will slice some offa that elk haunch I killed a while back. She smoked it and we’ve been eatin’ off it ever since. I remember you were always a big hunter, Joel. You’ll like this country around here. There’s all the game a man could want runnin’ through these mountains.”
“Who wants coffee?” Elvira asked, then informed them that there were only four cups when everyone responded. “I reckon we’ll have to get our cups outta the packs.”
Ruthie volunteered to go out to the barn to fetch three cups. They sat around the kitchen table, drinking coffee, for a good part of the afternoon. Joel and Boone had a lot of catching up to do, with Riley embellishing much of what Joel told his brother regarding his time in the war.
When the supper was ready, they ate the meal that Blue Beads and Elvira had prepared, then headed back down to the barn to saddle up in preparation to watch the three spots that Boone had specified. Riley and Red Shirt rode bac
k up to the mine. The first job was to find cover for their horses so that they would not be seen. So after tying them in a stand of pines high up the mountain, the two men moved down the slope to a large boulder about fifty yards up the slope from the mine entrance. The Bannock warrior was now armed with a new Sharps carbine.
Halfway around the mountain from the mine, the brothers McAllister took a position above a mountain pasture where Joel’s horses were grazing with Boone’s cows. They agreed that the house was the least likely target for Beauchamp’s men, since they would have to pass by the mine or come up the other side where the stock was grazing. Because of this, they were comfortable with the defense of the house in the hands of Blue Beads and Elvira. Boone knew that his Shoshoni wife was deadly with her musket. She had been hunting with him enough times to prove it. And Joel assured him that Elvira was as capable as a man with a weapon in her hand.
“Hell,” Boone exclaimed, “the house might be our strongest defense.” Joel couldn’t disagree.
• • •
The first night passed peacefully, with no sign of intruders at any of the lookout posts. It was not until the second night, when they received visitors, that the initial confrontation between the two camps occurred. It was the ill fortune of three of Boss Beauchamp’s riders to attempt to drive Boone’s cattle off the mountain. It was around midnight when Joel suddenly reached over and gripped his brother’s forearm. When Boone reacted, Joel pointed toward a flat slab of rock at the lower end of the meadow that shone shiny white in the moonlight. Three shadows moved around the rock and materialized into three men on horseback as they drew closer.
“They’re goin’ after the cattle,” Boone whispered, his heart pumping excitedly. “Let ’em get closer up in the openin’, and then we’ll give ’em a hot welcome.” He had waited for a chance to retaliate for the frustration of their earlier attacks, and now that it was here, he wanted to make it count.
So they waited, with rifles ready, watching the cattle thieves as they moved up into the meadow, gradually coming closer. Then, instead of continuing, the rustlers turned to cut out only a part of the herd, about fifteen head, and started to drive them back down the slope.
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