Ambush valley, p.14
Ambush Valley, page 14
“I wouldn’t be. Fancy people trying to impress other fancy people. I’m ten times happier being out here with you doing this.”
“You’ll have to meet my sisters. They’d love you.”
“I will meet them. Do they have a dance up here?”
“Don’t they have one of them everywhere in the West?”
“Come to think of it, they do. Do they have them in Texas, Chet?”
“Heavens, yes. Let’s trot, we’ve got lots to see.”
“We better get back to business, Lacy. He’s busting to see this place.”
They all three laughed.
The country ranged from wide open to clustered in canyons. Some even had pines. Many he found showed some water that needed to be developed. His family had done lots of that originally in Texas. Built cypress boxes they buried in the creek sand, and they soon filled with water.
There was a lot to see and they found a good spring and a steep set of hills to protect a headquarters from all the north wind. It was well inside the second section that the man owned.
“I like this spot,” he said, dismounted and passing out some jerky he’d brought to feed them.
Marge had taken a large drink from the powerful spring chocked with watercress and was getting off her knees. “That is wonderful water.”
“It’s ice cold all year round too,” Lacy promised them. “There’s some other sites we can look at, but this is the one that would be my choice for a ranch headquarters.”
“Girls, we better get back. Tomorrow we’ll move our things over here and camp since I want to see all of it. Do you have the time to show it to us, Lacy?”
“It’s Friday today. I’ll come get you tomorrow right after lunchtime here and take you two to the dance and supper, if you want to come with me.”
“We’d love that. Lacy, Chet can dance our boots off.”
“Good. I’d be real proud to have you two go with us.”
“What can we bring?” Marge asked.
“Yourselves. They will all want to meet you.”
“Good, we’ll ride east from here to our camp and get back here to reset up in the morning.”
“Shucks, my sisters and I’ll be here to help you do that tomorrow.”
“They don’t have to.”
“We can help. I think you will be our new neighbors from the way you have looked at this land.”
“At least part of us. We have about fifteen men, not counting ranch hands, now at work on the ranch down there. They can move up here next if I can buy it.”
Lacy half laughed and kicked a small pinecone off for a distance. “Why that old man went crazy when he saw this country, but the ride to the river was the funniest part. He kept going back and forth to get peeks at it way down there and cussing like a sailor.”
“O’Malley said he was mad. Good, we’ll try to buy it if it looks like a ranch to me. Thanks for your invite, we will be privileged to be your guest tomorrow night.”
“That will be mine.” In a large swing off the saddle horn, she was back on her horse and in the saddle.
When she was gone, Marge laughed. “I really can’t see either of us in Paris.”
He agreed and hugged her. “No, we don’t fit the part. My sister had a fit. ‘You can’t take her on a honeymoon on a camping trip!’”
“She was wrong. I wanted you, not some fancy man. This is getting somewhere. I can see this as a great ranch. The water’s cold, but I’d take a bath downstream in it.”
“Get naked. There ain’t nothing to peek at us but camp birds.”
“Wonderful.” And she began to undress and waded out in the water. He went after soap, towel, and a blanket from his horse. In minutes they were both in the cold water and with a shiver sharing his bar of soap and lathering up. Then they used handfuls of water tossed on each other to rinse off. Then they sat in the bright sun and dried the rest of the way.
And like honeymooners, they made love next on the blanket.
Riding back to camp, they discussed their day.
“It has lots of grass.”
“Developing water will be a big need, but we can do that. I’ve done that in Texas, though it will be a bigger challenge up here. Looks to me like it will be something we have to stay after.”
“Where will we live?”
“Oh, I think at the Verde ranch. You will some day have your father’s holdings and the ranch over there will grow. It’s been so mismanaged by the last guy. We will be years making it as smooth a ranch as the one in Texas.”
“I never dared asked you before but did it hurt you to sell it?”
“Sure, but I was so committed by then, I knew it was the only way for my family to survive.”
“I could feel every inch of you even at a distance.”
“I thought you might find someone more dependable than me.”
“No. My mind and heart was set for you. When I went to get you and his body, I knew if there was any way I could have you I wanted you for myself. I thought I didn’t have much appeal when you never took me to bed in those long days. I wasn’t some innocent girl. But then I realized you were still obligated to her like you said, and that had to be settled. When you came back I was trembling—that first day at the house I knew it was too good to be true.”
“Oh, you were hard to resist, but you sure stood by me. I’ll never forget that day either. Let’s get back. I want to be up here tomorrow.” They put their horses in a lope for camp.
In the morning, the three were loaded by sunup and headed for the new place. They came at a long trot and reached the site. At his first sight Victor nodded his approval. “Oh this is a great place for a big ranch. Who are they?”
“The Wright sisters,” Chet said, looking at three cowgirls in dresses with jeans on under them, talking to Marge who had already joined them.
He soon met them. Lacy introduced her middle sister, Fern, who was the tallest and a much better dresser than Lacy, but still a cowgirl; and the dark-eyed younger girl, about fifteen, Hannah.
“This is my segundo, Victor,” he said, and his intro about made the boy blush. They shook his hand like men and welcomed him.
“Good day, señoritas,” he managed to say.
They each took a packhorse. Then tie-down ropes and canvas flew off the panniers. Chet knew it sure unloaded a lot faster than it went on. Marge made them coffee, and they took a break to sip it. The girls sat cross-legged on the ground so she never set up her canvas chairs. Chet and Victor joined them.
“Sis said you were real serious about building a ranch up here,” Fern said.
“We’d like to. We have one down at Camp Verde. But my nephew needs one.”
“I see. This place could be a good one.”
“Thanks. Marge and I have only seen a small part of it. That’s why we moved over here. Sure was a lot faster with you girls helping us than us doing it.”
“Hey, we can use some good neighbors.”
“Do you have some bad ones?” he asked.
“We got some ain’t worth the powder to blow them up.”
They all laughed.
“Were you the man,” Fern asked, “who about a year ago arrested those men in the saloon that you’d trailed all over, and took them in chains back home?”
“Yes, that was me.”
“My, my, I never thought I’d get to meet you. Why when that man and his boy got back from hauling them, folks had him tell that story a hundred times.”
“Where are those two?” He’d wondered about them.
“They went on to California. Kinda hard to make a living here. I bet several folks will recognize you at the dance tonight.”
“No big deal.”
“Marge, does he say that all the time?” Lacy asked between sips of her hot coffee.
“A lot. He came to see me after he got back on his first visit, and he took off before I could hardly kiss him, and went after some men who had rustled some of the ranch horses. They killed my foreman and another good worker and he ran them down. For days I didn’t know if he was alive or not.”
They began to laugh at how she told them the story.
“We see why you took a honeymoon with him,” Lacy said.
“Only way I could keep up with him.” Marge exchanged a wink with him.
After the camp was set up, the girls shed their jeans for the dance. They washed up and brushed their hair. Chet and Victor got a kick out of them getting ready.
“You want to go with us?” he asked his helper.
“No, I can watch the camp.”
“Grab that guitar, Victor,” Lacy said. “Won’t no one bother your outfit up here. They can always use a musician.”
“Oh, yes,” the youngest one said. “They can sure use some help.”
“Saddle a horse,” Lacy told him. “They pay in good food for your help.”
“If I don’t have to cook it, I’d like it much better.”
At the schoolhouse, the girls had strung a thick rope up for a picket line. Their father, a big man, had brought their pies in a buckboard. After telling Chet and Marge his name was Jake, the girls ran off to check on the pies he’d already set on the table. Chet figured by then that they ran everywhere they went.
“Good to meetcha,” Jake said, shaking Chet’s hand. Then he did Victor the same. He nodded to Marge. “Lacy said you liked the Railroad ranch.”
“I think it could be a good one.”
He nodded. “I was here in town the day you got those guys. That sure took lots of nerve.”
“You do what you have to.”
“Glad I never had to do anything like that. Ma’am?” He removed his hat for her. “Them girls are talking up there, just go on up there and join them.”
“Thanks,” she said, and nodded to Chet.
“I’ll be along,” he said after her.
“Grab that music box, Vic,” Jake said, like he knew the boy all his life. “I’m going to introduce you to them players.”
Chet nodded for him to go with the man. “I’ll go check on the women. Good to meet you, Jake.”
“Me too.” And Jake went on with his conversation with the boy.
Marge joined him and the three girls who were talking to several ranch wives. Marge had a piece of fruit bread for him that one of them had given to her. The cake on his first bite flooded his mouth with saliva at the flavors of cinnamon, raisins, and sugar.
Later, after a wonderful meal, he danced the night away, meeting wives and husbands, and he was a dance partner with the Wright sisters and Marge.
Victor told him on the break they really were nice to him and wanted him to stay.
At last together on the bench along the wall, Chet and his bride sat out a dance and talked about things.
“They really think you’re a hero. Of course I knew that, but they all remembered you.”
His arm around her back, he hugged her, then he whispered in her ear, “Not much ever happens up here in Hackberry.”
They both chuckled.
“You’re probably right.”
“I am. We’ll take a few more days to look at the ranch and then head home.”
“Good. I’m in no rush. It has been very entertaining. And I am so glad you found the place.”
“I think so too.”
He wondered about JD and what he might be into. He was a big boy. He’d have to figure out this deal with Kay by himself. Especially with him at this distance from the main ranch, Susie and Tom together could probably work most things out. He simply hoped he had not left them in a big mess. That situation could have escalated.
When he heard about it, Victor was excited to be going home. He had found him a place with the musicians and he told them all about it.
“Why, Victor, as good as you play, anyone would have you in their band,” Marge said.
“I thought I would never find a place to play.”
“Did you ever go to the dance in Camp Verde?”
“No, señora.”
“We’ll take you there next time we go.”
“Oh, gracias.”
Chet wondered about the Hartley brothers that night. Had they tried anything else? He might need to station someone at the western end of the ranch in a line shack to turn back cattle and keep his own in check. He’d speak to Tom about that when he got home.
They headed home at the middle of the next week. They checked at the sawmill for JD, but his man, Robert Brown, who JD’d left in charge with the horses, said he was still down at the ranch. They were doing fine and didn’t need a thing.
“What did you learn?” Marge asked when she joined them.
“JD is still at the ranch.”
“Isn’t that strange?”
He mounted up and agreed. “I think we ought to push for the ranch and let Victor bring the packhorses along slower.”
“Fine with me. You better tell Victor.”
He twisted in the saddle. “Victor?”
“Sí, señor?”
“You take your time going home. Marge and I are going to hurry home today.”
“Will you need me there?”
“No, we can handle it. Take care of the horses and camp somewhere tonight before you go down off on the military road to the Verde.”
“Be careful. I enjoyed going along with you two very much. Señor, I never laughed so much in all my life. She is a good woman for you.”
He nodded and agreed with him. They set out in a long trot through the pines.
The sun was setting in the west when they came off the rim. He slowed their descent down so they didn’t end up off the steep sides. It was close to midnight by his clock when they reached the ranch. Dogs barking caused some lights to come on. A youth came and took the horses.
“Is Victor all right?” the young man asked.
“Yes, he will be here in the morning. He’s fine,” he told the horse handler.
“Is that the honeymooners?” Susie asked from the porch.
“Yes, don’t shoot.”
Susie was already hugging her sister-in-law on the steps.
“Is JD here?” he asked.
“He’s fine.”
“Is she here?”
“No.” Susie led them inside the house. “Let’s go in the kitchen and I can explain it all.”
She stoked up the stove to reheat some coffee. “It all happened fast after you left and I had no way to send you word. Kay and the children came here. Of course I knew they might come and we unloaded them. JD had gone to the rim and I sent word for him to come back. Tom and the crew were ready to meet her husband if he came for her.
“There was no sign of him, and last Tuesday, JD was going to drive her into Preskit to see a lawyer. I told Tom to send two ranch hands with them. Her husband has a bad reputation for getting mad and I felt they needed to be careful. Hampt and Billy Joe went along. They were men could handle guns if it came to a fight.”
Chet agreed and shared a nod with Marge sitting beside him.
“They said they met Floyd Kent on the road in Preskit Valley. Somewhere near Marge’s ranch. He’d been drinking and tried to draw his rifle out, cussing all of them. Hampt rode in and jerked it out of his hands and then slapped him over the head with his pistol barrel to shut up his cussing. Kent fell off his horse and the three men carried him off the road. He was unconscious but alive. To be certain he didn’t try anything again, Hampt kept the rifle.
“When they got to town they went to the sheriff’s office and gave him Kent’s rifle and the details. Sims sent a man out there to see about him and they took possession of Kent’s rifle. JD and her went to see the lawyer to get the divorce proceedings started. About an hour or so later, the deputy returned and he had found her husband had shot himself when he came to. So she was a free woman.”
“JD is helping her at her place?”
“Yes, and Tom went up and checked on the mill crew. They’re fine. He made one of them foreman to take JD’s place up there for now.”
“Good. I talked to Robert yesterday.”
He told his sister about the ranch project and she agreed they still might need it.
“Let’s go to bed, Marge. We can go see them tomorrow. I need to find Bo, my land agent, also.”
“Thanks for getting us up to date,” Marge said. “We had a very special, wonderful honeymoon.”
Susie shook her head in dismay. “You two are so crazy in love anything would be nice.”
Started up the stairs, he shook his head. “We’ll see what you do some day.”
“Only maybe. Good night.”
Marge had ahold of his arm and squeezed it with a smile. They went on upstairs to his room.
Come daylight, he was at Hoot’s cowboy chuck, taking his share of ribbing. Eating flapjacks, fried side meat, and some raisin pudding, he knew his men weren’t mistreated.
Tom soon joined him and slid in on the bench with a coffee cup in his hand. “You see much country?”
“We did. I think I found a ranch northeast of Hackberry as well. I’m going to check it out further. Has some good water and a great place to set up. Lots of grass as well.”
“How big is it?”
“Oh, six sections laid out railroad style from east to west. No improvements even started.”
“I’ve seen that country before. It gets cold up there.”
“We’ll need hay up there too. I’ve seen some ground to raise it on.”
“You heard about JD and Kay?”
“Susie told me her husband shot himself.”
“Sad deal, but he never was a happy man.”
Chet agreed. “What about the Hartley bunch?”
“Gates held a meeting last week and they say there is no thousand head of cattle between here and Tombstone. Folks have checked. Those cattle about had to come out of Texas. There is some beef coming from there for the markets in Tombstone and the Indian reservations. So it might all be a bluff. Lots of word that they may be in trouble with their bankers.” Tom turned his palms up. “I sent some of the guys to town and to Mayer. Their hands complain, they only pay them in long intervals like three months apart. Not a one knew anything about a thousand head coming. They did say Loftin is holding a grudge against you for turning him back.”
