Chapter 2

I stepped up close and around in front of the owner. I raised my hand and slapped him damned hard and it reddened his cheek. The slap pushed him back and he lost his balance and landed on his ass. “Pritchard!”

Pritchard lay there looking up at me. “Harrison!” A surprised look was on his face. Then he stuck out his hand for me to help him up.

I put my right hand to his and he came off the ground. He didn’t stop when he had his feet under him. His left hand came around and found my face with about the same force as I had slapped him. I didn’t go down for he held onto me.

I began ginning and so did he. We came together for a hug, slapping each other on the back as we broke apart. “Damn, Buck it’s good to see you. How’s the family?”

“Pete, just the brothers left on the Home Place. Ma and Pa are gone. There wasn’t room for me at home so I’ve moved here. I’ve stopped for awhile to help out Mrs. Turner. I may stick around. Today she is after a load of hay.”

“Good, I was hoping she would be in. She’s bringing more than her buckboard, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, I hired a freight wagon with racks. It’ll be here when the teamster gets hitched up. I hired the largest wagon they had.”

“Good, I was going to suggest that. Pete Pritchard turned to Betty, “Mrs. Turner, I’d say any burdens in your life will soon be lifted and lightened. I grew up with the Harrison family. You’ve got a Harrison and Buck’s on your side helping you. There is no better bunch of boys than them.”

Pete turned to the deputy, “Ron, I’d say you should look into that accident again where Jim Turner died. No one really believes as experienced at chopping wood as Jim was he would ever let a tree fall on him. If you don’t find out the truth, Buck Harrison will. If he finds out you didn’t follow through on your investigation, you might find yourself out of a job. Just saying, I know the Harrisons.”

“Hrumph.” Deputy Sims turned away not even saying “so long.”

Zeke pulled in two hour later, saying he had gotten the meat home and had hung it from the ceiling of the porch. He had noticed meat hooks when I brought the three men into the house this morning.

Betty turned to me, “Buck, I better tend to the meat.” I’ll drive the buck board. I could use some help, though.”

Pete Pritchard spoke, “I’ll go.”

“Pete, you’re wearing a ring?”

“Oh yah, I guess I hadn’t better. My wife wouldn’t approve. Mrs. Turner, would you join Alma and me for Sunday Dinner. Bring Buck as well, so I can give him the basic situation in the area. Mrs. Turner, there is a lot you won’t know either. I know you have been worried about the two larger ranches. Buck should know all about them.”

“I’d love to come to dinner and I will be sure to have Buck with me.”

Pete had forks and with his help and mine, it didn’t take long to fork a full load onto the hay wagon.

That settled, I thanked Pete and told him how glad I was to run into him again. He had been more of a friend to my older brothers. He was twelve when I was only six. I turned to my men. “I want to ride down through the part of the ranch on this end of the valley.”

The teamster looked upset. “Who is going to unload the hay, I can’t do it by myself.”

I said, “I thought you could stay over night and we would unload in the morning.”

“Nope, the boss wants me back here. The wagon has to go out with another load by ten tomorrow. I won’t be driving, but I have to have the wagon here early.”

“All right, we’ll follow the hay and unload it. It will make you coming home in the dark.”

“The hosses will follow the trail back here to the barn. I’ll probably catch a few winks on the way.”

Zeke had ridden the farthest and loaded and unloaded the meat. “Zeke, you want to drive the buckboard for Betty?”

“Sure, where is it?”

“It is at the general store. Betty has to pay and I don’t expect it has been loaded yet. They’ll probably wonder if Betty has the money.”

“Buck, I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t shown up. I honestly feel like I’m going to have a life again.”

“I’m glad I’m here to give you one.”

“You’re a great person. Funny isn’t it when you find out about a person you like from a disinterested party who feels the same way as you yourself.”

“Yes, Pete Prichard liking you enough to invite you for Sunday Dinner. From what you said earlier about people here in town I thought they were trying to drive you away.”

“Maybe that’s because that is the way I felt. People did come to Jim’s funeral. Then everyone got on with their own lives, and I sat home alone with my ranch falling apart around me and no one came by. I didn’t even have a hand in the bunkhouse to talk to. I guess the first time I went to town was when my horses were most out of hay.”

“Hey, that’s behind you now. Go pay for your groceries. I’ll send the crew along with the hay wagon and I’ll drive you.”

Zeke questioned, “You mean I have to stay in the saddle?”

Betty said to Zeke, “No you can drive it, I’ll ride my horse, and talk to Buck.”

I thought this a good plan.

I went into the store with Betty. The store clerk looked nervous. “Ah, Mrs. Turner, Mr. Bridges said you would have to pay for at least half of what you ordered before I could let you load this.”

“That’s okay, Johnny. I took on a partner and he will pay it all. There will be no question about paying from now on.”

“That’s good to hear. You have kept up pretty well, but you know word gets around.”

“Word does get around, doesn’t it? Johnny, this is Buck Harrison. I have three new hands also. If I send in an order, would you make sure they are taken care of?”

“I certainly will. This means you ain’t leaving and still at the ranch?”

“That’s right. You may even see me in town more often.”

“There is a dance this Friday at the school house you know. You and Mr. Harrison should come. Come early and bring a box lunch to auction off. It’s for the school.”

“We might do that. Thanks for putting up my order.” Zeke and I, along with Johnny, had the buckboard loaded shortly. Zeke headed for the trail. The load of hay was ahead of him and just passing from sight.

“Buck, let’s stop at the diner. I could use a coffee and a piece of cake.”

“Sure, the wagon will take a lot of time getting to the ranch.”

“Buck, go find a booth.” Betty didn’t go in with me. She went around the corner. Her face was red. I figured there was a toilet out back. Just the thought made me think I had better find one soon.

I ordered two coffee and two pieces of chocolate cake. Betty came in. “There is a pitcher of water in a sink. It’s cold though.”

“Thanks.”

“Tell me Buck, would Pete Pritchard really have loaded that big hay wagon with a full load if you hadn’t been with me?”

“I believe so. He comes from a good family. I’m tickled to see him, and I suspect he is a person who will never be rich if he is like his Pa and Ma. There were always helping people.” I looked across the table when I said this. She was holding her cup up to her face, but tears were rolling down her face. I didn’t say anything. Betty was having a private moment.

When we came out, we didn’t take the trail to the ranch. Betty led me West through the town and then turned north. “We will have time to catch up. This land here belongs to the town. The trail we came in on crosses onto the Owen ranch holdings the last third of distance. I’ll show you the marker where our ranch begins. That will be where you are going to find more cows, I hope.”

We traveled and pulled up at a piled stone marker. “This is our southeast marker. From now on, we will be on our own land. It’s pretty hilly from here to the open land. I imagine it will take some time and more effort to move these cattle out to the flatland at the ranch than what you did yesterday.”

Betty seemed to know the lay of the land fairly well. Sometimes dodging a hill and other times going up halfway, before continuing around it. She never hesitated in keeping her horse moving, always heading toward north. We saw cattle, but the small bunches were spread out. Four of us would never be able to gather a very wide swath in one pass. It might have to be three passes to cover all the ground at this end of the ranch.

When we reached the open land, we could see the home place in the distance. The far end of the land had black dots that I knew were the cattle we had driven here yesterday. They hadn’t spread this far yet, which was a good thing. Now we could ride side by side. There was no need to speak. I think we were both happy.

When we reached the house, the hay wagon hadn’t arrived yet. Burt and Joe were here though, and had unloaded the groceries and put the team up. They had also gotten the ropes to the hayfork out and were ready to hook one of the horses to it.

This was a simple thing and saved a lot of forking the hay by hand when unloading a wagon. There was a small iron rail up next to the roof of the barn, which extended out of the opening about twelve feet. There was a set of heavy curved forks that came together, hinged in the center and opened up, you had to sink them into the hay. When the horse attached to the rope pulled, the forks closed and the bundle of hay drawn up until the mechanism tripped and sent the fork load of hay into the barn.

There were two ropes to operate it. When it got to the rail, it would kick in and travel into the barn to the far end. There was a light trip rope that another person would pull then forks would open and the hay would fall into the mow.

This was a three-man operation to be efficient. One to lead the horse that lifted the hay up, one to set the forks into the hay, and the third to trip the forks to open and let the hay fall. All of the crew had worked on ranches, where they had this operation. When the wagon of hay got here, the teamster pulled it alongside of the end of the barn. Joe backed the workhorse and hooked the rope to a whiffletree. Burt was on the wagon to set the forks. I was running the trip rope.

I had most often been the one who had this chore and had been tripping the forks ever since I was ten. As soon as the load went down the rail, Joe would start the horse backing up. I would trip the forks and use the trip rope to bring the forks back outside the barn. Joe would have a hold of the coil of rope when he had the horse ready to pull again and would let the rope ease the forks down to the load of hay.

If the haymow were to be filled, there would be two more men in the mow with forks to pitch the hay from the center to both sides, That was a hot, very dusty job. No one would ever volunteer. The person in the mow, pitching hay would have to also be aware to get to the side so the trip operator didn’t dump hay and bury him.

No need for that tonight as there was only one load of hay. Maybe before full winter hit we would buy more hay. I estimated that the barn would hold about six more loads.

The teamster congratulated us about how smooth this unloading operation had been handled. Betty came out and told him to come in and eat before he headed back to town. “Hey, I’ll be home before midnight and I get to sleep in the morning. If you order more hay, I hope it is me who brings it to you.” We all went in and ate. I didn’t realize it, but Betty had kept the fire up enough all of last night to bake a big kettle of beans. God they were good. No one wanted to stay long in the bunkhouse the next morning and when we came out, we left the door open to air the place out. Betty was up and had baked us each a big potato to go with a heaping plate of side meat for breakfast. What are you doing today, Buck?”

“I’m going to take the men and start pushing cattle out of the hills where you and I came through yesterday,”

“Do you need me?”

“Not really, but you could offer to feed and water the horses so we can get started. I’d like to get it all done before we head to town to the dance tomorrow.”

“I don’t think I will go to the dance. Jim hasn’t been dead that long and the women of the town will think it awful of me.”

“They might, at that. It should be okay if you wear that black dress and just listen to the music. Sit with Pete Pritchard’s wife and she will tell you how the old biddies in town feel. But you know we all would like to squire you around the floor.”

“I’d like to have you. I certainly won’t be doing any squares, but maybe a waltz or two would be nice.”

“We’ll see how it goes. Okay men lets mount up and go chase cows.”

As we were saddling, Zeke asked, “Do you think Betty would let us dance with her?”

“I think she will. There is some protocol here she has to pay heed to with her being a new widow. There is nothing uppity about her so I believe when the time is right, we’ll all get to dance with her.”

We made two sweeps down through the hills, chasing the cattle out and down onto the flats. We would have to make one more sweep tomorrow morning to finish up. One thing we did notice were a few small circle of stones here and there, indicating a fire. We spotted three of these.

Burt also asked the rest of us after our first sweep if we had seen any of the places where a fire kindled. “I saw one too. I don’t believe those are campfires. I’d say they were branding fires. I stopped and looked one over. I’ll ask Betty when it last rained around here and that will tell us if it was recent. The one I examined was after the last rain. From the tracks, it looked like there were three horses and there were about three head of cattle tied to a tree.”

We swung around to the horse pasture when we finished for the day to bring in more mounts. We wore out the ones we were riding. Joe had brought in three replacements the day before and we put lead ropes on five more. We turned them into the corral behind the barn. There was a scattering of hay from where we had unloaded the wagon so we gathered it up and pitched it into bunks in the corral. We now would be riding the ranch’s mounts, saving our personal ones for spares.

We had potatoes and squash to go along with a beef roast for supper. No one stayed up long for we had been riding continually and sometimes all out, making it a long day.

We were up before daylight and headed for the hills to finish up. When we went by the pond there were cattle drinking. It was just warm enough not to skim over. I paused and looked at it. I should build a fence around it so the cattle didn’t foul it up. I rode on thinking that it would have to be Monday unless I went into town tomorrow with the wagon.

I found the southwest corner marker and we stated chasing cows. There appeared to be more of them here in this area. Must be the rustlers hadn’t hit this section of the ranch yet. That is if I was reading the signs of the small fire remains in the circle of stones correctly.

Betty announced that she had put together a food basket to auction off. “There is enough in it so if Buck will bid it off we can all eat together. Then if you want to go off and get a drink, you’ll have a full belly. That should make it so you can sit a horse coming home.”

“Betty, we’ll stay sober because you are looking after us so well.”

“Thanks, men. You guys are working so hard to catch up what needed doing when I just couldn’t do it alone.”