Chapter 9

As I left the lawyer's office, I couldn't help wondering why the railroad was so generous, or, maybe, why were they so anxious to get that right-of-way? I could see why they would go easy on the mineral rights if they were sure there was nothing there, but I sure was surprised about the water situation. I just hoped we wouldn't be hurt when we did find out the reason.

I mulled it over all the way home and talked it over with Jane and Sam. Neither one had any idea of the "why" of the deal. They both said that they couldn't see any reason for me to do other than what I did, and they would have done the same.

Sam and I were still out looking the ranch over in detail every chance we got, so we eventually worked our way back to the south range. By now, Juan had gone back to putting cattle on various ranges to keep the grazing from going too far on any one place. Therefore, we didn't expect to see anyone using this area.

That's why we were so surprised to see cattle in one of the secluded valleys similar to the one where we had found the stolen cattle that Hadley had rustled. We went down to see what cattle they were and found that they were Circle Q, that's a big circle with a letter "Q" inside. Now, I had never heard of the Circle Q and neither had Sam. What in the hell were strange cattle doing on our range?

We saw some smoke on the other side of the valley, so we rode over to investigate. We found two men at a camp drinking coffee. Both men stood up when we rode into their camp. "Howdy, men. I'm Bill Lang an' this here's Sam Anderson. Who might ya be?"

One of the men looked at the other and said, "Shit, Joe, I think we're in trouble!"

The other one said, "It shore looks that way! Howdy, Mr. Lang, I'm Joe Simpson and this here's Jack Clancy."

"Howdy, Joe, Jack. What ya doin' here with Circle Q cattle? I ain't never heard of that brand."

"Shit, I don't know what's goin' on! A man what said he was Bill Lang hired us ta drive these few cattle up here from the south an' stay with 'em while he rode to Roswell."

"What did this here fake Bill Lang look like?"

"He was 'bout 6 feet tall and had brown hair an' eyes. He wore glasses. Other than that, he looked like most everybody else."

I said to Sam, "Shit, that sounds like Zimboldt! Ya reckon he's come back?"

"Shore sounds like it. What could that bastard want?"

"Maybe he wants revenge on me fer bustin' up his scheme to cheat Jane an' John."

About this time, Joe said, "Shit, I fergot my manners. Y'all want some coffee? It ain't much, but it's all we got."

I wanted some more information, so I said, "Much obliged, Sam an' I'll be happy ta take ya up on that there offer." I leaned over to dismount and a bullet whizzed through my hat crown. I thought, "Damn! Not again. Jane's gonna kill me fer messin' up another hat!" The sound of the rifle shot caused Sam and me to grab our rifles and hit the ground in a hurry. Joe and Jack both ran for their rifles and joined us flat on the ground.

I looked back the way we had come and saw 7 men on horses, one of them holding a rifle. Before I could move, Sam showed off some of his prowess by snapping off a shot at the man holding the rifle; he dropped the rifle and fell out of the saddle.

Joe and Jack both whistled in admiration and awe. I said to them, "I feel the same way." Sam just grinned. The 6 men left wheeled and rushed to surround us. Sam got off another shot, but only wounded his man. I was tempted to chide him for missing this time, but thought better of it.

This was my first chance to use my new sights in a combat situation, so I was anxious to try them out. The men surrounding us now got really stupid. They charged, firing pistols from a range of over 100 yards. I'll never understand why people do such dumb things. I pivoted to my right and Jack moved to his left. Joe covered our rear.

In no time, each one of us downed a man and the other two high-tailed it out of there. Sam did knock the hat off one of the fleeing men, but the two of them got away with no further harm.

We went to see if we could learn anything from the bodies. The first corpse was that of the average saddle tramp. He had no identification and the only things of value were his weapons and his horse. Even his tack was trash!

The next corpse was no more informative. At least, his tack was worth salvaging. Who were these galoots?

The third corpse was a bit more respectable. He had some identification saying that he was Jesse Jones. I knew of a Jesse Jones who was a petty crook and assassin, but I didn't know if this was the same man. This was the man Sam had dropped to open the recent festivities. Like the others, he was not carrying a significant amount of money, but his weapons were first class and so was his tack.

The next corpse was like the first two, no ID and nothing of value, except his weapons and tack. The last corpse was no more informative than the others. Who were these people and why were they trying to kill me? What was the purpose of these cattle and what was this mysterious Circle Q brand? I was willing to bet that it was a part of some nefarious plan by Zimboldt, but I couldn't think of what it might be.

I turned to Joe and Jack and said, "OK, y'all are now working fer me. Do y'all agree?" They nodded, so I continued, "Juan Ortiz is my foreman an' y'all should be hearing from him pretty soon. In the meantime, I want ya to continue ta keep an eye on these cattle. I have an idee that they're important an' I don't want nothin' to happen ta 'em. Is that clear?" They nodded, again.

"Sam, ya got any suggestions?"

"Yeah, I do. Joe an' Jack shouldn't trust anybody what don't know an' mention my name. I ain't well known, so I'll bet that the only people who know my name are from the Circle JB."

"That's a good idee. Y'all got that?" I asked Joe and Jack. Again, they nodded. "Good, yer first job is ta take care of these here bodies. Keep track of their guns and horses and stuff. Juan'll have some word on what ta do with 'em. We'll see ya later. Come on, Sam, we need ta git back ta the ranch house."

It was supper time when we got back to the house, so I described the afternoon's activities then. I asked Juan if he had ever heard of the Circle Q and he denied it, nor had anyone else at the table. Jane suggested that we write a letter to the territorial brand registration committee to ask if they had any record of such a brand. I thought that was a great idea and asked her to write the letter for my signature (In case your wondering, nobody can read my handwriting).

The next day, I got a strange request: I was asked to come by the Cattleman's Association office in Johnson at my earliest convenience. I had no idea what to expect, so I decided to go the next day. I asked Sam to come along for company.

We set out right after breakfast and were in Johnson before 10:00 o'clock. I went to the office and was ushered in to see the man who was in charge of this office. He handled most all of the business for this end of the county, so I was in the presence of a very important figure in local politics, as well as the cattle business. He had brought Sam in with me, so I figured that I wasn't in too much trouble.

We sat down in a rather plush office and he offered us cigars and brandy. Right away I knew he wanted something from me! It was too early in the day for brandy. With beer, I wouldn't have been suspicious, but with brandy, I knew that there must be a catch somewhere.

After a few minutes of general conversation, Mr. Alfred got to the point. "Mr. Lang, may I call you Bill?"

"Of course."

"Very good, Bill. Please call me Joe. I have been asked by a number of the prominent cattlemen in this area to ask a great favor of you."

As soon as I heard "prominent," I knew that politics was involved. "Shore, ask away."

"Very well, as I said, a number of prominent cattlemen in the area have asked me to request that you stand for the position of sheriff. You certainly know that our present sheriff has done nothing to help the cattlemen in the county with our problems with rustling. Your quick and decisive action in stopping the rustling in our area has brought your name to the attention of many members of our association and they, we, think that you would be just the man to clean up our county. Please agree that we may present your name to the governor for appointment to the position of sheriff. You do not need to do anything beyond agreeing to accept the position if the governor offers it, we will do the rest."