Chapter 6

Three Feathers and I had come home to rest and restock on supplies. Our mission wasn’t finished, though, so we loaded up and rode out again. We went at night so’s nobody would see us go.

We had done everything on the east side of Calhoun’s ranch before. Now we took our time and rode all around his house in a circle that was maybe ten miles from the center of his operation. We were surprised how many cattle we saw. A lot of them had altered brands on them, and it became pretty clear that Calhoun was up to no good when it came to claiming other men’s cows like he claimed all the land around. There weren’t that many other ranchers near Broken Butte. These cattle had strayed really far, or they’d been rustled.

I wasn’t in the cow business, but I know that rustling was a killin’ offense, so I was amazed a man like Calhoun would do that. He had a big, successful spread and a cute daughter. Why would he hazard the kind of uproar there would be if some lawman examined those brands? As we rode, I decided that the reason he was so successful was because he didn’t have to buy calves to raise up, if he could just sell other men’s stock as his own and claim he bought them. In my mind, that made Calhoun a common thief.

We found three more range shacks and paid better attention to them. All of them had a corral either right next to them or close by. They also had a small fenced off place to put a horse when it wasn’t being ridden. There was a pile of hay in the corner of that area, I supposed for the horse to eat while it was being kept there. All that took around a week to do, I suppose, and we had no trouble finding a big pile of boulders, or a cut in the land to hide in at night. We could even have a small fire, as long as we used old, dry wood and put it out as soon as we finished cooking on it, or whatever. The smell of smoke will travel a long way, carried on the wind.

We didn’t know which range shack to wait at. It was like rolling the dice men played with at the saloon. First, we had no idea when the range shacks would be used and second, what was to make it so that one of the two men we were looking for would be sent to the one we were watching.

So, we selected a spot way up high amongst the boulders and rough rock of the line of mountains I was told went south clear to Mexico and were even taller than our mountains. From our vantage point we could see the house and probably half a mile around it. The rise we were on kept Calhoun’s cattle from straying south, so nobody came there. If we hadn’t had those field glasses it would have been tough, but with those you could tell what a man was wearing, and what his horse looked like. Three Feathers had brought his bow and he got us a rabbit, so we had some fresh meat. Then, when a pair of men went towards one of the range shacks, Three Feathers would sneak off at dusk and look at the tracks of the horses the men rode. Even that was iffy, since each man had more than one horse in the remuda. They generally rode their favorite most of the time, though, so we hoped that would happen.

We learned that only one range shack was used at a time. Whenever men came there, they gathered all the cattle they could find and drove them back to the main herd. While we watched, other men formed up a herd of maybe fifty cows and drove them towards town. We knew those would go in the pen next to the rail spur, and get loaded onto train cars. We didn’t know where they went from there, but we knew he sold beef to the government. I wondered what his customers thought when they found out some of the cows they’d bought had altered brands on them. Maybe they didn’t care. After all, if you butchered an animal you took off that hide and the altered brand with it. The other thing I thought of was that if Calhoun had the contract to supply beef to the government then nobody else could sell to them, too. That made it easy for Calhoun to say he bought beef from other ranchers so they could participate, so to speak, in his contract. I didn’t know he told the government that, but it seemed like that was the only way to explain the mixed brands he was selling.

Four men drove that small herd toward town, and when Three Feathers got back from looking at the prints of those horses, he said one of the men we were looking for was working that herd. When they got to Broken Butte, the cows would be put in the pen. Then, usually, one man would stay and wait for the train to come. There would be a man on the train who paid for the cattle. Calhoun’s man would take that money and head back to the ranch. The other three would visit the saloon, usually, but then ride out that same day. So, if things went to that plan, our man would either stay with the cattle, or ride back to the ranch with two other men. They would be eager to get back to home-cooked meals and soft beds. I didn’t know it then, but Three Feathers knew they moved the cows only ten miles a day. That was slow, but it used up less fat. So, the men would spend one night out on the trip in, but the three that went back to the ranch could make that in a day, easily, on a cantering horse. Of course, the herd might get to town at dusk, or a little later, and that would be after a long day, working cattle, and if that happened the men might not be in a hurry to start back in the dark. They could follow the wagon trail that led to the ranch, but in theory, it was possible to rent a room in the hotel for the night. Calhoun might have come to an arrangement with Horace Haggerty, who owned the hotel and saloon, such that Calhoun’s men could rest up overnight and not be charged the going rate. Plus, the men could get a meal and a whore, too, if they had the money.

So, we either had to get our man that night, or wait to see who stayed with the cows, waiting for the train, and who went back to the ranch, assuming they started back to the ranch right away and didn’t stay the night in town.