Chapter 5

Rita and Chance were back at the ranch after spending the night with Sam and Nancy. They figured it would be another seven days before Ma and the three with her would return. The two punchers on the place came to the door while Rita was preparing the evening meal. “Did you bring food? We been living on flour fried in bacon grease and the grease was rancid.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I forgot all about you guys. You know with our honeymoon and all. Yes, we brought food. We spent the night at the Owen ranch, I’ve got steaks and Nancy let me have a dozen ears of corn. She said the kernels are big, but maybe there is some taste left in them. I’m boiling potatoes and I have a jar of wild strawberry jam my mother put up last June to put on some powder biscuits. Will that make you forget what I forgot?

“Yes’m, it certainly will.”

Over supper, Chance asked, “Did you guys get around the whole ranch?”

“Yeah, the cattle look good. There’s plenty of feed. The waterholes are getting down, but the rain we had during the roundup should hold us ‘til the rains come. It’s been a normal year so far. How are things on the Owen ranch?”

“The cattle have bounced back now that I bought half the herd and moved them up into the land I’m claiming. Those cattle are looking good. We rode through several bunches on the way down. My only worry now is if we have a hard winter with deep snow. I’ve planned to get line camps built and I may have you punchers from here rotate a couple weeks at a time to live in them. That way someone will be there to watch the cattle.”

“What could we do if the snow gets too deep?”

“Use the horses to break trail so the cattle can get out of the coolies to where there is feed. I may lose a few cows until I get it figured out. Ideally all the cattle should feed up there in the summer and then move back down here where the snow doesn’t pile up so deep.”

“That makes sense. You’d never dig them out of there after snow fall. We’ve been here four years. I’ve never gone up there where your cows are, but they should find feed enough. It can’t be too bad with the Indians living up there with horses and all.”

“I know. They haven’t mentioned but what cattle could survive up there. Down in Texas we didn’t have to worry about the snow and cold weather so much. I’ll be talking to Joe Arcand and the Indians. Maybe they can guess what kind of winter is coming.”

“Are we going to be working with the Indians?”

“Yes, they will be living in one and maybe two of the line camps. I used them when I moved cattle off the Owen property and they worked together with us and John’s crew. Rita and Mary Pickwell worked right with them while that was happening.

“How come they hang around here, anyway?”

“They’ve been here for years. They are supposed to live on the reservation up along the Wind River and I may run into trouble with the Indian Agent about them being here. For now, I just as soon feed them because they are a big help to us. I don’t know what will happen when Joe goes. They are mostly his family. I’m thinking I can slip the Indian Agent a few dollars to forget they are here. He gets food to feed by the number of Indians he has on the reservation. I’ll suggest he count these as being up there, but I’ll feed them and he might make a few dollars on the difference.”

“He wouldn’t do that would he?”

“It depends on the agent. Some agents get posted to here by the politicians back in Washington. Some of those same agents go home with their pockets stuffed after a few years. As I say, it all depends. If a person can realize this is what can happen, it puts a man like me in a position of strength. I’m going to watch out for the Indians here and do what I can to make them a good life?”

“That sounds crooked.”

“It is. Hell, why do you think we moved up here from Texas? Crooks were coming in there from all over the country. There’s just no way to go against them with the laws they are making. I’m hoping it isn’t so bad up here in the territory, but I’ll deal with it if I have to.”

“What’s next, Boss?”

“Gabe, we’re going to take those front wheels off that big freight wagon. I talked to a wheelwright in town. He says he can fix them soon if we get them to him by the end of next week. Thank God they are the front wheels and not the huge rear ones. I’ll send one of you loaded with them in the buckboard. After that, I don’t know. Maybe we’ll head up into the hills and cut some logs for the first line camp. I’ll decide in the morning. We’ll come down every evening. Rita can have supper ready for us.”

“When is Miz Baldwin returning?”

“She has been gone four days. It takes five to get to Cheyenne. I’ll expect she will rest up a day in Laramie and buy what she can there. Whatever she buys will be put on a hired freight wagon and we should see that in about three days from now. So it will be at least ten days or more altogether. I plan on getting a lot done by then.”

Chance paused before changing the subject asking his hired man, “When should we expect to see the first snow?”

“Another month, but it won’t stay long. It’ll be six weeks before snow sticks around any length of time.”

“I guess I had better get to work then. It looks as if my brother was going to have an easier time of heading into winter than I will, but I hope to come out of it far ahead of where I am now. Maybe when John Owen and his Mrs. get back from their honeymoon, Sam can give me some hands to move along what needs to be done up in the hills.”

“What about your honeymoon? Miz Rita will want to get away for a time too, won’t she? But then Miz Hetty will be here so you can.”

“Whatever she wants, I will give her.”

“I should think so.”

“So, you two turn out early and do chores. We’ll eat and head for the hills. I’ll gather up what I think we need for tools and put them on a pack horse. We’ll have few hours to get something done. I picked a spot close to a pine grove where we can cut logs. It looks like the area was burned over twenty or twenty-five years ago so the trees are all of the same size.”

Randy answered. “We’ll have chores done. I’m pretty good with an axe.”

“Good. I have a crosscut saw for felling and a tape for marking. Have you used one of those before?”

“Nope, but I’ve seen them, but not used one.”

“Well, they’ve been around for awhile. There are two different styles, one for two men to use and a one man one. They don’t transport very handy on a horse because they are long.”

I kissed Rita when Gabe and Randy were mounting up. I waved at her just before we rode out of sight. It was nearly eleven when we reached the area. I marked the trees to be cut and set the men to work. They complained, saying they could chop a tree down faster than they could get a tree down with that damned old contraption.

“You’ve got to have a rhythm. Remember you don’t push you only pull when your end of the saw is closest to the trunk. Here, I’ll show you.” Soon both were pulling the saw as fast as they could and it wasn’t but a few minutes before the tree came down. Notching the tree with an axe first for direction of falling trees wasn’n’t any different then chopping it so I didn’t have to explain that. These trees I marked were all about six or seven inches in diameter at 20 feet up. This would give me an inside length of 17 or 18 feet. The short side of the cabin would be cut 12 feet long for a width of 8 about feet.

I intended to have a single slope to the roof and the rafters going across the length rather than up and down. I had asked Ma to buy a barrel of nails to nail shakes onto rafters. The shakes would be rived from an 18 inch long block of the tree with a 15 face to the weather. As soon as Ma got back with Gordie and Manny we could put this up pretty damned fast. That was the plan anyway. I’m sure a day would do it. I was hoping Randy was as good with an axe as he said he was. I’d put him to notching the ends of the logs.

I looked around and found some flat stones to set the bottom logs on so they wouldn’t rot. These foundation logs were going to be four inches wider although they wouldn’t look it from the outside. I needed to notch these to set the floor logs into if I wanted to go to that trouble of having a floor. I could just use hides on the ground until I got to it.

We worked until three and had enough logs felled and trimmed and the best of them cut to length for this line camp. I’d look for the best tree to make shakes from the next time up here.

Rita had beef stew ready when they got back to the ranch. He related how far they had progressed. “I think tomorrow, I’ll go on to the next site we picked out for the second camp and cut logs for that one to. When we get enough help to raise the walls they’ll all be ready to do one after another.”

It was very late the eighth day since Ma had been gone when Chance and Rita woke up hearing some disturbance in the yard. Chance pulled his pants on and opened the door. His mother was stiffly getting down from the seat of the gig.

“Chance, sorry to wake you up, but we made good time and I wanted to sleep in my own bed tonight. Rod, would you bring my things in along with that valise and the suitcase. Gordie and Manny, go along to bed after you’ve put the animals into the corral. Sleep in tomorrow, I’m going to.” Ma brushed by Chance and headed for her room. Rod handed the things to Chance that were packed onto the seat of the gig and he set them down inside.

“Rod, where’d you get the extra horse and saddle?”

“It was given to me and I’ll tell you all about it in the morning. I don’t know how Ma does it. We were ready to give up, but she kept us on the road since daylight this morning, the same as yesterday. She’s amazing. Goodnight I’ll see you at breakfast.”

Rita had been standing by the door to their bedroom, not speaking, just watching and listening to what had been said. Chance shut the outside door and gathered Rita to him as they went in to go to bed again. “Ma’s home, things will jump around here now. I also noticed Rod had a pistol buckled on. I wonder where that came from. It’s funny, Rod went away a kid and he acted more like a man tonight. I sure didn’t expect to see Ma for another week. Must be she didn’t go to Cheyenne.”

Ma was having coffee when Rita and Chance came out of their room in the morning. It was later than usual. Both had woken earlier, but Chance remembered Ma said she was going to sleep in, so he just turned over. “Ma, I thought you were sleeping in?”

“I did for awhile and then I thought I had better get up and feed the crew.”

“You’ve fed them already?”

“Yep. I’ll get breakfast for you now. How has your honeymoon been?”

Rita answered, “Just as good as I expected it to be. We went up to the new land and decided some things. We stayed one night with the Indians. We went to town and ordered things to build our new home. That will commence in the spring. We went over and stayed one night with Sam and Nancy. I stayed here on the ranch a couple of days while Chance, Gabe and Randy cut logs for the camps. I guess we have been busy.”

“I’d say so. Are you happy?”

“Ma, I feel as if I have been waiting for Chance all of my life and then one day there he was.”

“No chance for me to get away either. I am afraid she would shoot me if I tried to.”

“I might just do that. I need you right here with me.”

“Ma, I hope you felt as good about Dad as I feel about Rita. I think its called love.”

“Well I’d say so and I do know the feeling. Now listen up, I want to tell you about my trip. I’ve got a freight wagon coming with most of the goods we need for here and for the line camps. That will get here the day after tomorrow. We passed them the first day out of Laramie. The general store in Laramie and the big one in Cheyenne are owned by the same outfit so I ordered the rest of the things and they’ll be here in about ten days.

“You have been busy. I’ll bet you are glad you didn’t have to go to Cheyenne.”

“Yeah, riding that gig is no picnic. I rode Rod’s, mount part of the way coming home.”

“Where and how did he get money enough to buy his own horse? I noticed it had a saddle on it too. He also was wearing a gun. He looked all grown up.”

“He is. I’m quite taken with the boy. In fact, I’m treating him as part of the family.”

“Okay by me. I liked him from the first when I met him. Well, tell me about it.”

“Okay, well anyway, we rode into Laramie before supper the fourth day. I found lodging and when I went to sit at table, I sat down beside Rafe Barkley. We had a pleasant conversation. Then when he got up, he said he was going to play poker. He was going on to Cheyenne the next day. I gave our boys some money for drinks and they were to help me the next day. I went up to my room and got into bed.

“The next thing I knew I heard Rod out on the stairs shouting for me. It seems Rafe got into an argument with one of the card players about cheating and Rafe braced him. The gambler had a sleeve gun and shot Rafe and he went down. Rafe did kill him before dropping to the floor. Rod, Manny, and Gordie were in the crowd and Rafe asked Rod to get me.

“I didn’t have five minutes with him before he died. Anyway, he left me everything he had if I would see if he was buried decently. You know, I ended up liking Rafe at the end? He told me Rod was a good kid and was to have his horse.

“The marshal was there and he was decent and heard it all so I did as directed and ended up arranging a funeral at ten the next day. I even ordered Rafe a stone. I worked before and after the funeral arranging for what we needed off our list. I slept in bed that night, and we headed home the next morning. We passed the freight wagon about noon the next day, so here I am.”

“Buying in Laramie must have cost a lot more didn’t it?”

“Not that much. I promised the store everyone here in the valley would trade with that particular outfit. I give them a draft on our account and we don’t have to transport a bunch of money. Next time I order, I’ll probably only need Rod to ride with me and you can use Gordie and Manny here.”

“We will run out of money, won’t we? Paying for the ranch took a big chunk of it.”

“Not for awhile. I didn’t even spend our cattle money so that’s why I won’t need anybody but Rod.”

“Ma, explain why we still have so much money.” Ma got up and went into her room, coming back with a wallet. She also sat a pouch down beside her on the table.

“Chance, the pouch has got about $89 in it. That was on the table when Rafe was killed. What was in front of the gambler was divided up amongst the players. Out of that I paid for Rafe’s funeral and stone.” Ma opened the wallet and handed me an envelope. “Open that and you will see why we still have so much money.”

I opened it up, recognizing that it was the draft against our account that was to pay Rafe for the ranch. “He never collected payment for the ranch, did he?”

“Nope, he was headed to Cheyenne to get it when he was killed. He stopped off in Laramie to rest up and play a relaxing evening at cards.”

“Ma, that means we bought this ranch for just ten percent of the price.”

“That’s the way I read it. All I have to do is burn this slip of paper and who’s to know. Rafe was dying, realized he had no family, and I guess he wanted to make amends for his stealing from me and Pa years ago. I told him I thought he was a good man. He heard me and was smiling when he gasped his last.”

“Ma, it is kind of sad that he didn’t survive when you found out there was some good in him.”

“I know, and that’s what bothers me. I guess we can make use of the money. I was thinking about it all the way home. I think we should put it into buying more cattle. Lord knows you have enough land.”

“Ma, the land isn’t just mine. Sam and you are going to be equal partners. We were when in Texas and it wouldn’t be sensible to divide it up when we are here together. John Owen kind of shut me down on making it into a corporation model with shares. I think my mistake was in thinking the whole valley should be in it. Ron was willing to go along with it, but the farmer beyond him wasn’t too enthused.”

“Remember, we are speaking about land and cattle only. Any liquid assets wouldn’t be involved. This money I have been left wouldn’t come into play unless we bought cattle with it. You know, by saying you own all that land, in reality we only are squatting on it. You can buy some of the land and get a deed to it, but you can’t really buy thousands of acres.

“Chance, it might be a good idea to keep the assets to animals on the hoof. You bought cattle from John. When and how are you going to straighten out who owns what? You didn’t brand them.”

“No Ma, we didn’t have time. I’m not worried about John and I have built a trust with him so he isn’t worried about me. He lost money for two years on his ranch and would have lost a hell of a lot more if I hadn’t stepped in and bought some of his poor starving cattle. I even found him a few steers to sell that brought a few dollars. He remembers what the starving cattle looked like when he arrived the day after his son was killed. He said to me when he was leaving on his honeymoon that his cattle looked better now than at any time since he bought the ranch.”

Rita spoke, “I was there and it made me proud too ... proud of the man I can now call my husband.”

“Ma, we do have some talking to do when John and Naomi get back from his honeymoon. I have no idea how John is going to take Sam becoming his ranch manager in my place. John is lucky in that. I’m sure Sam is a better cattleman than I am.”

“Chance, don’t sell yourself short. Your brother may be better than you when he has a ranch to run, but for putting a new one together, I’d go with you every time. You’re a person with vision and will attempt anything. Just look at what you have accomplished since you arrived here. You saved one ranch from going under. You have a good sized herd of cattle to put on a huge plot of land that you will make into one of the finest ranches in the area.”

“Whatever, Ma. What is coming on the load of freight?”

“I got the four stoves for the line camps. That is the heavy part on the load. I have window sashes for the house here and one small one for each of the camps. I have the nails and the hardware for the camps like hinges, etc. I also got utensils including all the kettles, fry-pans and some tin ware to eat on. I bought a half-dozen coal oil lanterns. I bought some small furniture items for the house here and have ordered the bigger items that will come on the freight wagon from Cheyenne.”

“Did you get the woodworking tools I asked for?”

“I did.”

“How about the bench for dressing the shakes so they fit together?”

“I got the clamp and the board it is attached to. You’ll have to put legs on it and attach the foot peddle afterwards. Directions came with it.”

“It sounds as if you got all the important things. We can get to work just as soon as it gets here. In the meantime, I’ll be cutting the timbers up on the new land.”

“What about the house here?”

“Ma, I have a carpenter and helper coming next week. I want your house to be tight and comfortable. Right now this isn’t much more than a big shack. Someday you’ll have a house as good as the one over at Sam’s.”

“Yeah, and by the time you get it all fixed up, you’ll start your own house and leave me here all alone when it’s done. Oh, I know a young couple should have their own place. That is the only drawback to Sam moving over to the Owen ranch. I thought he would be here with me.”

“Ma, this isn’t all settled yet. John may want me to be over there and Sam will naturally return here. I’ll talk to Sam about it and see what he says.”

“That’s alright Chance, I shouldn’t expect you to stay here. I was thinking out loud anyway. Let’s forget that for now, would you bring Rafe’s portmanteau out of my room? We’ll go through it. It’s heavy and I haven’t opened it yet.”

I carried the suitcase out and swung it up onto the kitchen table. Ma had the key which had been in the wallet she received in the saloon from the marshal who had been holding it.

Ma opened it up, flipping the top back. There were papers packed into the pocket tied with a string. “We’ll go through those later. What is the rest, clothes?”

“It looks like it. There is suit here and a couple of dress shirts. Here is a small box that has jewelry in it. He must have looked pretty sharp dressed up. Did you ever see him that way?”

“No, mostly just dressed in range clothes. Not much to show for a man’s life. He must have had more than this. He either was robbed or he was moving from the area and disposed of everything.”

“We’ll never know. Is that everything?”

“Looks like it. Something is odd. What we have taken out don’t weigh that much and the portmanteau is heavy. There must be another compartment in it.”

I searched around the edges finally deciding there was a false bottom to the case. It had to be five inches wide across the bottom. The suitcase was covered in cow hide with brass reinforcements on the edges and especially at the corners. I inspected the brass on one end and didn’t see anything unusual. I checked the other end. This was a little different. The reinforcement seemed as tight, but I couldn’t budge it.

Close to the very bottom, though there was what looked like a brass pin through the reinforcement. “Rita, find me a small nail. That pin looks as it could be pushed out.”

The nail she brought me was too big and I asked her get me an awl from the tool-making kit. Ma went and got it. At first I couldn’t start the pin, if that was what it was. I tipped the suitcase over letting the edge hang over the table. I rapped the awl with my fist and suddenly the awl started the pin enough so I could grasp it my fingers on the underside. It was tight and I went back to rapping on the awl. Suddenly the pin dropped onto the floor.

I sat the case upright. There was now a little more gap between the leather and the reinforcement. I pulled on this and it was the end of a drawer. I slid it out and placed it on the table. The drawer was made of sheet brass. It had a brass cover that could be pulled up and off. There were some papers and what appeared to be a tally book. Below this was a sheet of heavy paper covering a tray that had stacks of currency.

I picked up one stack out of one section and counted it. There were fifty-ten dollar bills in the stack and there were eight sections. I could see that the tray wasn’t very deep and just deep enough for a 50 count of bills. I picked up the tray by grasping a couple of dividers and it came up easily.

Below that I could see rows of eagle coins going the length of the drawer. There were four rows, again with dividers between the rows. “Christ, there must be $20,000 there.”

Ma said, “That’s why the portmanteau was so heavy. Count the bills. My God, what is there and what we owed him for the Barkley ranch and the cattle, it will be upward of forty or more thousand dollars.”

“I’d say it is close to $50,000. Those bills aren’t all $10 bills.”

I said, “Rita, I’d say we will be able to buy more brood cows to stock our ranch with.”

“We’ll find a use for it. There’s nothing like having some money in the bank. Chance do you have any left from buying John’s cows?”

“Ma, I still have $700 dollars buried under Ron’s horseshit pile. Rita and I’ll ride over and dig it up. I want to see Ron, Mary and the baby. I suppose I can stand them razzing me about getting married.”

“Does that bother you, Chance?”

“Of course not Rita, it makes me proud.”

“I should hope so, I’m so proud to be married to you.”

“Okay, you two go there this morning, I’ve got enough to do. Stop and see Nancy and Sam. Would you let me be the one to tell Sam about the money Rafe left?”

“Sure Ma, you’re our banker. It still can’t understand why Rafe left you everything.”

“I guess because I didn’t bring up about how he treated the Baldwin’s down in Texas years ago. Anyway, he knew he was dying. What else could he do?”

“I don’t know. What would he have done if you weren’t right there?”

“We’ll never know.”

Ma had the four riders and Rod in and gave them orders for the day. Rita and I were supposedly on our honeymoon and we rode leisurely toward the Owen ranch.

“Chance, it’s great that Hetty is back. I can’t believe that Rafe left her all that money. She is a rich woman.”

“Rita, it isn’t Ma’s money. We are all in this together. Ma has a great sense of family. Sam and I do too. You’ll learn that. If Barkley had left the money to either me or Sam, we would be sharing with Ma and brother. When Ma told me to leave Texas, I knew she would follow. I’m just so pleased that the Witherspoon woman is out of Sam’s wife. Nancy is a much better person than she.”

“You knew her well?”

“I knew what she was and didn’t want any. I was waiting for a woman that I could trust and love.”

“Yes, and then I shot you the first time you saw me.”

“But you didn’t kill me and it certainly was a way to get my attention. You looked so horrified when you saw what you had done to me, I wanted to take you in my arms and tell you it was okay.” I stopped speaking and then, “Rita, I know we’ve joked around about you shooting me. I know it was an accident. I think life is too precious to joke about something like that. What would you have felt like if I did die and you realized I might have been the one person you were waiting for.?”

“Oh, my God, Chance, I have thought about the way I would have felt. I agree, let’s not joke about it again.” She was looking at me and then she giggled, “But I am going to tell our daughter about it when we have one.”

“Okay, I’ll go along with that.” We soon arrived at the Owen ranch.

Sam was out on the range but would be in at noon. We waited so I could tell him Ma was home and wanted Sam and Nancy to come for supper. Nancy was questioned about how she felt her father would take it that Sam would be his ranch manager instead of me whom he knew and trusted. It was an unknown we all decidedy

We had lunch and then all of us headed for the Pickwell ranch. I wanted to recover the coins I had buried in the manure pile. Mary and Ethan were there and pleased to see us. Ron and one of his riders were at the Taylor farm helping them with their harvest. The potatoes were being dug.

“How long is that going to take, did Ron say?”

“It’s going to take three days or four days with his help.”

I looked at Sam and Nancy, I knew Rita would be fine with what I was going to suggest, “Sam, why don’t you and I head down there and give them a hand?”

Rita broke in, “I want to go too.”

“Let me finish. Sam and I will go and you and Nancy go home to Sam’s ranch. Send word to Ma to send our crew to help out and if Sam can spare some of his crew have them all come along in the morning. Rita and Nancy can come too. We’ll spend the night with Tim.”

“Great idea, Chance. Nancy, have the crew bring a buckboard with them. That way we’ll be able to help store the potatoes. Send one of my crew over to Ma’s. Rita doesn’t need the extra ride.”

Mary spoke, “I’ve got cold food for dinner. Nancy and Rita, you must be hungry too.” The two women went about putting a lunch.

“Sam, you come with me. I have something buried out behind the barn.”

“What would that be?”

“It’s what is remaining of the Witherspoon herd money.”

“Wow, I didn’t expect to see any of that again. How come you are digging it up now?”

“Ma wants it. We have a lot of expenses coming up, building line camps and fixing up the Barkley ranch house for ma to live in. I guess Rita and I’ll be there for the winter with her, that is if John okays you taking over for me as his ranch manager. You’re as good as me and I think I’ll be a little better helping Ma with her home. We won’t have time to do anything on our new home. Where Rita wants to build it and it is closer to where we are living now than the Owen ranch

“Chance, if that is so, that’s going to leave Ma living alone. Could you and Rita live there with her permanently? I mean, it was my intention until Nancy wondered how it would work if she was left at her father’s ranch. Don’t think she is looking for anything either. She would just as soon it was left to Rita as John’s stepdaughter.”

“Well, let’s don’t think about it now. I’m not building until spring.” I stood there trying to decide where I had buried the gold. The manure pile had been spread on the land and the ground was barren and flat. I grinned when I said to Sam, “How many times has treasure been lost when care wasn’t taken to mark the spot.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve lost it?”

“No, just give me a minute. As long as the barn wasn’t moved, I do believe I can pinpoint the place I need to dig.” I lined myself up with two points on one end of the barn. I had to move a few inches to the right until I got it right and then I turned and lined up the other end and a point that I had picked a point further distant. I rechecked everything and drove my dung fork into the ground.