Chapter 22

The three marshals rode for two more days, pushing their horses, keeping them fed and watered, as they made their way toward the Cherokee Outlet, known all over this part of Indian Territory as no man’s land.

The third day on the trail after they’d met the cavalry patrol at the mouth of the Chikaskia where it emptied into the Salt Fork of the Arkansas, they met another patrol headed east. Abraham Walker was the scout.

“Marshal Moses Kidd, you have made good time. Lieutenant Carpenter is back there, he told me he wished to speak with you and your marshal friends if we meet on the trail,” Abraham said as he and Moses met in the trail.

“Tell him to ride on up, we’d be glad to help any way we can,” Eli told him as they turned their horses to the side, letting the patrol pass by.

Lieutenant Carpenter was a tall young man with a big curvy mustache and a big smile.

“Which of you is Marshal Eli Crow?” he asked.

“That would be me. I suppose you know my name because of my words about the colonel?”

“Yes Marshal, that and a report from Fort Reno about you and your friends standing off a sixteen man cavalry patrol down in unassigned lands a few weeks ago. Your name is on the tongue of all the men these days.”

“Well, Lieutenant, I reckon I took after my pa when it comes to bein’ talked down on and cussed to my face cause I’m Indian. I figure if a man wants to talk big and cuss me, he ought to be big enough to back up what he said, no matter what color he is or what uniform he wears,” Eli answered, not really knowing where this lieutenant was going with his remarks.

“I meant no offense, Marshal, I was only commenting on your past encounters with the cavalry. What can you and your friends tell me about the wrecked supply wagon you came upon?”

“Well, like we told your sergeant back there a few days ago, we came upon the wagon layin’ on its side in a narrow ravine. There was two horses standing close by with their harnesses still on and two more horses layin’ under the wagon, crippled up bad. Deputy Moses Kidd and me shot the horses and he crawled down to see about the two men. Both were dead and had been dead a few days when we got there. There was boxes of rifles and bullets busted open and layin’ on the bottom of the ravine. When we rode on, we traveled no more than ten to twelve miles before we come upon the patrol camped where the Chikaskia and the Salt Fork of the Arkansas join. We told your men about it and they struck out that night, back to where the wagon was. I reckon that’s about all I can tell you about it.”

“Wasn’t there a four man escort nearby?”

“If they had been there, we didn’t see them, or no sign of ‘em.”

“Do you think they may have been there and left and you just missed them?”

“What man would leave two busted up horses layin’ down under that wagon hurtin’ like that?”

“I see, Marshal. I suppose you’re right.”

“You still ain’t seen the four man escort?”

“No, would you have any guesses as to where they may be?”

“I have no way of knowing, Lieutenant. I don’t know where they came from and didn’t know where they were headed until we met the patrol that was lookin’ for ‘em.

“They came out of Arkansas City, Kansas, but I have no idea why they were down in Indian Territory. We’ve had four patrols out looking for three days now.”

“Maybe they were lost and didn’t know the road, is the reason they turned the wagon over on themselves.”

“We’ll have to assume that is the case, Marshal, until we know different. Where are you three headed, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“We’re headed over to Black Mesa, at the far end of the Cherokee Outlet. We’re supposed to have some rustlers bringing cattle down into Indian Territory out of Kansas.”

“Well, good luck on your trip, and thank you for all your help, Marshal.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant, and good luck finding out what happened back there.”

When the lieutenant rode off, Moses, Duncan, and Eli sat looking after the patrol.

“Eli, you don’t reckon they’ll ever find out we took them rifles and scopes do you?” Duncan asked.

“They can talk all they want to; they didn’t see us and they don’t know we got ‘em. I reckon we better scratch the serial numbers off though, just in case they do come lookin’.”

“I got a rough whet rock in my saddle bags, Eli, I’ll see if I can’t rub the numbers off. If that won’t work, we can get a rasp and scrape them off good,” Duncan said.

“I sure hate to rough them new rifles up like that, but we don’t want to be accused of stealing and us talking about this bein’ our last year. It’d look bad on us.”

“Eli, I’d tell ‘em we bought ‘em off of an Indian out here,” Moses said.

“Damn Moses, you’re getting better all the time at figurin’ our way out of gettin’ caught snitchin’ a little reward now and then out here,” Eli laughed and they turned their horses to poke them up to a fast gallop.

The next afternoon, after pushing their horses hard for two days, they made camp early, on the Cimarron River, where it loops out of Kansas and back south into the Cherokee Outlet.

This was still about a hundred miles from where they were supposed to look for the cattle rustlers running cows down out of Kansas. The grass was tall and green here, the water was plentiful.

They ate jerky, warmed over hard biscuits, and drank their coffee that not only had a muddy taste, but salty as well, from the water of the Cimarron River.

“Moses, you ever been over as far as Black Mesa?”

“Once, Eli, it sure is rocky and ragged up through there in places, especially in the steepest parts of the canyons where the tall rocks are.”

“I reckon we’ll see it all then, from the piney woods, to the plains, to the prairie, to the rock canyons. You reckon that’s where the rustlers are runnin’ cattle down into New Mexico, through them canyons?”

“Wouldn’t be no surprise to me, Eli, they sure would have a good run at it. Down along the water’s edge in the bottom of them canyons, there’s some good level lands. I kept wondering when we went through there, if there was ever enough water in that river to wash that deep around them tall rocks.”

“How tall are them rocks, Moses?” Duncan asked.

“Duncan, they’re almost like mountains to me, bein’ from the flat land like I am.”

“I don’t reckon I ever saw any rocks that tall, or a canyon that deep either.”

“You just wait, you’ll see what I’m talking about. There’s some rocks that stand taller than them tall pines we saw down on Kiamichi Mountain, and they stand out in the open like a tree.”

“Moses, how do you reckon them rocks got there like that? They don’t grow up out of the ground do they?”

“No, the cavalrymen told me they were whittled away by the winds and the water for thousands of years. He said there’s even some bones and footprints there of giant animals that walked through this part of the country way back when.”

“I hope there ain’t none of them big animals left over, down in that canyon. We seen enough bad animals down Fort Towson way.”

During the night, a light rain started pelting their bedrolls. They pulled their rain slickers out and covered the bedrolls to try and stay dry. By morning, the rain was a steady downpour as they saddled up and rode on west across the Cherokee Outlet toward the very western edge.

The rain was heavy at times, then at times there was barely a drizzle as they rode on, trying to keep going, though they were only walking their horses.

As they rode along the bank of the Cimarron River, the water was running rough and red, as more and more rain fell in the wide river basin.

The terrain was getting rougher the further west they went and they spent that night huddled against some big rocks that blocked most of the driving rain from them and the horses. They were soaked, and though the weather was warm, they were chilled in the wet night air as the rains kept coming down.

Daylight brought more rain and they had to ride higher up on the side of the slopes, nearer the canyon walls. The river was flooding the bottom of the small basin it ran through. It took them half a day, riding slowly along the upper slopes, to ride out of the narrow canyon and out into a wider, even deeper canyon.

“Moses, if you see us a place to hole up, we need to try and get our clothes dry,” Eli yelled as the rains poured down.

Along the wall of the big canyon they were now riding through, they found a wide arroyo in the rock wall. Moses followed it all the way to the top. He came back down and told Eli it was big enough to ride their horses through and get out of the steep canyon. They followed Moses and rode out into a high, grassy mesa that sloped down toward where the river was overflowing its banks in the flash flood.

At the top of the mesa, they saw a tall adobe building and rode toward it.

“Looks like an old mission. Let’s see if we can get the horses inside this door,” Eli said as he jumped to the ground and led his horse through the arched opening.

The water was dripping through the roof in places along the outer walls, but the rest of the large open room was dry under the flat top. Taking their saddles off, they laid them out to dry. There was a fire ring near the front of the open room and against the back wall was a pile of wood, like it had been stored here by some traveler in the past.

“I got a little medicine bottle with some dry matches in it, if we can find something to start that wood burning,” Eli told them.

“I’ll pull some sticks out and whittle off some bark and shavings,” Moses said and reached down to grab a dry stick of wood.

He jerked his hand back when he heard the buzz of a rattler.

“How many is in there, Moses?” Eli asked as they looked in the pile of wood.

“I just see two, Eli. We’ll have to get them out of there before we can get some wood.”

“Let me have that stick over there, I’ll get ‘em.”

He took the stick and struck it against the pile of brush and sticks. The first snake struck at the stick and Eli pinned its head to the sand floor. He put his foot on its head and cut it off next to his moccasin, then threw the balled up snake over to the side. He killed the second snake and cut its head off.

They built the fire in the circle of stones, near the arched door, so the smoke would go out and not hang back against the back wall.

“I hope my buckskins in my bedroll are dry,” Eli said as he rolled his bedroll out.

“Are they?” Duncan asked as he took his bedroll from his saddle.

“They’re wet some, not bad. If we get a big fire going, I can dry them, then change. That little ol’ fire already feels good.”

“It sure does, I was about to get a chill with all this rain,” Duncan said.

They propped up some more sticks and limbs to hang their buckskins on and waited for them to dry, so they could change. While they waited, Eli picked up the snakes and with his foot on the big end, he slit the skin down the belly and skinned them out. He cut the snakes in small pieces, skewering them on three small sticks.

“Duncan, you ever had roasted rattlesnake?” Eli asked, as he held the three sticks out in the rain to wash the snake meat before they cooked it.

“No and I don’t think I want any, Eli. You ever ate any?”

“Sure have, when it’s cooked brown over an open fire, it tastes real good.”

“I’ve had it a bunch of times, Duncan. Eli is right, let it get good and brown over the fire and eat it hot, it’s as good as chicken.”

“I’ll cook a stick of it too then. When I see both of you eat it, I’ll try some. I hope I don’t get poisoned, eatin’ snake meat.”

“His poison is in his head, Duncan,” Moses told him.

“I always heard that too, Moses, but his head’s hooked on to the rest of him. I figured if that poison run all through him, that was what made him so mean that he wanted to bite at everybody when they get close.”

When their spare set of buckskins had dried, they propped their sticks with snake meat on them near the fire and changed clothes. The warm buckskin felt good to them, after being wet and cold in all the rain for two days. They hung their other clothes up to dry and turned back to their sizzling snake meat.

Eli slipped a piece off the end of the stick and rolled and tossed it in his hands until it cooled some, then bit into it.

“How does that taste, Eli? I never seen nobody eat a snake before,” Duncan said as he watched Eli eat the juicy piece of meat.

“It’s good, Duncan. These were young ones, they cooked up just right. Eat you some, you’ll like it and we’ll be huntin’ rattlesnakes from now on, after this,” Eli said and laughed as Duncan pulled the end piece off the stick and juggled it until it cooled.

Moses and Eli had eaten two pieces before Duncan had nibbled off enough to taste. Then he bit the piece in half and chewed it.

“I kinda like this snake meat now, Eli, this is good,” Duncan laughed and they all kicked back, eating rattlesnake and talking.

“Some coffee would go good right now, Duncan, we even have fresh water too,” Eli told him and Duncan found his coffee pot.

He held the pot out the adobe wall opening, where the water was running off the roof, and filled it.

The coals had burned down to a red glow when Duncan set the pot right on top of them. By the time the coffee was boiled, they were eating their last pieces of roasted snake meat. The coffee was as good as the coffee they made at home, especially after what they’d drank the day before.

Each of them had learned to carry a small bag of crushed oats in their saddlebags for times like this. They fed their horses the oats, then used the bags to wipe them down. The horses were already beginning to dry in the warm air of the dry adobe room, and after they were wiped down, each of them shook themselves off.

“No tellin’ how long this rain is gonna set in. We might as well stay put and let it pass over. We’d never find a cow herd in all this rain anyway, we’d ride right by ‘em,” Eli said as he piled a few more sticks of wood on the fire and stood his saddle close by to dry the back side.

“I’m with you there, Eli. I feel like I been takin’ a bath with my clothes on for the last two days,” Duncan told him.

They spent that day and night and the next morning holed up in the old mission. When the skies cleared and the sun came out, they were ready and the horses were too.

They saddled up and packed their bedrolls, then walked their horses through the arched opening. As they looked down the grassy slopes toward the river basin, they saw the Cimarron flooded out of its banks and halfway up the slopes.

“Would you look at all that water? Y’all reckon them rustlers got caught in this rain like we did?” Duncan said as they looked the countryside over.

“I reckon we can ride on west some more and have a look. No tellin’ now where they’d be, with all this water. If they’re still on the north side of the river, we’ll never get to them, with the river runnin’ like it is.”

They rode along the break of the ridge, stopping to let the horses graze now and then, looking all around for any signs of horse or cow tracks that may have been made before all the rain.

Duncan rode down next to the river’s edge, where it was overflowing out of its banks. He waved back up the ridge to Moses and Eli as they turned to look his way.

“Here’s some tracks down here, no tellin’ how old they are though,” he told them when they rode down to where he was.

“They may have been walking along the bottom of the slope before it rained and now the water has come up and covered the other tracks,” Eli said as they rode along the water’s edge.

“It sure did do some raining. This river’s all out of its banks through here,” Duncan said.

“That’s Black Mesa over yonder, see that tall flat ridge?” Moses pointed to the west, at the high plateau in the distance.

“So we’re about out of the Cherokee Outlet?” Eli asked.

“Yup, just about. If I remember right, we come down from the Kansas side of the river that time we were here. Hard to tell with all this water here now.

“I want to think there’s another small canyon on the other side of that next hill, if I’m remembering right,” Moses said as they rode that way.

“I reckon we can set up camp out here somewhere and wait a day or two. If we don’t see them by then, we’ll just have to hope the river’s gone down so we can cross over and have a good look around on that side,” Eli said as they rode on.

When they rode over the crest of the hill Moses had pointed out, they were looking down into a small box canyon.

They heard gunshots ring out. The bullets were hitting the rocks just in from of them and all three bailed from their saddles.

“Get these horses back,” Eli yelled as the bullets kicked up rocks near them.

“They’re shootin’ from way out, Eli, them bullets are fallin’ short,” Moses said as they ran back down the slope leading their horses.

“We’ll have to hobble our horses, there’s not a thing to tie them to out here,” Eli said as he took a rope out to hobble his horse.

When they had the horses hobbled so they couldn’t stray off, they pulled their Sharps rifles out and started back up the hill on foot.

“Duncan, you go straight up to where we were when they shot, stay low so they don’t see you. Moses, you go down that slope close to the water. That’s the reason we saw those hoof prints down next to the river, they took the cows around that rock wall,” Eli told them.

“I’m gonna slip up around this big rock here and see if I can’t find where they are. Just stay low and don’t get shot. They’re shootin .44-40’s, so they don’t have the range we do with these 50’s.”

Moses made his way down the slope and eased around the rock wall. Between the big rock and the water’s edge, there was a narrow strip of wet sand. He leaned around to look up into the long box canyon and saw the herd of cattle.

He figured they got hemmed in when the river came up, now the water’s too deep to try and swim them back out.

Duncan stooped and ran as far as he felt safe, then he crawled over the big smooth rock to the edge of the canyon rim. He looked down at the herd of cattle huddled back against the rock walls and saw the three horses.

Duncan figured it was almost as many cows as they had when they started the herd at Tulsey.

Eli had made his way around the three big boulders that formed the top rim on the box canyon. When he made it to the other side of the biggest rocks, he was able to get close enough to look down into the canyon. He saw Duncan lying on the edge, where they’d been when they were shot at. He looked down the rock wall where it came to the river’s edge and saw Moses hunkered down close to the water.

“United States Marshal Eli Crow, out of Fort Smith, Arkansas. I need to talk to you about your herd of cows,” Eli said, his voice echoing up and down the canyon walls, spooking the cows.

There was no reply, just the movement of the cows on the sand and rock floor of the canyon.

“If these cows belong to you, you don’t have nothing to worry about. If you stole them, we aim to arrest you and haul you back to Fort Smith. If you shoot at us again, we’ll likely kill every damned last one of you and throw your carcasses in the river.”

There was still no answer and Eli looked all around the canyon wall real close. Not seeing anything move, he swung his Sharps rifle over the rim and looked through the scope. He slowly scanned the rocks piled on the bottom of the canyon wall as he swung his rifle around. He saw a boot sticking out behind a rock and put his scope sights right on the heel.

Eli squeezed the trigger and the heel exploded from the boot as a man yelled. The shot sounded like a cannon down in the tall rock walls of the canyon, echoing until it sounded like ten rifles.

Eli breeched his rifle and dropped another long brass cartridge in the barrel, then snapped the gun closed.

“You damn near shot my foot, you crazy sumbitch. These cows ain’t stole, they belong to me and my brothers,” someone yelled up at him from the rocks below.

“If I’d a wanted to shoot your foot, I’d have shot the top of the boot. Now throw them guns down and come out with your hands in the air or we’ll stop wasting bullets and shoot to kill.”

A shot rang out as the bullet ricocheted off the rocks close to Eli.

“Duncan, you see anything down there?” Eli yelled.

“I see one of ‘em’s leg sticking out, Eli,” he answered.

“See if you can cut his hide with that lead.”

As soon as Eli spoke, Duncan’s big rifle exploded down into the canyon and there was yelling, crying and screams of pain.

“Throw them guns on the ground and walk out with your hands over your heads or we’ll set up here and pick you apart, a foot and a leg at a time.”

“You shot my brother, he can’t walk.”

“Then throw them guns out and help your brother. If I see a gun on you, you’ll all die.”

“We’re comin’ out, Marshal, don’t shoot no more.” One of the men yelled and there were three rifles hit the ground in front of the rocks.

“Throw them handguns out too, or I’ll shoot you as soon as you stand up.”

The three men stood and threw their handguns out near the rifles. Two of them were holding the third one up as he hobbled out into the open.

“Duncan, watch ‘em close. If they make a move for them guns, kill’em all,” Eli said aloud and ran back down the slope to his horse.

He stripped the hobble off and rode down to where Moses was hunkered down.

“Moses, help me get these irons loose and we’ll get ‘em hooked up before they start gettin’ brave again,” Eli said as he grabbed his chains and threw Moses one set.

They made their way along the canyon wall, around the skittish cows to the back side where the three young men were. They weren’t even as old as Eli.

“Stand to the side and keep your gun on ‘em, Moses. Don’t get in Duncan’s line of fire,” Eli told him as he began to hook the shackles on their hands.

He looked at the one Duncan had shot, and the back of his right britches leg was bloody above his boot. Eli jerked the man’s britches leg up and saw where the .50 caliber slug had just ripped across the flesh, tearing a small chunk of skin out of his lower leg.

“What are your names?” Eli asked when he had them shackled.

“Barkley.”

“What’s your given names?”

“I’m William, this is Ben and George.”

“Where you and your brothers out of?”

“Texas, down near Tascosa.”

“Where’d these cows come from?”

“Up in Kansas.”

“What part?”

“Liberal.”

“How many head you reckon you got here?”

“About four hundred and fifty.”

“How old are you boys?”

“I’m nineteen, Ben is seventeen and George is sixteen,” William Barkley told him.

“Get your brother out of here so we can get his leg wrapped up. You fellers are in a hell of a mess, I hope you know that.

“Moses, you walk ‘em out of here, I’ll get their horses.”

When they’d gotten the brothers and their horses walked around the rock wall, next to the water’s edge, they walked them up the slope a short distance. They stopped near some rocks that were sticking out of the ground and sat down.

“We don’t have any doctoring stuff with us. You fellers got anything we can fix the boy’s leg up with?” Eli asked.

“I got a shirt in my saddlebag. Cut it up and wrap my leg to stop the bleedin’. You shouldn’t have shot me like that,” Ben told them.

“You and your brothers are rustlers. We hollered at you and told you we were marshals, you shoulda throwed down your guns right then. We been shot at before, and Marshal Duncan’s been nearly killed by a boy about your age that hit him on his head with a handgun. We’ve stopped puttin’ ourselves in harm’s way like that,” Eli told him.

“Duncan, get the shirt out he was talkin’ about and let’s get him wrapped up some. He’s not hurt bad, but it’ll take a few days to heal up I reckon.”

“I got a little bit of whiskey in my saddlebag over there. Pour that on it, it’s what we use if we get a thorn or a cut,” William suggested.

“Get that too, Duncan, we’ll wrap his leg and maybe it won’t rot off.

“What were you fellers doing all this for? Don’t you know rustlers could get shot or worse?”

“Pa had us stealin’ cows and drivin ‘em down home to sell. Reckon we did it cause he told us to,” William said.

“You blamin’ all this on your Pa, are ya?”

“No, I reckon not. We coulda stopped, we just didn’t have anything else to make a go of it down there,” William told him.

“You boys are pretty good with horses and cows I reckon?”

“Pa says we are, I reckon we can handle a horse and drive cows as good as any man.”

“Did you steal them horses too?”

“No! We don’t steal horses! We bought these horses fair and square,” William answered quick.

“I just wanted to know for sure is all. A cow rustler is one thing, but a horse thief usually gets shot or hung.”

“We know that, we never stole a horse in our lives, just cows.”

“What if a man was to offer you three a job on a ranch? Would you take it and make good hands of yourselves or mess that up too, like you’ve messed up your lives already?” Eli asked, looking over at Duncan, then Moses where they were putting the whiskey soaked rag on Ben’s leg.

“Damn, that burns,” Ben said as the whiskey soaked through the rag onto the raw flesh.

“Get used to it, we’ll dab some on it each day on the way back to Fort Smith,” Moses told him.

“Marshal, what was you talkin’ about – if a man offered us a job? You mean after we go to jail for rustlin’?” William asked.

“I was thinkin’ maybe me ‘n my marshal friends could help you three brothers, just to see if you could make a go of it and not be stealin’ cows. That is, if you had a mind to and had good jobs.”

“Marshal, no offense, but ain’t nobody ever gonna give us a chance. None of us can read or write, we never had but one honest outside job. Other than that we just worked for Pa and got meals and feed for our horses and a bed to sleep in. We never had anything and we never worked for wages but that one spring and summer when we worked for an old man who needed help cuttin’ and puttin’ his hay up,” William told them.

“Well, I reckon we can forget about that then. We’ll all just drive them cows back to Fort Smith and you three can go to jail, that is if Judge Parker don’t decide to hang you.”

“Pa told us they don’t hang cattle rustlers. Do they?”

“Never know about Judge Parker. You know they call him the hanging judge, don’t you?”

“We heard the name. But we ain’t bad people, we just try to make a livin’ the best way we know how. You don’t reckon he’d hang us do you?”

“I kinda doubt it, but then he’d want to know how long you been doin’ this and how many cows you’d stole. He’d take all that and make his decision. I’ve seen him hang a man for less, but then I never knew all there was to know about the ones he’s sent to the gallows, just what I arrested them for.”

“Marshal, you know of anybody that’d take a chance on three brothers that’d been stealin’ cows, and give them a chance to do better?”

“I know of a couple of new ranches that’ve started up in the past year or so that might need some good hands. I know they’ll be needin’ some cowhands that’ve worked in the hay fields, cuttin’ and puttin’ up hay for the winter.

“Me and Marshall Duncan and Deputy Moses Kidd could maybe put in a good word for you three and see if we could help you. That is if we knew for sure you could be trusted and wouldn’t fall back to your old ways and steal from your new bosses.”

“Marshal, I don’t know about William and Ben, but I’d go to work as soon as I got out of jail, that is if I ain’t too old to work when I get out,” George spoke up, after listening to them talk.

“Marshal, I reckon we’d all three go for something like that, right Ben?”

“I’d go for it now; I wish I hadn’t been shot. I’d be willin’ to sign on now, that is if I’d not already been caught rustlin’.”

“We’ll all think on this for a day or two. We got a while before we get these cows back down to Fort Smith and you three in jail. I reckon if you three put your minds to it and helped us drive these cows back and didn’t have to be chained up, it’d make a good impression on us. About helping you find that job, that is.”

“We’ll help, Marshal. We all been talkin’ about gettin’ out of this anyway, we just didn’t know where we’d go or what we’d do. We saw you shoot them rifles, we ain’t no fools. We wouldn’t cause no problems and we’d help drive them cows back, knowin’ we’d be goin’ to jail when we get there. We got to start somewhere and we got to try and make a life for ourselves better’n what we got now,” William spoke for his brothers and himself.

“How long you figure it’ll be before that river runs down enough to drive them cows without them gettin’ drowned?” Eli asked.

“We figured to be here another day at least, before the river falls enough. Them cows’ll be hungry and tryin’ to swim out if it takes any longer.”