Chapter 57

“ ... And furthermore, if any one of you four so much as step out of line down there at Marshal Crow’s place in Indian Territory, all four of you will find yourselves serving a term of three to seven years in prison. You’re being released into Marshal Crow’s custody at the request of several townspeople, and Town Marshal Dal Hopkins. Each of you will be on probation for five years. This means you are forbidden to have in your possession, firearms and/or alcohol, or be in the company of those who do. You young men had better take this chance and make the best of it, not many have this offered to them...

“Do each of you understand what I have just told you,” the judge railed at the four young men who stood before him with their heads down, “and do you understand the consequence if you fail to live up to your expectations?”

“Yes Sir, Your Honor.” The four replied firmly, just as they had been coached to do by Marshal Crow.

“Eli, please try to get back up here with all your family again soon. Sam and me aren’t in good health as it is and if all of you can’t make it, we would especially like to see Little Eli again. Both of us have our wills made out, for him to get all we own when we pass. Will you please send him back one more time, Eli?” Gladys asked as she wept in Eli’s arms.

“He’s big enough to travel alone now, I’ll send him up to see you. I thought of you and Mr. Connor the other day and knew I had to get him back up here to see you. After all that’s happened this week, it just makes me want him to come back sooner.”

Eli said his goodbyes to the Connors at their store, as the four young men stood waiting.

Marshal Dal Hopkins accompanied Eli and his four charges to the train station where they would catch a southbound train to Indian Territory to begin a new way of life for the young men.

“You boys better be on your best behavior down there with Marshal Crow. You heard what the judge told you and all of you have agreed to his conditions of your release. This is the only chance you’ll ever have to become the man your momma would’ve wanted you to be. Don’t let her down and don’t let Marshal Crow down either.”

Dal Hopkins had the four of them lined up, standing so close to them they could smell his breath as he walked back and forth to talk. They had been sentenced, then had their sentences suspended and then put on five years probation. They had been lectured by the judge, Marshal Crow, and Marshal Dal Hopkins. They had even been lectured by Mrs. Sam Connor, before they left for the train station.

Each of them knew in their own minds, that this chance to right the wrongs in their young lives, then move to a whole new world to live and get paid to work for Marshal Crow, was the best thing that had ever happened to them.

Jubal and Jeno Hooker had attended the funeral of their older brother, Jarrell the day before. Now they were ready to get on with their lives. Eli handed Jubal the harmonica he’d found in Jarrel’s pocket. Jubal held it in his hand as he and Jeno both cried. This was the only keepsake they had that belonged to their older brother or any of their family members.

The other two young men were ready too. Their Uncle Dan Worsten, had recruited his nephews to help, when his friend Jarrell approached him with the idea of the robbery that was fail safe and a sure thing to make them all rich.

Roy and Amos Curtis were cousins. Both are seventeen. They were still as afraid of Marshal Crow as they would’ve been a grizzly bear. The man could look at them with his cold, pale gray eyes and make them shiver at the thought of nearly hanging by the neck until dead, back there in Boones Crossing.

The two Hooker brothers seemed to accept Marshal Crow as some sort of savior, and the Curtis boys could see how they might look at him this way. The man had spoke up for all of them and even asked the judge to release them in his custody.

Still the Curtis cousins feared he would turn violent again and this time all four of them would die.

On the train ride down to Indian Territory, Eli took the four young men to the diner car to feed them.

“Do you men like beef steak?” Eli asked as they sat at a big table in the diner car. The fast moving train was blowing past trees and hillsides so fast they were just a blur outside the windows.

“Marshal, I don’t reckon we ever ate any.

“Sounds like it may be good though. Marshal, me and Jubal has got to tell you up front, we ain’t got no money to buy dinner with,” Jeno told him, then looked around the table at the others with his head hung low.

“We never ate a beef steak either, Marshal. I reckon Roy and me are just as broke as Jeno and Jubal are. We ain’t got a dime between us,” Amos Curtis told him.

“I’ll order one for each of you and feed you on my account. I can’t be letting you go hungry if you’re going to be hired hands working for pay.”

Eli reached into his pouch and brought out a roll of money. With it beneath the table top, he peeled off four twenty dollar bills, handing each of them one. He’d already decided to keep the money he’d found on Jarrell Hooker and put it back for the four boys, only after they proved they could handle a little money without blowing it.

“We’ll pay you back when we get some money ahead, Marshal ... if you’re going to pay us hired hand pay,” Jubal said and smiled at his brother and the other two boys.

“You men ever see an oil well?”

None of them had, not even from a distance and told him so.

“Will you be willing to learn how to work on one, even if it’s hard work and the hours are long?”

“I would. You can count on me and Amos, Marshal,” Roy Curtis said, looking up to see Marshal Crow almost smile when he told him that.

“Me ‘n Jubal would be good oil well hands if you showed us how, Marshal. You got an oil well back home we can work on?” Jeno asked, not knowing the first thing about one, but willing to learn.

“We’ll be getting there before dark. I’ll have you meet some men who will make you four the best oilfield roustabouts we ever had. You’ll have to share a room with your brother. You Curtis cousins will have to share a room too.”

“Share a room where, Marshal?”

“We have bunkhouses for all our hired hands. You men are gonna be alright now, I’ll see to it,” Eli told them. Try as he might, he couldn’t keep a straight face when all four of them broke out into a big grin as Eli finally let a smile come to his face.

When their steaks were served, the four young men were grinning at each other again as they looked at the huge slab of meat hanging off the sides of their plates. There was a whole loaf of oven fresh bread on the table and plenty of butter.

They attacked their meals like they were starving animals. As they would cut off a piece of tender red meat and chew it, they would look up at Eli with a big grin, still chewing on the meat. By the time they had finished their meal and sat with bellies stuffed full, even the Curtis cousins were smiling at Marshal Crow when he looked at them.

Crow Ridge Oil Terminal Tulsa, Indian Territory June 30, 1885

“Marshal Crow, your stop is coming up soon. I’ll bring your bag over here to you.” The conductor told him as the four young men looked from him to Eli.

“He knows your name? Do you ride the train a lot, Marshal?” Jubal asked.

“He knows me when he sees me, I reckon. All the engineers, conductors and employees on the railroad know where I live though.”

“Do you live close to the train station, Marshal,” Roy Curtis asked.

“No, I live on a ranch called Crow Ridge outside of Tulsa, you’ll see it in just a few minutes,” Eli told him and they all started looking out the windows as the whistle began blowing and the train slowed to a stop next to the cattle loading pens and the huge oil storage tanks.

“Marshal, is all this yours?” Amos Curtis asked as he saw the huge sign painted in black letters across the oil storage tanks with a big black crow painted over the white Marshal’s star background:

CROW RIDGE OIL AND CATTLE COMPANY

“Yep, and if you four will work hard and mind your manners like Marshal Hopkins told you, you can have a stake in what we got going on here too. Now let’s get off this train, I haven’t been home in two weeks and I see some of my young’uns riding over here to welcome me.”

When Eli stepped off the train followed by the four young men, the Young Bucks and the Crow girls rode up and jumped to the ground to welcome him home.

Smitty and Willis were working on the oil loading pumps with Carter and Otis and they too walked over to welcome Eli home.

“Marshal, did you bring us some new hired hands?” Willis asked as he looked the four boys over.

“Willis, I want you and Smitty to meet Amos and Roy Curtis, they are cousins. Over here is Jubal and Jeno Hooker, they’re brothers. I want you to take them and make oil field workers out of them. You’ll have to show them where their rooms will be and they’ll need some boiler overalls too. I want these young men to know all about oil fields and how to do any job we’ll have for them to do.”

“Marshal, since Smitty got these new steam pumps set up and this new loading station going, we’re going to need more men to help Otis and Carter. We’re going to have three loading crews at a time now, just to handle all the oil we’re shipping out.”

“Smitty, you help Willis, Otis, and Carter train these four new men. Split the brothers and cousins up when you do, they need to learn to make it like a man, on their own and not be leaning on each other.”

“Roy, you and Jubal go with Smitty. He’ll show you how he wants the job done and stay with you until he knows you can do it. Amos, you and Jeno go with Willis. He’ll show you all you need to know about your new job too. You men pay attention and if you ever have a problem or need to know something, I want you to go to Otis or Carter over there. They’re in charge of operating this whole loading terminal.

“Now, you men got any questions?”

“Marshal, I could just squat down right here and kiss this ground covered with cow shit, I’m so happy to be here! I’m going to make you the best oil field hired hand you ever had, you’ll see,” Jubal Hooker said and the others laughed. They knew just how he felt after seeing this place.

“Jubal, you and Roy come go with me, we’ve stood around here long enough, we’ve got to get these new pumps going,” Smitty told them as he shook their hands and walked with them over to the storage tanks, waving his hands and pointing as he walked.

Willis led Amos and Jeno toward the loading pumps as they followed the others.

Eli was smiling as he stood watching the young men looking all this equipment over.

“Dad, we’re so happy you’re home. Did you get your commendation you went for? We want you tell us all about your trip to Washington, D.C.” Lilly Beth was the first to grab him after he’d got the new hired hands settled in.

“Well, it went pretty good I reckon. I’ll have to tell all of you about it at the supper table. We got a lot of new stuff going on now and we got a lot more that’s fixin to start up. We’ll be busy the whole summer, making it all happen.”

For supper that night, they invited Moses and Suh, and Duncan and Juni. Jefferson and Howard were home so Lorene, Corinne and Smitty were there too. Albert, James and Leon were there as were Jon David and Amanda, Joe and Sissy. Eli wanted to tell all of them what all they had to look forward to and how busy they would be this summer.

Rose, Miranda, Tin Yu, Catt, Clarissa, Grandmother, and Eva had prepared a feast for Eli’s homecoming.

The huge dining room was packed and the Bucks and Crow girls ate in the kitchen, listening to all that was said and planned. They were thrilled that Eli had bought into an ice plant manufacturing company. They would have ice now and that meant they’d have an ice box here in the kitchen to keep milk and butter cold.