Chapter 65

Crow Ridge Indian Territory August 28, 1888

“Eli, we’ll be alright. There’s no need in sending a bunch of men up there with us. Mr. Dirksen has already told us they’d have plenty of men up there wanting to ship their cattle who would be willing to help. William, George, and Ben can help me get the average weights and a solid count on each contract. The Kansas ranchers can load them. We’ll be back in ten days or so,” Howard Claymore told Eli as they prepared to travel by train to Dodge City, Kansas. The cattle they were buying in Kansas was to supplement their shipment directly to Brazil’s largest cattle producer; negotiated by Howard through the U.S. State Department.

“Eli, this is the largest deal I’ve ever put together and you and I will make money off this just by brokering these cattle, besides what you sell of your own herds. Iron Hammer and his brothers alone will make close to what they did on the big sale at Kansas City that year I came down here and you kidnapped me,” Howard said and laughed.

“I may have kidnapped you, but it was Lorene who roped and tied you. I’m sure she’ll enjoy getting away with you for a week or so too. Can you believe the Barkley brothers talked their wives into packing up their kids and traveling by train up there?”

“Eli, I helped the brothers talk their wives into going. Those girls never get to go anywhere. Next time we make a trip to Kansas City, they need to go and take their wives too.”

“William has already told me that they wanted to go. He said his kids wants to see a ballgame.”

“Eli, I got a telegraph message from Don late yesterday. Here it is if you want to read it. He’s already shipped out twenty six thousand head from Little Tree to the port in New Orleans. He said he knows he’s got a good three thousand young momma cows with calves held back, plus his best bulls.” Howard handed the telegraph message to Eli and kept on telling him what was on it as Eli read.

“Howard I owe you for this one, my friend. You saved us with this deal. Those ranchers in Kansas who listened to us are gonna come out way ahead of their neighbors who wouldn’t sell.”

“Eli, I have made more money since I’ve been here with you at Tulsa than I made all my life put together up til now. Besides that, I’ve got a wonderful wife and a little girl who just thinks her daddy is the best man in the world.”

“You and Jefferson have really done good with the mineral rights contracts, haven’t you?”

“We sure have.”

“When we get our hands on some of that unassigned land down there, we’ll all make even more.”

“I believe you, Eli. You keep the lid on things here and we’ll be back in a week or so.”

While they were standing there watching the Barkley brothers load their horses in the cattle car, Jon David came out with a package of papers and handed them to Howard.

“Here are all the contracts you wanted Howard. We wrote them up exactly as you had them listed.”

“Thanks, Jon David. You sure make my work easy. Did you ever hear from the State Department? They were supposed to send us an advance on the shipment from Crow Ridge and the big one Don sent from Pecan Ridge as soon as they had shipping manifests.”

“That check came in the mail today. I’ll get it in the bank here in Tulsa and we can split the money between the bank in Kansas City and the bank in Minneapolis when you and Dad get all the cattle moved and we get the rest of the money from the sale.”

“You may want to put Howard’s part in one of the big banks too. He’ll make over thirty thousand just on his brokerage deal with the government,” Eli said, and he and Howard laughed about that.

“Look at how you came out. You made a dollar a hundredweight on all the Kansas cattle, plus you sold your herds down except for breeding stock. You got two dollars over market for them. The way I figure, with what Don shipped and what you shipped from Crow Ridge and the dollar a hundredweight you made off the Kansas cattle, you’ll top out well over five million all told.”

“Howard, I still say I owe you, my friend. That was one hell of a deal you put together.”

“I’ll think of something to get it back, then,” Howard told him and they both laughed.

He looked up to see Lorene and their little girl, Lori, arriving by buggy with the Barkley brothers’ wives to catch the train. Howard was running by the time he reached the buggy.

“I let him get away before I asked him about that land deal he and Jefferson made for me last month,” Eli said as he and Jon David watched the men help their wives aboard the train. The engineer had switched the cattle car onto the mainline and were ready to leave out.

“He told me that Jefferson had the papers already recorded and the money had been given to the four tribes we bought the land from. The land is already in each of their names, just like you told Jefferson and me you wanted it,” Jon David told his dad as they waved to all the Barkley family, Howard and Lorene and their young daughter.

“Good. I’m glad you got all that taken care of, before Howard left.”

“They stayed late two nights with me, week before last and helped Amanda and me get it right. The deeds have been recorded and they came in this morning’s mail.”

“Hold on to them until they turn seventeen.”

“I will, I’m glad you decided to go ahead and do this for them now, Dad. They’ve really matured and they’ve really taken part in the operations. This will give them even more to look forward to in the next three to four years.”

Crow Ridge
Indian Territory
September 8, 1888

The Bucks were coming in from the hay fields where they had just finished loading and hauling the last load of alfalfa hay bales to the barns. This was likely the last cutting of the year unless they got a good rain soon and a warm fall. They had been at it for close to four months in the hot summer sun and they were lean and dark brown after working in the hay fields without shirts all summer.

Mr. Dirksen had left with Howard and the Barkley brothers the week before. The Bucks and the ranch hands finished the last cutting and pressing of the hay bales. They had taken over operation of the bale press earlier in the summer after Mr. Dirksen had shown them all about it.

They could hear the rumble of far off thunder, and as always they were hoping for rain.

“Looks like we got through just in time, we may get that rain today. Look over there at those storm clouds rolling in toward the river. We could get a good one out of that,” Little Eli told the others.

They could hear the long low sounds of rumbling thunder in the west coming closer. Now and then they could see flashes of lightning in the distance as the storm drew near.

“Let’s stretch ‘em out, Eli. Cheyenne wants to run and we may beat this storm to the house if we leave now,” Ezra said as he rode beside his brother.

“It won’t hurt to get them loosened up a bit, they’ve been standing around getting fat and lazy for nearly three months off and on while we worked.

“Watch this, I’ve been working with Cheyenne and he’s got to where he’ll come nearly all the time now,” Eli said and whistled shrilly with his lips pursed tightly.

Cheyenne whirled and looked back. He reared up to stand on his hind legs, then fell to the ground, racing back to slide right up next to Eli, looking for his sugar.

“Get on him, Eli. He wants to run now, and you’ve teased him into it,” Pike told him.

Eli tied his reins up tight on the mare and draped them over his saddle horn. He stepped from one horse to the other as Cheyenne danced wildly, ready to run.

“Let ‘em run,” he yelled as he leaned forward in the saddle, stretching his legs back to hook both his moccasins in Cheyenne’s flanks.

They were racing against time, knowing they were going to get wet regardless, the way the thunderstorms were bearing down on them. Sure enough, the first wave of storm clouds cut them off way before they reached the barn with a heavy downpour that never let up for hours.

Cheyenne kept running hard through the puddles of water and sloppy mud as the others slowed to a gallop on the slippery trail.

Eli threw his arms back, laughing wildly as Cheyenne raced toward the barn in the heavy downpour. Raindrops were pelting his naked upper body so hard it felt as if his skin was being blistered with each drop. He was laughing at his crazy young stud that loved to run so much, he’d run as hard as he could in the mud and rain, just to get to run.

“Get’em, Boy,” Eli yelled, laughing as he slapped his horse’s neck. When they reached the barn Cheyenne ran right inside and stopped. He was dancing wildly with his head thrown back, his eyes wide and wild; the whites of his eyes showing all around his big eyeballs.

“Come here, Cheyenne. I love you Big Boy. You crazy, wild-ass stud,” Eli said, jumping to the ground grabbing him by his neck and hugging him as the young horse stood tall with his head over Eli’s shoulder rubbing his head up and down his wet back.

A few days later, the Bucks were riding across the Arkansas with Cheyenne running alongside his momma. His saddle and hackamore on him as usual. When they rode into the small town of Tulsa from the west, they saw a group of men gathered at the east end of main street on their horses.

Riding past, they saw three of the horses had small English saddles on them and the riders were close to their own ages as they sat atop the saddles with the stirrups pulled up short.

“What are y’all doing?” Ezra asked as he recognized one of the young men sitting on a tall lean horse with a small saddle.

“We’re about to race these horses Mr. Parkman brought here from back east. They’re thoroughbred racing horses and can out run any other horse they’ve ever raced back there!”

Ezra sat on his horse next to Little Eli. The two brothers cut their eyes around toward each other, they were already grinning when their eyes met.

“Can we put one of our horses in that race?” Eli asked as the other Bucks grinned, nodding their approval.

“Sure you can, young man.” An older man who stood next to the race horses spoke up.

He walked over to where the six Young Bucks sat on their horses and looked their horses over, “I doubt any of these horses would even stay close to my thoroughbreds though.”

Eli stood in his stirrups, then turned and whistled shrilly, looking back toward the west end of town where they had just ridden in from.

“Here comes one that’ll give your thoroughbreds a good race for your money,” Ezra told the man as Cheyenne came charging toward them as if he were going to run right through the crowd. He locked his long legs and slid right up to where Little Eli sat on the mare.

“Well Son, since you brought it up about racing for money, we were just about to place a few wagers on these horses against anyone who thinks they’ve got some speed horses. You fellers wouldn’t get in trouble with your daddies if you placed a few dollars wager on that long legged, young Paint would you?”

“We have a few dollars of our own we’d be glad to put on Eli’s horse,” Caleb spoke up.

“Who’ll hold the money? We’ll each put up ten dollars apiece on this Paint,” Micah told them as he fished his money out of his pouch.

They had already elected the preacher to hold all bets, since he was about as honest a man as there was in Tulsa.

“What odds are you willing to bet on? I’ll give any of you out there three to one on my thoroughbreds.” The man who owned the horses told them.

“Will we be betting against both horses, or one?” Isaac asked.

“You can pick your bet. If your horse beats both of mine, I’ll double those odds.”

“And if he beats just one and not the other?” Eli asked, wanting the man to state the odds and the bets aloud for all to hear.

“In that case, you’ll get only three to one odds, is that fair enough? I sure don’t want to have any of your daddies coming after me for taking your money while betting on horse races. Especially since I have these thoroughbreds.”