Chapter 24

The two friends sat and talked over this new side of the job as range riders for the cattlemen’s association, then walked out to get their horses down to the livery stable. After making sure they were fed and taken care of, Tom and Cal walked back up to the sheriff’s office to wait.

Tom and Cal were sitting out front with Sheriff Wade, when Gale Fortenberry rode up on a big buckskin mare.

“Gale these two young men rode up here from Dodge to see you,” Sheriff Wade said as Gale walked up on the wooden sidewalk.

“Tom Cooper here and this is Cal Randal, Sheriff Charlie Bassett gave us this letter to give you,” Tom handed him the letter as he and Cal stood to shake his hand.

“Tom, Cal good to meet you. Charlie spoke highly of you in his telegram and here in this letter too. Did he tell you anything about why I needed good men to ride for me?”

“No Sir, I reckon he was gonna let you tell us all about it.”

“Well the cattlemen and ranchers in this area have formed what we call the North Central Kansas Cattlemen’s Association and I was recently elected president of the association. We’ve been having a lot of trouble with folks cutting our fences and letting our cattle in on the farmers land, destroying their crops. The farmers have been pretty upset about it and have started riding the property lines with members of their own people. There’s been some problems with some of our men and theirs over who opened the fences, and some pretty harsh accusations have been made amongst the lot of them.”

“Well Mr. Fortenberry I gotta tell you that Cal and me didn’t come all the way up here to be pulling guns on unarmed farmers, and we don’t want to be outside the law in whatever we do,” Tom told him.

“I can assure you Tom, that Sheriff Wade is informed each time we have problems and after each altercation. There is nothing unlawful in what our men are doing.”

“How many men you got riding for you Mr. Fortenberry?”

“We have only three now and if you hire on with us we will stop at the five of you. As president of the association, I don’t want the cattlemen to get a bad reputation and have the Governor send down troops to clean up a mess. Plus we don’t want to have a big range posse riding roughshod over the four counties like there’s been in other places.”

Sheriff Wade had been sitting on the bench listening to the conversation between Tom and Gale, he knew Gale was a good man, but he wasn’t sure that the men working for him had good intentions.

“Mr. Fortenberry if we were to hire on with you, who would we answer to?”

“You and Cal would answer directly to me Tom just as the other three do.”

“Sheriff you been listening to this, you got anything to add or take away from what’s been said?” Tom asked the sheriff.

“Tom since you and Cal served as deputies under Sheriff Bassett down in Ford county, I reckon I could pin a badge on you and pay you two dollars a day along with what Gale pays you. That way you’d be representing the law here in Ellis County.”

“Mr. Fortenberry would you have any reason to object to what the sheriff just came up with?” Tom asked.

“Well, we never meant to get the law involved in the every day handling of our range patrolling, but if Sheriff Wade sees fit to have a hand in it, then I have no objections.”

“What’re you paying your other men Mr. Fortenberry?” Tom asked.

“We pay two dollars a day.”

“You just hired your self two more men Mr. Fortenberry,” Tom said as he and Cal stepped forward to shake his hand.

“Sheriff Wade, Cal and me need to be sworn in and a badge pinned on us I reckon,” Tom turned and shook the sheriff’s hand also.

“Tom, Sheriff Wade can tell you where my spread is. I’ll expect you out there before sundown to get your self settled in. I’ll have a map for each of you so you’ll know where the property lines are and who owns what around here,” Gale said as he turned to mount up.

Tom and Cal followed Sheriff Wade into his office where he swore the two in as deputies and gave them a badge.

“Tom I’m sure you’re aware that you’re only a deputy in Ellis county, and the association covers Rooks, Graham and Osborne counties as well.”

“Yes Sir and I reckon if there’s any need for the law in the other three counties we’d have to see the sheriff there?”

“I can send a telegram to the sheriff’s in Osborne, Rooks and Graham counties and see if they might be willing to help cover your pay if you like, then you’d be deputized to uphold the law there as well.”

“Sheriff you know better than Cal and me do about what we need to make this work for the cattlemen as well as the farmers.”

“I’ll send telegraph messages out today and we should have an answer by tomorrow. If I know them like I think I do, they’ll also want some one representing their side of the law out there too. There’s a lot of water rights involved here with the Saline and Solomon rivers. There have been attempts to dam up the rivers and creeks to cut off water to those downstream.”

“Sheriff, Cal and I thank you for your help, we were just about to ride on out until you came up with the idea to deputize us.”

They shook hands with the sheriff and walked down to the livery to get their horses. They followed his directions and rode on out that way. They were within seeing distance of the spread when they were approached by three men riding hard. Tom and Cal looked at each other then stopped side by side as they waited for the men to ride up.

Two of the riders stayed out at a distance on either side of Tom and Cal, as the biggest of the three rode right up in front Tom and Cal’s horses.

“You can just throw them shooters on the ground right now, you’re trespassing on Fortenberry land,” the man said, his hand resting on the butt of his gun.

“Well stranger, I reckon we’ll just be keeping our guns, we were hired today by Mr. Gale Fortenberry and also deputized by Sheriff Wade to ride some of the range in the four counties of the association,” Tom informed him in a slow easy voice.

“By God, he didn’t tell me he was hiring on two more guns and for sure we don’t need any law men out here meddlin in our affairs,” the big man said, his face red.

“I suggest that you take it up with the man that hired you, he’s the one we answer to,” Tom told him.

“I’m the head of this range patrol and I say who answers to who. Now until we get this straight from Mr. Fortenberry himself, you fellers just drop them pistols in the dirt and them long guns in the scabbards too.”

“Mr. I don’t know who you are, and I don’t even know your name. Unless you’re willing to die in that saddle your sitting in, you better ride on up to the ranch and tell Mr. Fortenberry that his new men are here. I’m not gonna tell you again and we don’t aim to argue the matter any more, you hear me plain?” Tom said as he turned his horse so he faced the man and the other rider behind him. Cal turned his horse to face the man on the other side.

“Well I reckon there ain’t no reason for us to pull our guns on you two if you say we all work for the same man, but you better get this straight now. You’ll answer to me as long as you’re here on this range, and I don’t give a pile of shit who deputized you,” the big man said jerking the reins hard and digging his spurs in his horses’ flanks as the three men rode back to the ranch, kicking up a dust cloud behind them.

“Tom, what do you make of all that?” Cal asked with a laugh.

“I reckon we got us a problem with the big man wanting to be boss of the outfit, is what I make of it.” The two looked at each other and smiled as they rode on to the ranch headquarters.

“Tom I gotta tell you that I was shakin’ back there, I thought he was gonna draw down on you for sure.”

“You gotta watch their hands and their eyes Cal, he was bluffin’. I knew he was, and he knew I wasn’t.”

“How do you figure he knew you wasn’t bluffin’ Tom?”

“I called his bluff and he backed down.”

“Would you’ve shot him if he had reached for his gun?”

“Right where his heart is supposed be.”

Tom and Cal rode on up to the Fortenberry spread, stopping in front of the main ranch house. There were three men standing out by the cattle pens and a couple more out by the stables.

The horses the three men had ridden, were tied up in front of the barn.

Tom knocked on the door and it opened wide with Gale Fortenberry standing there with a smile.

“Tom, Cal come on in.”

They followed Gale through the front room and into another room where there was a big oak desk and fancy chairs. There were deer heads mounted on the walls and paintings of buffalo on the plains. There was a painting of a big black stud horse standing proud on the wall behind the desk between some book shelves.

“Have a seat men and we’ll get our maps out so we can go over the area you’ll be patrolling,” Gale said as he spread his big map out on his desk.

“I understand you and my men had a meeting out a ways from the ranch on your way in.”

“Well they did come out to greet us, but it wasn’t the nicest greeting I’ve had before,” Tom said.

“Tom you have to understand these men were here before you and Cal came on. They have it in their heads that they’re in charge of patrolling the range. If you will, just try to get along and it’ll work out for all of us.”

“Mr. Fortenberry, you told Cal and me that we would answer straight to you, if that has changed since we talked, then I reckon Cal and me’ll ride on out now. We’re not gonna be bullied by someone that’s out to make peace by bossing folks around, especially those that do the same job he does.”

“Tom I need you and Cal, I’ll have a talk with Mac Willamacher. He was hired by the members of the association before they elected me as president. He has different views as how to keep the peace than me and a lot of the members do. He’s a cousin to Will McDonnough, one of the biggest landowners around here. Mac has it in his head that he don’t answer to no one but his cousin. He has a reputation of being good with a gun. When we first started out, it was our notion that we needed to put up a good front so people would know we meant business.

“I’ll call a meeting of the association and tell them I’ve have hired new riders and that Sheriff Wade has deputized you two. I know the majority of the members want peace and not constant fighting and bickering between us and the farmers. The farmers have filed legal claims to their land, just as we have our lands. We have to keep the fences up and the tempers cooled.”

“We’ll do you a good job Gale, but it’ll be a fair job too. Just because we work for the association don’t mean we’ll run roughshod over the farmers,” Tom told him.

“I want you to be fair Tom, that’s the reason I sent word down to Charlie Bassett. I knew he’d recommend a couple of good men with level heads.”

“Cal and I are easy to get along with and we don’t go lookin for trouble. If trouble comes along then we try to find a way to smooth it out. If it can’t be smoothed out, then we’ll give as good as we get, ‘til it gets smooth again.”

“We can make this work Tom, we have to. The association can’t afford to have a lot of complaints against it. The courts have already ruled that the farmers have the right to be here, that tells me we need to get along as neighbors. Someone is out to upset the balance out here by cutting fences. What I have in mind, is you and Cal talking to the farmers as well as the ranchers to find out who it is. This is the only way we’ll ever end this feud.”

“Then count us in, we’ll find the ones that’re trying to make a mess of things and let the law handle it. Then the ranchers and the farmers will all know that it was a fair shake.”

Gale gave Cal and Tom each, maps of the four counties in the association with names marked on the maps where each of the ranches were. Gale shook their hands again and thanked them for staying to help him get some kind of law and order restored out here on the plains again. Tom told Gale they’d make a round and meet the members on their ranches, but wouldn’t be staying in one place all the time. He also told him that they’d check in with him regular to keep him informed of what was going on.

“This thing with Mac Willamacher will come up again Gale. He threw a bluff at me and I insulted him out on the trail, the longer he thinks about it the bigger it’ll get in his head.”

“I’ll talk to him Tom, you got my word on it.”

“I hope you can convince him that he and I are riding for the same brand now, I’d hate to kill a man that was working for you.”

Tom and Cal walked out and put their maps in their saddle bags. They mounted up and started back out the way they came in. This time there was no confrontation.

The two young men rode west on the main trail and saw field after field of crops planted. The wheat crop was about ready to harvest and the stalks were drying down to a golden brown.

They stopped under a big oak tree and spread their maps out to go over them again. They decided to ride to the west side of Ellis county and then follow the county line north to Graham county. They wanted to ride the west side of Graham county and make their way back, stopping at the ranches as well as the farms and meeting all they could of both sides.

Tom and Cal rode all the way out to what they knew was the western county line of Graham County according to their maps. They stopped at the southwest corner on the section line and looked out at all the crops growing here. With the few late spring rains that had come, it sure looked like there was gonna be some good harvests come fall.

They made camp near the county line under a clump of short trees that looked as if they had been mangled in a bad storm. Here they spent the first night as range riders, wondering just what they’d gotten themselves into.

The Mennonites had brought the hard red winter wheat with them from Russia and found it was a perfect fit for the climate and heavy loam soils of the plains. German immigrants had come here too and settled in Ellis County and in some areas in other counties as well. They were all farmers, and had filed claims on some of the government lands that once had been open range. Most of the original land owners had no problems with the newcomers, but there were some that did and here was where the trouble brewed openly.

The end of June was just around the corner, the wheat was nearing harvest, the corn was growing rich and green with tassels out and pollen everywhere. Tom and Cal rode north up the county line and turned back east on a well used trail with farm land on both sides of the trail. Soon they came to a junction of a north-south trail and here started the barbed wire fences around large tracts of pasture land. The trail they were on had ran right up to a fence and they were going have to either go south or north from here. They could see cattle scattered and dotted all over the vast areas of green pastures.

Tom reached back and took his hand held telescope out of his saddlebag, opening the end of the tubular container it was carried in. He scanned the pastures and then all around the farmlands, he then handed the scope to Cal.

Cal had never looked through one before and when he put it to his eye, he jerked his head back and looked at Tom then at the scope. He then eased it back to his eye and Tom told him how to adjust the focus to see clear. Cal looked all around the horizon just as Tom had and was amazed that it looked as if he could just reach right out and touch a cow that was at least a quarter mile away. Tom took the telescope and slipped the loop on the end of the container over the saddle horn and they rode north again.

After about a mile, they turned east once more and were riding between farmland on the left and the huge pasture on the right. There were four strands of barbed wire strung tight between the wooden posts that were placed about twelve feet apart. The fence looked to run for miles and was straight as a line can be drawn. Windmills dotted the land in every direction, bringing drinking water to the cattle on the prairie.

This was all new to both Tom and Cal, and they were constantly looking in all directions as they rode slowly along. They had ridden for close to an hour when Tom saw someone up ahead. There were cattle all out in the fields to the left and in the trail ahead of them. Some were walking toward Tom and Cal, but stopped and turned when they rode up close to them. When they rode closer, Tom saw where the fence had been torn down, by the cattle or by some person. The man was trying to get the cattle herded back into the break of the fence and was running and chasing a cow and calf as it would break away from the rest and try it’s best to stay on the wrong side of the fence.

Tom and Cal used their horses to help herd the cattle back into the pasture then rode up to where the man was standing looking up at them and back at the broken down fence. The man had on a wide hat pulled tight down over his forehead, his shirt and breeches were loose and baggy on him. Tom could tell this was not a cowhand but a farmer that was trying to get the cattle off his crops and back where they belonged. They looked across his field and saw a team of mules hitched to a plow, standing and waiting for the man to return.