Chapter 32

Shortly after noon on Saturday, July 7, 1877, Tom and Cal, along with the three young Hanks brothers, rode west out of Stockton, Kansas.

The brothers didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the start of changes in their young lives that none of them could have ever dreamed.

“Tom, how long you figure it’ll take us to drive that herd down to Ellis County? It’ll be nearly sundown when we get over to where they are,” Cole Hanks asked.

“Well, it took Cal and me a day to ride from Hays City, out to Mr. Fortenberry’s spread, then on over to the far west side of Graham County. I figure we can drive the herd slow in this heat and get’em there in two full days. There’s a couple of stops along the way that I want to make first, we’ll need to rest the horse some anyway.”

About a half mile from the low water crossing where they’d overtaken the rustlers the day before, Tom turned north down a lane to a farm spread back off the main road about a quarter of a mile. Cal knew exactly where he was heading.

Wes Crawford walked out of the barn just as the five riders rode into the barnyard. He recognized Tom and Cal as soon as he saw the big Palomino horse.

“Tom, it’s good to see you ‘n Cal again, get off them horses and we’ll pump up some cool water for ‘em while we visit.”

Tom and Cal stepped to the ground and shook hands with Wes Crawford, then introduced him to the three Hanks brothers.

“Mr. Wes, I just wanted to stop in for a bit and tell you that our work is done around here, we’ll be heading on out of Kansas in a few days.”

“Tom, there’s a lot of folks in these parts that’s gonna be sorry to see you two fellers leave Kansas, you sure did some rakin around for the time you was here.”

“Well, we caught the rustlers that were cutting the fences and blaming it on the farmers. We’re on our way over to Graham County now to move the stolen herd down to Ellis County so the cattlemen’s association can handle the finishing up on the details. We best be headin that way now, I just wanted to stop by and say goodbye to you. I wish good fortune on you, your family and the land.”

They mounted up and rode back out to the main trail as Wes Crawford stood with his hat in his hand, wiping the sweat from his face, as he watched them ride off. It made him proud to know people like them two young lawmen. It made his heart swell with pride too, that they came to tell him goodbye and wish him well.

After they had crossed the low water crossing, Tom looked over at Cal.

“Let’s kick em up a bit, I’d like to stop in and tell the Ehrlichmann’s that we’re heading out, and that the worry with the cattlemen is over.”

The five riders rode west at a hard gallop for over an hour before they slowed again to a walk.

“Tom, how’d you ever train your horse to ride without a bridle like that?” Ray Hanks asked.

“I reckon it just came about that way Ray, he never did like the bit and the Sioux showed me how to guide him with my knees, so we both decided we didn’t want a bridle.”

“Do you reckon our stock horses could learn to ride without a bridle if we could teach them to guide by our knees too?” Cole asked.

“I would think they could, just start with puttin your left knee into ‘em when you want ‘em to turn right. At the same time, use your reins the same as you always do. Soon enough, they’ll know what you want just by the touch of your knee. Use both knees when you want them to slow, put your knees in hard when you want them to stop.”

The sun was still about two hours from sundown when they turned up the lane to the Ehrlichmann spread. Hilda Ehrlichmann and her daughter Helga came out of the house when they heard the riders come up.

“Lordy looky here, if it isn’t Injun Tom and Cal. Just look at this will you,” Hilda said, laughing as she wrung her hands on her apron.

Hilda was waiting for Tom as soon as he stepped to the ground, she grabbed him in a bear hug.

“Tom Cooper, we are so glad to see you and Cal again, what brings you out here and who are these young lads.”

“This is Cole, Ray and Tag Hanks, they’re gonna help us move some cattle down to Ellis County,” Tom said as he pointed to each of the young boys who stood with their mouths and eyes wide open as they looked at the woman and her daughter with the huge teats sticking out.

Hilda went around and hugged Cal also and his face heated up as he felt her big teats mash against his chest.

“Cal, you need to stay here for a while and let me and Helga put some meat on your bones, you’re too skinny to be as tall as you are.”

“We all wish we could Miss Hilda, but we came by to tell you that we’re through with the job we were hired to do, and when we get the herd of cattle moved down to Ellis County, we’ll be riding on out of Kansas I reckon. You won’t be havin anymore hassle out of the MDR riders or any of the cattlemen’s range riders from now on.”

Tom explained to her what all had happened and why the brothers were with he and Cal. He told her that ‘The Widowmaker’ was dead.

“I know Hahn will be glad to hear that, after what they did to him out here. I am glad you came to our home when you did Tom Cooper, you are a good man,” she told him with tears in her eyes.

“Well, Ma’am I reckon we best be on our way, we need to get over to the south part of the county by sundown and be ready to ride at daylight.”

Tom looked down at the three brothers and they were still staring at the women’s big teats, he caught Cole’s eye and nodded for him to mount up. Cole reached out and took a handful of shirt sleeve on each of his brothers and jerked them backwards. They both slowly turned away from the women and looked up at Tom, Cal and their brother Cole who were already mounted.

Tom and Cal reached up and tipped their hat’s at Hilda and Helga as they turned to leave, the three brothers did the same with their old ragged cloths hats. The mother and daughter couldn’t help but smile and wave.

“We need to make some fast tracks,” Tom said and nudged his big horse into a ground eating lope that the other horses had to run hard to match.

They rode on west a ways and came to where the trail split and another trail went south alongside the fence. This was the trail Tom had ridden when he first saw the cut fence where the cattle had been driven into and the fence repaired.

When he pulled up at the gap, Cole rode up beside him, “How’d you know where the cattle were Tom?”

“I saw this the second day Cal and I rode for the cattlemen’s association, when you told me it was down here in Graham County, this place came to mind.”

“There’s sure not much that gets by you Tom,” Cole said.

“Where’s the best place to put up for the night and get an early start tomorrow?” Tom asked him.

“There’s a good place over yonder by them trees, some cool water and some good shade too,” Cole said pointing south toward a short line of trees in the distance.

“That’s where we always stayed when we brought cattle over. Down at the far corner, there’s a big gap we can let down and move the herd through in the morning. We brought cattle up from the south side of the county too, at times.”

“Do you know who owns this land Cole, did you ever hear anyone talk about the goings on while you rode with them?”

“No, they never let us be around when they did their low talkin amongst themselves. Just when we were stealin, brandin or drivin the cattle over here, was we allowed to be around ‘em. We heard ‘em a couple of times a fussin at Pa cause we were hangin around close all the time, so we kinda hung back from then on.”

They each led their horses down to the creek to drink, then Cal and the boys hobbled their horses so they could graze but not wander off during the night.

Tom and Cal both took the heavy wax coated grub sacks out of their saddle bags and spread open for the boys to get some of the fried meat and the dried jerky. They sat eating the greasy supper under the trees as the last light of day settled into the red glow that spread across the western horizon.

“Tom, the sheriff told us that you came from up in The Dakotas, what’s it like up there?” Ray, the middle brother asked as they all settled down in a small circle on the ground near the creek bank.

“The plains are rolling hills up there mostly, some of the places are rough and ragged with rocks and big stones half buried and half sticking out of the ground.

“I was raised near the Sioux lands and from a high point a man can see across many miles of rolling land covered in grass that grows knee high in the spring. The Sioux told of the days when all the lands of the northern plains were thundering with the roaming buffalo herds.

“The elders in the camps would tell of looking down from a ridge and seeing the grazing herds spread out over the land that would take a day to cover on horseback. Then turn and look in the other direction and see another herd that would stretch to the place where the sky meets the earth.

“This is a land where the eagles fly free above the hills and seem to just hang from the sky as they spread their wings out and drift on the wind. They can fly for hours at times and never even flap their wings. I’ve seen eagles with wings spread as wide as two men my size laying foot to foot.

“As a young boy, I’d lay on a hillside and look up at the sky and hear the eagles screech their warnings to others that wandered into their hunting grounds. Then I would spread my arms and run down the slopes hoping to lift into the sky as the giant birds did. I’d screech the sounds of the eagles above me as I ran, hearing them answer me back, as if laughing because I tried to fly with them.”

Tom told of riding his horses across the plains for hours and hours at a time, his only worry was that his mother told him to be home by sundown. He told of his visits to the Sioux camps and riding with his young friends of the Sioux. He told of the times they would ride and shoot their arrows into targets made of buffalo hides as another young Sioux would pull it behind a running horse.

He told of being taught about horses and the ways of the Sioux as they cared for and trained their horses. Tom was lost in his own words now and spoke freely of his younger years, he even told of the spring trading days at the Trading Post. He told of the trappers and skinners and the miners that came to trade their findings and their rewards from the fall and winter hunting and trapping seasons to his Dad, in exchange for supplies and money so they could go back into the hills and make ready for another season.

In the dim shadows of early night, Cal and the three young Hanks brothers sat and listened to Tom describe the lands of The Dakotas and the times of his growing up years near the lands of the Sioux. Cal had never heard his close friend talk in this manner, his words painted pictures in Cal’s mind that made him have another yearning now, a yearning to see Tom’s home land for real one day.

The three young brothers listened to the story, and the words of the tall half breed, that painted pictures in their young minds. They had never even seen an Injun until they met Tom, had never seen an eagle fly free above the plains. They had never even seen the land of the plains rise up into rolling hills, such as Tom was drawing the pictures in the night air in front of them.

They each had pictures and memories in their minds now of another land, of another time when the plains were alive with buffalo. A time when Injun tribes lived their entire lives in the camps, with hundreds of teepee’s made from buffalo hides and wore clothes made from buckskin and never saw a white man in all their years.

Then suddenly Tom was quiet, as if lost in his own thoughts and memories, sitting on the ground and leaning back against his saddle in the night, looking up at the stars that were blinking in the darkening sky.

“We need to rest, the next two days will be hot and hard as we try to keep the herd from trampling down any crops we may come to,” Tom said as he abruptly stood up.

Tom took his drovers coat and spread it on the ground, then Cal handed his heavy coat to Cole for them to cover up in, if it got cool in the night.

Tom reached back and pulled his flute out of his saddle bags, he blew the dust off and ran his fingers up and down the long slender tube of wood. The three brothers were watchin and raised up to look at Tom as he started playing the soft haunting sounds of the wind on this hot still, July night in Kansas.

They each went to sleep listening to the music of the flute as it told of a different time gone by and promised a much different time to come. The three brothers lay side by side and slept hard after the turmoil in their lives in the past three days.

With fresh thoughts of new friends and even thoughts of a different land that seemed so far away, yet close enough that they may one day ride there to see with their own eyes the wide open plains and the eagles flying overhead, in The Dakotas that Tom had told of.

They had lost their Pa because of him bein a rustler, they had lost their Ma so many years ago that Cole was the only one that even remembered her. They knew now, that as long as they had friends like Tom Cooper and Cal Randal, as long as they had each other, they had hope.

Morning came early on the Kansas plains, as daylight chased, dark shadows across the prairie and the sky began to turn gray once more.

When Tom slid from his bedroll, he looked over at the three brothers and saw Cole sitting up looking toward him. He motioned for him to follow, then nudged Cal’s bedroll as he and Cole walked out to where the horses were.

By the time they were back with the horses, Cal and the younger Hanks brothers were up and breaking camp. The sun was still below the eastern horizon, but the predawn gray was enough light to get the day started.

“Cole you ‘n your brothers know the lay of the land, what do you think is our best out for gettin the cattle all down to this corner, through the gap and started on the trail back south and east?” Tom asked.

“I reckon we can all ride out to the far corner then spread out to round’em up into a big herd, the more we drive’em back here, the bigger the herd’ll get an’ they’ll all fall in with the others. There’ll be some breakaways, but Ray and Tag’s horses are about the best stock horses the MDR had. They’ll bring em back in a hurry.

“If this sounds good to you, let’s ride out and start’em back this way, we don’t need to run’em if we don’t have to. When we get’em close down here, I’ll ride through and drop the gap and we can start’em out on the trail slow like. When we get’em started out, you or Cal one needs to ride lead and me ‘n the others will ride side and drag to keep’em in line,” Cole finished his take on driving the cattle.