Chapter 36

Tom felt like something was clamped around his throat, cutting the air off from entering his lungs. His eyes followed the wagon down the dirt street until it pulled up in front of Bonner’s General Mdse. and he watched as the man climbed down the front wheel and went inside. Tom could hear him whistling.

Cal saw Tom’s eyes as he watched the wagon pass by, he hadn’t even been paying attention until he saw the red letters on the wagon.

‘This was the man that made hats, his name was inside the hat he bought yesterday’.

Cal took his hat off and looked inside at the smooth inside band. Sure enough there was the very same words branded there that was painted on the wagon in front of Bonners Store.

“Tom look.” He held his hat out for Tom to look inside at the label.

“This is the same as the sign on the side of the wagon, it’s the man that makes the hats the brothers and me bought yesterday,” Cal was excited.

“I sure would like to meet him and I know the brothers would too, I wonder if he really is the one that makes the hats the Eagle Boy wears? You reckon he knows the Eagle Boy first hand? Tom did you ever meet the Eagle Boy when you lived up there in the Dakotas, that’s where he’s from, I heard someone over there in Wichita say once.”

“Cal, I reckon you and I’ll more’n likely have to have a talk about some things just between the two of us real soon. There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Sure Tom, you know you ‘n me been friends long enough that you can tell me anything and I won’t ever say a word to no body.”

“We’ll get up early tomorrow and ride out to the Bar Y and take the Hanks boys the rest of their new duds, we’ll talk then, OK?”

The next day the two friends were up from their bedrolls in the livery stable and saddled at daylight. They had refilled their grub sacks with biscuits and fried salt meat from the hotel the night before and planned to eat on the way out to the Bar Y Ranch.

They had ridden about three miles from town and Tom saw a short, bushy topped tree off the trail a ways, he pointed to it and without speaking, they both rode over and slid from their saddles. Taking their grub sacks out they both sat on the ground leaning back against the tree and started eating.

“Cal, there’s some things I never told you about me, I want you to know that I never meant to lie to you, it was just that I didn’t know how to talk about it and didn’t know what you’d think when I told you. No one knows what I’m about to tell you, and you’ll see why shortly.”

Cal just sat and ate his cold biscuit and salt meat, he glanced up at Tom, but never spoke.

“The other night on the trail with you and the Hanks brothers, I talked more about my life in the Dakotas to you and the brothers than I had ever talked before, to anyone.

“I reckon we’ve seen a lot of changes in the past month or so since we been riding together, when we got tangled up with those young brothers, it made me see my life a little different.”

“When I was growing up on the plains up in the Dakotas, I had to ride for hours to be with the young Sioux my age. There was no one my age to be friends with everyday.

“I never even knew the difference until I met you and we started riding together, now I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here every day. When we met, I didn’t know we would come to be brothers, but we have.

“When I left the Dakotas, my father and my mother as well as my uncle, told me that I needed to use a name other than the one I grew up with. They told me that I would never be able to see the land and meet the people if everyone knew who I was.

“The name my parents gave me is Tomas Sky Crenshaw, Cooper was the name of my dad’s grandfather, so I took it.”

Tom had his hat in his hand, and he held it out to Cal.

“Look at the name in my hat Cal.”

Cal looked at the hand stamped name in the smooth leather band.

“Sky Eagle Boy of the Dakotas.”

“I am Sky. I am the one they call Eagle Boy of the Dakotas.”

“Tom, you reckon we’re gonna have any trouble out of that gun hand, Clay Allison? The way Sheriff Wade spoke of him, he’s a well known bad man with a gun,” Cal said and looked at Tom and smiled.

“Thanks Cal, I shoulda known you’d be the same if you knew about me.”

“I’m not gonna lie about it Tom, just now when you were talking, I didn’t know where your story was gonna end up and I was thinkin that no matter what ending you came to, I was ready for it. Then you told me you were Sky, and my throat tied up in a knot. I didn’t know if I was gonna cry or laugh. I didn’t know if I was gonna fall over and pass out, cause I couldn’t breath, or jump up and run away, but my legs wouldn’t work. Then I looked at your eyes and saw the same friend I’ve been riding with for over a month now.

“I’m sure there’ll some things I’ll want to know one day, but for now I reckon we need to ride out to the Bar Y and worry some more about them brothers. You’re stuck with me Tom, you best make what you can of it, cause you ain’t goin nowhere without me.”

Tom stood and reached down to take Cal’s hand and pull him to his feet. They stood face to face, each looking deep into the eyes of the other, hands clasped, then stepped close and stood there, the head of each on the shoulder of the other. They stood like this for a time, not in a moment of weakness, but in a moment of strength. The heartfelt love for one another passed silently between two young men that had met by chance in a livery stable in Wichita Kansas and became brothers on the plains of Kansas.

Tom and Cal swung to their saddles and rode in silence back to the trail and on an angle toward the Double Bar Y, where they had more parts to put in place for the future of the Hanks brothers.

The first thing they needed to do was get the Yanceys to agree to be legal guardians to the three orphaned brothers now in their employ as hired hands.

Before they got to the main entrance to the ranch headquarters, they saw Clyde Yancey on his horse, bringing a small herd of cattle up a chute to a corral behind the barn. They waved and rode on up to the barn and through an opening that took them to the corral where the cattle were just now entering.

When the last of the young heifers were in the holding corral, Clyde Yancey reached out and grabbed the wooden gate and swung it closed as he turned his horse toward the middle of the corral. He looped a rope over the tall gate post to keep it from swinging open and rode to the rail fence where Tom and Cal were.

“Tom, Cal I see you brought the rest of my hired hands duds on out, they left out early this morning to ride the perimeter of the ranch and get a handle on how this place lays out. I don’t reckon they’ll be back in here before late evening.”

“That’s alright Mr. Clyde, we wanted to bring the rest of their stuff on out and see you ‘n Mrs. Yancey about some personal matters anyway.”

“Well, let me get out of this corral and we’ll ride over to the house and get Berty away from her chores for a bit and y’all can tell us what you got on your mind.”

Clyde Yancey rode to the gate that opened to the outside and slipped the rope off the post, then rode through and turned his horse to slip the rope back when he closed the gate.

They rode up to the big watering trough in front of the barn where the water was running slowly from a pipe into the trough, as the windmill lazily turned overhead in the light breeze of early morning.

The three men left their horses to drink and walked toward the house. Tom had two bundles of clothes and Cal had his arms around the other bundle and carried his small bundle of books by the string as they walked to the front porch.

“Berty, you in there?” Clyde hollered.

Mrs. Yancey came to the door and saw Clyde, Tom and Cal standing there, she smiled and came out on the porch, wiping her hands on her apron.

“Tom, Cal good to see you both again, I reckon this is all the belongings them boys got in the world, right?”

“Yes Ma’am, well just about.”

“Well, put them over there on that bench and I’ll wash the new out of them later. Can I get y’all a cool drink from the kitchen?”

“No Ma’am, we’ll get one from the pump when we leave. Cal and I got some things we need to talk to you about. It’s about them boys you hired to work for you, and what’s gonna happen as they grow up.”

“Tom, the law’s not gonna make us let ‘em go are they?” She asked with her eyes opened wide and her hand on her chest just under her throat.

“No Ma’am, nothing like that, you see we found out from the law attorney we hired, that we’ll need some one responsible to be the court appointed legal guardians for the Hanks brothers. That is until they come of legal age to take control of all they will be coming into from McDonnough’s last will and testament.”

“Oh my, well Tom who in the world would the courts see fit to take this on, you reckon?” Mrs. Yancey asked.

“Well, Ma’am Cal and I got with Sheriff Wade, then we talked to the law attorney and he’s already drawin up the legal papers to appoint you ‘n Mr. Clyde to be the legal guardians of the boys, that is if you’re a mind to take that on.”

“Oh my Lord, what all would we have to do Tom, we don’t know anything about being guardians.”

“Well, the way it was explained to us is, when the papers are drawn up and the judge approves the two of you, then you do the same as you are now, you just provide a good home for them and make sure that they’re brought up right.”

“Well, Tom if that’s all there is to it, then you got a deal. Berty ‘n me’ll make sure them boys are raised like they were our own young’uns and make sure they learn to read ‘n write as well.”

“Sheriff Wade said you’d see it that way, he thinks mighty high of you ‘n your family.”

“We’ll have to thank him for that, we’ve only had those boys here one day, but I don’t know what I’d do if they were given away to someone else to be their guardians,” Mrs. Yancey said in a quivering voice.

“You’ll never have to worry about that now Mrs. Yancey, Cal and I will know they’re in the best place they could ever be, too.

“The law attorney is Arthur Creighton and he wants you two and the boys to come to his office on Thursday to get all the legal stuff signed and over with.”

“Maybe we could make a day of it, I need to get some supplies any way and we could all eat at the hotel and celebrate,” Clyde Yancey said.

“Mrs. Yancey, here’s some of them dime books that Cole was wantin for his birthday, I thought I’d just get him some and he could read them to his brothers when they had time.

“I saw some in there about Buffalo Bill Cody and the Pony Express, one about Wild Bill Hickok and there’s one about Sky, Eagle Boy of The Dakotas too. There’s others, but I saw those names I knew, and I know they’ll all like ‘em.”

“I’ll take them out to the bunk house and leave them on the table, I’m sure he’ll be tickled to get these, maybe Ray and Tag can learn to read some from them too. Which reminds me Clyde, we’ll need to get them younger boys in school this fall. Cole will be fifteen and he probably would druther just work here with you, since he can already read ‘n write.”

“I reckon I’ll leave all of that to you Berty, just let me know if you need any back-up on it,” Clyde said and laughed.

Tom and Cal said their goodbyes and headed back into Hays, they told the Yanceys to be sure to tell the brothers they said hi and would see them on Thursday.

They rode side by side, letting their horses pace themselves just as they had for many days and over many trails in the past month.

Without a word, and without being told, the two horses turned north and skirted the town. They came to the rail road that runs east and west and followed it west into the center of town.

On the north side of the tracks, just a few small buildings from the edge of town, Cal pointed to the first building, where the wooden boardwalk started. From here, all the stores and offices and buildings on that side of the dirt street were connected by the same wooden walk way.

‘Ellis County Cattle Co. Robert Clay Allison, Agent.’ was painted on a sign board above the door to the small office. There were five horses tied to the hitching rail out front. Tom and Cal turned at the same time to see the three Slaughter brothers, Joon, Oren and Bill come out of the door, followed by a big man in a black suit and hat.

They had already passed by the time the four men looked up the street toward them.

“Joon, there’s that damned Injun again on that big Palomino, I’d know him and that horse anywhere. Ain’t it Bill, ain’t that him?” Oren said.

“You better believe that’s him, that other man’s the one that was with him up in Osborne the other day and down in the Long Branch Saloon the day he caught you not lookin and hit you in the belly,” Bill added to his story.

Tom looked over at Cal to see his friend watching him.

“You know there’s gonna be trouble don’t you,” Tom said, rather than asked.

“Yep.”

“Then you keep that scatter gun close to you, no matter where we are.”

Tom and Cal were taking the saddles off their horses at the livery stable when they looked up to see the four men riding up the street toward them.

Tom threw his saddle over a rail and stood with his right hand on his horse’s rump as they neared him.

The two youngest brothers rode behind Clay Allison and their brother Joon. They reined their horses right over to where Tom stood behind his big horse.

Cal watched them and grabbed his scatter gun from his saddle and stepped out behind and to the side of Tom.

“Ride on by boys, ride on by, you don’t want any part of that man right there.”

Clay Allison told the Slaughter brothers, as he looked Tom in the eye. He spoke loud and clear, the three brothers had their hands on their guns already, then dropped their hands to their sides and rode by, glaring at Tom as he looked at them with no emotion.

The four men rode up to the saloon and dismounted. As they walked out in the street behind their horses, they could still see the tall Indian standing with feet slightly apart, looking at them as they finally turned and walked into the saloon.

“We coulda took him Mr. Allison, we coulda took his ass, all he had was the tall deputy backin’ him, we coulda took his ass right there,” Oren said.

Clay Allison bought the brothers a drink and tried to calm them down.

“You don’t fight a man that dares you to fight, he knows something you don’t know. I’ve killed a lot of men and I’ve never killed a man that didn’t need killing in my opinion, but I’ve never looked into a man’s eyes that looked like his,” Clay Allison said and downed his whiskey.

The three brothers looked at Clay Allison and turned back to the bar to get another drink.

“Now you three need to get that man out of your head and start listening to me about some things, or you’re gonna get your asses killed.

“I’m gonna be buying a lot of cattle in these parts and I’ll be needing some good hands that know how to work cattle and get them to the rail heads. I can give you some steady work if you’re interested.”