Chapter 2

In the morning, we saw Isaiah and Rob off and while Opal Anne was making breakfast, I sat at the table and looked at the letter from the mysterious Mr. Meldrum. The unopened letter from Mr. Meldrum was compelling and yet ominous. I sat in the chair and looked at it for a very long time. When Opal Anne came behind me and place a hand on each shoulder and pulled my head back between her soft breasts my focus was shifted. I turned my head and took one of her teats into my mouth. The warm liquid was soothing, as was the feeling of her stroking the hair on my head.

“Do you think that if you stare at it long enough that it will open itself?”

“No, Opal Anne, but I guess I was worrying about the identity of Mr. Meldrum. Isaiah said that both Dewey and Cody didn’t seem to like the guy. He could be from the outfit, or one of the gold processors in Denver, or from the State about our grant.”

“Only one way to find out my dear.” Opal Anne rubbed my shoulder and kissed the top of my head.

One deep breath and a slow exhale and I broke the seal on the letter and removed the contents. The letter was on the letterhead of the Secretary of State of Colorado.

I tried to read the letter, but it was full of all sorts of legal and official gobbledygook, and it made no sense. I set it down in frustration and then, in turn, I opened the letters from Dewey, Cody, and Sheriff Jack.

Dewey was informing me of the letter from Mr. Meldrum, the Colorado Secretary of State. He said that the Secretary of State had come down from Denver, to present his case and negotiate in person, showing how seriously this matter was being taken in the Capital. Mr. Meldrum asked to meet with me and the head of the cattle company in Pueblo during the first week of September.

The letter from Dewey C. Howe, Esq., in response to the Secretary’s letter, explained that the State of Colorado has finally agreed that the land grant was legitimate and wanted to make an offer for the O’Dells to relinquish all rights to the land.

Dewey said that in his meeting that he’d made three points in the strongest terms. First was that, the O’Dell clan or its heirs will retain sole and permanent ownership of a parcel of land he described as “the plain”. As soon as a surveyor can meet with us and determine the actual location and the dimensions of “the plain” the State would accept that condition, unless the dimensions of “the plain” are what the State would consider extreme.

Second, was that we will, in perpetuity, own all mineral and subsurface rights to the land described as “the plain”. Again, once the area of the ‘plain’ was definitely determined the State would agree, provided that the dimensions of “the plain” are not what they would consider extreme.

Third, was that the State of Colorado remove from its borders the Pueblo Cattle Management Company and bar, in perpetuity, the ability of the company’s officers and/or owners from doing business in the State of Colorado, from ownership of any and all property in the State of Colorado, and that said officers and/or owners be banned from having a physical presence inside the borders of the State of Colorado.

Dewey said that the last point was problematic. He and the Secretary didn’t believe that the State of Colorado had the legal right to exclude a citizen from ownership, residence, or participation in any legal activities in the State of Colorado. Dewey told the Secretary that the third point was a deal breaker.

Dewey closed his letter to me by saying that the Secretary hoped that their acceptance of the first two conditions will be enough to enable both parties to come to agreement and finalize the transaction and transfer of title of the land in the grant. Dewey also said that he believed that the politicians had been influenced by the money of the outfit.

I knew the Constitution of my country and I knew that the elimination of all traces of the outfit from Colorado would legally be all but impossible, but I had to try.

Cody Banks’ letter assured me that if my output of gold ore was consistent and similar to previous deposits, that I would have more than enough money to influence politicians on my own behalf, if I chose to go that route. He suggested that it might be better for me to begin to buy up the stock of the outfit until I was the owner of more than 50% of it. Then I could fire the Board of Directors and take control of the company.

My problem with that is that the men who sent out agents and killed my brothers and their wives and my nephew would not be held to account. They would be free to act as they wished in Pueblo and beyond. The idea of walking into their offices, gun blazing, occurred to me again.

The letter from the Sheriff Cleese was to inform me that he had a cable from the cattle outfit asking to have the leader of the agents contact them. He cabled back that twenty-four of the men had been killed when they attacked the O’Dells, and he was holding the twenty-fifth prisoner pending the arrival of the U.S. Marshall. He told them that the men had killed another of the O’Dell wives and that the surviving brother and wife were not happy.

“Well that should cause a stir in Pueblo,” I muttered.

“What’s that?” Opal Anne asked.

“Jack told the outfit that their men were dead, and he was holding the one survivor for the U.S. Marshall. He told them that the remaining O’Dells were not happy.”

“I’ll say we’re not happy,” she raised her voice, a lot. “So, what’s the next move?”

“Opal Anne, my love, I’m going to ask Mr. Howe to inform the State of Colorado that I’m going to retain an additional ten square miles for each man sent against us and another one hundred square miles for each member of the O’Dell clan that has been killed by the Pueblo Cattle Management Company, and that the center of that land will be Pueblo. Between the railroads, the cattle, and the steel industry there, the State will be in dire straits and we will be in control of a major center of business in the western United States. That should get their attention.”

“Paul? What if the State decides to send in troops to take the land?”

“Then a lot of troops will die before we do. If the O’Dell clan comes to an end, it will be at the cost of a lot of their men and animals.”

“We can’t let that happen, Paul.”

“I know. I’m hoping that this demand is so outrageous that it will cause politicians on the side of the outfit to change their support. If not, then one of two things will happen. They’ll fold or they’ll come after us. If they fold, then we go on with our lives. If they come after us it will be in one of two ways. They will send an army, or they’ll send an assassin.”

“If they send an army, we have a chance,” Opal Anne said.

“But we still end up dead,” I nodded. “If they send an assassin, well it’s impossible to stop one person on a mission. Look at Booth. If one person wants to get to you, they can. They can sit off at a distance and shoot you, they can walk up in a crowd and stab you.”

“So, either way, we’re dead?” Opal Anne asked, sounding hopeless.

“I learned in the cavalry that if you know you are going to be attacked, you can run away, or you can attack first.”

“Attack first!” Opal Anne said enthusiastically almost before I finished my sentence.

“Are you up for a trip to Pueblo?”

I wrote letters to Dewey and Jack, letting them know that Opal Anne, I, and our daughter were going to Pueblo. My letter to Dewey instructed him to go after the land containing all of Pueblo as I’d outlined to Opal Anne. I told him that we were going to Pueblo the first week in September, invited him to join us, and we would meet with the Secretary of State at the offices of the Pueblo Cattle Management Company.

I outlined in the letter my final wishes if things did not go well. The plain and all of the land the O’Dells possessed would go to O’Dell Enterprises to hold in trust until our children were ready to take over the business. I named Dewey, Cody, and Daisy as the Board of the trust should Opal Ann and I die. The land grant could be negotiated, but the land upon which Pueblo was located and the plain were sacrosanct and would remain the possession of the O’Dell Enterprises trust.

My final letter was to Cody Banks and all I asked was that our fortune be built and put into the trust. All investment earnings were to be returned to the trust. I told Cody that he, Dewey, and Daisy were to govern the trust if an adult O’Dell wasn’t available or capable of administering it.

Opal Anne looked over everything, agreed, and then took me to bed to calm my mind before Pauli began fussing for her lunch.

During the last week of August, Opal Anne and I spent all our time pulling gold out of the riverbed. We would take all we had to town and pass it on to the assayer, who would pass the money to Cody. We closed up everything on the plain and left notes in the buildings and placed signs all over, that this place was the property of the OA&P Plain and Mining Company and the O’Dell trust.

We loaded the wagon with the gold, supplies for the trip, and all the ammunition we could carry in case we met agents on the road. We had four mules, including Thumper, pulling the heavy wagon. I tied two more horses to the wagon. Finally, Opal Anne put the babies, in their small cradles, into the wagon, and we were off.

The trip was quiet and beautiful. The leaves had begun to turn and the chill in the air made cuddling together at night better than ever. Opal Anne and I made love several times each night, and once even while driving. I had the reins in my hands and Opal Anne tapped my shoulder from behind me.

“Paul, look, my pants fell off.”

She sat on the bench next to me, reached over, and unbuttoned my pants. After extracting my cock and stroking it to its full size, she got up, faced me, and straddled me. Her wet pussy offered almost no resistance and she slid down on my cock with one smooth move. I dropped the reins and grabbed her ass with both hands rocking her back and forth.

It took no time for her to peak and then she lifted up and fucked me until she felt her own peak coming again. Then she sat down and rocked back and forth until she had another release. During her recovery from the second release, I opened her shirt and began to nurse on a nipple. She began to fuck me again and this time she reached her climax at the same time that I shot my seed deep into her.

“Oh God, Paul,” Opal Anne panted heavily. “I wish I could get knocked up every time you did this to me.”

“Opal Anne, we’d have kids all over the State.”

“Yeah, ain’t it wonderful?” Her tone was dreamy.

Our final bit of business in Fountain City was to see Daisy O’Rourke and Doc. They were getting along really good and looked like they were going to get married soon. We asked them to take Michelle O’Dell and raise her if we didn’t come back.

“Are you going to leave Pauli as well?” Daisy asked.

“No,” Opal Anne explained solemnly, “if we’re going to die on the trail, we are all going to die together. If Paul’s branch of the O’Dell clan comes to an end, we want Mick’s line to go on.”

Daisy and Doc agreed and, in the morning, with our business complete, we met Dewey for breakfast and then the three of us were on our way to Pueblo. Opal Ann and I chose to ride horses to Pueblo, rather than take the wagon. Dewey chose to drive in his personal buggy, saying that he rather enjoyed the shade of the cover and the softness of the seat. I figured that if we were attacked on the road, Opal Anne could run away with the baby while Dewey and I held the attackers off.

Opal Anne was convinced that she was now carrying a baby boy, so when we talked about her running away, she agreed without an argument. She understood that it would be her and Pauli and the baby she was carrying, so that if she escaped, the Paul O’Dell branch of the clan would continue on in the person of her and our daughter and, hopefully, our son.

The ride to Pueblo was uneventful, and our conversation along the way had our plans finalized before we tied our horses up in front of a nice hotel. We took rooms for the night, had dinner and then rested from our fourteen hour journey. In the morning we asked the desk clerk to have our horses and Dewey’s buggy brought from the livery. We then had breakfast before riding to the office of The Pueblo Chieftain newspaper.