Chapter 10

I wanted to be home with Betty and Lorena and I was in a hurry to head home to see Lorena. I had promised Betty I would be home today. I hit the road home, making time when I saw a gig headed my way. It came to a place to turn around, and pulled in there and waited for me to come up to it.

Lorena was screaming, “Daddy” and waving her arms. I jumped off my horse and tied it to the back the of the gig. I picked up Lorena and settled into the seat beside Betty, leaning into her for a kiss.

“Today I trusted you wouldn’t be away another day and came to meet you. It seems like you have been away forever. Lorena hasn’t given me any rest at all about you being gone.”

“I have a lot to tell you. I’ll be taking you with me next time, probably Saturday morning real early to Mountain Gap. Did you meet a rider a little time ago?”

“I did, I didn’t stop. Who is he?”

“He’s Jack’s new hired hand for the Heifer Ranch. He’ll ride with us when we go to Mountain Gap. I wanted you to meet him. I hired him this morning.”

“Where are Henny May and Carl?”

“They are on a small ranch I purchased yesterday. I’ve made a lot of decisions after talking to the Judge and the Banker in Mountain gap. I hope you approve of all of the decisions I made.”

“What money did you use to buy a ranch with? Are you sure we have enough.”

“The Judge said that we could use Sonny’s money from his account. I’m to set aside a certain amount from his account and we can use the rest as our own. He said we have been taking care of Sonny much beyond his needs and he knows we won’t change in that respect.”

“Why the change now?”

“Because I told him I didn’t like coming to Mountain Gap for the details of keeping Sonny and our finances straight. From now on, I won’t be leaving you as often to take care of things there. Jack has been perfect in doing what we planned for the Heifer Ranch, so I took him on as our partner. He now is buying half of that ranch. He still draws wages, but he gets half the profits when we settle up each year and we get the same.”

“What about Eric and the slaughterhouse and meat market? You say this money we can use is Sonny’s without restrictions entirely?”

“I found out that Erik is sparking the Banker’s daughter. He should be able to get a loan from the bank to buy half the business and he can become managing owner of it. We’ll get some profit once a year from the other half. That will relieve me from all management of that business and it won’t tie us up at all. It looks like we won’t have to get involved either.

“That’s great, Buck.”

“Betty, we will be building an account to leave our children like my mother left me. This is my thinking anyway. Now I will tell you about Henny May and Carl. The judge told me about a small ranch where a young couple, named Sinclair who wanted to go back east. The bank warned them he was foreclosing because they weren’t paying the mortgage.

“This couple came out here and have lost everything and were ready to walk away. They didn’t even have money to travel back east. The Banker showed me the ranch and I purchased it for less than what the mortgage was. I fixed it so the couple had $500 dollars to return to their former home.”

“Buck, are you trying to make us rich? I thought we weren’t going to try doing that?”

“No, that isn’t what I am aiming for. We don’t even have to touch what was in Turner’s estate if you don’t want to. I’ll admit I might have moved too fast on buying that other ranch and it won’t show as much profit as the home place here. With a relative living on it and managing it, they being experienced the way both are, it shouldn’t be a bother.

“Another thing to think about is that with five ranches within twenty miles of Breckenridge, and every bit of open land being bought up raising farm produce, the railroad might at least extend it to here. They might even go on to Mountain Gap as that is bigger and more important.”

“What five ranches are you talking about?”

“Ours, the one Owen is ranching on, Murphy’s, the Heifer Ranch, and the one that Henny May and Carl are buying.”

“Well that should give us enough money to squirrel away. In essence you have contracts to upgrade the Owen’s and the Murphy’s ranches, and do the same for Jack and Carl’s. Buck, you sure are planning ahead.”

“This is the time to do it, Betty. Also it goes right back to you being a mail order bride.”

“Maybe, but if you hadn’t stopped in that day, I’d of been long gone from here and somewhere else on the town’s charity. Thank God it is getting more civilized around here and not so many shooting and killings either.”

I hesitated and it was a minute before I started to speak. Betty didn’t give me a chance to get to what I had to tell her. “Buck, you didn’t agree, so do you want to tell me why?”

“Betty, Elmer and I got held up about three miles before we reached Breckenridge, I shot the guy in the shoulder and brought him on into the doctor. You have met him before. He was one of the men with Jack when they held up the store that time, He’s the one who clobbered the clerk. He saw me earlier the day before and figured I might be headed home on the trail. He and another guy waylaid us, but I was ready for them ‘cause I had seen their fresh tracks and was prepared for any eventuality.”

“Damnit, Buck how come it is only you who has to get into these damn things?”

“I don’t know. Just thank the Lord I come through these things.”

“Well, I’m going to send up an extra prayer tonight.”

“I was planning on doing the same.”

Pollard had asked Sonny where the crew was working and was told where they were. “Your Boss hired me this morning to work in Mountain Gap on a different ranch.”

“That good place now, not so good years ago. You stay here, they will be in for supper soon. If you come from town, didn’t you see a gig on the road?”

“I did, but I didn’t stop.”

“That the other boss here, meet Betty when we eat. She wonderful person. You pile wood until then.”

Elmer realized that this person was giving him an order. He didn’t object and there wasn’t much work so he piled wood. It was shortly done and then said, “We feed chickens now. They mine and I get money for eggs.”

Just then a woman came around the corner of the house. She had a milk pail in her hand. “Sonny, would you get Isabell and tie her up for me.”

“I can do that for you.”

“No that’s Sonny’s job. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“Buck hired me to work on a ranch somewhere.”

“That would be the Heifer Ranch. I know he was looking for help. My name is Etta and I help Betty in the house. I love living here.”

Elmer followed Sonny to the barn as he hollered out a small barn door of the barn for a cow. There was a pasture with a cow whose head came up and came running. Sonny tied her and said, “Come with me, see chickens.” Elmer followed to a hen house and saw another building where he could hear pigs grunting.

“Buck say, Betty make this ranch into a farm. Betty say, Buck likes eggs and butter and he don’t have to eat the bacon. Then they kiss and everyone happy.” Sonny fed the chickens and picked up the eggs

As this was going on, the three hands, Burt, Joe, and Zeke rode in and unsaddled. Buck came around leading the driving horse and his horse. “Hi Elmer. You made it here okay?”

“Yeah Buck, everyone except your wife and daughter. Sonny filled me in about everything and told me who everyone was.”

“Oh Elmer, remind me when we finish supper to get you out a shooting iron for your own personal use. One might come in handy someday.”

“Thanks Buck, I felt damned naked facing that robber yesterday. I would have liked to have one on to at least back you up.”

“Hey Buck, what was all that about?”

“Elmer will fill you in, Joe. Sonny, show Elmer a bunk, and where to wash up. It will be time to eat. Betty and Etta will have it ready soon.”

After supper we all sat around the yard and I explained about the Heifer Ranch and what I was trying to do to raise heavier cattle. “Jack is pretty much on top of it. Both Owen and Murphy of the neighboring ranches are in this with me. I will be selling some steers to them to top off.

“I’ve already started and as a likely looking bull calf comes along that looks as good or better than the ones I bought, I raise them here. I’ll do the same for that ranch up the hill from where I found you. My Niece and her husband Carl, will own half of it. Jack will concentrate on the heifers. I’ll sell a cow with calf together as they improve in size and shape as the time goes on. Over time we’ll all weed out the poorer stock to sell.”

“It seems as though I’ve hit it lucky meeting you. I know how to handle cattle, but I don’t know much of what you are doing. I’m sure interested.”

“We aren’t leaving here until Saturday for Mountain Gap. We’ll get out into my herd and I’ll show you some of the calves I have here tomorrow. There are the two year olds and this year’s mother with calves here. Some of them you can see the difference against the original stock Betty had when I came here. I figure at the end of five years they’ll really stick out.”

After we ate, the boys went to the Bunkhouse. I didn’t want to talk any longer, I wanted to be with Betty and Lorena, I just blurted out, “See you all in the morning.”

In the morning after breakfast, I said we would go up into the north section of the ranch and look at the cattle there. We always kept our cattle within the bounds of the ranch as much as possible and didn’t let them stray too far. We often met the neighbors while as they were doing the same with theirs.

This was something that Jim Turner had frowned on and wasn’t neighborly at all. This gave him a chance to run the heifers belonging to Owen and Murphy into that hidden valley and put his brand on. He then sold them to Tommy Johns. Betty and I discovered this and were honest about it, giving us a chance to become friendly with both neighbors.

“Come next spring you will see some of heifers with a calf both from the bigger bulls, I didn’t hurry back breeding the first heifers so they had almost a full growth when bred to the bigger bulls. I suppose I may have lost a year, but it sure is paying off, and I didn’t lose but a two with birthing problem.”

“Enough of this for the day. Tomorrow I have to go to Breckenridge and see our lawyer to make out the paper on all of these changes. I’ll take Betty with me. I guess on Saturday we’ll take the buggy as long as Lorena will need to go. I’ll tie my horse behind and show you the Heifer Ranch. Jack will be pleased I’ve found him another hand. Elmer, I imagine you will want to fork your own horse rather than ride in the buggy.”

“I do.”

“Saturday morning, we started early. Lorena was excited. We went into Breckenridge and collected John Johnson. He had all the papers we needed for what was going to transpire when we reached Mountain Gap having done this the day before.

We stopped for coffee at the usual place before coming into Mountain Gap. Lorena with us today had stopped here before, and remembered the woman and was looking forward to seeing her again. We went right through Mountain Gap onto the Heifer Ranch. Jack and Mamie were glad to see us and were pleased that I had brought a working hand with us,

I also had papers with me that had spelled out the details of the partnership I was going to make with Jack, This was made out, and a legal paper ready to sign if Jack would agree with what I felt was fair. I had John Johnson, our attorney with us to attend to the details...

Betty and I filled Jack and Mamie in about my buying another small ranch that Henny May and Carl were going to be working at and under the same agreement that I was making with him and Mamie.

“Jack, I have the okay from Judge Black to do this. You have implemented what I set out to do here and so far, it has worked better than expected, mostly from your efforts. It is time you are rewarded, and I won’t have to come here as often as I have in the past. I am still looking for at least one more hand to help you. I do believe that Pollard will be a good worker. You can do the hiring on your own if you can find someone.

“Betty and I are putting enough cash into the heifer account for you to draw on until we sell some heifers or move some of the small steers out of here to be topped off at another ranch. Depending on the gender of the calf drop, we may sell some heifers with calf by their side. That will be it income stream for this ranch. That’s when you will get the profit for your own account that is over and above what you receive for wages. How does that sound?”

“It sounds damned good to me. Are you okay with this, Betty?”

“Yes, I am. I have had as much to do with this as Buck has. I was sorely disappointed when you left after Jim Turner died. But then Buck was soon there to take over and save me.”

“Betty, I’m ashamed about leaving you back then. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. I was even more ashamed the time when the four of us landed at your place and you went to bat for me when I landed before the judge here in Mountain Gap.”

“That was Buck’s doing, not so much mine. You have certainly made up for it by taking over here when he hired you to manage things with the new bulls and everything. I’m sure you will continue to do so. I now will have Buck with me more of the time on the home ranch.”

Betty then said to Buck, “Buck, we have to leave soon. You wanted to see Erik today.” We went out after signing papers we had about the ranch and the papers that make Jack a working partner.

Chip and Dingle were talking with Elmer, getting to know him. They had looked his horse over and could see it had a lot of care, They would pass on the horse when he began working cattle the same way they would pass on Elmer. I shook hands with Elmer and he thanked me for finding him a place to work. “Thanks for the side arm, too. I feel a lot better about traveling around, not so damned naked as I was right after you hired me.”

“Elmer, you want to learn how to use it, Chip can show you the basics. He has been carrying one for years. He has a story back of him that I just recently learned about and he is well able to use it even at his age.”

“Buck, shut your mouth, that’s all in my past.” (Chip had been a U S Marshal in his younger years)

“I know, but I wanted to tell them about Henny May and Carl.”

“Buck I wondered about them. Where are they? I thought I was going to have them here working with me and you would be partners with them instead of me.”