Chapter 13

We put our heads together to try to come up with better ways to protect the construction site. We asked everybody on the ranch for ideas. Most of the suggestions were impractical and a few were impossible, but we did get some we could use. We'd start with the fence on the side away from the main house. We didn't think that the fence would stop anybody, but we did hope to slow them down; we put up a four-foot-high hog wire fence strung about 50 yards away from the construction and extending from about a mile upstream to the edge of the valley intended for Lake Sarah. We would extend the fence as the construction site grew.

As a early warning, we strung light metal cans of rocks along the fence, hung in such a way that, if the fence were cut, all of the cans would fall. That way, the guards would be warned no matter where they happened to be in relation to where the fence was cut. We wouldn't necessarily know exactly where the fence had been cut, but we would know that it had happened.

Dragoons, with dogs, were assigned to patrol the fence and the area between the main house and the construction. Presently, four mounted dragoons, in pairs with one dog each, were assigned to the fence and one pair was assigned to the area nearer the house. Six dragoons, with two dogs were stationed at the steam engine. We planned to rotate the guards every few hours so that no one would get bored or stale.

I had given some thought to improving my earlier use of dynamite as a hand grenade. I finally settled on using a can about three times larger in diameter than a stick of dynamite. The can would have a dowel about fourteen inches long inserted into the can. A nail through the bottom of the can into the cut end of the stick would fasten the two together in a way resembling a potato masher. A quarter stick of dynamite would be put into the can parallel to the stick and the fuse would run out next to the stick. The can would be filled with small rocks and the whole thing sealed with paraffin to hold the dynamite and the rocks in place. The fuse would be cut to give about ten seconds between lighting and explosion. The grenade would be used by holding it in the throwing hand and lighting the fuse with a lit cigar stub. The grenade could then be thrown like a heavy stick. I tried it out on a deserted section of the ranch and it worked very well. The devastation from the flying rocks was horrendous up close. I used rocks instead of buckshot in a effort to cut down on the range so that friendlies were less likely to be hurt. I figured that these grenades could be issued to the dragoons in the field and they could be used as a close-in weapon in defense of the fort.

Mother suggested that a small trebuchet could be used on the roof of the fort as our artillery. It could fire a larger version of the hand grenade. We all thought that was an excellent idea; we could use eight spaced out with two on each side of the fort. Nobody knew exactly how to build one, but there were pictures in the library. We could use the pictures as a starter toward designing our own. For ammunition, we could use cans large enough to house a full stick of dynamite. If it worked as well as we hoped, we could even mount one at the steam engine. One of the engineers was put to work on it immediately.

Construction on the diversion channel was finally finished and the temporary dam was built. The current protective fence was left in place for possible future use; another protective fence was built around the James York Dam construction site. The steam engine was moved to the new site and dirt removal was begun. As the dirt was removed from the bottom of the valley, it was dumped into place to help build the dam. This dirt was tamped as hard as possible in preparation for the next step.

Once the dirt was shifted, the plan was to roll a very heavy roller back and forth across the pile of dirt to compact it before more dirt was added. It began to look like this phase of construction would be finished this building season.

"Johnson, you are falling down on the job! Construction is going too easy on the York dam. You have got to devote more attention to stopping the construction."

A crash of falling cans alerted the dragoons that someone was breaking through the fence. The progression of the cans falling from upstream to down signaled the riders the direction to move to confront the invaders. The break was at the upstream side of the construction site. All of the dragoons shifted to face an attack from that direction. A messenger on the house side of the valley raced to alert the main house.

There were twenty-five invaders rushing toward the steam engine. Everybody at the steam engine took cover and took up arms. The dragoons stationed there were armed with shotguns and the work crew was armed with carbines. They all tensely stared in the direction of the approaching attackers.

The first contact was made by the four mounted dragoons and their dogs. As soon as they were in range, these dragoons began to shoot their shotguns at the invaders and the dogs were ordered to attack. Some of the buckshot hit home; two riders were knocked off their horses and three horses were wounded and downed. These three invaders were out of action, even if only temporarily.

The dogs were very effective in breaking up the charge of the attackers by frightening the horses. The horses panicked the first time one was attacked by a dog; the scream of pain by the horse affected every one, both horse and man. The other dog jumped for a man's leg and caught it in such a way that the man was dragged from the saddle; he was killed when he broke his neck as he hit the ground. The dogs distracted the attackers so much that the defenders were not even shot at; not that it would have made much difference because of the difficulty of taking accurate aim from the back of a moving horse.

The chaos of the attack and defense held everybody's attention until the explosion! At the noise, the attackers turned to escape. They raced away, picking the still-living invaders from the ground.

The defenders all turned toward the piled dirt which was just settling back to earth. Apparently, during the attack, someone had slipped in and sneaked up to the pile of dirt with a charge of dynamite. That was the explosion they heard. This attack was actually a blunder by the enemy, because it did virtually no harm to the construction--the dirt was easy to replace; but it did serve to warn the York people of another avenue of attack. They would now have to extend the defenses to watch in all directions, not just the obvious one. This was not a real problem; it just required that a person be detailed to watch in the opposite direction during an attack.

In no time, the crater was filled in and packed and construction returned to the old routine. This time, there was no damage to the steam engine.

That evening, I had a short talk with Sarah about Bobby's future. He was now fifteen years old, so serious consideration must be given to this topic. I proposed that Bobby, if he was agreeable, be trained to manage the "row-crop" side of the York Ranch business. I could see us getting more into that type of business as water became available. Sarah agreed that Bobby should be given this chance, so I said that I would talk to him about it tomorrow.

The next morning during a break in his school work, I asked Bobby to come into my office. When he had come in and sat down, I asked him, "Bobby, how do you feel about the life of a farmer? You did such a good job with the large garden you had for the last few years, Sarah and I wondered if you would be interested in running a farm?"

Bobby's face began to glow with interest and enthusiasm as he answered, "Mat, I loved working with the garden. I would be in paradise if I could do that all my life. I have assumed that, one day, I would homestead somewhere and start my own farm. Why do you ask?"

I answered, "Sarah and I have plans to make use of as much of the York Ranch property as we can to grow 'row-crops.' Now that water will be available, we think that York Ranch can become another Eden. We wondered if you would be interested in managing the operation?"

"Oh, yes, I most certainly would be interested! But I don't know how to run a big commercial farm. Where would I learn how?"

"New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts opened about 10 years ago in Las Cruces. The have a course in agriculture which you could take and I am sure would teach you what you need to know to manage our operation. You are young enough that you have time to learn what you need to know to study there. Sarah and I propose to send you there to study as soon as you are old enough and can qualify. We don't think you would have long to wait."

"Oh, Mat, you can't imagine how grateful I would be if I could attend such a college! I will study hard and be ready when you decide to send me."

"OK, Bobby, then it is agreed. Now, go back to your studies here, and I will inquire what qualifications are necessary for you to attend."

Sarah spoke to Ann, "Ann, you are eighteen years old, now. Have you given any thought to your future?"

"Oh, Sarah, I have thought about it once in a while, but not seriously. I suppose that I will get married and have children. You know, the usual things."

"There is little doubt that a woman as pretty as you will eventually get married, but what will you do in the meantime? Also, you should consider what you can do to keep up your intellectual powers while you are immersed in domestic duties. That is a fancy way of saying, 'How do I keep from getting bored?' You will get bored if you don't prepare."

"But, Sarah, what can I do? All I have ever done is cook and clean and sew."

"Ann, your studies have shown us that you are intelligent and a fast learner. Why don't you learn to teach children? You could teach your own children and you could teach others. The study you would need to do to keep up with the goings-on in the world would keep you from being bored."

"That's a good idea. Florence has taught me so much, already, I'm sure that I could learn more from her. Maybe I could even help her as time goes on and there are more children to teach."

I had not forgotten the promise I once made to Ruby. We had a Negro working with the steam engine who was a lot better educated than the run-of-the-mill laborer. I asked him why he wasn't married and why he was content to work with the steam engine.

Roland said, "It all boils down to skin color! When I was a kid, I wanted to be an engineer. My mother worked as a cook and maid for a wealthy family in Las Cruces, so she asked for help in getting me educated. I really don't know why, but the wife agreed to include me in the tutoring her own children were getting. As a result, I received an excellent grounding in the classics and a good start toward a practical education. I devoured everything I could find related to engineering, but it pretty much came to naught. Who would hire a nigger engineer? So I wound up here, the closest I could get to engineering."