Chapter 4

I called an emergency meeting of our anti-KKK committee and showed them the two notes. They could see my seething anger while I waited for them to read the despicable words. It took considerable effort for me to calm down. "You can see why I am so angry. Sarah wasn't hurt, but two adults were murdered and I couldn't prevent it. I am looking for ideas on how to fight them. Can any of you suggest anything."

Jess Arnold said, "Short of contacting the Apaches or the Comanches and offering a bounty for KKK scalps, I can't see what else you can do! I'm not being flippant, James. I really feel for you, but it is nearly impossible to fight a shadow organization."

Honus Smith commented, "I agree with Jess. Tell us what you want us to do and we will do it. But I have no idea what else we can do."

Father Murphy offered, "What we have here is virtually a declaration of open war. Things have been trying enough, but what will the KKK do now to raise the stakes. I fear that we are in for considerable trouble before this is over. Also, I wonder if there is something deeper behind this whole KKK thing. The usual KKK member can't think beyond his nose. This requires much more cunning than they are usually capable of. Is there a hidden agenda we are not aware of?"

I looked a Fr. Murphy and said, "Yes, you may be right. Why are they so persistent? Any sane man would have given up as a bad job the idea of attacking us. This area has too many Catholics to be a fertile KKK recruiting ground. But what else can they want? Are they trying to ruin us economically so that many of our people will have to return to Mexico? For that matter, many have been here several generations; they have no Mexican home to return to."

Honus interjected, "James, I just had an idea! If we had elections, you could have any political post you wanted. You are so well liked and respected, you could become governor or senator or congressman whenever you wished. Could it be that they want to bring you down as a symbol of their power?"

Jess looked very thoughtful and remarked, "Honus may have the right idea. We may have been fighting the wrong battle. Keeping the KKK down around Julesburg is important, but not that difficult. You have been leading us to economic prosperity, James, and that may be what they really fear. As long as we had barely more than a hand-to-mouth existence, we were no threat to anybody, but as a prosperous entity, we would threaten what they stand for. They want a return to feudalism, an autocracy, with them in charge and us as the peasants groveling at their feet!"

"You have it, Jess! That is the key that we have all overlooked. The more prosperous we become, the more we threaten their ability to take over. That's how we fight! We fight to become more prosperous. We will eventually defeat them!"

I returned home much buoyed by this meeting. At last, we had a concrete agenda we could pursue. I knew how to fight economic battles. With that goal in mind, we could become a factor in NMT and, eventually, in the state.

But, in the meantime, we would have to organize with a siege mentality to withstand the KKK attacks. We must all be continually on guard, never relaxing our vigilance. This was going to put a strain on all of us, but we just had to cope!

Sarah was now nearly nine-years-old. Too young, but she would have to assume some adult responsibilities. One thing I really hated, she would have to learn to shoot well enough to defend herself. I must get her a pistol and teach her how to use it. I must to talk to that new gunsmith in Julesburg about his recommendations; maybe he could offer us some good advice.

From now on, Sarah would have to confine her riding to within a few miles of the house. I hated it that she would lose the freedom to roam anywhere she wished on our, her, ranch. I would cheerfully kill any and all who would confine her that way, but we must live the life we were given. We had to console ourselves that we were still better off than most.

Also, Sarah needed another tutor. She had made rapid progress, but she still had much to learn. I wondered if Fr. Murphy could recommend somebody. For a little while longer, I knew that she should continue her general education. But I needed to keep in mind that Sarah had to learn the ins and outs of business. So much to load on a little girl, but we had already received too many examples of how easy it was to end a life. I had to prepare Sarah for when I would no longer be here to look after her.

"It's 'Sarah this' and 'Sarah that' all the time. I'm so worried about Daddy. He never seems to think of himself. He is always thinking of me. I wish that he would relax and be his old self. Ever since Mother died, Daddy has been consumed either by grief or by concern for me. He must start to think of what he needs. He just will not take his illness seriously! He needs to find a doctor who can help him."

"Jesus, can we increase the acreage we have in crops?"

"Yes, James, we could. It all depends on the availability of water. More wells will let us plant more, but some of our wells are showing signs of running out of water."

"In that case, please talk to Sam about drilling more wells. It has become imperative that we get as much land under cultivation as we can. Meanwhile, I'll look into alternatives for wells. There must be something that we can do."

"Sarah, do you have time to make a short ride with me?"

"Oh, yes, Daddy. I'd love to ride with you as long as you like."

"Good. Please ask Sam to give us horses and assign two escorts. I'll be with you in a moment."

We rode west a few miles until we came to the small valley with the river running through it. "Do you remember this valley, sweetheart? It was one of your mother's favorite places."

"Oh, yes, Daddy, I remember it well. We used to come here often."

"This is a very important place, Sarah. You see the river down there? Well, this place can be the savior of York ranch. If we dam the end of of the valley so that the valley fills with water, we can use that water to irrigate our crops during the whole growing season. There is plenty of water in the river to keep the valley full, even in the driest summer. All we need is an engineer to build the dam for us."

"That's a grand idea, Daddy. I think that Mother would like it, too."

"I hope so, darling. Please never forget my dream for this valley. It can hold enough water to save us all."

"I won't forget, Daddy."

"Do you think James York has reacted as we wished to our messages?"

"No, sir, I am afraid not. He has redoubled his efforts to get more water for his ranch. He also has encouraged his neighbors to do the same. I think that this is all in preparation for growing even more crops next season."

"Damn that man! Will he never learn!"

"There is not much more that I can do against him with the resources I currently have available."

"We cannot divert more resources to you at this time. Make do with what you have. Try to disrupt his business with more attacks against his produce delivery system. That seems to be the best way for us to reach him at this time."

"Jesus, it looks like we can't get the US Army to help us in staving off the attacks on our produce wagons. My last request for help was turned down, with a side note to stop asking, because the US Army is too busy elsewhere to help against local bandits. Either they don't understand or they don't want to understand.

"Sam, how many men do we now have available for work on guarding the produce wagons?"

"We've got 22 men we normally assign to that duty. There are others we can use on a temporary basis, depending on other work assignments. I would say that, normally, we have about 34 or 35 available if I have two days notice."

We were so successful the last time we tried it, let's try again to ambush the ambushers. We can use the same basic plan we used the last time. We can just adjust the number of men assigned to each segment. It seems to me that three wagons with four riflemen per wagon worked well, but we need more riders. What do you men think of using eight riders with the wagons and the rest, as many as we can get, in the trailing group. They appear to be using more men to attack us, and I want to wipe them out, as we did before."

Sam said, "I think we can get enough for 12 to 14 men in the trailing group. That should be plenty to accomplish the task."

Jesus nodded his agreement.

Three days later, the wagons set out for Julesburg. There were four riflemen in each of the three wagons. There was one point rider, six riders along side the wagons, one drag rider, and fourteen riders in the trailing group.

There was not much effort at organization and discipline until they reached the main road. The riders arranged themselves as they rode out onto the road. At this point, they were very alert and careful; you could easily mistake them for professional army troops.