Chapter 13

The three lawmen left for home the next morning and made it without further delays. Caleb left the other two and headed for the Circle J where he was met by Susan, his new wife. She was solicitous enough to ask if Caleb was tired and needed to go to bed right away. He agreed that he was interested in going to bed, so they had a very late supper that night.

The next morning, as they were eating breakfast, Jake came bursting in with a horrible announcement, "Most of my cattle has been rustled. I need yer he'p findin' the bastards what done it. Kin ya come with me right now?"

Neither Caleb nor Susan hesitated in rushing to Jake's aid. Caleb said, "Let me gather up my kit an' I'll be with ya as soon as Susan kin fix us some food ta take along." Caleb went to pack his saddle bags while Susan made them up a sack of food to last 3 or 4 days. She had the food ready by the time Caleb had fetched his horse, so Caleb and Jake were ready to leave for Jake's ranch within half an hour of when he first showed up.

That many cattle on the move leave quite a conspicuous trail, so there was no problem following them cross country. Indications were that the cattle had been rustled only about 8 days before Jake and Sam got home, so there was some reasonable hope of finding them before they disappeared completely. It looked like the herd was being driven toward Mexico. The Southern market for beef had pretty well disappeared with the end of the war, since nobody had the Yankee currency to use for buying meat. However, the market for hides was still good in Mexico, and that was where most of the Texas cattle were being sold at that time.

The trail of Jake's cattle merged with other cattle trails before too long, so that there was a huge herd from several sources headed toward the Rio Grande. Along the way, the Three Musketeers encountered men from three other ranches who were trailing their stolen herds, so there was a total of 9 men on the trail of the cattle by the time they reached the river.

The bank on the eastern side was badly torn up by the cattle milling around, but there was no sign of any cattle leaving the river on the western, the Mexican, side. That meant that the cattle had not crossed the river, so where the hell were they? The only possible answer was that they were still on the river. The cattle must have been put aboard boats and shipped down the river, but why? There was only one way to find out!

It didn't take the men long to figure all of this out, and they started down the river at a lope, hoping to catch up to the fleet of boats hauling the cattle before too long. The Rio Grande was not at flood stage, but there was plenty of water to push the current along at a faster than normal pace. As a result, they spent several days following the river trying to catch up to the cattle boats.

They had traveled all the way past Laredo before they caught the boats. It turned out that the boats were actually keelless barges which were being towed by a single steamer. The steamboat was not doing much work beyond keeping the barges in the center of the river, the current was providing the motive power. The boat and its barges were not stopping for anything, so there was no way that the chasing men could do more than simply keep pace with the fleet until it reached the end of its journey.

It was an exhausting trip, but it finally ended at the Gulf of Mexico. The steamboat guided the barges alongside some rather large ocean going ships and the cattle were transferred on board. The men stared at the operation in frustration until Jake suggested that they hire a small boat to take them out to the scene of the activity.

They pooled their cash and managed to hire a boat to take them to the nearest large ship. The boatman agreed to wait while they transacted their business. Just in case, before leaving the shore, Caleb deputized the 6 other men as members of a posse chasing stolen cattle. This gave them a legal reason for boarding the ships.

Caleb identified himself and demanded to speak to the captain of the ship. There was stalling around, but Caleb finally leaned real hard on the Mate and was taken to see the Captain. Again, Caleb explained why he was there, but he got no satisfaction from the Captain. That worthy claimed that he was just collecting some cattle for transport to New York City under charter from a company located in New Orleans. He claimed that he didn't own the cattle, he was just providing transportation as a common carrier hired for the purpose. However, he did provide the name of the chartering company. Caleb ordered him not to leave port until Caleb could get a clarification from a judge, and Caleb left a member of the posse on board to enforce the order.

They visited the 3 other ships loading cattle and got the same story, so Caleb reacted the same way. He then went into town to find a federal judge to issue a restraining order. It took most of the day, but Caleb was finally successful in getting his court order which he served on the ships' captains that same day. This action locked the ships in port for the time being, but the question was what to do with the cattle.

Jake talked to the other men, and they all agreed that they were strapped for cash and would be happy to sell their cattle at a fair price. In fact, they had all been looking for a buyer for some time. All the stolen cattle were properly branded, so the owners could prove that the cattle really belonged to them. They went back to the judge and explained the situation to him. The judge lifted the restraining order on the condition that a count of each brand be delivered to him. That way, they would know how many of each brand were aboard each ship. The idea was that each of the true owners of the cattle would eventually be paid for them.

At this stage, there was no way to find the actual rustlers, because the men on the barges claimed that the rustlers had loaded the cattle on the barges and then disappeared. No money had ever changed hands during this time. The river men claimed that they had no way to know that the cattle were stolen, and there was no way to prove otherwise.

The result of all this running around was that the 4 ships were allowed to complete the loading of the cattle and sail for New York City, and the posse went home. Jake and Sam also went home, with the intention of giving Susan the complete story. Meanwhile, Caleb took passage on the next ship sailing for New Orleans; he intended to pay a visit to Union Trading Company at their home office as soon as he could.

Three days later, he sailed for New Orleans and arrived in that city in due course. He spent the first day in getting settled in a hotel and visiting a federal judge he had been directed to, to be sure that all of the legal niceties were covered.

Union Trading Company had the fanciest office Caleb had ever seen. The office was on the main floor of a building in the center of the financial quarter of the city. The entry door opened on to a large room filled with desks and clerks working at those desks with a determined intensity. An office manager walked around carrying a "swagger stick" which he used to prod a worker who seemed to be producing less than he thought appropriate. The swagger stick might well have been a large whip for the way it got the attention of the clerks.

Across the front of the office, about 10 feet in from the doorway, was a large counter which ran the full width of the room and kept the public well insulated from the working class laboring at their desks. There was a sign in the exact center of this long counter labeled "RECEPTION," and standing at near military attention near the sign was a young gentleman in a frock coat with all the accouterments.

Caleb was almost intimidated by the scene as he entered the office and walked up to the counter, but quickly recovered and had to restrain himself to keep from laughing. His rough Western clothes were in stark contrast to the polish of the receptionist's garb. The receptionist regarded Caleb with obvious distaste and said, "The service entrance is to the rear, my good man. Please take your business there."

This did tickle Caleb's funny bone and he was forced to laugh. Quickly regaining control, Caleb said, "Look here, sonny boy, I'm a Federal Marshal here on official business, an' ya' better snap ta business afore I git riled. I want ta see the man in charge, an' I ain't got a lot of time ta waste. Now, ya best show me ta him, ifen ya know what's good fer ya."