Chapter 13

Just before noon the next morning the bells started tolling at the Double-M. Jacob hadn't sent more than a half a dozen workers out to the fields that day and the stock was corralled or in a grazing pasture.

Every person who could use a gun was nearby — about four dozen Jacob guessed.

He rode out with Sam and Earl to a clearing. He knew Susan and Ann had him covered with the rifles if the men pulled up close enough. But he also knew he was in danger if the men stopped at rifle range.

The column stopped half a mile down the lane — well outside where Jacob would be at risk and a lone ride came forward with a red bandana tied to a stick.

Jacob chuckled when Jim Harcourt hailed him.

"Jacob, we're just here to visit with you," he said. "The others are going to stay behind or they are willing to give up their guns if you let them come up with me."

Jacob motioned Jim forward.

"My guns are in my saddlebag," Jim said with a smile. "I didn't want no misunderstandings."

Jacob gave the word and the whole group headed back to the house. They were approaching the main house when he heard Susan yell, "That's far enough, Jacob."

Jacob glanced up and smiled at the two women who he was certain had the group in their sights.

"It's OK, ladies," Jacob announced. "They've surrendered peacefully."

That brought a round of laughter from the group but no one took a move forward. They had seen the accuracy the day before and it had given them cause to think.

"OK, Jacob," Susan said.

The group started forward slowly and dismounted at the house.

"There ain't room for all of you inside," Jacob said. "But the bunkhouse is just a ways down that way. Go help yourselves to something to eat and get cleaned up if you wanna."

The rest of the hands went off leaving Jim and Jacob alone.

"Let me get my wife — if I can do it without getting shot, that is," Jacob said. He gave the double knock and Juliette opened the door.

"I heard that, Jacob," she said in mock anger. "Marnie is doing fine."

"She is in good hands," Jacob said. "Hon, do you feel like coming out? Jim Harcourt is here and I think he wants to talk business."

"Business?" Marnie asked. "As in he wants to negotiate for that thief or he wants to talk about our offer?"

"Your offer," Jacob said sweetly. "I remember distinctly being told that we had enough gunslingers running around this ranch and not to bring no more out."

Marnie waddled out — but only after slapping Jacob on his arm.

"It's nice to see you again, Mr. Harcourt," Marnie said.

"Jim, please, ma'am," he said. But he was looking past Marnie — at Juliette Jones.

"I'm Marnie then," Jacob's wife answered. "And that is Juliette. She is my friend and she's been a God send the past few months."

Jim blushed as he extended his hand in greeting.

Juliette was blushing just as furiously as she shook.

"My pleasure, Miss Juliette," Jim said. "My pleasure indeed."

Marnie took charge of the meeting from the get-go.

"Now, I understand you want to discuss what I offered yesterday," she said.

"No, ma'am," he said. "Uh, no Marnie. I don't want to discuss it. I want to accept it. You can name the terms but I think I do want a new start. The other boys do, too."

"Oh, well, then it's settled," Marnie said with a glance toward Jacob. "You get room and found and $5 a week. You're responsible for working with the stock. We have other hands who help in the fields so you won't need to worry about that."

"Ma'am, that's an awful lot of money for a horse roper," Jim said.

"It is," Marnie answered. "Jacob might have other duties for you from time to time but those are rare. But, well, we lucked out and we have money. So we pay a little more to bring in people that we trust. If we find we can't trust you, you go."

Jim nodded.

"Well, sounds like a little spot of heaven to me," he said, but he couldn't help but glance at Juliette. "I'm in and I think I can speak for the boys."

Jacob had sat quietly but now he spoke firmly.

"Jim, like you I don't want any misunderstandings," he said. His gaze was level and icy — a fact not lost on either Marnie or Jim Harcourt. "Those boys, for the time being, are going to be your responsibility. If there is someone there you don't know or you don't trust you need to send them on their way. Because, as God as my witness, this is the absolute truth. If any of those boys is coming in here while working for that gambler and they so much as cause my family a second's grief, here's what's going to happen."

Jacob leaned forward and his gaze hardened.

"I'm going to kill each and every one of them, Jim. You included. Then I'm going to spend the rest of my life going from place to place and killing everyone you and those boys ever knew. I'll find your mothers and your sisters and your children, Jim, and I'll put every last one of them in the ground. So you better make damned sure that those boys you brought in are on the up and up."

Jim Harcourt was not a man who was afraid of much but he gulped noticeably when Jacob sat back in his chair.

Then he nodded. He knew Jacob had spoken the truth. And he also knew that there were a couple of boys he wasn't willing to take a chance on.

A few weeks later, Jim joined Jacob on the porch one Saturday morning. Jim had taken to the life on the Double-M and he enjoyed waking up in the morning without worrying if it was going to be his last.

He had been invited to eat at the main table many times but he always declined. Sam and Earl had been there the longest and he didn't want it to look like Jacob was playing favorites. But the truth was that Jacob had worked with Jim several times and he trusted the man.

And the other fact was that outside of his family, Jacob Dunleavy trusted few people.

Jim would from time to time join Jacob on the porch or in riding the range but he mostly tried to spend his time with the other hands — and on keeping an eye on the ones who came with him.

They were all good boys, he thought, but money can turn a man's head pretty easily. Jim had sent two of the gun hands packing before they even unpacked.

He told each man the same thing: Jacob had decided that anyone Jim was unfamiliar with had to go but they would be welcome to return after the gambler was dealt with.

The first man took it well. He said that he understood and he wouldn't put his family at risk by bringing in someone hired by an enemy if the situations were reversed. He stopped by the main house to let Jacob know that he planned to take him up on the offer to return — but only if he could bring his wife and daughter with him.

Marnie promised that she would wire him as soon as things were straightened out.

The second man turned away did not take the news well. He almost got himself shot for his trouble but Sam, Earl and Jim escorted him to town and told him not to come back to the Double-M.

Jim wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if the man hadn't headed straight to the gambler to tell him that his plan hadn't worked.

Most times when Jim and Jacob sat together they talked about people they knew and places they had been. But Jim had a different agenda this time.

"Jake, I was wondering," he said in his Alabama drawl. "Just how'd you come to run a home for wore out gunslingers."

"Really didn't start out that way," Jacob said. "First year I was here, Marnie and me put in the crop together, just the two of us. Planned to take it out that way, too. Her husband got himself shot over a card game and left her with a passel of debts. I had enough money to pay them off for her but, well, you seen how she is."

Jim laughed and nodded.

"So you married her?" he asked.

"No, that was a ways away," Jacob replied. "She had to go up to Oklahoma and tend to her sister-in-law. She was gone for four or five months. So I paid things off and hired in some people to get the crops in. We got lucky a couple of times. First I found a couple of bags with nuggets in them. I don't how long they were buried there but it must have been a while. I took them to NMT and came back with more money that I ever saw in my life. But I also brought back some stock that I won in a card game — and a couple of old friends who needed someplace to be. You know how that is."