Chapter 1

I had it made and I knew it. My dad owned the big General Store in town and he was wealthy. We had a big ranch too, but Dad wasn't much a part of it. He furnished the money to buy the land and build the buildings. Our house was the largest anywhere around us, and even though it wasn't a rich county we were the richest people in it.

I didn't have much to do with Dad's store but I loved the ranch and working the cattle. Of course we had a foreman to make sure the hands took care of the cattle and the horses, but I had a regular job on it too. I was as close to a working cowhand as I could get, being the owner's son and all. I helped moving the cattle from pasture to pasture to keep them from over grazing spots and I was always around for branding or doctoring and such.

Still, it wasn't like a real job as a working cowhand would be. After all, my daddy owned the place and it was for damned sure I wasn't going to get fired. I really worked though, at least I did after I finished my schooling. The eight grade was enough of it for me and I liked working with the cows and horses much better than sitting in the one room schoolhouse.

I really liked hunting varmints and I used hell out of my Henry and my Sharp's 50-70 rifle. I brought in wolves by the dozen and I even skinned and tanned every hide from every wolf I took. Not to mention the few fur animals I could get.

My Dad tried to interest me in his store, but I wasn't having any of it. I didn't give the first shit about who wanted to buy what. I was polite to the customers and as helpful as I could be when I was forced to spend time there, but I hated it and I never let my Dad wonder about my feelings.

Daddy tried to build it up to me by taking me on buying trips to Ft Worth and I'll admit I liked the big city a little. Only trouble was it was only a week or so every now and then in Ft Worth and I usually ended up looking at ranching stuff while I was there. My biggest thing to come out of visiting Ft Worth was when I found a little company making cattle wormer. I talked my Dad into buying it and after we used it for six months our next drive to Ft Worth had the buyers nearly fighting over our stock and they brought three dollars a head over anyone elses.

It didn't sound likke much when you said it fast, but we took fifteen hundred head to market that year and forty-five hundred dollars extra was nothing to sneeze at.

Of course that was before the war started. Daddy nearly shit himself worrying about me joining the confederate army, and I'll admit I helped it along by reading up on everything that came in the paper about it.

The truth was I didn't give a fat rat's ass over waht the Yankees were doing and I gave even less of a shit about owning slaves. We didn't have a one on the place and none of us wanted any either. Daddy had given up on them years ago. They weren't worth a shit for working cattle because you couldn't trust them not to ride off when you put them on a horse, especially if you let them have a gun when they did it, and you couldn't work cows without a gun to run off wolves and other thieving animals.

Therefore we didn't give a damn if there were slaves around or not. We didn't have any investment in any and if they were outlawed we wouldn't loose a penny. Hell, most folks in Texas were in the same boat. We didn't raise cotton in Texas much and we didn't need a bunch of slaves to chop it or pick it.

I guess there must have been some fools using them though because Texas jumped out of the Union right along with the other southern states. Still, if Texans wanted to fight in the war they mostly had to move further east since we didn't raise a big standing army. Hell, I always figured it was from lack of interest.

The Union army never even made much of a try at attacking in Texas and we did at least have enough in the Army here to keep their asses out.

Really the war was good to us, specifically. Our beef brought more to feed the confederate Army and we supplied a lot of it. It did work its bad spots on Daddy's General Store though. Anything to do with fighting a war was cut off at the pass by blockades. He ran completely out of firearms to sell, among other things and black powder got hard to come by for a while there.

Luckily I had ahead of time news and bought up four thousand rounds for my Henry and a keg of black powder for my sharps rifle. I even managed to buy a Walker Colt that came in via smuggling and I was happy enough with it.

I was also happy as hell when the local gunsmith converted it to fire the 44 rimfire cartridges my Henry used. It took him three weeks to get it done, but after that all I needed the black powder for was my Sharp's rifle and I could never shoot good enough to use it on wolves and such out at the range it would reach. My Dad was happy enough when the war was over and the General Store actually gained a little ground.

The thieving Regulators stopped all that though. They were few and far between in Texas, but some of them did some nasty things. I was sixteen by now and considered myself a man and I had my fill of them even without ever getting really crossways of them.

One day they really pissed me off though. They cooked up some rule saying my Dad couldn't open his store for a week. It was all I could take and I took my best Henry out into the night and hid out in the woods near the road they all used getting to town.

I got lucky on my first day. I shot two of them dead as they rode into town together. I didn't try to rob the bodies but merely climbed down out of my tree and went back home. It was three miles walking each direction, but I stayed in the woods and out of sight.

Two weeks later I was in the woods again, but farther down the road. I shot the other regulator as he was headed into town and now we were rid of them. It only lasted about three weeks before four more of them were sent to our town.

Three weeks later I shot three of them on their way into town and riding together for supposed safety. The other regulator left town and never came back. He was the smart one.

The army must have been mad about this last stunt since they sent twelve troops with the next two regulators. It didn't matter to me since three days after they came to town I shot the two regulators and the Lieutenant leading the troops protecting them.

I expected the soldiers to come out into the woods looking for me, but they never. As soon as the Lieutenant hit the ground they turned tail and hauled their asses. More regulators and another officer to lead the troops to guard them showed up in another week, but when I shot the next two and the Major this time no more were forthcoming.

Oh, it didn't stop the regulators all together, but those were the last assigned here permanently. The others would only drop by for a day or two and they damned sure didn't advertise their presence nor did they make any waves. About six months later we did get another one who though he was something else, but I did for him after two days and his replacement showed up and never did a damned thing except for walking around glad handing and patting backs.

My Dad never asked me anything about the regulators, but I just had the feeling he was onto something. Lo and behold he came up with a flimsy excuse for sending me out West to look over the territory as he called it. It was jake with me, especially since he sent me off on my Sorrel stallion and with the best mule we had. He also gave me a thousand dollars in gold and stocked me up with plenty of ammunition.

It was probably due to the news a new bunch of regulators was coming in. They arrived two days before I was to leave, but wonder of wonders they were staying at the same place all the others had. It meant they had to come down the same road and naturally I was waiting for them.

I gave my Henry a rest that morning and climbed the same old tree with my 50-90 Sharps. I took out the regulators a hundred yards farther out and I cut down the new Lieutennant next. I hit him in the breast bone and he did an amazing back flip off his horse. Two of the six soldiers were dedicated and spurred their horses up the road intending to catch me. I took up the Henry and cashed their chips in and the other four rode back the other way at high speed.

Hell, I had my stallion, Red, and my mule Mose tied under the tree I was in and I took off along the edge of the road, staying in the woods for more than a mile.