Chapter 2

The news from Jeff was a little disconcerting. I was done with my Dad for this lifetime, but I didn't wish him any bad luck, especially since my mother and brothers were still with him. It reminded me I hadn't seen any of my brothers since I'd been fired, but it wasn't like I could go out for a visit.

Things rocked along on a pretty even keel for the next few months. I made good money and didn't have much to spend it on. I didn't give a shit about beer or whiskey so I never darkened the doors of the saloons. I did put a few dollars into the collection plate at the church, which I'd just started attending.

I'd finally caught on I'd never meet a girl worth having if I didn't go to church now and then.

I didn't even hear about the big doings until the next day when one of the hands rode into town leading a saddled horse.

"Jake, your mother sent me to ask you to come to the ranch. Your Dad got kilt when he and Frank ran across a black bear, and Frank's hurt real bad. Your Mom told me to tell you she needs you," he said, and then took off to go for the doctor for Frank and leaving the saddled horse ground tied.

I told Jeb what had happened and then mounted the horse the hand had brought and rode out to the ranch. Mama was in the living room at the house, crying, and my brothers were all with her trying to calm her.

Bill, the oldest besides me, took me into a bedroom where Dad was laid out in a bed, or what was left of him was. It was easy to see the bear must have knocked him off his horse and torn into him while he was on the ground. After I took a look at him I went back out to sit beside mama and try to settle her down. She mostly just leaned on me, hugging me to her, and didn't talk much.

The doctor came out a little later, but Frank died not long after he got there so we sent for the undertaker too. He loaded the both of 'em up in his wagon and took them to town to mess with and said we could have them back for the funeral tomorrow.

It was sad and sadder around the house for the next few days. We had the funeral and buried both Dad and Frank on the place, and then we had to get back to living. Mother had me take her into town in the buggy and we went to see Dad's lawyer to get his will read.

It was about like I'd expected. It left the place to mother and me. It was common for a married man to leave a ranch to his wife and oldest son at this time, because a woman just didn't have as many rights as a man did. I stopped the buggy by Jeb's place and loaded up all my things on the way back out to the ranch. I told him about Dad and told him I had to take care of the place for mother now. He said he understood.

That night was the first I'd spent in my former bed since the day I was fired. I felt good in the morning when I woke and I was glad to see Juanita had breakfast ready when I made it to the dining room.

The hands were unsure of what was going to happen now when I showed up. One of them asked who was going to tell them what to do now, since Frank was dead.

"I will, as soon as I catch on to what's been happening," I said.

They at least clued me in that a big drive to Ft Worth had been planned to sell off some of the cattle, but they hadn't made a gather yet. I told them to mount up and get started and I rode off with them.

We worked our way around the south side of the ranch and then split up. Half of us spread ourselves along the western edge of the place and half of us along the eastern edge. We bunched the cattle near the middle and set about culling out the ones we'd be keeping to get started on for next time. We branded all the ones we were going to sell and while we had them up we cut the bull calves.

It took us a week to get them gathered and ready to drive to Ft Worth and I left the men mostly keeping them generally rounded up and rode to Ft Worth to see about making a deal. Dad had always just driven the cattle to Ft Worth and taken what he could get. I knew it was easiest that way, but it put you in a sort of bind to sell your stock once you had them in town.

It was sort of a pain in the ass to have to ride into town and look up the buyers at their hotels, but it would save a lot of extra work if you didn't find one who'd pay what your cows were worth.

Of course the buyers tried to ignore me, but I'd noticed there were damned few herds even close when I rode into town. I finally got to talk to one buyer and he hit me with a lowball price of eight dollars a head. Hell, I didn't even try to haggle with him. Eight dollars a head was too low to even start from. I just picked up my things and stood up, bidding him good day.

"Hey, ain't you even going to try to make a deal?" he asked.

"No, I'm not. I'm going to get on my horse and see if I can tell all the others headed this way the kind of shit you're trying to pull. Some of them may need to come give away a few cows anyway to get up enough cash to make it through, but I ain't got that problem. In fact, I'm going to offer them the same eight dollars a head you just offered me if they'll just drift their cows over to my place. With the money we've got I figure I can tie up the cattle business out of Ft Worth for at least a year and you can suck a raw egg while you're waiting for cows to buy."

"I can already tell you you'd best find another job cause you'll never buy a cow off a me, no matter what the price." I said, and he had been acting so uppity I watched him closely. He actually tried to make a draw, but I pulled my 44-40 and hit his hand with it as he tried to get his gun out. It broke hell out of his thumb and it made him trigger the round he'd already cocked to fire.

"The saloon was deathly quiet after his gun went off, except for his crying and squalling. Someone sent the swamper for the doctor before they even looked to see if anyone was shot. A deputy Marshal came in about then and he got over to us asking questions pretty quickly.

"Me and him were arguing over a fair price for beef, Jimmy. He took offense when I told him he wasn't offering enough and he tried to pull his gun on me. You can see I slapped his hand with my revolver as he was trying to draw and he's the one who triggered a round," I said.

"Jimmy asked the buyer if it was the truth and in between sobs about his broken thumb he admitted it was."

Jimmy was all business after that. He yanked the buyer up by the collar and then yanked his arms around behind his back and cuffed him. Somewhere along the line I guess Jimmy wasn't careful enough with the buyers thumb because he went down to his knees and began wailing about the pain again.

'You'll be crying when we hang you with a new rope too, I guess. The way I see it this was attempted murder and it gets the same penalty as a murder you done right. You're neck is going to get about six inches longer Mister big shot cattle buyer," Jimmy said.

Soon enough Jimmy frog marched the buyer out of the saloon and took him over to the jailhouse. I sat back down at the table and ordered another beer. Several of the other ranchers from around here came over to talk to me and I ran what I'd thought up by them.

I told them there was no way I could buy all their stock even at the low prices the buyers were offering, but I did tell them I could probably buy enough to let them get by until the next good selling opportunity.

"I'm not trying to buy your stock for nothing but I am trying to let you sell enough to get by without letting these thieves get their hands on any cattle. I don't know if it will work or not. But I do know if they can't buy any cattle they damned sure can't sell any meat back east. It's all I've got to say on the matter. I've got to check in with the bank to see how much cash I've got available and if you don't get what you think you ought to for your cattle ride over to our place in a couple of days and I'll see if I can help you out," I told them.

I went on by the bank to talk to the banker about what I was planning. He told me it was risky and that the cattle buyers had more money available than I did.