Chapter 9: The Natural

As soon as they returned to the house Jesse poured the last of the coffee in the pot into two mugs and started a new batch brewing. He brought two rifle scabbards into the kitchen. Marie's short barreled thirty-two caliber brush gun was slipped into the smaller scabbard. The big sniper rifle went in the larger one. He placed them on the sink counter and brought out the big thermos. As soon as the preparations were all made, he sat and took the first sip of his coffee.

Marie was fascinated the way Jesse kept moving from one task to another. Jesse never slowed and never seemed to hurry as he did all the small tasks that needed doing. He seemed to be the perfect perpetual motion machine.

"Jesse, it makes me tired to just watch you," she told him. "You say, 'let's rest' and then find three more things to do before you sit down." She marveled again at the way he never ran out of energy and never seemed to hurry.

"Actually, if it had not been for the all the trouble those clowns brought down on me, this would be a pretty slack time of year.

"There is one thing I forgot to tell you though, this ranch is actually two ranches separated by a fifty feet wide finger of land that belongs to some California cattle outfit. They have been trying to make me pay dearly to get that little slice. I won't pay them and they have threatened to sue me because I keep 'trespassing when I bring my cattle across.

They even tried to fence me off once so I drove the cattle through their fine new fence. What they really want is half of our south ranch. Half of it is fair graze in the summer and I get two cuttings of hay of hay off of the other half of it.

"All told we own four thousand acres of land. Part of the south ranch is limited use land. We own it, we pay taxes on it and I filed the homestead rights on it. But we can only use it for graze. Every acre of the Home Ranch, that's this parcel of land, is all ours. We have full unlimited use of it all. So right after spring thaw begins we move all the cattle off of this range over to the South Ranch and graze them there. Then we get our two cuttings off of the rest of the land and use that hay to help get us through the winter.

"Our first priority, though, will be to get this New York bunch off of our necks and get on with our lives. We actually are sitting on a gold mine and don't even have a shovel to dig with right now. And I don't mean that supposed gold cache. Let's get to work

She got a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach as she watched him carry both rifles out to the Snow Cat and stash them. She wondered to herself how much of the danger he anticipated was real and how much was exaggerated or imagined ... Then she remembered the man she shot yesterday. God, this is like living in a nightmare. Why won't they just go away and leave us alone? She knew the answer.

She and Jesse had something the others wanted. The fact she did not know what it was made it all the worse. Right then, if Marie had known what the people who were hounding her and Jesse wanted, she would have given it to them. She hurried to climb up in the small snow cat and sit in the passenger seat.

As soon as Marie was in and secure he engaged the clutch and they began to move. The steel blades embedded in the rubber treads grabbed into the icy snow and pulled them forward. "This land of ours is beautiful as well as treacherous. Take nothing for granted and keep a sharp watch out."

She nodded without answering and looked out at the world of snow and ice and shadows of trees. The overcast sky brought a gloom to everything that seemed vaguely threatening to Marie. It is a gray and white world, all dead and still. She repeated the thought to herself, A gray and white world, all dead and still. She shuddered at the bleakness of her thoughts.

As if to contradict her dark thoughts, Jesse said, "Look over there. See that elk. He has been feeding pretty good. There's still plenty of grass under the snow for him to be in that good of shape." He steered toward the big animal. The elk took one look at the oncoming snow cat, turned and retreated back into the trees.

All thoughts of death and danger left her mind as she said in awe, "He was so beautiful. You don't let anybody in here to hunt, do you?" She hated the thought that some hunter could come up here and kill such a magnificent animal.

"I have this whole area posted for another reason. Damned hunters kill anything that moves. They shoot cattle, horses and each other. If the bushes move, they shoot and get all sorry when it wasn't what they thought."

Marie was not too certain he was joking or not. "You're putting me on, aren't you?"

His face clouded over at the mere thought of those he considered "useless easterners. "No, All too often when those fools from back east come up here they head out into the woods and blaze away. "Last year, while I was talking to one of the game wardens up here, a clown came past with an old mule of mine tied down in the back of his SUV. I recognized it was my mule at first glance. The old boy came with the place and I let him end out his days grazing around the house.

"I asked the dude what he had there and he told me he had shot a mule deer. I was so mad I almost dragged the idiot out of his fancy car to beat the hell out of him."

"Then what he said next made me change my mind. He told us he saw that big mule deer in some farmer's front yard and when he took his first shot, he broke a window. So he shot again and hit the mule deer. Then, to add insult to injury, he left twenty dollars to pay for a hundred fifty dollar picture window."

"Oh my god," Marie exclaimed.

Jesse snorted and continued, "Bill Jeffries, the warden arrested him on the spot for trespassing, hunting in a restricted area, hunting in a posted area and malicious and wanton destruction of property. "He told the fool that mule was my prize show animal that I kept fenced in my front yard so nothing would happen to it. Then he introduced me."

"Well, what happened?" Marie was positive this was not a tall tale.

"I said I would press charges and the dude was hauled off to jail. In justice court the next morning, he was scared, real scared. Judge Peters asked him how he pled and he started to babble and carry on. He offered to pay for the animal and told us all how sorry he was." Jesse stopped to chuckle at the memory.

"Go on, what happened?"

I agreed to take his nice new loaded with everything SUV in trade and drop all charges. Judge Peters didn't know the SUV was brand new and barely broken in. Not was he aware the mule was an old bag of bones I did not have the heart to shoot. He fined the guy all the travelers' checks he had on him and ordered him make out a bill of sale to me for the SUV. The price was one dollar and a show mule. I still have the bill of sale framed and hanging on the wall. That is one trophy I don't want to lose."

"Well, where is the SUV?" she asked, "I didn't see one anywhere since I have been here."

"You are sitting in it. I traded it for this snow cat and a snowmobile. I got the snow cat and two snowmobiles. Then a certain game warden got himself one of the new snowmobiles." He smiled at the memory.

"Remind me not to do anything dumb around you," she told him.

"You already have," he told her. "So from now on be real careful around me." She was relieved he had a smile on his face. He was much more fearsome than Barry in many ways.

Jesse drove along the edge of the old growth pine forest. It seemed so strange to her how the trees all grew up the mountain just so far and no further. Marie gasped as they headed up what seemed an impossibly steep slope. When they crested the top of the hill and the snow cat became level again, she sighed her deep relief. At last they stopped at a sheer cliff.

Jesse got out and motioned for her to do the same. He walked over to the edge and took a slow look across the country they had just crossed over. She could see the twin tracks the snow cat left in the snow, twin lines that seemed to draw closer and closer together until they became a single faint line. Then that line, too, disappeared into the mist in the distance. "All the country you see before you is our domain." He pointed to the south. "The South Ranch starts on the other side of those tracks there. That is the disputed strip of land that splits our two ranches.

"That California bunch has their main holdings up north of San Francisco and only run a feeder operation over there." He pointed to the southeast. "They use that strip as a short cut to the county road into Walden." He frowned and spat as if the very mention of the Californians left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Let's get back into the cat and head on down the east slope. I want to see how those cattle weathered the storm. I intend to move them across to the South Ranch to finish the winter there. When late spring roundup comes, we need to have them where the Texas owners can come in and haul their animals away without disturbing the rest of the operation.

Suddenly Jesse felt a flutter in the air, followed by the sound of a rifle shot in the distance. "Quick! Get in the cat!" Jesse yelled and sprinted toward the machine.

Marie was frozen to the spot where she stood. Jesse doubled back, grabbed her and threw her bodily into the passenger's seat. He ran around to the other side and vaulted up into the cab. He released the hand brake and threw the cat in gear at the same time. The small fifty-horse engine squalled as he raced toward the southeast corner of the plateau. The cat nosed forward over the lip of land and dropped three feet before it made firm purchase in the snow,

Marie screamed in fear and excitement as they raced down the steep incline. Halfway down Jesse began to angle to the left in a gradual arc, never easing up on the gas. At the bottom of the slope he saw a human figure race toward a snowmobile. The figure jumped on and started to race away. Jesse slammed the cat to a stop, jumped out and grabbed his new rifle. He snapped the bolt open and closed once, raised the sniper rifle to his shoulder and fired once. The snowmobile, far in the distance, flipped up into the air and came back down on its side. The person aboard the snowmobile flew through the air and landed in the snow. Jesse slid the rifle back in its sheath and hopped back into the cat. He hurried to the downed ambusher and stopped.

While still ten feet away from the downed body, Jesse stopped. "Get your gun and cover me," he ordered. He proceeded with caution as he approached his quarry.

Just as Jesse drew close, the stranger rolled over, aimed a heavy Colt revolver at Jesse and exclaimed, "Hello, sucker." A shot rang out and the man fell back, a hole blown through his chest. A red stain formed.

"Hello to you too," Jesse answered the corpse. He bent down and removed the handgun from the corpse's grasp and stood.

"You did good there Babe," he said over his shoulder. He sighed, bent over and lifted the dead man up and carried him the few feet to the snow cat. He heaved once and brought the body up level with the bed on the back of the snow cat. He removed his gloves long enough to lash the body into place. He put his gloves back on and got into the cat.

"I found his rifle and stuck it under the seat. I'll hang onto mine just in case," Marie told him. "Damn it, Jesse, I am still scared, but I'm so angry right now, I want to shoot someone else. They have no right, no right, no right at all." She started to sob, "Damn them all."

"Babe," Jesse glanced over at her and straight ahead again. "I'm glad you kept your eyes open this time. By the way, I think you're a natural shooter."