Chapter 7

The next day, Jason went into town and bought more cans and more blasting powder. He bought blasting powder in small grain size and in large grain size. The idea was that he would put a can of small grains inside a can of large grains and set them off with the same fuse. The small grains would burn much faster than the large grains and, hopefully, explode while the large grains were still burning. Jason's plans was to use this combination to start fires. Also, the can with the small grains would not split on landing so there would be more of a blast effect to scatter the large grains while they were still burning. A couple of experiments showed that this would work, but it was not an infallible weapon.

Jason also compared blasting powder and gunpowder in hand grenades and found that gunpowder was a little bit more effective in a hand grenade. The gunpowder had more oxidizer (saltpeter) in it so that it burned a little faster than the blasting powder. The difference was small, but there was no difference in cost, so why not use the gunpowder?

This business took a week, what with all of the other things he had to do, so Jason was not ready for another raid before his ranch was hit again. The rumor was that Henry Richards' new house had been completely destroyed by the fire that resulted from the explosions, and he was boiling mad. His eldest son had been burned in the fire, though not too badly, and he was the only fire casualty.

This attack was a repeat of the previous attack by the cowboys. There were just as many men in the attacking force, but, this time, some of them had shotguns. That would not be a serious problem because, unless they used cartridges, they would be impossible to load while the user was in the saddle, and Jason was willing to bet that they were all loose powder muzzle loading weapons.

There was no fooling around this time with shooting of pistols from outside the fence. A man dashed in and cut the wire while another cowboy dropped a loop over a post. He backed his horse away and ripped out more of the fence this time than he had done before, about 50 feet this time, but that made little difference.

The men still bunched up and made an excellent target for Bolivar to throw his hand grenades into. This time, Bolivar got off three grenades before the men were dispersed too much to be good targets, but he did manage to wound more men this time. For some reason or other, the horses were brought under control more easily and quickly than last time, so the cowboys were able to charge the house, firing their pistols and shotguns. Jason was right about the type of shotguns in use. The cowboys fired off two shots from the double barreled weapons and dropped them to start shooting their pistols. About the only difference the shotguns made to the cowboys was that there was more powder smoke for them to contend with. It really was no improvement from their point of view.

There was a steady blast of shotgun fire from the house and the firing platform, and the men on the firing platform were able to see over a lot of the smoke, so they had better targets than the enemy. This time, though, one cowboy did get lucky and put a bullet through the arm of Alberto, one of the relatively new-hires. Well, maybe the cowboy was not so lucky after all, because Alberto managed to shoot him in the head, and that was the end of one cowboy.

By the time the battle was over, Richards was storming around swearing at his own men because they were not accomplishing more, yet, he was careful to stay out of range of the shotguns.

This particular raid had come in too fast for Jason to get to the roof with his rifle, so he did not have the chance he had hoped for to shoot at Richards and the other ranch owners. Jason was going to have to come up with a solution to that problem.

This battle lasted about 25 minutes, and more cowboys were killed and injured than in the first battle. When the battle wound down, Jason let the cowboys collect the dead and wounded, but he did say that it was the last time. Next time, if there was one, Jason's people would keep shooting until there were no live cowboys left to interfere, then he would personally shoot every wounded, but still living man, he could find on his property! This sent a shiver down the spine of every able bodied cowboy, because they believed him.

The same four ranches had been involved in this attack, so Jason figured to spread the war to them over the next few weeks. The next ranch on his list was the Bar B Bar. He picked that one because it was his nearest neighbor and the easiest one to reach. Furthermore, he planned to hit them tomorrow night. The only reason he didn't want to hit them on this night was that they needed to repair some damage done by the attackers, mainly to the outside fence.

The contingent of riders leaving Jason's place was much the same as the one that had hit the Circle R almost a week ago. Arturo had picked the men to go with the raiders and the men to stay as protectors, but Jason let it be known that he had approved the list. That was to keep down the resentment against Arturo from those who had to stay behind.

They had a rough idea of what the Bar B Bar ranch house and environs looked like, but Jason had never personally seen it, so it was more of a fishing expedition than had been the attack at the Circle R. There was no fence surrounding the house, but there was a narrow, but deep gully that formed the equivalent barrier to attack by horsemen as did the fences. Therefore, they pulled up to the gully and deployed as they had done for the fence.

This time, they were spotted before they were fully in position, but the gunfire they received at this point was not anything to worry about. They fired a ranging shot, and, by now, Jason had gotten to be very good at estimating the settings for the trebuchet. The shot hit the roof of the house and broke through just as the bomb went off. The explosion was under the roof and went off with a powerful explosion showing that the outer canister had not been damaged by the impact.

There was a ceiling under where the bomb exploded, and this was blown in. The falling ceiling let some of the burning blasting powder fall into the living area below and ignited easily combustible items in that room. The second bomb did the same to another part of the roof. Jason fired a total of four of the improved bombs into the house, and his people left it a raging inferno. There was no way any part of that house was going to be saved.

The next morning, the raiders slept late, but that was the only concession to them as Jason got ready for the next raid, this time against the Rocking J ranch. A slightly different crew went out that night, but the results were the same. This time, the house they attacked was partially adobe covered with stucco, so they did have a different target.

There was a fence they stopped behind, and the range to the house was close to 100 yards, but Jason was confident of reaching it. Maybe not with every shot, but with enough shots to accomplish the purpose. The first shot actually overshot and landed behind the house. Jason made some minor adjustments, and the next landed very close to his aiming point. Satisfied with his tinkering, Jason proceeded to bombard the house with bombs.

The first shot to hit the house stopped dead when it hit the roof. They could not see well in the dark of night, but Jason assumed that it must be a sod roof, probably in the interest of fire resistance. The house was old and had withstood many Indian attacks, and that was probably at least part of the reason. This difference was only a detail as far as the bomb was concerned. When it went off, the bomb blew a hole in the roof much larger than had been achieved with the other two houses, but there did not seem to be much sign of a fire.

The next bomb was aimed at the same place, and it went through the hole made by the previous bomb. This bomb made it almost all of the way to the floor of the room where it exploded. By exploding in air, there was nothing to disturb the random pattern of burning pieces of blasting powder being thrown around. The floor was wood and there was no ceiling. The exterior wall was adobe, but the interior walls were all of wood. The furniture in the room added to the list of combustible items, and everything started to burn at once.