Chapter 4: The new broom

Martin frowned and looked down at Billy. "What are you talking about, Billy?" He looked at the now flustered dairy manager as he stared hard at the boy.

Billy frowned back at the dairy manager and explained, "Well, what they do is take the cows out the front of the barn, and send them over there through that gate." Billy pointed and Martin nodded his understanding. Well, that pen on the side of the barm has another gate that opens next to the back of the barn."

Billy looked up at his new father and pursed his lips. "The cows are pushed around, through the back gate and into the back door of the barn. This makes them go around through the back door and out through the front again. I watched five cows go through that side pen and through the back door again.

"Show me," Martin ordered. Then he stopped at the look of guilty rage on the manager's face. "No, you don't need to. I see the guilt on Mister Stedman's face. What I want to know is how many cattle do I actually have here and where are the rest? Tell me now." His face was dead calm as he looked at the now ex-manager's face.

"Damn that kid!" Stedman yelled and took a step toward Billy, one fist raised to strike.

Martin stepped sideways to put himself between Stedman and Billy. He twisted slightly sideways and swung a punch of his own that landed solid in the man's solar plexus. As Stedman started to fall, Billy scrambled between his legs and kicked the back of one knee. Stedman fell sideways before he could recover and strike back. Martin's right knee came up into the ex-manager's face when he scrambled to his knee and began to stand. Martin heard a gun shot behind him and turned to see his daughter holding a smoking gun in her frail hand. A dairy hand stood stock-still with one arm raised. In his right hand he held an axe handle. He stared with fearful fascination at the small girl.

"Let me have that," Billy ordered as he hurried up to the girl. She nodded her head once handed the heavy weapon over to Billy. "Now she's a girl and she missed. I'm not a girl, I won't miss," he told the hand as he started to move forward. The man stopped still.

"Better let me have it, Billy," Martin said as he reached down for the gun.

"No!" Billy yelled, aimed toward the barn and fired. There was a scream of rage from the barn. "Get out here now!" Billy yelled, "I missed on purpose that time. Next time I won't."

Martin looked toward the barn. Another dairy hand stepped out, hands in the air, a gun in his left hand. Without thought, Martin ran to one side and jerked the revolver out of the man's hand. At the same time he grabbed the pistol, he smashed the man in the face. "Get over there with your two friends." Billy had pointed the big revolver at the one who had wielded the axe handle.

"I'll take it now, son," Martin told the boy.

Billy handed it up and said, "You got some bad people working for you."

"Not any more, Billy, thanks to you." Martin herded the three toward the office. "You kids stay behind me. If I have to shoot, I don't want to try to shoot around you."

Billy argued, "Better let me go into the office first. If there's someone in there, you can shoot these three first."

Martin looked at his ex-manager. "Well, am I going to shoot you if there's someone in the office? Because you will die first and these others will be next, both of them. Mark my word, you will die first, Stedman."

The one who had tried to sneak up on Martin with the axe handle yelled, "Come on out, Troy, I don't want to get shot today."

A fourth man came out of the office. Martin motioned for him to join the other three. "Billy, go into the office and call the sheriff. Tell him to come out to the Summers' Dairy Farm. Tell him bring a couple of deputies.

"What do you want me to do, Father?" Colleen asked, anxious not to be left out.

"Keep a look out behind me in case there's anyone else around. I have to watch these four." Martin stood with a gun in each hand.

"The feller that answered the telephone said They're sending out three cars of deputies," Billy called from the office door.

"Thanks, Billy, get over there with Colleen and watch hard for anyone else behind us. I want to keep my eye on these in front of me.

"You ain't got nothing on any of us, Stedman yelled at Martin. You can't make nothing stick." He sneered at Martin.

"He sold a half a beef to the Road House. I saw that with my own eyes. Ike paid him cash for it and didn't give no receipt," Billy stated.

"He didn't give any receipt, Billy," Colleen corrected.

"Yeah, that's what I said." Billy squinted his eyes and stared toward the barn. He saw a slight movement. Then a cow that had wandered in the side door came out the front door of the barn. He sighed in relief.

"As soon as the sheriff gets here, we have to go back to town. I need to hire a new crew out here. Those cows must be milked in about six hours. You know any dairy workers looking for a job?"

"No sir, I know where there's a whole lot of farm hands that are out of work. They have to milk cows. There's always a few hanging around the pool hall waiting for someone to come in and offer them a job. Times are hard right now, you know."

Martin smiled at the way Billy had adopted one of Colleen's sayings. "I certainly am glad we found you, Billy. You are an asset to any family." Martin smiled. He couldn't see the look of pleased surprise on the face of the boy behind him.

"Well, I found him, Father. Please remember Billy is mine." Colleen wanted her claim established first.

"Well if that don't beat all. First I don't have nobody except a mother that don't care much for me and then I got me a whole family. I'm sure glad you give me that piece of chicken, Princess." In the distance Billy spied a moving dust cloud that followed the road. He pointed it out to Colleen.

"The sheriff is coming, Father," Colleen told him, proud to be of use again.

Minutes later four vehicles came into the yard. Men in khakis with deputy sheriff's badges pinned on their chests got out. They quickly took the four men as prisoners. "You'll have to come in tomorrow morning and swear out a complaint against them, Mister Summers." The lead deputy was anxious to curry favor with Martin. He was in his fifties and started to look forward to a retirement job.

"Thank you," Martin answered politely. "I'll be in first thing in the morning." He stood watching as the deputies load the four prisoners into the cars and drive off. Colleen stood on his right side and Billy on the left. As soon as the sheriff's cars had become dwindling specks of dust in the distance he patted each child on the shoulder and said, "Come."

"Colleen, your mother was right," he began without preamble as soon as they had entered into the messy office. "You are a fearsome warrior in your own right. You are brave and resourceful. I am so proud of you. How did you know I had that pistol in the car?"

"Father, Every month or so you remove the gun from its holster, bring it into the house and clean it. Then you replace it in the holster and slide the holster back under the seat. I observe things, you know." She gave him one of her newly acquired princess smiles.

"And you, Billy, That was brave and resourceful of you to attack that man and set him up for me. You showed good judgment when you helped Colleen and shot through the barn door, purposely missing that man. How did you know he was in there?"

Billy grinned and answered, "Aw, I saw the way the one with the axe handle kept looking at the barn. I figured there was someone in there. I was just bluffing when I said I missed on purpose. I wanted him to think I knew exactly where he was. I play good poker, too."

Martin laughed, "I just bet you do. You two kids saved our bacon with your quick thinking." He squatted down on the floor and hugged them both. I am so proud of you, so very proud of you both."

Martin stood and walked over to the telephone on the wall and cranked it hard. "Operator," he said as soon as there was a response to his ring, "This is Martin Summers. I would like to be connected to the pool hall in Woodman. No, I do not know the number. Thank you."

Billy and Colleen were excitedly replaying the exciting adventure. "You sure looked funny holding that big gun when you could hardly hold it up," Billy told Colleen. Now since you're now my sister you and me are going to look out for each other always."

"And since you are now my brother, you will become more intelligent and learn to speak better. You are improving daily, you know."

"I got a princess for a teacher," Billy told her happily, "And that makes all the difference in the world."

"Hello," Martin said into the telephone mouthpiece. "This is Martin Summers. I need five dairy hands who know how to milk and care for a dairy herd. Are there that many men there looking for work?"

"Mister, is this some kind of a joke? If it is, it's a cruel one. We have eight good farm hands who have been hanging around all day in hopes of even a couple of hours work. These are desperate times," the voice in the hand held ear piece said.

"Look, this is not a joke. I am at my main dairy farm right now. I just had the crew arrested for stealing.

They have been arrested and there are at least sixty cows that need milking. I want five men to replace the four I just got rid of. If one of those men has an automobile I would appreciate it if he would bring the others."

"Will Gwinn has an old Ford truck. There's no gas in it, though. He says it runs fine if it has gas and oil."

Tell him to go to the Socony station and..." he stopped and rethought. "I'll send Alfred my gardener to pick those men up. He will be driving our Packard town car." Martin listened as the man at the pool hall relayed the news to the out of work men there. There were faint whoops of jubilee sounded in his ear.

Then the pool hall man came back on the line, "There are six good seasoned farm hands here and you have five jobs. Who do I tell he's out of luck?"

Martin had never given much thought to out of work people. Suddenly he realized that there was only one proper solution. "Send all six. We'll work it out later." Even as he spoke, he felt pleased with his decision. He cranked the phone again and said, "Operator, this is Martin Summers again. I wish to be connected to my home phone. The number is ... Oh, you already know it. Thank you."

"Summers' residence," he heard Matilda answer the telephone.

"Matilda, please tell Arthur to take my Packard and go to the pool hall and transport six men out here to the dairy farm. They will be waiting. Then put Missus Summers on the phone."

He waited until he heard Millicent's voice. "Hello?" she said.

"Dear, the children and I shall be a bit late. There was an emergency here at the farm wee settled in an amicable fashion. Thanks to Billy the problem was noticed and resolved. It seems we shall not be home until close to six."

"Emergency? Was someone hurt? What happened?" Millicent's voice was filled with alarm.

"Calm down, dear, because of the children I have discovered we had a crew of thieves working for us. You were right when you said our daughter is a tigress. Here, she wants to talk to you." He handed the receiver to Colleen and lifted her up into a chair so she could speak into the telephone.