Chapter 3

Jim lay awake that night in his uncle's spartan but comfortable room thinking of all of the events that had occurred in the last few weeks. The reality and permanence of Angel he now carried in his mind and heart was a comfort to him among all of the uncertainty the future held. He felt that as long as he could continue to call her his own he could face anything.

Jim and Angelina slept in adjoining rooms and he woke early in the morning to the rustling sounds of her dress as she headed for the kitchen. She had the cook fire built up to warm tortillas and fry potatoes and eggs by the time he had climbed into his clothes and followed her.

The Padre had finished his morning devotions and joined them by the time coffee was ready. He was feeling as exuberant as the two young lovers and eloquently compared the Rocking H to the great Baronies of the old country.

Tom joined them for breakfast as Jim had asked him to the evening before. Jim wanted to find out if there were any pressing details such as payroll for the men or provisions he needed to attend to.

Tom explained to him that Jack had authorized him to withdraw from one of the ranch accounts at the bank to pay the wranglers and to buy provisions. Jim assured him that if things had worked out all right that way before he wasn't about to change anything now. He told Tom he would update the permission signatures for that the next time he went by the bank.

Jim asked Tom to continue handling the ranch exactly as he had done before except he wanted an around the clock guard kept on the eastern boundary even if it required hiring several more hands to do it. He told Tom they would leave in about an hour, there were a couple of things that he wanted to check into immediately, and he would continue to base his investigation in town until further notice.

"One of my prime objectives, to use a military term, is to search the Circle B! You'll be one of the first to know if I find anything." Jim assured him.

"Oh yes." Jim continued. "Angelina asked me last night if she might take that gray into town if he weren't a personal horse. She sure took a shine to him." Tom told them he was honored she approved of a horse he had trained and told them if that was all that he was needed for he would go catch up her horse himself.

They left out with the Padre driving the buckboard while Angel and Jim scouted each side of the road on horseback. It was still early enough to be cool and enjoyable riding. They especially enjoyed seeing wagonloads of long-eared jack rabbits, a number of large herds of deer, and coveys of quail.

They agreed during a stop they made at a scenic place where the road ran beside the river that the short trip had been a memorable one for all of them. Jim told the Padre he would always be a welcome and hopefully a frequent guest to the ranch.

Angelina was thrilled when Jim asked the Priest if he would mind assisting them in drawing up plans for a small chapel he wanted to build at the ranch for Angel's wedding gift.

"Have you ever met such a dear man, Father?" She asked. "My family will be so proud when they hear of this, Jim. You make me so happy I could cry!" To Jim's consternation she did exactly that!

Jim told Angelina, "I'm sorry I made you cry, Angel. I thought building a chapel for you would make you happy!" This in turn made her laugh and the Padre and Jim joined in laughing as she sat on the big gray laughing as tears ran down her cheeks! "I guess I'll never understand women, Padre." Jim said as soon as he could talk again.

"And if you ever think you do you will really be mistaken!" The Priest finished for him. This set them all to laughing again.

The rest of the ride into town was just as pleasant if not as noisy and when they got into town the Padre thanked them wholeheartedly for having shared such a pleasant trip with him. He told them he would have the team and buckboard delivered back to the livery himself so they went on to the Broken Spoke.

Angel tied her horse to the rail and as soon as Jim alighted off of his stallion she grabbed his hand and rushed into the saloon with him in tow. "Bert, Bert, you won't believe it!" She shouted. "The rancho is so beautiful, the house is exceedingly grand, and the vaqueros are all so very nice!" Angelina subjected Bert and his customers to a long and vivid description of the Rocking H while Jim sat back and rapturously watched her enthusiastic display.

Later on in the day, Jim talked to Buck about Bill Brown and the Circle B. He told the Sheriff he wanted to go scout out the ranch, and he used the old sheriff as a sounding board as to what tactics he should use to look for evidence.

The fact that he would be scouting out Brown's home range caused him to be a little skittish about just riding in and checking. Brown had shown a lot of savvy at concealing evidence so far, but Jim hoped the grounds of the Circle B would be his weak spot.

Buck asked Jim to take him along as well but Jim insisted that he could get in and out quieter alone. Buck seemed to understand that Jim wanted to attempt this undertaking by himself.

The sheriff reached into a drawer in his sturdy oak desk and drew out a percussion six-shooter and holster. "I thought you might want to take this with you. It's Jack's gun." Jim accepted the gun with reverence knowing Buck was both showing him respect and honoring him by giving it to him at this time. Jim slung the oiled gunbelt over his shoulder.

Buck then drew Jim a map of the locations of buildings and line shacks that he knew of on the Circle B and then Jim went to the store for more ammunition for his 44-40s. While he was there he bought a dozen sticks of dynamite, several blasting caps, and fifty feet of fuse as if he were going to do some rock blasting. He had an idea for a diversion for Mr. Brown that he had used on several cases before.

The storekeeper sent a helper out to a shack on the edge of town to fetch the dynamite. While the helper was gone, Jim looked around the store and he bought a handful of pretty ribbons he thought might please Angel, then he bought a sack of rock candy for Jasper. Jim saw a jar of the licorice sticks that he personally favored and he asked the storekeeper to throw in a sack of them, while he was at it.

Jim paid for all of his purchases when the helper got back with his dynamite. He sauntered back toward the saloon while chewing on a stick of the tough licorice candy. On an impulse, he wandered over to the railway depot. There was a large, dark-haired man sitting behind the desk in the office. Jim introduced himself and the man stood up to shake his hand.

"I'm Wiley Martin, the depot clerk; just call me Wiley." The big man said courteously.

"Wiley, I was wondering if you had any records showing the number of cattle shipped out of here each year?" The man said nothing in reply. Jim noticed Wiley was looking hungrily at his licorice stick. Jim laughed and handed him the sack! "Your mother sure named you right, Wiley!"

Wiley pulled a stick out of the sack and took a big bite. He sat back down at the desk and slid back the top as he chewed. He ruffled through a stack of papers, and then he threw several down on the desk in front of Jim. "Here's the totals for the last five years, I break it down in totals for each ranch so it'll be easier to bill them later for the shipping."

Jim carefully looked over the papers. With Wiley's help, it only took him a few minutes to find that the steers shipped from Bill Brown's ranch had doubled since he had bought it out, while all of the neighboring ranch's total number of shipments had declined about the same amount. Jim knew this was all circumstantial evidence, but then again, many a man had swung from a high tree branch for less!

"Thank you, Wiley, you've been a big help to me." Jim headed on back to the saloon. He had an awful lot to think about and more preparations to make. He arrived back at the saloon just in time to see Angel corner a new arrival. She was still so excited about their trip to the Rocking H that she was going to make sure everyone heard all about it.

Jim went to the back of the building to his room. He left the sack containing the dynamite there for the moment and carried his saddlebags back into the saloon so he could be near Angel while he worked.

"Here, Angel." Jim handed her a sack. "I picked you up some pretty hair ribbons while I was at the store." Angel thanked him with a kiss and a hug! Jim was about to give the rock candy to Jasper, but he thought of a way to have a little fun with it first. He carefully pulled a piece of the crystalized sugar from one of the sacks and placed it out on the table.

"Bert!" Jim called. "I reckon you've probably had a passle of prospectors through here, have you ever seen a rock that looks anything like this before?"

Bert came over and picked up the crystals, he carefully examined them, turning them from side to side. "It sort of looks like a poor grade of topaz."

Angel came over to Jim's side and put a hand on his shoulder. She took a piece of the crystal from the sack. She gave him her opinion. "Whatever it is, it's very pretty!"

An older man who Jim had known was a prospector walked over and took the chunk of crystal from Bert. "I've done some mining, these crystals aren't topaz, but they do resemble colemanite, there are several large deposits of it in Death Valley, out California way." The man looked closer. "No, I don't think these are colemanite, either."

This really started some arguing! Two other men gave their opinions and Bert and the old miner both disagreed with them. Jim let the speculating go on for a spell and then he walked over to Bert, who was holding the crystal up to the light. "If I'd known this stuff was going to start an argument," Jim said, as he grabbed the crystal and popped it into his mouth and crunched it. "I'd have eaten it before now!"

As the startled men eyed him, Jim handed the sack to Jasper; "Have some rock candy, Jasper!" Angel and the good-natured men joined Jim in laughing at the good joke on them!

As Jim sucked on the candy he took a pair of pliers and a .44 cartridge from his saddlebags. He used the pliers to pull the bullet from the brass cartridge and then he poured the black powder into the one empty cylinder of his Uncle Jack's percussion pistol.

He carefully cut a square piece of cloth from a rag he kept in the saddlebag and then he seated the bullet in the cylinder and sealed it with grease. Jim rummaged through the bags until he found a small metal box containing percussion caps and was just putting one in place when Bert asked, "You goin' bear hunting with that old hog leg?"

"Snake hunting's more like it!" Jim replied. One of the last things Jim did in preparation was to write a short will leaving the ranch and all of his other belongings to Angelina. Because he was a ranger and thus familiar with the antiquated laws affecting women's property rights, he made sure to put down her father's name as executor of the will and guardian.

He asked Buck and Bert to witness the will and then he took it to the bank for safekeeping. As he told Bert he had never made plans quite as extensive as this for a little moonlight ride before but then he had never had as much to leave, or for that matter, anyone to leave it to!

Jim figured he was as ready as he would ever be about two hours before dark. He found Angel back in Bert's house and he told her he was going to go scout around the Circle B. She started crying her heart out and buried her face in his shirt front. She sobbed, "But Jim, Brown could have a dozen riders out there. You should take a posse with you!"

"Ain't you ever heard one Texas Ranger is as good as twenty men, Sweetheart! The odds are in my favor. Besides, I know about where they are and they don't even know I'm coming." He kissed her a passionate goodbye, then he told her she sure made it hard for a man to tend to business! He promised to come back to her, then he went on out to get his horse.

Jim rode at a lope to the border of the Circle B. He had taken his bearings from the setting sun. As soon as the stars came out, he corrected his course by them as he'd been taught by a sargeant in his command during the war.

He rode almost due north for another hour in the direction of the nearest line camp Buck had known about. Jim smelled the camp before he saw it. The rich odor of cow manure and urine he associated with closely confined cattle came drifting across the prairie.

He kept the same course upwind until he heard the plaintive bawl of a steer then he stopped and tied Chief to a prominent mesquite tree he knew he could find in the dark. He crept closer to the gathering of cattle on foot.

Jim stayed alert to the slightest sound or smell but he could detect no tobacco or campfire smoke. Creeping forward he made out the shadow of a fence surrounding about a dozen sleeping steers. He injun'd around the fence and line shack without finding any sign of a guard or a horse. He finally decided that Brown had been cocky enough to leave the place unguarded. To make certain of this Jim pulled back into the brush and tossed a rock at the line shack. He waited silently for a response for another ten minutes but nothing stirred.