Chapter 13
Saturday came fast. Everyone at the—e9780786029198_i0011.jpg was busy early that Saturday morning, loading enough food for an army. But Chet knew how many cowboys, young and old, would make a beeline to sample some of Susie’s cooking. He called it “riding the grubline” for the—e9780786029198_i0012.jpg camp and laughed a lot about it.
She separated him from the rest in the kitchen. “You and Kathren talk.”
“We always do. But we don’t ever get past talking. We both have our obligations. Mine to this ranch and her to her parents and the two places.”
“No, that’s not it. The boys said you plan on hiring hands tonight. That means you’re going to leave the ranch.”
“To look is all. I haven’t fully made my mind up. But these damn killings are all pointed at us. I don’t want to bury my own family with my own stubbornness.”
“I see. Where will you go look?” she asked, her coldness in the air.
“I’m going to see if I can get a lead on those other two that got away. I can’t find them, then I’ll look around in New Mexico and Arizona.”
“Heck wants to go along.”
He nodded. “He told me so.”
“You know he and May don’t get along. When you were over at Kathren’s recovering, Reg moved him to the bunkhouse and talked to him like a second father.”
“He told me. But I thought things have been quiet since then.”
“They have, but May feels she is his stepmother and has a right to tell him what to do. He resents it. To be truthful, he’s a lot like his father, Dale Allen.”
“Is it best he goes with me?”
“Well, he listens to you.”
“I savvy that. It might turn dangerous; that’s the only thing that worries me about having him along.”
“Whatever you think. Trent promised if there was no trouble in the county he’d be there to dance with me.” Her face brightened.
“Why, that’s great news.”
She blushed and agreed. “Now what will you tell Kathren?”
“She knows I have problems I have to solve. I think she’ll understand.”
“Such a damn shame. I know you still have some scars from the murder of Marla Porter. I knew that tore you apart for a long time.”
“Marla wouldn’t divorce him. I begged her to marry me. But I think her pride kept her from doing it. Like the divorce would be a stigma on her person. Folks would talk behind her back how we’d had an affair for years.” He shook his head. “They hung the Reynolds who did it.”
“Your affair with her was the best kept damn secret in Texas. I didn’t know. I knew you saw someone—but.” She changed her tone; someone was coming—“I think we’ll have enough food.”
“Good,” he said. The memories of Marla’s death had stung him, but she was gone to a better place. Slaughtering brood mares, herding range cattle on the—e9780786029198_i0013.jpg, their attempted attack on Susie, Dale Allen’s death in Kansas; he’d had it with those Reynoldses. The whole business made him sick enough to puke.
“Thirty minutes we pull out. Louise has already taken the buckboard and team to go on ahead. She wanted to visit a friend over there. I’ll ring the bell to warn the rest.” He put on his hat and smiled at the Mexican girl Juanita, who came in to ask Susie a question.
The bell clapper vibrating the signal to those going to the dance, he went on to find himself a horse. He found Fudge saddled, switching flies at the tackroom rack. Obviously the work of Heck—the want-to-go-with boy of a dozen or so years. The matter still wasn’t clear in his mind about taking him along.
Both wagons pulled out. Reg hung on the porch post and waved them out the gate. J.D. was in charge of finding those three cowboys at the dance. May, with the baby in her arm, smiled and made her ward wave, too. J.D. drove the second team, Susie had the lead one, and Juanita, who was going along to help Susie, beamed as she rode with her. Louise had taken the buckboard and left before them, not to be in their dust.
Heck led two extra saddled horses in case they had a problem and needed to move fast. Chet and he rode in the rear, but they planned to cut across country after they forded the Yellowhammer. They could have a campsite located before the wagons’ arrival. Beyond the creek, the two short-loped their horses and cut southeast—while the wagons had to take the lengthier road.
At last at the schoolhouse and cemetery, he and Heck rode downstream till they found the tall cottonwoods where they could string the large canvas. Heck took a lariat and climbed the first one to hang it over a thick limb where they could reach it and pull the tent up. Then he did the other side with Chet watching from underneath.
“That boy of Dale Allen’s sure growing,” Henny Price said, joining him. The gray-headed rancher came ambling up like most cattlemen that age with a limp from some former horse wrecks.
“He is. What do you know?”
“The Johnson brothers sent us word from Fort Worth yesterday; they’d not had a problem. Said they slowed down. They were ahead of the new grass.”
Chet had thought so. “I was afraid they left a little early. But if they can find some feed and move slower, they’ll have heavier cattle to sell. Those cattle they have aren’t the old brush-popping critters we first drove up there. They’ve been handled all through their lives. Those old brush mavericks we first drove up there were more like deer.”
“Yes, they were really wild.” Henny slapped his right leg. “That’s why I got a hitch in this leg. Boys set the bone, but I had to ride, no matter. We were so shorthanded on that crew.”
Chet nodded.
“Things alright over in your country?”
“Nothing like what’s happened over your way. Me and the missus said y’all are sure catching hell from them ignorant Reynoldses.”
“I guess. I thought things would quiet down.”
The old man shook his head. “No, I figure they took an oath against ya.”
“Thanks. I miss your missus. Tell her hi for me.”
“I will. You know I’ve got a good place, three creeks, plenty of open country. We’ve got three hundred mother cows under my brand. Millie and I don’t have any kids. Our kin in Arkansas we ain’t seed in years. Would one of them big boys of Louise’s like to take care of us and the place? When we’re gone they could have the ranch, lock, stock, and barrel. Don’t owe a dime on anything.”
“My Lord, Henny, I’d sure ask them. I’ll let them talk it over.”
“I ain’t going to die no time soon, but we’ve talked and feel if there was anyone we knew, they’d be loyal. Ain’t everyone in this world loyal anymore, you know that?”
“I know that well.”
“I knew you needed them, but I figured you could spare me one of them. They got the right breeding in them. I knew Rock well. Guess he ain’t no better?”
“No. He lives in his own world.”
“Those damn Comanche took a toll on us. I figured after we whipped Santa Ana’s ass we’d have it made in Texas. But we was broke when we got here and there was no money, so we joined the States. Finally got the Comanches out of our hair. That last damn war was stupid. But this cattle drive business has sure made us better off.”
“It has saved us. I hear the wagons. I’ll have them boys give you an answer or come talk to you two.”
“No problem. Millie and I are fine right now.” Henny waved at the folks in the wagons and ambled back toward the schoolhouse.
Chet frowned. What an opportunity for one of them boys. But what would he do without even one of them? And they’d still be in the Reynolds’s part of the world. The big wagons were there. Kathren and her daughter should be arriving at any moment. Where was Louise? She should have already been there, driving the buckboard. She had left a half hour before the rest.
“You seen Louise?” he asked, helping Susie down.
“No, I thought she would be here.”
“What’s wrong?” J.D. asked, climbing down and coming over.
“Your mother hasn’t came in yet. You see her on the road?”
“No, she never said nothing but that she’d meet us here.”
“Good grief, where could she be?” He stood on his toes to see down the draw at the schoolhouse. Their matched team would stand out. Where was she?
“What’s wrong?” Heck asked.
“Louise isn’t here.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Go backtrack and try to find where she went. Heck, you stay here. Don’t shoot anyone. J.D. and I better go see where she went.” Then he paused. “I hate for you to have to do things I should be doing.”
“What’s that?” His sister frowned at him.
“Explain to Kathren what I’m doing. I hate like hell for her to come here on my invitation and then find I’ve rode off.”
“She’ll be fine. She knows about emergencies. She’ll be fine,” Susie said. “You two go on, we can handle this part.”
He and J.D. rode like the wind to follow the road back and look for any sign of Louise. They halted where the road went to Mason. Her narrow tracks went in that direction. But other tracks told him several riders had been around there at or near the time hers were made.
“Reckon they kidnapped her?” J.D asked as they circled the sign in the dirt.
“Damned if I know. But they went north here.”
Chet in the lead, they flew northward, seeing the thin ribbons of the buckboard rims cut in the dust going in that direction. Then the tracks went off the road and forced them to rein up sharply. The horse under Chet slid to a sharp stop, and he booted him off into the cedars. The rig and team stood abandoned, hidden in the pungent boughs. Still in their harness, the horses had dried, so it had been some time since the rig had been deserted there. The heel marks of her button-up shoes were around it, but none led anywhere. She must have been packed off by the ones on horseback.
“Which way did they go?” Chet asked, impatient over the time they had already wasted. Both men were searching around on foot for any signs.
J.D. found some prints. “I think they went south.”
“We need to split up here,” Chet said. “I’ll leave signs for you on my way. You go find Trent and you two follow my tracks. I don’t want them hurting her. And also find someone to take that team and buckboard back to the ranch.”
With a concerned frown written on his face, J.D. said, “They may plan to ambush you. This all might be a trick.”
Chet vaulted into the saddle. “I know that, too, but these men are killers and I don’t want anything to happen to your mother.”
“Me, either. I’ll bring Trent and get someone to drive the buckboard back home.”
“Good.” He booted Fudge through the cedars, seeing more horse prints and trying to imagine who had taken her. He thought the biggest share of troublemakers in the Reynolds outfit were either dead, in jail, or on the run. What family branch were these from?
One thing for certain: Louise wasn’t taking being kidnapped sitting down. He’d bet good money they were getting her verbal abuse unless they’d gagged her.
Mid-afternoon, the riders had switched to back trails that ran southerly. He figured that was so no one would recognize her. Where would they come out, going this way? They’d soon be somewhere on the stage road to San Antonio. He crossed the well-used east-west route, nothing in sight, and found their tracks again—heading south in the brush.
Chet had not ridden this far south much, but knew that somewhere the Perdanales River ran east to west, south of the stage road. He turned and looked back—Kathren, forgive me. Darling, I hate leaving you there alone. Where were the others? Had J.D. found Trent?
An hour later, he descended into the river bottoms of the stream lined with towering, gnarled cottonwoods. The kidnappers had made a lot of distance, and he wasn’t certain of much except the smell of smoke in the air, and he still could see their tracks. Unsure if they had halted to cook something or what, he decided to hitch Fudge and to scout ahead on foot. With care, he slid his rifle out of the leather scabbard. He levered a cartridge into the chamber and started forward as quiet as he could.
First he heard Louise’s voice chewing them out and he made a small grin. Thank God, she was still alive. Then he spotted three men fighting to pin someone naked on the sandy ground. The exposed white flesh under them had to be Louise’s. They had stripped her naked. The sight made him sick and he cocked the rifle in his hands.
His first shot sprayed sand all over them. “Stay put or I’m killing you.”
“Who the hell?” One of them standing went for his side arm. Chet clinched his teeth, spun around, aimed from the hip and squeezed the trigger. The hot lead struck him in the chest and spilled him backwards. Of the wide-eyed other two, one raised his hands and the other struggled to pull up his britches and stand.
“Don’t shoot,” he shouted.
Chet came in close, his rifle ready for them to make a move, and jerked the handgun out of the younger one’s holster. Not looking aside at her, he said, “Get dressed, Louise. It’s over. Sorry I got here so late.”
“I’m not. Why, your voice sounded to me like God talking to these devils.”
He could hear her trembling, saying the words and gasping for her breath. He asked the bigger one, “Who are you?”
“My name’s Curty—Curty McCurty. I’m sure my paw would pay you a big reward for me if’n you’d take me home.” His hands trembled as he held them high.
“Alright, your name?” he asked the other.
“Josie Knight.”
“Your daddy got a lot of money he’d pay me, too?”
“Naw. He ain’t got shit, mister.”
“Who’s on the ground beside you?”
“Lithe Combs.”
“His daddy rich, too?”
“No, sir. His daddy’s dead.”
“Who hired you to do this?”
“No one—”
“Come on boys, you could have bought all the flesh you wanted in Mexico or even closer. Why in hell would you kidnap and rape a woman like Louise?”
McCurty shrugged. “She was handy.”
“No. How much did they pay you to kidnap her?” He fired a rifle shot at their feet that sent sand all over them. In swift action, he reloaded the rifle’s lever action. “Next shot will be in your foot.”
“A-a guy named Bent. We don’t know his last name, I swear,” McCurty said.
“That right, Knight?”
Josie Knight bobbed his head and swallowed hard. “He pointed her out to us coming in the buckboard and said here’s two hundred dollars. You boys have all the fun you—ah, want with her. But be damn sure that she don’t come back. Sell her in Mexico or bury her.”
Chet frowned. “Did you see him, Louise?”
“Yes,” she said from behind his back.
“Who was he?”
“Cleb Cleator.”
“How did he meet you boys?”
“In a bar in Fredericksburg two nights ago. He said his name was—”
“Hell, he promised us a better-looking one than her. Lots younger, too.” Knight wrinkled his nose and both of them laughed. Not a free laugh, but the kind someone under great pressure let out.
That “younger one” meant one thing to Chet: that Cleator had meant to show them—Susie. His finger tightened on the trigger. The two of them needed to be sent to hell on an express train. Cleator wasn’t even kin to the Reynoldses. How did they get him involved?
“Set your asses on the ground,” he ordered. “You can’t outrun this rifle and I’m just itching to use it on either one of you.”
He stepped back to where Louise was trying to brush the sand out of her hair. In a low voice he asked, “You sure it was him?”
“I’d know him anywhere. Don’t you recall when your sister sent him packing two years ago?”
“Not really. You think he wanted revenge against her?”
“I think he wanted revenge against her and them Reynoldses gave him the money to do it.”
“Where’s the two hundred dollars?” Chet asked them.
Knight said McCurty had it.
“My daddy can make that a thousand.” McCurty handed over the roll of bills.
“What are you going to do with them?” Louise asked, rearranging the skirt at her waist.
“Trent’s coming. If you can’t testify in court about them raping you, then I’m going to shoot them right here and tell God that they died.”
Louise closed her eyes and he saw she still had sand on the fine lashes. “Oh, I can tell my story to a jury and judge.”
“Alright. You have sand on your lashes.”
“Shoot, I have it behind my molars.” He hugged her shoulder with his free hand. “I’m so sorry.”
“I am simply so glad that you found me. I won’t ever again complain about your leadership of the ranch.” She began to sob on his shoulder. “You won’t ever know how grateful I was just to hear your voice a few minutes ago.”
“We won’t get back to the schoolhouse until the middle of the night, maybe later. This body may need to be carried into Fredericksburg.” His gaze locked on the prisoners as he hugged her with his rifle hand as well. “It’s all over now.”
She continued to sob. He made her hold the rifle on them and ran to get Fudge. Back again, he tied them up, then secured their horses. The kidnapper he shot had no pulse. By himself, he struggled to get the dead body over the saddle. Once was enough to load him. So the dead one didn’t fall off, he tied him up good. He put nooses around the other two’s necks. Made plans to make them ride double and have a rope tied on to jerk them off the horse if they tried anything.
He helped Louise into the saddle, and she fought her dress down modestly to better cover her legs. With her settled at last, he gave her the lead on the two prisoners’ horses and told her to go ahead. He’d bring the dead man and extra horse behind them. Headed north, she lost her way a few times, but he directed her back to the cow trail they had taken.
Chet felt half sick about abandoning Kathren at the dance. The matter made his empty guts roil. When he finally had things going right—all hell broke loose again. What would she be thinking—oh, he’s off again. Going across the stage route, he looked west. El Paso was that way. His travels would take him there soon enough.
“See those tracks ahead of you?” he asked Louise, who had stopped on the far side and acted confused. “That’s where they brought you off that hill.”
“Yes, I see now,” she said, and booted her horse off the road and onto another cow path.
“Take them two right on,” he said. “Trent and J. D. will be coming to meet us.”
He hoped they hurried. The sun kept dropping lower in the west. Still, there would not be enough daylight for the time they’d require to get back before dark. The four of them might be in nowhere land when the sun went down. What if they’d lost his tracks? Nothing he could do but look for some ranch to head toward before it turned pitch-black, if worse got to be worst.
They crossed a large, wide-open flat and he turned an ear to the sounds of horse hooves coming. He shouted for Louise to rein up. They could be reserves for those three. Pushing his horse up to the lead, he recognized a familiar hat. J.D. was bringing the good sheriff in a hot race.
“We’ve been saved, Louise.”
She looked on the edge of exhaustion. At the news, she slumped in the saddle. “Good, I can use some relief.”
“I bet you could. Well, your son and the sheriff are coming fast.”
Trent reined in his lathered pony hard, and slid to a stop. “What have we got here?”
“Two alive and one dead kidnapper. They kidnapped Louise and assaulted her down on the Perdanales. I ordered them to surrender and one went for his gun. A fool move with a cocked rifle in my hands. He’s dead. These other two can tell you the rest. They have some tall tale to tell how some guy hired them to kidnap a female in the family and take her off. I guess to sell in Mexico after they finished with her.”
Trent frowned. “Who hired them?”
“They said Cleb Cleator.”
“Ain’t his daddy a big rancher?” The sheriff frowned in disgust.
“That’s the one. But better yet, to start with, I think that Cleator really wanted them to kidnap Susie. He thought she’d be in the buckboard that Louise ended up driving.”
“He any kin to them Reynoldses?” Trent asked, looking sour at the two of them.
Chet shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’d bet a dollar to a cow pie that’s where he got the idea.”
“You must have made good time to catch them.”
“I did. They thought they were beyond any pursuit when I found them.”
“Sheriff, he did a superb of rescuing me.” Louise said. “He certainly is the hero of the day.”
“Mrs. Byrnes, I agree with you a hundred percent. It’s going to be dark in a short while. Should we head back for the schoolhouse?”
“No,” Chet said, shaking his head. “You take them two to the jailhouse, there’s folks up there that would lynch them before this night was over.”
“I agree. Can I borrow J.D. to help me get them back to Mason tonight?” the sheriff asked.
“J.D.?”
“Oh, I’d help him.”
“Good, I think Louise and I can make it back to the schoolhouse before the last dance. Or do you want to go with them?” Chet asked her.
“I may look like a hen that’s been rustling in the dirt, but I choose the schoolhouse.”
“Trent, the big one is McCurty and the other one is Knight.”
“We can handle this from here. Now, Mrs. Byrnes, you will file charges against these men, won’t you?”
“Sheriff, I told Chet I would, or else he intended to hang them down there. But I want to see them get what they have coming. I’ll be in your office mid-morning on Monday and give you my full story.”
“J.D., get the prisoners and we’ll put them in irons and let these folks go dance.”
“Good.” Chet wheeled his horse around. “Come on, Louise. I know a shortcut.”
Short or not, it was long past ten when they reached the—e9780786029198_i0014.jpg tent. Juanita came from the tent and blinked in disbelief at them in the glaring firelight.
“I will go quick and tell Susie you are back—already.”
“Fine, we’ll find some food while you go after her. She’s probably worried about Louise.”
“There is plenty of food in there,” the girl said, like she was torn between feeding them and going to get Susie.
“We’re fine. You go find her.” He helped Louise out of the saddle and she kissed him on the cheek. Her action about shocked him. Last time she kissed him, he had been in diapers, he was certain.
She took his arm in the crook of hers, then grasped his hand and led him to the table and all the sheet-covered food. He ate a big slice of dried apple pie first. The sugar and the cinnamon made his mouth flood. Time for food later—he wanted something special.
Seated on the bench, he turned at hearing Susie coming running. He said, “Louise, I told you she’d be worried.”
Grateful that Susie ran in and hugged her aunt first, then he asked if she was alright. He watched the two, close to tears, pound each other on the back and shoulders.
“I am fine, thanks to your brother’s quick action. He must have came at lightning speed to my aid.”
Susie looked back at him in the orange light. “He is a real special guy.”
“Have you seen Trent?” his sister asked him.
“He had to take those prisoners on to Mason. I feared they would be lynched if he came by here with them.”
However, before Susie could even ask who the bad guys were, a crowd from the schoolhouse burst in to check on them. The tent turned into a madhouse of folks clamoring for what happened and who did it. Took over a half hour to tell them all that had taken place. Chet had read the anger in the crowd’s eyes as the incident was spilled out to them. From his vantage point, he saw the angry notions cross the looks on their faces. Trent was right to take them onto the county jail—otherwise they’d never have been breathing when the sun finally rose the next day. He, at last, excused himself to go find Kathren.
Kathren stood outside the tent, and at the sight of Chet, came on the run to hug him when he came out to look for her. “I was so worried about you.”
“It worked out anyway. I’m glad Louise is going to be alright, but I worried that you’d give up on me. I’d invited you to come and I ran off.”
“I knew when they said you went looking for her, you had not ran away ’cause I was coming.”
“Where’s Cady?”
“Dancing, I think. She’s giving Heck lessons tonight.”
He kissed the side of her face and hugged her tight. “Wonderful. Louise says she’ll be alright. The two alive kidnappers are in the Mason County jail.”
“Did you eat?” she asked.
“A piece of pie.”
“Let’s go back in there and I’ll feed you.”
“Whatever—”
Chet followed her back inside the tent. How bad could things get in this war? Outsiders were even planning things against them. One more reason why he needed to find a new place for his kin. But Kathren’s presence overshadowed his move plans and he simply enjoyed her company.
Later, with Kathren and her daughter ready to sleep in the tent with Susie, Louise, and Juanita, he set out to stake himself a place nearby under the stars and rolled out his bedding, after kicking the rocks and branches off his plot.
In his bedroll, he tossed all night. Sleep avoided him despite the bone-deep tiredness and exhaustion he’d suffered. They were still out there poised to do something harsh to him or his relatives. Damn them, anyway.