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Yesterday had been gloomy. It had been a perfect day to run away. To walk out there and get absorbed by the gloom, but I didn’t give in to it. There was so much to take care of that I was still here today and today was hot, sunny, and completely devoid of the momentum to run. So, drained by the heat and the burden of the work to be done, I was still sitting in the study, pouring over correspondence, and considering my fight or flight options when they arrived.
I heard their voices in the front hall and their footsteps approaching before they got to me. "Branson, we want to see Branson."
I put the paperwork down and readied to meet them. They came in, long coats and hats dusty from the long ride, took one look at me and stopped in their tracks.
"This ain't Branson," the first man said to my foreman, who had led them in.
I stood up and started to address him, "I surely am—" but was cut off.
"This here's a girl."
I came from around the desk. "My name is Lydia Branson and I run this ranch."
"I want to talk to Amos or Charlie."
"My father's dead and my brother is....away. I'm sure I can help you."
"You can't help anything but to get us some grub and then go find your brother.” Together, the four men laughed like it was the funniest thing they had ever heard. Out here is the Badlands, it probably was.
I nodded to my foreman, Jack, and he pulled a shotgun and aimed it at their backs and cocked it. The sound is unmistakable. The foursome cut their laugh short.
"Now, gentlemen," I said, "here's the crux of the situation. You rode out to my ranch, you came into my home, and you have yet to state your business. How 'bout you do it now and we move on, or Jack makes waste of you and we plant you outside."
"This one's got gumption," the second man said.
"You ain't advancing the conversation," Jack interjected.
"Fine," the first man said, “We can get down to business. It’s just odd to do it with a girl, that’s all.”
I retreated back behind my desk and sat down. Jack gestured for them to take seats too and they did.
“Your father had made a deal with us and we need him to honor it.”
“Some deals die when one member of the party dies, gentlemen. I can’t honor every deal my father made.”
“Well, we don’t care that he’s dead and all, that ain’t our problem. What is our problem, is that we paid your father for protection on our homesteads and we ain’t getting it now.”
“Since when?” I asked.
“Since that gang from Texarkana started working out yonder. They’re rustling cattle, moving in on the homesteads on the outer perimeters. Only a matter of time before they get closer. They’re getting stronger, they are,” the first man explained. He told me where his property was and I could see why he was getting wary. His farm would be the first to fall if rustlers made an attack from the eastern border.
“Don’t half know what we is paying for,” said the second man.
“Ain’t that the truth?” chimed in the third man.
Jack caught my eye and I knew what he was thinking. Ever since my brother shrugged all responsibility and took off for parts unknown and then my father died, we had been left to walk a razor’s edge. People in these parts weren’t likely to respect a woman in charge if I couldn’t stand up to them and stand up for them. I nodded in Jack’s direction. We both knew what I had to do.
“I’ll handle this,” I said. “Tell me about the attacks. Every detail you have. How many men? Where they rode in from? Everything. And I will take care of it.”
The three men gave us all of the information we needed and leFt. I sat down to mull it over with Jack. He was the only one of my father’s former employees who had stood with me through everything. Together, he and I made a plan. I had an old piece of land in the northeastern territory near here. It had been abandoned but it wouldn’t be hard to fix up.
“Send out some ranch hands,” I instructed, “fifty head of cattle and anything else they need to look like they are really setting up shop out there. This gang is moving in from that direction. Make our dummy farm look like the real thing, all unguarded and the like.”
Jack agreed, “This gang hits farms when it looks like they are transitioning the cattle out to the hills for grazing. The real question for me is, how do they know everyone’s schedules so well?”
“They have an inside man,” I said. I was sure of it.
Jack nodded, “It sure seems that way, Lydie, but I dunno. Not a lot of men stayed here after you took over but the twenty that did are all true to you and to the Branson Ranch. And none of the new hands could know all of this. Maybe this gang just has luck.”
“Too much luck that it just don’t seem right,” I countered. “Someone wants to shut us down. This gang ain’t just looking to rustle cattle. They’re looking to ruin this ranch and we ain’t gonna let ‘em.”
“So how do we get them to hit us and not someone else’s cattle? We can’t be everywhere at once. We need them to hit when and where we will be there.”
“Exactly,” I said, “Make sure our guys do everything they can to spread the word that they are only spending two nights at the farm and taking the cattle to the hills on the third morning. That should give these fellas two nights to set up the attack. We will be there Wednesday morning waiting for them. We’ll pull five of our best hired guns to ride in with us.”
The men did as was planned.
We waited two nights and then on Wednesday, twelve of us rode out to the dummy farm. We broke ranks before arrival and four of the guns took position in the hills. Only one gun, Parker, rode the rest of the way in with Jack and I. We arrived at the farm, just as the first men who went out to set up were prepping their horses for the fake cattle drive.
Jack, Parker, and I tied up our horses outside and went into the ramshackle farmhouse. We were prepared to wait but it didn’t take long. I had given the order to let the attackers come in and for the men outside working the herd to surrender to them, before the shooters in the hills finished them off. I needed to make sure we got every last one of them in one fell swoop.
I had a good vantage point at the window. I could see the leader of the attacking gang, his face half-obscured, with a blue bandana, pull his gun and fire in the air. Skittish, the herd tried to bolt, but still confined in their pen, they had nowhere to go. My three men outside raised their arms in the air, having never gone for their guns. This was supposed to be an ambush of the attackers. I had wanted them lured into a small area before we opened fire. I could see nine men on horseback, all with bandanas.
“Who’s in the house?” their leader, Blue Bandana, called out.
“Just a woman and an old ranch hand,” one of my guys answered in turn.
“Well, I’ll see about that,” Blue Bandana was saying as he went to dismount and come to the house. It was the move I wanted from him, but suddenly one of his crew held up his hand.
“What’s with you?” Blue Bandana asked.
“It’s a trap,” said the other man, wearing a red bandana. “Let’s go. I see three horses but they only said two people inside. I can feel this ain’t right. He’s lying.”
“I ain’t lying,” said my ranch hand, just before Blue Bandana shot him square in the chest.
“Ain’t takin’ no chances,” answered Blue Bandana, as he turned his gun on my other men. They had gone to pull their pistols but were shot before they could clear leather.
“I ain’t standing for this,” said Parker. He propped his shotgun up and shot it right through the window of the cabin, felling first one, then a second man on Blue Bandana’s team.
It only took mere seconds for this to go down. As soon as my guns in the hills heard the commotion, they opened fire, getting four more of Blue Bandana’s men before they could even pinpoint where the shots were coming from. The dead men’s horses reared as their riders fell. The frightened horses bolted through the group, adding to the melee and confusion.
Blue Bandana and his four remaining men dropped from horseback and tried to take cover as the snipers bore down on them. Two of the men came around and into the house where Parker and Jack laid waste to them right quick. I covered from the window. I’d been shooting since I was a child and my aim was good. I winged one of the bandits as he stooped behind the old well and then I finished him off when he spun in my direction to return fire.
Only the men I called Blue Bandana and Red Bandana were still out there. My snipers in the hills must have lost sight of them as well because the shooting had stopped and only the sounds of the frightened cattle filled our ears.
Parker exited the cabin first and waved a hand in the air. My snipers knew the signal and Parker walked out to the porch unharmed. He gestured that he was heading to the barn to take a look when a shot suddenly rang out. As Parker fell wounded, Jack and I caught a glimpse of Blue Bandana near the barn door. I fired towards the barn door opening, covering Jack as he moved towards and past where Parker was laying. Jack took cover behind our three horses where they were standing skittish but tied to the trough.
I caught a glimpse of one of my hired guns, having ridden down from his post in the hills, sneaking into a side door of the barn. Shots were exchanged and then I saw the Blue Bandana stumbling out towards me, my hired gun pressing a rifle in the man’s back.
Jack had left where he had taken shelter and returned to attend to Parker. “He’s gone, Lydie,” Jack explained. I felt remorseful to see a good man go down, but there was nothing left we could do for him.
We took Blue Bandana into the cabin and sat him down.
“There’s one more out there,” I said. “He was wearing a red bandana.”
“Saw him,” the hired gun, named Stevens, informed me. “He’s running full out. No horse. Just on foot. But we didn’t shoot him.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Cuz, it was Charlie. Didn’t know what to do when we saw Charlie. Didn’t think you wanted us to shoot him too.”
I ducked out the door and scanned the distance. I was able to make out the figure of my brother retreating into the hills on foot, fading smaller and smaller against the backdrop.
I re-entered the cabin and faced Blue Bandana. Jack had removed the mask and I looked into the face of the man who had caused so much grief for my men, my ranch, and all of the farmers under my protection.
“What did you get out of this?” I asked.
“Money,” the man said with a laugh. “Money and the chance to take a big ranch owner down.”
“You actually think you’d win?” Jack questioned him.
“Sure, why not? Had an inside man and all.”
“What did you do to my brother to get him to ride with you?”
“Didn’t have to do anything,” the man answered. “He came looking for us. Said he wanted revenge on his father. Then his father died and he was just having way too much fun. Said his sister was too straight and narrow. Had to run everything just right. I reckon you’re her.”
“You reckon right,” I answered.
“All of the witnesses we talked to early on said nine men. We done killed seven, have this one here, and then Charlie. So we think we got them all,” Stevens said.
“It’s been a good day’s work,” Jack said.
“Whatcha goin’ do with me?” asked the man I only knew as Blue Bandana.
“Not much,” I replied, “No lawmen in these parts. Ain’t got no use for a cattle rustler on my ranch. Stevens show him the same respect he showed our friend, Parker.”
Stevens nodded. Jack and I were exiting the cabin when Stevens’ gun rang out.
I walked over to where my horse was tied and mounted him.
“Bury the dead, boys, and then prep for the cattle drive back,” I ordered.
Jack instructed the men to hurry. “It’s a long ride back to the ranch, boys, and if you want the herd to make it before nightfall, you need to get going. It ain’t good to be out in Indian Territory after dark. Single riders won’t make it back, so get a move on.”
Jack rode over to me and gestured to the hills where my brother had run.
“What about him?” Jack asked.
I shook my head slowly and turned my mount away from the hills and towards home, “Leave him. Nothing left to do. He might as well be dead to me now.”