‘Whatd’ya reckon it is?’
Sam replied, ‘I ain’t got any idea. It’s been about the same every day since I been back.’
Oz Maguire, Bart Spalding, Eduardo Spalding and Sam Heller stood in H Bar V ranch yard, studying the distant cloud of dust.
Eduardo and Bart glanced at each other, silently communicating as only brothers can. As they looked at the cloud of dust, they looked at each other, and both understood perfectly the other’s assessment of the trouble it bode.
‘It’s gotta be pretty close to the crick,’ Bart observed.
‘Spring Crick?’ Oz asked.
Both of the Spaldings nodded as with one mind.
‘Then we’d best be checkin’ it out,’ Oz suggested.
‘Sooner rather than later,’ Sam agreed. ‘We’ve waited too long already.’
Bart came to Sam’s defense immediately. ‘We really needed time to check out all of Kate’s cows and horses,’ he offered, ‘just to make sure Russell or Grede wasn’t runnin’ ’em off.’
‘Besides,’ Eduardo added, ‘you needed to have some time to think of the beautiful woman waiting there for you, whenever you get lonesome enough to not be so stubborn.’
Then he added, his eyes twinkling mischievously, ‘If you were to decide such a thing, Billy would be most happy to visit at our ranch for a week or two, so the two of you could have your honeymoon.’
Sam shot a glaring look at Eduardo, but declined to answer. He said only, ‘I’ll get my horse saddled.’
Fifteen minutes later the quartet left the ranch yard at a swift trot. The farther they rode, the more ominous the persistent cloud of dust became. It remained in that one spot, drifting slowly away on the wind, but constantly replaced by new quantities of dust arising.
An hour and a half later, Oz opined, ‘It looks like it’s comin’ from just behind this next ridge.’
‘Spring Crick runs down that valley,’ Bart explained. ‘It runs on to your place – uh, I mean Kate’s place – about five miles down.’
Sam nodded, pretending not to notice the verbal slip. ‘Let’s tie our horses in that bunch of aspens, and we’ll slip up on top and have a look-see.’
Moving as swiftly as silence would allow, they walked in a crouch, then crawled as they neared the crest of the hill. At its crest, each removed his hat and slipped behind rocks or scrub brush, where he could see the scene below.
That scene most closely resembled a massive mining operation, or a road-building project. The valley through which Spring Crick flowed narrowed to less than a mile at that point. Its sides steepened, forming almost vertical walls more than a hundred and fifty feet high. Both above and below the spot, the valley widened again, making this the narrowest spot in many miles of the stream’s course.
Massive amounts of dirt had been and were being scraped from the surrounding prairie. Teams pulling slips scraped up, dragged, then dumped their loads of dirt in a never-ending procession. The dirt was forming a dike, more than two hundred feet wide at the bottom, that already reached more than fifty feet from the valley floor. Only in the center, where Spring Crick flowed, was the ground left at its original level. The stream still flowed unhindered, but they were clearly within a day or two of filling in that center portion as well.
‘They’re building a dam,’ Eduardo muttered.
‘They’re leavin’ the crick run normal, till they get the rest of it built. Then they can fill in the spot in the middle, and shut it off and make a lake.’
‘A humdinger of a big one,’ Oz agreed. ‘If they keep buildin’ clear to the top o’ the valley, it’ll make a dam a hundred and fifty feet deep and back up water for more’n ten miles. That’s high enough to dam up that crick for two or three years before the water reaches the top.’
‘Long enough to dry Kate plumb out,’ Sam reasoned aloud, ‘and everyone else down that crick.’
‘That’s what’s goin’ on, just as sure as blizzards are cold,’ Eduardo gritted, the anger in his voice evident in his hushed tones.
Bart inserted, ‘And since it’s the crick and all the beaver dams and such that spreads the water out and waters the whole valley, it’ll make that whole place as dry as the high plateaus. Everybody downstream will get left with no hay meadows, no winter grass, no year-round runnin’ water, no nothin’.’
‘So who’s doin’ it?’ Sam asked.
Bart answered instantly, ‘Russell. All the brands I can see on the horses an’ mules is his.’
‘Is this land he’s got a patent on?’
‘Nope. He runs cows on it, but it’s gov’ment range.’
‘Then he doesn’t have a legal right to build the dam.’
‘There’s no way that he could have.’
‘But what are you gonna do ’bout it,’ Oz pondered. ‘We can’t go ridin’ down there an’ shoot a dam.’
‘There is a territorial government. You could find a lawyer and take him to court,’ Bart suggested. ‘The judge comes to Laramie often enough, you could get a court order to stop him.’
Eduardo snorted. ‘Courts and judges are a waste of time and money. By the time the territorial courts and the fancy lawyers and politicians get done with all their word games, the valley will be without water for three years.’
‘Let’s ease back outa here and get back to the horses,’ Sam suggested.
Accordingly, the four backed slowly away from their concealment, staying below the crest of the ridge until they were well past any danger of being seen. Then they stood and walked back to the horses.
‘I think we should pay a visit to the Rocking R, and put some holes in Lance Russell,’ Eduardo suggested.
‘That’s tempting,’ Sam offered qualified agreement. ‘The problem is, then we’d be the ones on the wrong side of the law.’
‘That’s gotta be costin’ an arm and a leg, hirin’ all them workers and all,’ Oz observed. ‘Does Russell have that kinda money?’
Bart and Eduardo looked at each other, then both shrugged at the same time. Bart brought another possibility into the discussion. ‘I think he’s stretched himself out too thin to have that kind of cash, but Grede does. Maybe Russell’s talked him into throwin’ in with him.’
‘Or providing the money and letting Russell take all the risk,’ Eduardo offered. ‘Then, since it’s illegal, he can have charges filed against Russell after he has dried that woman you say you don’t want out of her ranch.’
Sam stood beside his horse, leaning across his saddle, forearms resting on the seat, hands folded, lost in thought for several long minutes. He turned to the other three. ‘With that many men and teams workin’, how long do you reckon it’ll be before they finish and shut off the water?’
The others pondered the question thoughtfully for quite a while. ‘To have it completely built, a month at least,’ Oz said.
‘More like two, I’d guess,’ Bart disagreed.
‘I would say two,’ Eduardo supported his brother.
‘But he’s only a couple days away from stoppin’ the flow of the crick,’ Sam said. ‘I’m almost certain Grede’s not involved, unless he’s just loanin’ Russell money. I think Oz and I’ll take a little trip. When we get back, we’ll see if we can shoot a little hole in a dam.’
Oz’s eyebrows shot up questioningly. Bart and Eduardo looked at each other, equally at a loss to make sense of Sam’s words. Bart asked, ‘How come you don’t think Grede’s involved?’
‘I asked him,’ Sam said.
That raised questions in the faces of all three of the others, but Sam declined to answer, or to appear to notice. He simply mounted his horse and rode out, heading back toward the H Bar V. The rest followed, knowing Sam would explain his plan in due time – if he had one.