CHAPTER 15
The home ranch had two herds of large steers. Diamond had two, and there were two herds of rancher-consigned cattle. The number one herd was Harp’s with Long as the scout. Number two herd was Red’s. Number three was Doug’s from the Diamond Ranch. Number Four was Chaw’s command for Diamond number two. The fifth herd’s leader was Jerry Hall, and Wake Collins headed the last herd. The last two men had experience.
“We have two thousand head down at Oscar’s we aren’t counting,” Long said.
Harp slowly nodded. “How do we do that?”
“Divide them by six. That is about three hundred plus head per herd.”
“That’s it,” Harp said. “Thank God. Long, we need to get them all road branded and up here.”
They planned to leave the last week in March, each herd two days apart. Long would scout for the first herd and others would scout for each of theirs. He hurried about checking on many things as the crews were being assembled.
Repeated meetings were held and the herd leaders met several times on things they must handle. All of them had past experience and were becoming experienced with the men on their team. Horses were assigned and wranglers were herding them. The two company herds were being held at Hoot’s ranch inside some fenced pasture. Diamond Ranch had enough fenced pasture to hold both of their herds.
Number five, Jerry Hall’s, was on some state land west of Kerrville. Number six headed by Wake Collins was closer to San Antonio.
The six chuck wagons were on the herd sites. Each outfit had eighty horses and two teams of mules in case one went lame. Most of the remuda horses were not shod, which saved them money, and most of the land to Kansas was not rocky. Several of Long’s mounts were shod since he would need them for some hard riding as the front man.
He and Harp talked out how well the spring rain had fallen and the grass under a warmer sun was breaking dormancy. That was essential to the drive—feed for the steers. That and all the other cattle being gathered to go north would make the alleyway crowded going that way, even as vast as the land was.
Two herds mixed meant weeks lost to separate them and risk mixing with more while sorting. The scouts had to be certain they didn’t ever let that happen. Long knew many scouts had never done this job before, and those men didn’t realize the full responsibility they held. And some herd bosses wanted to be there first, regardless of the losses they could suffer with such small thinking. He’d lectured all the other scouts about every aspect. But once they left, he’d be up front searching the best path and they would need to make their own decisions each day.
Jan worked on his tight back muscles every night, and he slept well in her arms. They married Doug and Antoinette, a cute young girl who was going to stay with Easter while they were on the drive. Days flashed by and he wondered what he had not done right.
Two years earlier at this time he and Harp were fifteen-dollar-a-month drovers if they managed to get that small herd through to the rail head in Missouri. They did that and had been to Kansas successfully the past year. This was the largest one yet, and it was a real long ways to Abilene when he left the ranch. Under the stars he rode in the coolest part of the early morning northeast to pick the place where they would camp that first night.
He had made arrangements with a landowner but still wanted to be certain there were no problems ahead on the first day’s route. Jan would come with the chuck wagon. One thing he appreciated about her, she was a hand with a horse and liked herding cattle. Poor girl. She better like all of it because she had many days in the saddle ahead of her. Still he was pleased she was joining them for this drive because they could use her help.
Lots of things ran through his mind. Some special angel rode on his brother’s shoulder, and his as well, to get them through both past drives successfully. He drew a deep breath and set his horse off in a trot. He had lots to do.
Mid-morning he was at the site and spoke with the landowner John Delphi, a German immigrant who met him smiling.
“You said you’d be here early. Get down. Gretchen has fresh coffee made.”
Long dismounted and hitched his horse. “Thanks. Cattle will be here about noon.”
“There’s plenty of grass and water. They will be fine here.”
His wife came out on the porch. “Oh, Long, you must be bringing those steers today.”
“Yes, they are behind me. Good to see you. My wife is coming with the herd, so she will visit with you.”
“She said she wanted to go with you. I bet she’s pleased.”
“Gretchen, she is very happy to be going along.”
“Get in the house. I have some fresh coffee for you two.”
Long agreed and started to follow.
John stopped on the stairs. “Any more problems with those raiders?”
“Not so far. We eliminated some of them and others had not shown their faces before we left. We hired extra men to back ours.”
“Good. There’s some sorry outfits in this world we live in. Getting worse now the war’s over. I thought people would be glad it was done, but they’re worse acting now than they were before it started. And black soldiers ordering citizens around. It sure isn’t right or good.”
“Nothing any of us can do but be quiet, don’t upset them, and one day they will leave us and we’ll have Texas back.”
“When will that be?”
“Not soon, but we will get Texas back. There isn’t enough down here to steal to keep them around here very long.”
“Can’t be quick enough for me.”
“John, quit complaining,” she scolded him. “Or them black troops will be out here.”
“It still makes me mad.”
“John, we never arranged how much I pay you for the pasture.”
“No need. You’re taking two hundred and fifty of my steers. I trust you boys and that will be enough.”
“Thank you. You realize that now, every other day, a new herd will arrive. That will make six of them; so for the next two weeks there will be lots of bawling going through.”
Gretchen poured his coffee first. “It will sound like money to us.”
“They say cattle may be cheaper this year up there.”
“How much cheaper?” he asked.
“I am not sure but twenty to forty dollars a head some say. I don’t know anything certain, but we will sell them for all we can get.”
“I understand markets and I trust you two men. I won’t complain either way. Gretchen and I are out of debt and have money held back. Not a lot of people our age are that well off in these times.”
“And God bless the O’Malley brothers for getting us there.”
“We try, Gretchen. We really try.”
The chuck wagon and remuda arrived, and Long went with John to show them where to park.
Jan arrived and hugged him. “First day went fine. I love helping. I’ll help Jimmy get the food ready. The cattle aren’t far behind us. No problems whatsoever.”
“I’ll put your horse up.”
“Good. John, tell Gretchen after we get the meal ready I’ll be back to see her.” She half ran for the chuck wagon being set up.
“She’ll love that,” John said, and they went to put their two horses in his corral with hay and water.
He had three more scheduled nights to stop. Then he’d have to start locating places for them to stop in on the day before they arrived. Some places he knew where to stop. Others were farther apart. They liked to make ten miles a day, then water the herd and let them graze all afternoon to maintain weight on the steers, but eight to twelve miles were the usual limits. Barriers, like fenced land, detoured them. Some places the new grass hadn’t had enough rain to be up tall enough. It was all a risk.
Both Long and Harp didn’t want all their groups to be the last cattle to reach Kansas. A flooded market was not any fun, and there were many rumors flowing down to Texas this year that this might be the lowest priced market yet.
The first few days of any drive had extra hands ride with each herd to keep the turn-back rebel steers who didn’t want to go in the herd. But after a few days they’d give up and follow the next tail. The social order was settled by then for the most part. Fighting upsets cattle drives when two animals try to decide who is boss, in an angry head-pushing for the status of lead steer.
Stampedes can be tough, and this would loom in Long’s mind all the way to Kansas. But these cattle were not as wild as the first ones who had been put into a herd right out of the Texas brush.
Everyone in their crew ate at the same mess tent. Several black cowboys were riding with the six herds, and they ate with all the rest. Long realized that rule cost them some cowboys who refused to eat meals with them, but their outfit paid the highest wages and his men had jobs after they got the cattle sold. Most of the outfits only paid wages till Kansas and no return money.
Long and his brother felt anyone that proved good enough to herd was good enough to eat with everyone else. Their own two point men on the first herd were black and taught the rest their skills. There was to be no fighting on the job, no matter what. Both would be fired. For teenage boys that was a stiff rule. But it kept down any trouble.
They made each stop he had set up and were well up the road. The Colorado River crossing was made on the coolest day so far, and there was a light rain. They had Hiram’s great lead bell steer to take them over. He went out in the river and swam across. Jimmy, the chuck wagon, Jan, and the two camp helpers took the ferry and went on to the next campsite.
Long had taken the ferry, too, to find the site he wanted and to be ready, so he missed the actual crossing. He did some hard riding north and found one herd in the way. They’d need to detour around to reach his place.
That left him in a quandary about how to flag their place as taken, then ride back to get them around that loose herd stumbling along. He cut some saplings and tied his ranch flags on them so the area was claimed for his usage. Then he topped some others about waist high to tie his flags on them.
He mounted his horse, hoping the other outfits recognized this as a valid identity to say the place was taken. Then he pushed his horse to go back to warn Harp of the herd in his path.
Harp was on the north shore, and when he got to him he was bragging on the whole crew. No one hurt, no cattle lost—a perfect crossing. He was proud of the entire bunch.
“There is a herd ahead, which is why I came back. We need to swing west and go around them. They are a sloppy bunch. I have my spot posted, if they even know what that means.”
“Is there enough open country west of them?”
“Yes. We need to hurry the herd up and then send some hands to deflect them away from our place.”
Harp went and talked to the two point riders. Long rode back telling riders to get ready to move around the other herd ahead. He knew that to get the cattle moving faster the two on point had to close the gap between them.
Long rounded the tail of the drive and told those men the plan that they were hurrying the herd. Then he spurred his horse up the left side telling those riders the same thing. By then the cattle were trotting hard, moving left enough he felt certain they would miss the herd lollygagging along before them. He reined up and headed back for the right side to do all he could to keep the herds separate.
Dust rose from cloven hooves, and the bawling cattle were hard on the move. Grateful for the stout horse between his knees pounding the ground, he pushed him. He and the herders ahead and behind him were shouting and waving their hats or beating their leather chaps with rope tails to keep the right side moving farther to the left.
Long could see their passing stream set the other herd moving to the right, shocked by the commotion of their sudden appearance. He began to feel certain they’d make the pass by and not mix herds. He spurred his hard-breathing horse up beside some cattle in their herd who acted interested in the ones they were going by, ready to shut off their escape.
In and out of small dust storms, he knew the worst was over and they could soon slow down. But the plan worked and they’d be ahead of that bunch from there on. He saw their mass begin to slow—no doubt Harp had the two point riders loosen the distance between them apart. They soon were down to a fast walk, and at that point Long reined in his horse and he began thanking the riders for their great job.
To most of them it was all in a day’s work. A few riders laughed.
“Hell it was all part of my job.”
“Well you did it right,” Long shot back at them.
With a dusty large kerchief around her neck, his wife showed up riding near the rear. “Hey, Long, that woke us all up.”
“I guess we didn’t lose anyone.”
She shook her head. “Wonder if that bunch we passed lost anything?”
“I don’t care. They were tottering around and stood in our way.”
“Well it was exciting for a while. Love you.”
“You just be careful. I only have one wife.”
She laughed and said, “That’s all you need.”
He nodded his head in agreement and rode on to thank the others.
When they were in camp, Harp was drinking water at the barrel on the side of the chuck wagon.
“It worked good,” Harp said. “I could tell you had things in hand at the rear.”
“Just riding with them. Everyone did a helluva good job.”
“We might make drovers someday, you think?” Harp teased.
“I’d hope so.” They both laughed.
Jan came walking up in her boots and divided skirt—with the quirt hanging from her wrist.
“You all right, Missus O’Malley?”
“Fine. Curly offered to put up my horse. I agreed. We did make a real smooth pass around that other bunch today.”
Harp agreed.
“You two do that often?”
“No,” Long said. “But sometimes you have to do things and there isn’t much time to plan. You simply do it and hope it all holds together.”
She kissed his cheek, dust and all. “I know it’s the pure D old tomboy in me, but I sure thank you two for letting me herd them.”
“You do a good job.”
Long’s arm on her shoulder, they headed for the chuck. “I kinda like having you along.”
“Me too. I’m seeing lots of country I never would have seen if I hadn’t got to come.”
“Plenty of it out here to see.”
“What were the Rockies like?”
“Towering tall and even in summer got snow on them, or so I hear.”
“Someday take me there. I’d love to see them.”
“I promise to do that. Jimmy, how was your day?” he asked the apron-wearing head cook.
“Fine as frog hair. You boys skinned by them lazy peckerwoods today?”
“Slick as a whistle.”
The three of them laughed about it.
Later, Harp and him talked about the “passing.”
“If we hadn’t had some experience we’d never done that,” Harp said, holding his coffee cup up to drink.
“I thought the same thing. And we have five more herds behind us who will have to make like decisions.”
Long nodded. “And we have heard lots of tales about outfits losing all their cattle in tornados, river crossings, rustlers, and outright thievery.”
“Remember that story you told about running into Pinkertons looking for some drovers who took the money and ran?” Harp asked.
“And I never heard they found them, either. You could bet if Pinkerton found them, every newspaper would have had a front-page story on the recovery.”
“I agree. Be a sad day for the folks at home who gave them their cattle to sell and were waiting for the money.”
“They said a cowboy wired for money to come home, or they’d not known about it for months.”
“Who can you trust, Long? Ever since the war there has been lots of cutthroat deals happening. Maybe the war taught folks the wrong ways to go.”
“You hear any more before we left from the Austin lawyers?”
Harp shook his head. “I am convinced it is all bluff, but it still eats at me they might get something done.”
“There is always that worry isn’t there?”
“Two years ago we worried how we’d get through with a pittance of the cattle we have today and we made it. How I will always wonder.”
Long was chuckling. “Jan, he had this fistfight with a man from a posse sworn to kill us all up there. He knocked him on his butt, and then he hired him and the whole posse to help us load cattle. We had lots of help in Sedalia.”
She smiled. “You two won’t ever forget it will you?”
“No. But things have changed a lot.”
Long said, “Now you have to rush by slow herds and have real big herds to manage.”
Harp spoke up, “Jan, I sure expected to have ulcers before we ever got to Sedalia. They say you can worry holes in your stomach, and I knew we’d been challenged. And with the captain dying and I’d never sold eight hundred steers nor ever been close to that many.”
She smiled. “And this year you have twelve thousand.”
He nodded. “And more worries to boot because I have less hold on those others and what they can get into.”
She shook her head. “Aw, guys, you two will make it fine. You are both professionals.”
“Thanks. Someone needs to remind me of that every day.”
Jimmy came over. “The boys said Alex was sick. I’m going down and check on him.”
“Need my help?” Jan asked.
“Not right now.”
“He the boy from Haleyville?” Long asked.
“Yes, Alex Thornton. Good worker.” She sat back down. “Wonder what he’s got?”
“No telling. We can wait until Jimmy comes back and find out.”
“Oh, I bet he has an upset stomach. Jimmy can cure that. Get some sleep while you have the chance,” Harp said as the sun dipped low.
So they left him and went to their bedroll outside the camp.
“I really miss taking a bath,” she said on her knees working to smooth out the blanket.
“We get somewhere we can go take one. We’ll do that. Fair enough?”
“I didn’t really expect one short of Abilene.”
“Aw there will be a private stream or creek somewhere up here.”
“That would be nice. But I am not nagging you.”
“No, you aren’t, and I am damn proud you are here. I am spoiled to death having you along.”
They were kissing under the covers.
She said, “You spoil awful easy.”