CHAPTER 23
The week flew by. It was getting to be a weekly occasion at the ranch to have a wedding. He sent word to Susie, and word came back she was coming with her boy and Sarge.
He posted one to Cole and the answer was if he could get away. Lucy and Shawn would be headed home; he was anxious to get up to the ranch. Spud and Shirley were already there. He felt good. Maybe in this week he could go up and look at the hay storage situation. Riding to look at the cattle could wait.
In town he met with the prosecutor, John Moore, about the many trials coming up and when they might have them. It looked like a public-provided defense lawyer would have to be appointed for all but the rich son. He had expensive lawyers demanding bond. No territorial judge would issue a bond for a prisoner held with murder charges on him.
He set in to planning future cattle sales and which of his ranches would have them. They would need seventy-two hundred head at six hundred head per month. He had lots of room for bought cattle. Shawn’s father, at the wedding, asked him to buy three hundred head. He had him on the list. That meant fifteen hundred dollars to the McElroy family. Tight as money was to people in the times, this would pay all their bills and even have money leftover to pay on their loan. The ranch cattle purchases were a relief to many and made the small ranchers self-sufficient. It was also why, when he needed a posse from time to time, everyone showed up to help him; like his contract with Clyde to set up a stage stop. He got to sell two hundred head of cattle meeting the high standards needed. He recalled how proud Iris was that they’d have that income. She was the dear woman the raiders killed, and her death weighed heavy on his conscience. When the mail came from town he skimmed through it. A private letter in a neat penmanship stood out. He opened it as his wife came by and kissed him on the face.
“Anything needs tending here?”
“I have the usual reward posters they send me, a letter from the Chief Marshal in Tucson, reporting on court trial dates. And this letter came from El Paso, Texas. I’ll read it to you.
Dear Marshal Byrnes,
I was recently shown a wanted poster of a man sought by you named Anson (Gerald) Hall. That man is working in a saloon at Mesilla, New Mexico, as a faro dealer. I am not a lawman nor do I wear a gun, but I can’t understand why the local law is not arresting a felon when he is in plain sight. It would seem there is a big payoff going on between criminals and enforcement. If he was over in Texas, the rangers would arrest him on sight. However I have talked to the head ranger for the El Paso district, Captain Tom Proudy, and he says he can’t step over there and arrest him in New Mexico.
We have come to a sorry state of affairs when known criminals walk our streets behind state and territory boundaries. Good luck capturing him.
George R. Bryan
Chet put down the letter.
“What will you do about it?”
“I am going to wire the head U.S. Marshal in Santa Fe and have his men arrest him and hold him for someone from Arizona to bring him back here.”
“Will that work?”
“Damn right or heads will fly somewhere.”
“How did this man find you?”
“My name was who to contact about the reward I imagine.”
“His arrest would be great. It might stop you from walking the floor about capturing him.”
He stood up and hugged her. “I have not been that bad, have I?”
“Oh yes, you have. I thought those Colorado arrests would settle you down. They didn’t. Hall’s running loose planning more trouble for the stage line has been on your front burner the entire time.”
“So maybe I can rest now.” He hugged and rocked her in his arms.
“Lord, no. You will have a new fire in you before the sun comes up.”
He kissed and rocked her some more. She was right. He really wanted the man out of the picture. Then things might get back to normal in his life—whatever that was.
“Oh, Chet, I’m fine. Part of that spirit that drives you is why I am your wife. I just wonder sometimes if you realize how risky your life is. Your world is so expanded from just being a rancher and surviving a feud in Texas to managing an overflowing empire. But keep your head down. I sure think you are going to have yet another family member—the one that is inside of me.”
“That will be good in some ways. Others maybe not as swell.”
“I know. I may have to become the wife and mother that stays home.”
They took a seat on the leather couch. He tucked her under his arm. “Is that going to kill you?”
“No. I, like all women, dreamed of having children of my own. I loved the trailing along with you. Oh, sometimes those trips brought back memories from the past that were sad for me, but I got to see lots of country and more than that I was with you. Whatever it takes for me to be a mother to your children I will do.”
“Something new I have been thinking about. I want to find a man who builds telegraph systems. I think a telegraph from Gallup to Hardeeville would be a good investment. Maybe not on the start-up but in time as that corridor up there becomes a national highway, even before the railroad comes, it would serve the stops and connect to the outside world.”
“Where is this man at?”
“New York. Washington, D.C. The government built the original wire from Yuma up here to help the army fight the Indians. Today a company runs it for both government and private mail. The original telegraph station was out at the fort.”
“Who are these people?” she asked.
“I am going to find out today. You want to go to town?”
“I’m sorry. But the wedding is my top item.”
“Sandra has a dress?”
“Oh yes, and Millie cried the entire time they fitted her like I will someday.”
“They’re young. But they will make it if it was meant to be.”
“A job is nice. So he has a start, thanks to you.”
“Not thanks to me. Tom and Millie are like my own children.”
She agreed. “They built the ranch with you, I know, and they are good people.”
“Absolutely. I’m going to find Jesus or Spencer and go to town. May not learn a thing, but I will take the first step.”
She kissed him. “Good. Don’t fall off the spring seat.”
“I may ride in.”
“We can talk some more later.”
“Sure.”
He found his men in the barn adding saddle racks to the expanded tack room. His ranch foreman, Raphael, knew Spencer was a carpenter and was using his skill while they were there.
“Jesus, let’s saddle some horses and do some business in town. Spencer has plenty of help, and the addition looks great.”
“You two don’t get in any mess I have to pull you out of,” Spencer teased with the hammer in his hand.
“No, not that deep,” Chet promised, giving the saddle he had taken off the old rack to the stableboy, who took it from him saying, “That’s my job.”
He and his foreman shared a big smile. With Spencer around lots would be fixed or repaired.
“You and Anita planning anything?” he asked Jesus when they were on the road to town.
“I think she is simply afraid. Two of her sisters died in childbirth in Mexico. I don’t know if she will ever get over it enough to marry me.”
“Would Liz help by talking to her now she is pregnant?”
“She might be mad at me for saying something to Liz about her fears.”
“My wife will know how to tell her. Heavens, she’s worked for her for years.”
Jesus shook his head. “You know I love and I respect her. But I may have to give up on her if she is so afraid of dying over it.”
“Maybe the priest could talk to her?”
“I would like some help, that’s for sure.”
“Let me think on it.”
“If anyone can fix it, I trust you most of all.”
“I am running out of good men to run ranches.”
“You sure are.” Jesus twisted in the saddle to look back at a fast-moving rig coming up from behind them.
Chet reined up the horse to the side of the road. The driver standing up on the buckboard reined the team in.
Chet did not recognize the driver.
“Mr. Byrnes, sir. I reckon you don’t know me . . . I’m Toby Evans. That’s my dad, Harrison, in the back—he’s been shot. We’ve got the HG-Bar Ranch.”
“We better get him to the doctor’s house. Jesus and I will meet you there. Who shot him?”
“Aaron Cargill, sir.”
“Go on. He needs medical attention. We’ll talk later.”
“Yes sir.” The boy charged off.
“He was still alive?” Jesus asked.
“I think so. Who is that man shot him?”
Jesus shook his head. “I don’t know him. But that boy has come a long ways from the white sweat on them horses.”
“We better see what we can learn. Let’s lope.”
They rushed after the fast buckboard. Arriving at the doctor’s house shortly after the youth, they ran up onto the porch to beat on the door.
While they waited for the doctor to open the door, Chet leaned over the buckboard. “Mr. Evans, can you hear me?” Chet asked the wounded man, who was obviously in a lot of pain.
“Yeah. The boy stopped you back there—I guess we are here, huh?”
“What was the shooting over?”
“My ex-wife—”
The doctor and his male nurse were out there by then to examine him.
“We can talk later,” Chet said to him.
Harrison nodded.
“Nasty shot, huh, Doc?” the assistant said.
“Yes, it is. All of us can carry him inside. Then I can see more about it. Now be easy, boys.”
Doc Henry and his assistant, Oliver, were soon undressing the patient lying on a table.
“Chet Byrnes, you know about this?” Doc asked him, busy scissoring the shirt apart.
“No sir. His son stopped and told us who shot him.”
“Perhaps we should get a deputy over here to take his statement?”
“Yes, we should. Jesus, go get a deputy.”
“I can do that.” He left for the arm of the law.
Chet took the boy out onto the porch while the medical team worked on his father.
“Toby, tell me more about this.”
They sat on the porch bench side by side. Toby began nodding his head and talking. “Talley is my stepmother, I guess. I say that not in no bad way about her. My real mother Agnes died when I was ten years old. Dad raised the three of us. Bucky and Phyllis and me. Dad met Talley Bunch at a dance. He was lots older than her but that didn’t matter to her, she said. So he asked her folks for her hand and they agreed. I’m telling you all this so you understand.”
Chet nodded. “I’m listening.”
“Well, it wasn’t a pleasant marriage like they thought it would be. Dad sent us kids outside when they fought. Their wars got so bad and they really wasn’t about anything. Petty stuff but they both bristled up and away they went to shouting and cussing at each other.
“They finally agreed to a divorce. When my sis, Phyllis, turned fourteen she married a Mormon guy and they moved down to Saint David. Bucky went to work over in the Bill Williams mining area. We ain’t heard from him in a long time.
“Talley moved back home and the court awarded her a divorce. She took up with this guy—Aaron Cargill—and I heard lots of bad things. I know Dad heard things about how bad Cargill was treating her. It all came to a head this morning. I guess that Talley had run away from him the night before—they were in the road when we started in the buckboard to go to town.
“They were on foot coming up the road. He had her by her hair, well, really dragging her, and she had a black eye. I don’t care who it really is, nobody should be treated like that.” He shook his head like he’d been repulsed by the whole thing.
“Dad told him to let go of her.”
“Cargill blew up. He said, ‘This ain’t none of your damn business . . . she’s my—well—whore.’ That was all it took. Dad flew off the seat and they got into a bad fight. Talley was screaming for him to stop . . . she’d go along with him if he quit. Just so he didn’t kill Dad.
“Dad knocked him on his ass and that made him so mad he drew this gun and shot him. Dad didn’t have a gun on his hip. I didn’t have a gun either. Then he drug her off. Really hurting her. A cowboy who works for the RTP outfit come by and helped me load him in the buckboard.
“We find out the condition of your dad, and then I want you to take me and Jesus up there if the deputy doesn’t offer to do anything. We will get her out of that situation.”
“Aside from their arguing I’ve really liked her. She really doesn’t deserve being treated like that.”
“No. Just remember what I promised you.”
Jesus agreed when Chet told him the story. When the deputy came out he scowled at Chet and asked, “You in on this shooting business, Byrnes?”
“No.”
“Good. I’ve got a whole jail full of them bastards you’ve arrested now.”
“Fine . . . don’t let any of them out.”
Chet never heard the cuss words the lawman added when he turned back to talk to Toby.
Jesus shook his head in disapproval. “He don’t appreciate our hard days in the saddle to get them. All he wears out is the seat of his pants in a chair.”
Toby said to them, “He says they will send word for Cargill to come in. That deputy said it might be called self-defense. Damn it. Dad had no gun.”
“I am not the law here. But we can go get that lady out of his place if she wants out and then let the law handle it.”
Toby was still fighting mad and stalking the wide porch. “I heard people all my life say, we ain’t got no law but a rope.”
“No. We have law and we will carry it out later. Jesus, put his team up, rent him a horse and saddle from Frye. After Doc tells us something about his dad’s condition we will go see this guy.”
“I’m on my way.”
Toby stopped and swung on a porch post. “I hope Dad’s all right after this.”
“How’s that?”
“Maybe she, Dad, and I can go somewhere and start over. I know Talley’s had enough of that mean sumbitch, and if we get her away I bet she’d go away with us.”
“Where would you go?”
“I don’t know but we’d find someone needed a ranch foreman. I bet the three of us would make him a good hand. We’ve never had any money. Maybe us working for someone, Talley’d have enough money not to skimp on every little thing and she’d be all right too.”
“Toby, that’s a lot of ifs.” The boy’s thinking how to iron out things amused Chet.
“I heard you’re from Texas. If you had not come here you’d never found your pretty wife or that big ranch or none of the rest.”
“True. We will go get her out if she will leave and we can find out her wishes.”
“I would certainly appreciate that, sir.”
“I’m just Chet. My men call me that and so does my wife.”
“I won’t forget it. Someday I’d love to hear your life story if you’d tell me.”
Chet smiled. “Might take a week.”
“That would be fine.”
Doc came outside to talk to them. “We have the bullet removed. If he doesn’t take an infection he should be good as new in a few weeks. I want to keep him here for a while. Is that good enough? It wasn’t near his heart or vital organs. The bleeding has stopped.”
“Doc, Toby will be back to check on him. Thank you and I will pay the bill.”
“Chet, you don’t have to pay the bill,” Toby said after the physician went back inside.
“Toby, I know what I have to pay and not pay. Let me do this.”
“Yes sir—Chet.”
“Jesus is coming.”
“How much do horses rent for a day?”
“I do lots of business with Frye. He probably won’t charge me in this case.”
“Boarding our team either?”
“I can handle it.”
* * *
It was close to evening when they approached Cargill’s cabin. They had stopped at a crossroad store for some fresh rye bread and a bowl of beans from the woman who ran it. Beans had been cooking on her stove. A congenial thickset woman in a wash-worn Mother Hubbard dress, and when she learned he was Chet Byrnes, she shook his hand and said, “My name’s Annie Cross. All my life I wanted to meet up with you. And I finally have.”
“Nice to meet you, Annie.”
“What brings you down here?”
“Looking for a man that shot Toby’s dad this morning.”
She looked shocked. “Who shot him?”
“Aaron Cargill.”
“Lands, he’s worthless as wormy bread.”
“I understand that too.”
“If you’ve done half the things I’ve read about you doing, then kick that guy hard on the backside for me. I’ve run him off from here twice with my sawed-off shotgun and should’ve shot him both times.”
Chet chuckled. “He must have done some bad things.”
Her blue eyes went to a squint. “I ain’t telling you out loud, but I should’ve kilt him for it.”
“Annie, we get a chance we will throw in a kick from you.”
“Put his back parts right up between his shoulder blades.”
“Hey, thanks for the food. We need to find him before dark.” He left three silver dollars for the food on her counter.
She came out on the porch. “Good to meet you, boys. Come back any time. I keep a pot of beans hot all day long.”
Then, smiling, she gave a big kick of her petticoats from her button-up shoes for him.
Toby said the next side road went up a canyon to Cargill’s. Chet twisted in the saddle to look back at the store. Cargill didn’t live far from the lady and if he messed enough with her, she’d shoot him.
Cargill’s place was a mess. But he expected no more. The shack had a cowhide for a door. A haggard-looking black-eyed girl came out and stood back against the wall. A bearded man in his thirties came out hatless.
“You didn’t get enough of me this morning, boy?”
“Cargill, we come to get one thing straight,” Chet said.
“Who the hell are you, mister?”
“My name is Byrnes. Chet Byrnes, and I am here to ask the lady if she would like to leave your abusive custody. Talley, what do you say?”
“She ain’t leaving and if’n she opens her mouth, I’ll knock all her damn teeth out. You hear me, bitch?”
Cargill whirled at the distinctive sound of Jesus’s Winchester levering a cartridge in the chamber. “Move away from her or die. My finger itches badly.”
Jesus pushed his horse in closer and with his gun barrel waved the man farther away from her. “You better stand over there or die. Chet, you and Toby take her away and talk to her. He ain’t doing anything but counting his blessings that I have not already shot him.”
“Who are you anyway, Messican?”
“The man that’s going to send you to hell. Shut up.”
Chet herded her off to a good distance. “Toby has some things to say to you.”
She swept her greasy hair back and nodded. Her left eye was swollen shut and looked black, blue, and even had some yellow around it. Her lower lip was badly bruised and when she talked, Chet could see it hurt her. The top of her right cheekbone had suffered a hard blow. No telling what else was wrong with her.
“Talley, listen to me. Dad’s going to live. I don’t want you to stay with Cargill any longer. He will kill you and I couldn’t stand that.”
“Toby, he would only come get me and kill you too.”
“No, he won’t do that, Talley. I can promise you that.”
“Who is he?” she asked, pointing at Chet.
“That is my friend, Chet Byrnes.”
“Oh, I have heard about you.”
“Trust me then. Do you have any things that you want out of that cabin?”
She shook her head and both eyes began to tear.
“Catch her,” Chet said to Toby. “She’s going to faint.”
He did and they both set her down on the ground.
Coming to quickly, she swept her hair back and managed to sit up by them bracing her. “Oh, I am so sorry I did that.”
“Nothing to be sorry about here. We are all going to my ranch. We can sort the rest out some other time. Can you ride double and not fall off from behind Toby?”
She gave a quick nod of her head.
“Set here a minute and I’ll help load you up.” Chet rose to his feet and went toward the house.
“Cargill, if you aren’t gone in twenty-four hours I am charging you with attempted murder. Some of my men will be here to be sure you have fled by tomorrow afternoon. You aren’t gone clear out of the country, you will be arrested by a warrant I swore out on you that will be on the Yavapai County sheriff’s desk. You savvy?”
The man bobbed his head and collapsed to his knees. Jesus set the hammer on safety and put it back in the scabbard. Chet went back and hoisted the girl up behind Toby and they left.
On the road, he said, “We will stop and eat again at Annie’s store. Then it is a four-hour ride back to our ranch.”
“I need to go by our place and turn some horses out to graze,” Toby said.
“We can do all that on the way I figure. Be lots of riding under the stars, but we’ll get there sometime. My wife will think I left her.”
“Don’t worry, Talley. She’s used to him and his wild-goose chasing,” Jesus said.
She cleared her throat. “I have never met her.”
Jesus checked his horse to get even with her as they came up the two ruts called a road. “Well, she’s a good one and she’s pretty too.”
“I am sure a mess to meet anyone.”
Chet put his horse beside them. “Don’t worry, she’s used to me bringing in women I find.”
They all laughed.