CHAPTER 16
They would have two weeks before his wedding to build corrals and get things ready. Harp felt there was no way they’d get it all done in time for roundup, but he didn’t know how many helpers Long hired. The smell of fresh-cut cedar posts and rails filled his nose, and he never saw the fervor in men building the huge pen just west of the New Ranch headquarters.
Post contractors had hauled in a thousand posts and the slit rails. Then they went to work digging, blasting in places that needed the three-foot depth down into the rocks. The chutes arrived and were being assembled on site. The loading chute behind the squeeze was built in a V shape to allow the longhorns entrance down into it. Harp saw they built it stoutly.
Two men from the blacksmith shop came and did some cutting and fitting. When they finished, the new chutes worked well and Harp thanked them. With a bill for three hundred dollars in his hand, someone elbowed him.
“I think trouble just rode in.”
Six hardcase-looking riders came in the gate opening. Coming across the pen, the tough look on their faces showed they came with a purpose to their visit.
Suddenly, every worker on Harp’s payroll vanished.
“Howdy. Can I help you? My name is Harper O’Malley.”
“We know who you are. We’re here on business, kid.”
“First, I am not a kid. I own this land and you are on it. There are several children and women here, including my wife, so clean up your language or leave. Now what do you want?”
“I want this corral burned down and your ass out of here by sundown. We know what you did over at the other corral, and you aren’t doing it over here.”
“You six boys came here to tell me to leave my own property?” Harp asked.
“Go now or go feet first.”
“Rest of you agree with him?”
Straight-backed in the saddle, hands on their gun butts, they nodded.
“What was your name? I never heard it?”
“Jack Mills.”
“You, the tall one. What’s your name?”
“Jasper Graham.”
Harp pulled out his tally book and scribbled down the names.
“Red?”
“Rufus Lemons.”
“Next guy?”
“Navel Thomas.”
“Cody Brandon.”
“Next?”
“Screw you.”
Harp frowned at the man. “Your mother call you that?”
“Those names won’t do you no good when you are on your ass full of bullet holes.”
“Jack Mills. How many parties like this you had?”
“A dozen. Maybe more.”
“Well.” Harp paused. “This may be thirteen then?”
“Listen—”
“No, Mills, you listen to me. You and your men, with two fingers drop your guns in the dust or this will be the most unluckiest party you have ever attended.”
As Harp said it, a dozen Winchester actions clacked.
The six went for their guns and twelve rifles cracked. Harp had to jump away or get run over by some of their spooked horses. Short screams as the invaders went down like cut stalks. Through the gun smoke five horses raced around the large pen, rider-less. Then there was silence.
One wounded horse had to be destroyed. Three mortally wounded raiders were put out of their misery by bullets. Harp saw Kate coming, holstered his gun, and ran to cut her off.
Short of the corral he caught her. “They are dead. It’s all over.”
She clung to him and cried. “You are all right? Thank God. Who hired them?”
“They never said. Told me I had to burn the corral and leave or die. Word will get out.”
“The bodies?”
“Like the Comanche. We will burn them.”
“Will it ever stop?”
“Yes. Eventually they will learn not to mess with us.”
“Did you know any of them?”
“No. But money buys their kind.”
“Katy?” Long was there. “I am so sorry, but those men would have killed us. We had no choice.”
Squeezing her wet eyes, she pulled Long down and kissed his cheek. “I will thank God that both of you are safe.”
The hired guns were stripped to their underwear, their spoils divided and carried off. Saddles taken to the tack room and the horses were driven away to wander home or join a wild band. Some land was cleared, and cedar boughs had been piled into a mountain and the bodies tossed atop them and burned.
Supper was a silent meal. Even in bed later, Harper could not sleep for a long time. He heard the new baby cry over at the New Ranch house, and a coyote answered him.