CHAPTER 35
In the next two weeks, his well-organized army made two more successful drives. They had over a thousand big steers for the next spring’s drive penned over on the Diamond Ranch’s fenced section, and a buyer from down on the border sold Harp eight hundred big Mexican steers, well worth the money, to be driven to Kerrville after Christmas.
Things went on fast and furious. Small pockets of reported maverick cattle were being gathered and branded by big and small outfits, so by now Harp knew the free cattle would be harder to find. His son, Lee, was trying to crawl and provided him with lots of entertainment.
Hoot sent word some of his horses had been rustled and his men had lost the tracks. They were gone.
Times were growing real tough. Lots of what were called grub line riders passed by looking for work. Harp fed them and they moved on but more came by, and more would come.
Harp decided he’d never understand economics except he knew Texas was dirt poor and no one was helping to cure it. The government’s war debt was blamed. Texans blamed the carpetbaggers for ruining the state’s recovery. He knew that he and his brother possessed more money than most people in Texas had.
Money talked and they’d used it to buy ranches. Cattle drives were their business while ranching was their anchor in Texas. He had several teams of men out searching for herds of wild cattle still unbranded. His team at home was inspecting quality of the stock from people who wanted the O’Malleys to sell in Kansas. That market did not buy culls. They were worthless and so no need to drive them to Kansas, as precious as those spaces were. Herders were paid for cattle that met market standards and were accepted by the buyers. Many herders discovered what they had brought up from Texas had zero value in the market. There were even some shootings over it in Abilene. Harper was aware of all that was going on, and he was wary.
His bookkeeper worked hard on his new job, asking for information that Katy and his mother had to find. They made him feel at home, and one day he told them, “I’m really enjoying my work and the cowboys are great to me. I hate to go home on the weekends.”
Harp was glad he had hired him. He could see his efforts in doing the books really looked very businesslike. It was getting to be a big business as they moved forward. Reg promised to have a report on all expenses they had going to Kansas on that last trip, so they would have better control over the next one. He promised to show Harp the costs for everything they had done so far.
Doug, as the foreman at the Diamond Ranch, was upgrading it everywhere. When Harp last talked to the two sisters, they were excited at Doug’s handling of the job. He assured them they had a good man.
After sundown one evening he and Katy sat on the front porch swing with Lee asleep in his crib. The chains creaked a little with his foot shoving to make it swing.
“The shooting of the Holder boy is not settled yet, is it, despite the judge’s saying it wasn’t murder but self-defense?” Kate asked, snuggling up to Harp.
“I know how you feel about this situation. I have no idea how to stop all the bad talk. I am almost glad Long isn’t here. He’d beat them over the head with those hateful signs. I really thought that when the deputy said they were all riding his father’s horses, folks would know that Holder was behind the killers or simply aiding them.”
“I worry about your safety.”
“Katy, I can’t crawl in a hole until the clouds pass. That is not my style. I will go do what I need to do for the ranch, for us, for our future.”
“And even his wife having a shotgun and the town marshal disarming her.”
“Katy, I have lots of faith in God. Saving Emory in the Arkansas River, he was there. It was a lot more dangerous than Mrs. Holder with a gun. They didn’t kill me in Missouri when I faced an army.”
“Hey, you are my saver. You made me feel like a real woman and wife that I hope I am.”
He hugged her close. “Katy, I am so proud of you I can’t say it enough. You filled a big hole in my life. Try not to worry, and I will be double careful for your and Lee’s sake. I am going to be here when he grows up, for his wedding, to see my own grandkids and lots more that this life has to hold for me.”
“All right. I won’t trouble you anymore.” He kissed her and they rocked in each other’s arms for a while, then went off to their bedroom.
Next morning at the cowboys’ breakfast in the big tent, he went over everyone’s plans and finished with, “Men, ride in pairs. The ambush on me has become a call for those people that hate us to take up arms against us. They could try and kill you. If that happens I will find that dog and he won’t live long, but please be careful night and day. Be aware of where you are and who is around you. This will pass, though I don’t know when. Everyone cover each other’s backs. We have a large spread-out ranch operation to run and a couple of herds to gather for our drive to Kansas next spring.”
They gave him a loud yeah and stood up to applaud him.
“Thank you. Be careful.”
His father walked with him back to the house. “We have lots to keep an eye on don’t we?”
“Yes,” Harp said with a shudder. “No telling what they will try next. They have threatened us on the road and told us we were rustling their stock. They had not lifted a hand to brand them even before the war like the three of us did.”
“I told you boys owning those cattle would be a big asset to us. No one believed me until you and Long brought that money back. I hope he is back here by Christmas. He don’t have any idea how bad things are shaping up here, does he?”
“Not unless he is talking to some bald eagle that flew out there to tell him.”
Hiram chuckled. “I just saw that screaming eagle circling him, screaming at him. They need you at home.”
“Maybe he can ride a cloud in,” Harp teased.
“It might be like him to do that.”
They both laughed at the idea, while the situation really stabbed Harp in the chest every waking hour of the day. All he wanted to do was to get on with his plans to ranch and have a large enough operation for his family to comfortably ranch the rest of their lives.
“Everyone up and wide eyed?” Katy asked when he got back to the house.
“I told them they better be.”
“Are you still going into town today?”
“I need to speak to the two men looking for more places we can buy. This is something we talked about before Long rode off on his own. We need to find and buy all we can, while we have the money.”
“Who goes along with you?”
“Red will find someone for me or I won’t go.”
“Thanks.” She kissed his cheek, standing on her toes.
He found some maps showing places he’d studied that they could buy, carried them out to where two guards, Jim Lawson and Tyrone Clayman, held his saddled horse’s reins. He put the maps in his saddlebags and with a kind thanks for them for riding with him to town, they rode off.
He met lawyer Tommy Snyder and sat down at the seat in front of his desk.
Tommy leaned forward. “I have a big map here that includes lots of country in the area of the big corral. Including it. It is all state land and since state land has not been selling, and you have adjoining land, the government says owners can buy the rangeland at a discount. I just learned this two days ago.”
“How cheap?”
“Two dollars an acre. That’s one thousand two hundred and eighty dollars a section, but don’t tell anyone.”
“So, the land that we don’t have in that region, for us to tie it up, will cost around twenty-seven thousand dollars for twenty sections?”
Snyder made a face. “It has to be designated as rangeland first. To get that stamped on that land may cost five hundred dollars. You see where that goes?”
“I’d pay that but how sure are you we can do that?”
“I’ll make a special trip to Austin this week to do it, and I’ll wire you when I have it done.”
“Fine. You’re talking about us owning lots of ground in one big patch and really tying all that country up? From where Hoot has the ranch to clear past the Underground Ranch place on the west? And that would join the Erickson place up, too. Long will love it.”
“You’ll own it in a week.”
They shook hands.
His other land agent only had some disconnected home places and the price on them had gone up with the expectations of a land boom being talked about, so he didn’t make any deals there. He gathered the two cowboys and they went to Clare’s Café for lunch. Things were quiet in town, he was happy to notice. All the signs were taken down, but moving around, Harp still felt some tension in the air.
“Well, the H Bar H bunch is back. I’ve been missing you guys,” Harriet, the ample-butted waitress in her white uniform, said, then licking the lead pencil she used to write their food orders on her pad. “Meat loaf is the special today.”
“Three specials, three coffees, and three pieces of pecan pie,” Harp ordered.
“All right, guys, it will be coming up shortly.”
“Learn much today?” Tyrone asked.
“Quite a bit. We may have us a real ranch coming. But it needs to be kept quiet until we make the deal.”
Jim said, “Sounds good, boss man. You are going to need some new head drovers. Me and Tyrone want to apply for those jobs. We learned a lot last year and figure with good help we can get them up there.”
“Boys, good help may be damn hard to find. I agree you both can be candidates, but I want Long here when we decide. I will put you both down.”
Around that time, he heard a man say aloud to his tablemates, “I see they let anybody in this gawdamn place. They even let boy killers eat here.”
Harp stopped Jim from saying anything or getting up. Under his breath, he said, “He ain’t worth anything. Stay put. Eat like nothing’s happened.”
The loud mouth went on, “Aw, hell, they think anyone can shoot a damn kid.”
Harp and his men finished lunch and their pies. Quietly he said, “Start for the door. When you get there, hold it open for me.”
Both men looked at him to explain. He whispered, “No matter what happens go outside, hold that door open, and stay there.”
They went for the door and Harp stood, leaving a tip on the table.
Headed for the door, Harp caught the loud mouth by his shirt collar, jerked him up, drew the man’s gun, discarded it, and with his belt also in Harp’s grip rushed him, cussing a blue streak, out the door that his men held open. The charge carried the guy outside and tossed him on the ground past the boardwalk.
He struggled to get up, but Harp had his finger in his face. “Listen, if you don’t shut your mouth about this matter, you will need a new face to wear, because I am bashing in the one you have. Now do you hear me?”
“I-I—” the man stammered, red faced.
“Yes, coming in a place, cussing at me, will get you killed and make the world a better place without you. Now don’t forget what I said.”
“Yeah—yeah.”
“I mean it. That boy died with his killer friends. I considered him one of them or he’d be alive today.”
The man still on the ground was sitting up wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “All right.”
“That’s better. Now, let’s go to the ranch,” he said to his own men.
On the way home, Jim was laughing. “Boy that was fast action, Harp. He never knew what came at him.”
“I thought he was drunk and not able to move fast enough. But he is sober now.”
“Damn sure sober now.” All three laughed.
“He’s lucky, boys, that it was me and not Long that did that. He’d been missing teeth instead of brushing the dust off his butt.”
“Is Long coming back?”
“He better or I’ll haunt him. He said he’ll be back here by Christmas. That’s what he told me when he rode off.”
“What’cha figure he went looking for?”
“I’m not sure. But he and I have worked pretty hard since we were boys at ranching and being rangers watching for Comanche. I think he wanted to see new places and new people. We also made two large cattle drives in that time, and he wanted to be away from it all for a time.”
“Folks thought him and that captain’s wife were once close?” Tyrone asked.
“He said it didn’t work out. No telling but I could sure use him around here. Oh, well, I can handle it till he gets back.”
They unhitched their horses, stepped in their saddles, and rode home. At the ranch they took his horse to put up, and he thanked the men for going along.
His dad came out on the porch where he washed up in the waning light of the day.
“How did it go today?”
“The State of Texas really needs money. Tommy Snyder found out that they are selling rangeland to adjoining landowners for two dollars an acre.
“He thinks we can tie up all that land over there. Twenty sections for twenty-seven thousand dollars. Land that ties into the Erickson Ranch, which is ten sections, and Grass Valley where Hoot is at.”
“You serious?”
Harp nodded. “That would make one helluva ranch wouldn’t it?”
“It sure would for that price.”
“He’s going to Austin to cinch the deal for us. He wants it quiet until he gets it stamped as rangeland down there.”
“I still can’t believe that those guys griped about you taking unbranded cattle. After this they may really hate you as the landowner next to them.”
“You two staying out here in the cold all night?” Katy asked from the door.
“No, ma’am, we’re coming.”
They stormed in. He hugged and kissed her.
“You look unscathed.” She set his full plate of food in front of him.
“I am. Had a good day.”
“We have the wedding all set up for Saturday.” Katy sat down beside him and hugged his shoulder.
“That should make them happy.”
“Oh, they are. What else?”
“I told Dad. Tommy found a crack in the state of Texas’s land sale. Adjoining landowners can buy rangeland for two dollars an acre.”
“And?”
“Start at Grass Valley go west of the Underground House and tuck in the Erickson Ranch and we will own a large continuous block of land.”
“Is it all rangeland?” she asked.
“It will be if so designated.”
“Boy, I am impressed. Your brother will like it won’t he?”
“He don’t, he can lump it.” They both laughed.
“He will like it and be impressed,” his father said quietly.
“You two make my head swim,” Easter said. “I can’t keep up with all these land deals.”
“I better get Reg to count it. Make sure we have the money. We don’t have this last purchase yet, but Tommy is going to wire me when he has it done.”
“Your dad told you two that money really counted in this economy, and you two have done a real job with it if this works,” Katy said.
“We’ll know in a week or ten days.”
He went to bed with his wife almost too keyed up to sleep.