Chaparral Range War (9781101619049) Page 11

  “Cally, you have a life to live. I’m a drifter. I’ve not stayed with much of anything. I thought the Rangers were my place until they proved that you can’t count on things, like when my full pay quit coming.”

  “I figured the war stepped in and first interrupted your life, like it did so many men your age.”

  “It did. Maybe I should have stayed with cattle and driving them north or wherever. But I lost some men on those drives who left me feeling I hadn’t done all I could to save their lives. I made some money and should have built a ranch while the business was so good.” He shook his head, feeling he was getting nowhere in discouraging her from any plans he felt she was making with him. “Damn, you aren’t listening to me.”

  “I’m listening fine to you, Phillip Guthrey. You aren’t listening to me.”

  “Oh, I am.”

  “No, you’re telling me I make you regret not doing some things. For that I am sorry. But you and I were thrown together for a reason. The good Lord has a purpose for all of us. If we belong together, age should not keep us apart. You don’t hate my company yet, do you?”

  “No. I wanted to warn you . . . I’m not a big sticking-around sort of guy.”

  “If you need to leave, I will be hurt, but let’s wait till that time to make any judgment about our deal. All right?”

  He shook his head and picked up the reins. She stopped him and leaned against him. Nothing he could do but kiss her. Damn, nothing was settled. Nothing at all. He sat back and thought for a second, then said, “I have warned you.”

  ELEVEN

  NOBLE WAS THERE when they returned to the ranch. He met them and helped unload Cally’s supplies into the house.

  “Anything happen?” Guthrey asked.

  “Not one damn thing, by golly. It was so quiet I was worried something was wrong,” Noble said and laughed.

  “Brown and McCall told him,” she indicated Guthrey, “that they wanted to talk at the dance Saturday night about Guthrey taking over as sheriff.”

  “Hmm,” Noble snuffed out his nose. “They say any more, like how they’d get rid of Killion?”

  She shook her head and went inside.

  When she was gone, Noble looked over at Guthrey. “Them Mormon folks are clannish. Guess they’ve got a right to be. But if they have had enough, maybe you could head up a ticket to beat Killion and make a real sheriff.”

  “That election is a long time away. Then the job is even farther away. I’m not certain I could wait around that long. But I’ll see. They do need a real sheriff here.”

  “You know, someone once told me that an elected official can be tossed out of office by a petition,” Noble said.

  Guthrey nodded at the words. “I guess we didn’t have that in Texas.”

  “You get enough signatures and you can call for an election. I heard of them doing it.”

  “I doubt these folks want to do that.”

  “You can’t tell. Folks are tired of not having any law and order.”

  Guthrey looked around to be certain Cally wasn’t within hearing distance of them. “I’ve been thinking. Where did they shoot her father?”

  “Oh, up in Congress Canyon.”

  “Did the law ever come out here and check on that murder?”

  Noble shook his bland, whiskered face. “No. There was no one around to do that. Three of us went up there and got the body. Dan was too upset to do it himself after he found him.”

  “I need to look at that place tomorrow. I guess I should have gone up there when I first came here. I simply expected that had been done by the sheriff. Of course, I didn’t know how loose the law was up here at that time.”

  “No one could have expected that.” Noble shook his head wearily.

  “Was an autopsy done?”

  “I don’t think so. He was shot twice in the back, kneeling down.”

  “Were his clothes burned around the wounds?”

  Noble shook his head. “Hard to tell. Dan rolled him over when he found him. So his body was dusty anyway when we got up there. We wrapped him in a blanket and put him over a horse. It was a grim day. I took him to the funeral home in town. Mr. Jones and his worker Greg took his body inside.”

  “I still want to see the setup up there.”

  Noble agreed with a nod. They carried in the rest of the supplies and found Cally busy making supper. Thanking them, she offered them coffee.

  They accepted her offer. With the cups she’d filled in hand, they took seats at the table and she joined them. “Have you two been looking at our older steers? We’ll need to sell several to pay some bills and keep afloat. Dan and I planned to sell fifty or so before the hot weather.”

  “Where do you usually sell them?” Guthrey asked.

  “Oh, sometimes we can sell them here to fill Indian reservation orders. But I haven’t heard of any of those lately, have you, Noble?”

  “No,” Noble said. “I think Whitmore must be filling all that business with Ike Clanton.”

  She nodded. “There are some butchers in Tucson who bought cattle from us. But we could only take, say, a dozen at a time. They only butcher so many head a day and must feed the rest until they can get them into the plant.”

  “Who paid the most?” Guthrey asked.

  “Butchers in Tucson always paid more than those army or Indian deals. But getting them there was always a problem. It takes three to four days to drive them over there.”

  “So what do you think?” Guthrey asked the older man.

  “Oh, a couple of us could drive thirty to forty head easy to Tucson. These cattle ain’t haints like those full-blood longhorns we use to have. Get us a lead bell steer and maybe a heeler dog or two.”

  “I may need to go look those butchers up and find out what they can use. I’ve seen several fat two- and three-year-old steers we can pick from the herd,” Guthrey said.

  “That wouldn’t be much of a cattle drive for you, but it’s pretty big for us. Supper is about ready.”

  “We’ll go put the horses up and wash up, then.” Their chairs scraped on the floor and they excused themselves.

  They each took a set of harnesses off the team and put them on the tongue. Noble led the pair off to the pen system. Then they went back to the house. Guthrey regretted that he had not gotten more done that day besides the round-trip. They’d been to town and had no problem with anyone—none of Whitmore’s men even showed up.

  They were finishing supper when they heard a horse coming hard up the road leading to the house. Guthrey rose and went to greet whoever was riding in. A youngster, no older than sixteen and bawling her eyes out, dismounted and rushed over to hug him.

  “They shot Daddy a while ago.”

  He caught her by the arms. “Is he alive?”

  “He was. Mom said to come get you and you’d help us.”

  “Do you have a team and wagon?”

  She nodded.

  “What’s wrong, Eva?” Cally asked, joining them in the sundown’s red glow.

  “They shot her dad.”

  “Who?” Cally asked, running over and hugging the girl.

  “Some of Whitmore’s men—” Then she broke down crying and her knees buckled. Guthrey swept her up, and Cally led the way back inside.

  “Put her on my bed.”

  “She’s the Rawlings girl, ain’t she?” Noble asked.

  Cally answered, “Yes.”

  “Noble, go saddle two horses. Little lady, you just lie here.” He put her gently on the bed. “Cally, you lock the doors. We’ll go see what we can do for her father. You two stay here. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  He took a Winchester down from the wall rack and checked the breach. It was loaded. Then he nodded grim-faced at Cally. “We’ll do all we can.”


  “God bless you,” she said and patted his shoulder. “Be careful.”

  In a few minutes Guthrey and Noble tore up the road on their horses in the growing darkness. With the Winchester stuck in his scabbard, Guthrey waved at Cally standing there in the lit doorway. No telling what he would need once they got over there or how bad Rawlings was hurt.

  “Ted Rawlings is his name,” Noble called out as they rode hard up the dirt road. “He runs some cows. Hauls freight to Tucson and some to Tombstone. Hard worker. His wife’s name is Lillian.”

  “Yes, I know. Dan introduced me to him. Wonder why they shot him.”

  Noble shook his head. “No telling, but he has a bad temper.”

  Guthrey nodded that he had heard the comment. At last, they walked their hard-breathing, sweaty horses in the starlight on the final mile to the Rawlingses’, a place Guthrey remembered visiting.

  A red-faced, rawboned woman in a wash-faded dress came to the door, the light from the inside spilling out from behind her. “Howdy, Noble and Guthrey,” she said to them, then turned to Guthrey. “I’m sure glad you came. I have a problem with Ted. Maybe you can talk to him.”

  “How is your husband? Do we need to take him to the doctor?”

  “He’s in bed. Come with me.”

  The big man was shirtless, with his upper body bandaged in torn-up sheets that were stained from his blood seeping into them. He tried to sit up.

  “Don’t get up.”

  “They kinda outnumbered me.”

  “Where were you shot?” Guthrey asked, looking hard at him in the candlelight.

  “There’re bullets in my chest.” Rawlings made a face of pain.

  “Deep?”

  “They’re in me.”

  “We better take you to a doctor,” Guthrey said.

  “Hell, what can he do?”

  “Get the bullets out.”

  Rawlings shook his head. “My brother was shot in El Paso. We took him to a doctor down there as fast as we could. The sawbones cut an artery trying to get the bullet out, and he bled to death. I’m letting these damn bullets stay right in me.”

  Guthrey decided he wouldn’t be able to talk him into being treated. “Who shot you?”

  “One of Whitmore’s men. Name’s Ruth. Carl Ruth. He and two more—” Rawlings’s coughing stopped his speech. When he recovered some he began again. “They rode up and accused me of killing a steer belonged to Whitmore.”

  “They have any proof?”

  “Hell, no. They came looking for trouble was all I saw.”

  “You knew Ruth?”

  “I’d had words with him before. They took a steer of mine last year and sold him to Ike Clanton. The brand inspector told them they must pay me for him, and it took three months to get my money. And I only got it after I told Whitmore I’d take the damn money out of his hide.”

  “Did Ruth ride in and accuse you of stealing a steer?”

  Rawlings looked upset. “Yeah. He rode up and then sent his two men looking for signs and accused me of slaughtering one of their steers.”

  “Did they find anything?”

  “Hell, no.”

  “When did the shooting start?”

  “I told Ruth if he ever came back and upset my family again, I’d kill him.” Rawlings stopped and nodded, and it was obvious from his face that he was in pain from the bullet or bullets in his body. He swallowed hard. “They all three started shooting at me. I got a bullet in Ruth and one of them boys he brung with him before my knees crumbled.”

  “You reckon either of them will die?”

  “I hope to hell they all die.”

  “If you won’t go to the doctor, what can we do?”

  “Go get that sumbitch for me.”

  “I’m not a killer, for you or anyone else. I want this range war stopped, and I mean stopped. You were a damn fool to spark them into a shoot-out. We can maybe get enough people to throw Killian out of office and break their stranglehold, but gunfights only get innocent people hurt.” Guthrey turned to leave.

  “Guthrey?”

  He stopped in the bedroom door and looked back.

  “You going after them?”

  “I’m going into town to see if they’re not as dumb as you are about seeking a doctor to treat your wounds. I figure you have less than two weeks to live. Better get your business into shape while you’re still conscious—you’re leaving a widow and your children to deal with them.”

  “They killed my brother getting his bullet out—”

  Guthrey shook his head. “Nothing I can do for you if you won’t listen to me. I’m sorry, ma’am. Come on, Noble.”

  “You don’t think he’s right about not getting treatment?” she asked.

  “He’s not right. Doctors make mistakes, but they try. His brother might not have lived, but they tried to save him is what it sounded like to me.”

  She nodded. “I see what you mean.”

  Guthrey and Noble went outside to their horses.

  “Where are we headed?” the old man asked.

  “To find Ruth and the other injured man and see what’s what.”

  “You think Ted lied to us?” Noble mounted his horse and checked him.

  In the saddle, Guthrey started the horse toward town under the quarter moon rising in the east. “No, but I promise he’ll die if he doesn’t get medical help.”

  The old man looked back. “I guess we did all we could for that ornery old man.”

  “I wished he’d listened to me.” Guthrey shook his head in disappointment. “We’ve done all we can do here.”

  “What if we find Ruth?”

  “I intend to take him to jail for terrorizing them.”

  “Will the judge keep him in jail?”

  “I hope so. Ruth had no authority to accuse the man of theft. He needed to file a warrant and have the sheriff serve it.”

  “Our sheriff don’t do that.”

  “He ain’t right either.”

  They reached Steward’s Crossing, and Guthrey took to the bars but learned nothing about Ruth or any of the others. Noble came back to Guthrey after he got some information from a man Guthrey had tried talking to earlier without luck. The two met at the horse rack, unhitching their horses.

  “Ruth was taken in a buckboard to Soda Springs earlier tonight. He was unable to ride a horse.”

  “What about the other wounded man?” Guthrey looked at the nearly empty dark street, waiting for Noble’s answer.

  “He was only scratched. His name’s Kyle. He went to heal up with some Mexican woman in the mountains, according to what was told me.”

  “Why won’t anyone tell me anything?”

  “They don’t want any trouble with Whitmore.”

  Guthrey nodded. He savvied that.

  Near midnight, Guthrey and Noble reached Soda Springs, and the lights were on in the doc’s house-office. A hardcase holding a rifle stood guard on the porch. Noble frowned at Guthrey.

  “Let me handle him.”

  Noble nodded.

  “What do you want?” the guard asked.

  “I understand they brought in a badly wounded man?”

  The man started to swing his rifle around, but he had waited too long. Guthrey moved in, gave him a hard knee to the crotch, and ripped the rifle away from him. He slammed the rifle butt in the man’s chest, and the man went to his knees with a moan. Going by, Guthrey shoved him down.

  “Watch him with a gun, Noble,” Guthrey said over his shoulder and went through the lighted door. Doc looked up at his entry.

  “He going to live?” Guthrey nodded at the passed-out man under Doc’s knife.

  “He should. Why?” Doc frowned at Guthrey.

  “I’m having him h
eld for murdering a man over above Steward’s Crossing tonight.”

  “Sounds like you have more problems.” Doc shook his head and went back to work on his patient.

  “What do you want to do with that bird on the porch?” Noble asked from the doorway.

  “Tie him up. He’s an accessory to murder too.”

  “I can do that.”

  Doc shook his head in disbelief. Then he chuckled. “You get enough of them in that jail, you may bankrupt the country feeding them all.”

  “I consider that would be a good deal. Then they wouldn’t be riding high horse over everyone on the river side of the county.”

  “Can I gag him?” Noble asked.

  “No, we better not.”

  “He better shut up or I will,” Noble said, sounding displeased.

  “Hell, he gets too mouthy, stick a sock in his mouth.”

  “I may just do that, dad gum him anyway.”

  “Doc, I don’t think your patient’s going to run away. I’ll be sure that dumb deputy collects him before he’s well enough to flee.”

  “That will be fine. Who did they kill?”

  “They shot a rancher, Ted Rawlings. His brother was shot in El Paso a few years ago and they rushed him to a doctor. Getting the bullet out of him, they hit an artery and he died. Now Rawlings is going to die because of it. He’s got, I think, at least one bullet in his lung and wouldn’t come in with us. So by the law he will die at the hands of your patient.”

  “No way to convince him to come in, huh?” Doc asked, dropping a lead bullet in a pan from the jaws of his forceps.

  “No, and I told him to get ready to climb in a box. His days are numbered.”

  “Must have been a clumsy surgeon did that.”

  “We tried to get him to come and be treated. I’ll go see Dan for a minute, and then I guess we’ll go back after we have the papers on them two filled out.”

  “Be careful. This range war must be getting tougher,” Doc said after them.

  Guthrey went into the back bedroom and Dan was awake, braced up on his pillows. “Everything all right?” Dan asked.