Blue (Ben Blue Book 2) Page 5

  Taking my alternate route, I was able to stay out of sight and from the top of a ridge observe the ranch yard. It wasn’t much of a place. It was mostly log structures, which looked as though they’d been there longer than any of the Williams boys had been on this earth. I could see three of the brothers lounging around the corral and two others that I hadn’t seen before. Their brand, W-V could mean five Williams brothers, so one of these boys may be the fifth brothers. I put the glasses away and rode on down to the yard.

  Chapter 6

  I wasn’t overly comfortable riding into the midst of those five and no telling how many more there might be, but I had it to do. Tom Williams greeted me friendly enough, but the other two known brothers were looking surly and unhappy to see me. I gave ‘em a Howdy and sat my horse until invited to get down. The two that I didn’t know stayed off to the rear, leaning against the rickety corral fence. I was hoping that they wouldn’t put too much strain on it, or it might come down.

  “Rank not joinin’ us this morning?” I asked.

  “Na,” said Tom, “he’s got himself a real doozey of a black eye and some stitches the doc put in and a headache from the whiskey he drunk last night. Right now he ain’t fit company nohow.”

  “You ready to go show me some cattle?”

  “Shore, let’s go do her.”

  The three brothers mounted up, and we rode out to the north toward a line of hills. Tom and I rode in the lead, while the other two Williamses brought up the rear about fifty yards back. I wasn’t too concerned about having them behind me, since it would take a pretty good saddle shooter to hit me and not chance hitting Tom. “Your brothers don’t seem too happy to be doin business with me.” I said.

  “Aw… they’re just still a little sore about the way you whopped Rank. They set a lot of store by Rank… Him bein the oldest now… and the toughest.”

  “How many of you boys are there?”

  “There’s ony four of us now. They wus five until Bobby got caught up in a stampede a few weeks back. Peter, the youngest,” he aimed his thumb at those behind us. “said they wus bringin’ a herd through a draw and some feller jumped out and another started shootin’ and Bobby got cought in that ruckus. We never even found the body. Few weeks before that someone shot one of the hired hands, up in that same area, then tied him on the saddle and sent his horse home.”

  “Imagine that?” Was all I said.

  “Yeah that area up there ain’t been real kindly to us lately.”

  We rode for about a half an hour, and finally into a deep canyon on the south side of a low mesa. There were cattle signs from the minute we entered the canyon, and within a quarter mile we started seeing them. The cattle were in good shape and many of them wore the box J brand, which was a pretty simple job of putting the J in a box and covering the bar under J with the lower side of the box. There were a number of other Taos brands that had been altered, and altered pretty artfully.

  Tom and I rode through the herd and looked them over well. “Tom,” I said, “how many brands you got registered?”

  “Oh, a couple dozen I reckon… Why?”

  “Just curious… All these brands belong to you and your brothers?”

  “Oh, shore. Well we got a couple a partners too. Some of these might belong to them, but we all in business together.”

  “I’m willin to take a chance if the price is right.”

  “Whudda ya mean take a chanst?”

  “I could buy a bunch of these beeves and put them on my place and wouldn’t be but two or three people ever see them except my own riders. But what if my good friend Dave Johnston from the J was to come by and see that steer there wearin the Box J brand? I’ll tell you what if… He’d be stretchin my neck from the nearest tree… that’s what if.”

  “Most of these would pass casual inspection, but lookit here just below the J, there’s a brown bar that’s darker than the rest of the box. Whoever done this didn’t leave the iron on long enough. Now, I’m no stranger to a runnin iron or a cinch ring for that matter, and I never was as good as this. But I never tried to put altered brands on my own range.”

  “You got any from Rio Arriba or somewhere else?” I asked.

  “Oh shore, we can get cows from all over the place, but it’s gonna take a couple weeks longer.”

  “What the hell,” I said, “nobody comes up on my range anyway. I can put them up on the north east range, and nobody will see em but my crew. I’ll take what you got.”

  Through my easy acceptance of rustled cattle and a few alluded to fictions, I tried to give him the idea that I’d been in the business once or twice myself. It was working because he didn’t even try to claim innocence.

  “Can you come up with about twenty five hundred head?”

  “I reckon we could. It might take a couple of weeks to get em gathered, and we might have to go out and fetch a few hundred give or take, but we can do her. For shore.”

  “What’s your askin price?” I asked.

  “Well, lemme think about that on the way back to the house. I’ll need to talk to Rank about it anyways. Him bein the oldest and all.”

  We rode back to the house with the two younger brothers in the lead and Tom and me in the rear. He rattled on like an old buckboard on a cobblestone street, but he really didn’t say anything of importance. I knew better than to ask any direct questions about his partners. I was all in favor of patience being a virtue, as long as it was quick about it.

  When we reached the ranch headquarters, if that was what it could be called, we found the two, still unnamed cowboys, sitting in the shade of the bunkhouse porch roof talkin’ with Rank. We tied up at the corral and Tom said, “Wait here while I go talk this over with him.”

  Rank walked toward the house and Tom caught up with him at the door, and they both went inside. I spotted something on Peter’s horse, and went to take a closer look at it.

  Peter and the other brother were idling a few feet away trying to roll cigarettes without spilling too much tobacco and getting the papers too wet. “That’s a pretty nice rifle you got there, Peter. You mind?” and without waiting for an answer, I pulled it out of the boot.

  “Hey! You can’t just…” He started to say, but I cut him off.

  “You had it long?”

  “Yeah,” he managed, “my daddy guv it to me”

  “Your daddy named Ben Blue, was he?”

  “Whut’s that sposed to mean?”

  I showed him the stock, where the name BEN BLUE was burned into the wood with a hot knife point. Then he got stupid and grabbed for the butt. I swung it on a pivot with the butt going down to the right and the barrel coming up and to the left. I caught him coming in with the barrel just above his right ear. He went down in a heap, and the other brother came charging in from my right. I reversed the motion, bringing the butt up and the barrel down to put the butt right in his middle with some force. He went to his knees fighting to get a breath.

  The two cowhands came running from the bunkhouse, but by that time I had a cartridge in the chamber and an express gun in my left hand. They both skidded to a halt. “What’d you do that for?” one of them yelled. Before I could answer I heard boots coming down the porch steps. Tom was coming off the porch and Rank was yelling from inside the house wanting to know what was going on.

  “What’s going on?” Tom wanted to know.

  I showed him the rifle stock and told him how it was stolen from my hotel room yesterday.

  “I don’t read big letters so good all put together like that. What’s that say Ely?” as he addressed one of the cow hands.”

  “Why, that says Ben…Blue.” Ely told him.

  “That’s your rifle alright.” And then he turned to the groggy Peter who was just able to sit up and hold his head. Then with heel of his boot kicked him in the chest and laid him out again. “Stupit eejit!”

  “Ely, you and Barney get these two over to the horse trough and douse em good, but don’t drown em.”

  As we
walked toward the house, he told me that Rank wants eight dollars a head for the cattle. I was silent for a step or two and then said, “Impossible… I was willing to go four dollars a head, but Peter’s little case of bad judgement just knocked that in half… But seein as how I got my property back, I’ll go three dollars a head.”

  “Oh he ain’t gonna like that, but I’ll tell him.” He climbed the steps and disappeared inside.

  The next thing I heard was some real down on the farm cussin. Oh that Rank could sure spit it out. He was almost as good as that dance hall girl, whose bed I had to pull Andy out of back in Texas. Most of what he was sayin was just bad temper, but I heard, “Russell won’t never stand for it”, and, “Milo’ll blow his top!”

  Then I heard Tom say, “He ain’t gonna pay market price for rustled cattle… He saw right through them brands, and they wus purtty good.”

  “Well, I ain’t goin to no three dollars a head on my own… specially after what he did to me!... Damned cheap shot!”

  Tom came out again and down the steps again. “He says he’s gonna talk to the partners. You gonna be around for a couple a days?”

  I told him that I was paid up at the hotel for four more nights. “If I’m not in, you can leave a message with the desk man. Just tell him when and where to meet you and I’ll be there.”

  I rode out of the W-V ranch yard heading east, and before they had any idea where I was going, I was swallowed up by brush and boulders. They had no idea which way I went from there. Taking my time and looking the landscape over, decided that I liked my valley about as well as a man is allowed to like a place.

  Taking the Jake horse to the livery and stowing my tack, I walked back to the hotel. As I went to the desk to get my key, the desk man said I’d gotten a letter that came in on yesterday’s stage. It didn’t have a return address, but it did have signs of having been opened. I had a pretty good idea who it was from, and I hoped he had enough sense to be discrete. Otherwise, I’d have to sneak out of town right now. So I opened it and read:

  Ben,

  I heard from your banker, Mr. Jasper, and he has approved your line of credit. He says to make the best deal you can, and it will be covered. He also says that the bank will give you any help you need.

  Yours truly,

  Nels

  Well done, Nels. I gathered from the way it was written that Stewart was sending someone up from Santa Fe. That would take a load off my mind. I’d just tag along and try not to get in the way. It wouldn’t matter about the money because we weren’t gonna pay anyway.

  As I crossed the lobby, I told the hotel man that I had recovered my rifle, and if he hadn’t reported it to the sheriff yet… don’t. He said that he already had. I left it at that. I didn’t think the sheriff was mounting too much of an investigation to find my missing rifle. If he asks me about it, I’ll tell him where I found it.

  Noticing that my stomach was trying to send me a message by the sound of it, I determined that it was past noon and I was missing a meal. I walked down the street to the Mexican quarter to that same cantina that fed me last evening. I was up to my elbows in something delicious that was causing steam to come out of my eyes, when a large round shadow fell across my table. I looked up to see a huge sombrero, but the sun coming through the window behind it made the face just part of the hat.

  “Senor Benito? Benito Blu?” the voice inside the sombrero was asking.

  I said, “Si… I am Ben Blue.” As the hat and the man moved around to where I could see the face. “Is it Filipe? Yes, it is Filipe… Join me, mi amigo.” Motioning him to the chair opposite where I was sitting.

  He sat, and ordered us each a beer. “I am surprised to see you this far from your valley.” Filipe was one of Don Carlos’s vaqueros, whom I had come to know over the last five years or so. I told him that I was here on business, and would be in town for a few more days.

  “You are no more surprised to see me than I am to see you so far from Santa Fe.” I told him.

  “This is my home. I was born here and grew up here on my father’s rancho. When I was a young man I went to work for Don Carlos. My older brother would inherit the rancho, so I left to work for the Don. My family has been with the Don for generations.”

  “So are you home for a visit?”

  “No… My brother was killed by rustlers a month ago, and my father sent word for me to come home. I have been here for several weeks, and I have found that things are not so good in Rio Arriba. My brother was a very proud man, and would not ask for my help… I would have been here pronto.”

  “I’m sorry to hear about your brother, Filipe. It’s hard to lose a brother.” I commiserated.

  “Si,” he said, “we were very close, but according to custom the oldest inherits. I could have stayed and worked for him, but I was young and foolish. Now I will have a rancho but no brother.”

  “Do you have any idea who killed your brother? You said it was rustlers, but do you know them or suspect anyone?”

  “Si, but I cannot prove it in court, and the sheriff is not pursuing it with any urgency.”

  I toyed with my beer for the better part of a half minute and finally said, “Filipe, we need to talk, but not here. Is there somewhere out of town we can meet; someplace where curious eyes can’t find us? I think we might have a mutual interest in finding these rustlers.”

  He sat and thought for a moment, and then he gave me directions to an abandoned adobe on his ranch. It was about five miles from town to the southwest. I told him that I’d meet him there in about an hour and a half.

  I paid the tab and went back to the hotel, where I sat under the awning and enjoyed the warm afternoon. I hadn’t sat for more than fifteen minutes when the sheriff sauntered up and took the chair next to mine.

  “Afternoon Sheriff.” I said. “Beautiful day. I’ll take all these that Mother Nature cares to give me. If I’d put in any amount of work today, I wouldn’t feel guilty about pulling my hat over my eyes and taking a little snooze.”

  He chuckled and said, “Yeah, this kinda day is made for a siesta. Too bad, a man has to work. Vince, at the front desk told me that you lost your rifle yesterday. Any idea where you might uv left her?”

  “Oh, I know where I left it. I left it in my room upstairs. But don’t worry about it, I got it back this morning.”

  “Wal, that turned out well. Where’d you find it?”

  “In Peter Williams’ saddle boot.”

  “He must of found it, decided to keep it. Sometimes them youngsters just don’t think. What’d he say?”

  “He said his daddy gave it to him, but I convinced him that he was mistaken. Had to convince his brother too… the other young one. They should be okay by now.”

  “I’ll bet Rankin didn’t like that at all. What’d he do?”

  “Stayed in the house and cussed.” I told him. “But Tom kicked Peter around a little for bein’ so stupid. Then he had em dunked in the horse trough. Peculiar boys, them Williamses.”

  He laughed again and said, “That they are… that they are… Were you able to find any cattle to buy or were you and the boys too much on the outs?”

  “No,” I told him, “I made ‘em an offer on twenty five hundred head. They’re thinkin it over to see if they want my deal or want to dicker some more. Rank wasn’t up to his full potential this morning. Probably something he ate.

  “Knowin Rankin, it was probably something he drank or something he ran into.” The sheriff said and then laughed at his own joke. “Blue, I sure do need to keep you around. “You sure improve my attitude.”

  I’d have to give Sheriff Milo Rafferty a little more thought. He was much too happy a person to be mixed up with a bunch of rustlers… It could be just a matter of watching out for his kin and turning a blind eye to what they were doing. So far he hadn’t given me any cause to suspect that he was part of that setup.

  “If it wasn’t for Tom, that whole family would just sink into the sand.” Said the sheriff. “He’s by far
the smartest of the litter, but he just ain’t educated… Bobby did a pretty fair job of bein in charge when he had time to contemplate, but if he had to act quick, you just never know’ed what he’d do. Bobby would always ask Tom’s advice, but Rankin don’t listen to him.”

  “I for one, would much rather deal with Tom than any of them. I don’t know why I’m even messin with em.” I told him. “Tom’s the only one who hasn’t tried to goad me into a gunfight, stolen from me, or tried to blind side me… If I didn’t need cattle, I wouldn’t even be talkin to em.”

  “They may be your kin, Sheriff, but those boys should have been taken to the woodshed a lot more than they were… You got a couple of sticks of dynamite layin around out there with the fuses in place. One accidental spark and all hells gonna blow up.”

  “Aw, they’re alright, but maybe my sister and Bob shore should a spared the rod a little less. That’s why I kinda look after em, so’s they don’t get plumb stupid and lose the ranch. They’ll get you your cattle and make you a fair deal too. Never you worry.”

  “Well, Blue, I got some sheriffin things to attend to. Mighty glad you got your rifle back without havin to shoot nobody over it. You want me to fill out a complaint again Peter… I’d sure hate to do that.”

  I told him that I got it back, and that Peter had seen the error of his ways, so I was satisfied. Actually, I was anxious for him to leave so I could meet Filipe.

  Chapter 7

  Filipe was waiting when I arrived. He had a small fire going and a pot of coffee heating. It dawned on me that there were so many many things we did out here with a cup of coffee in our hands. We start our days with it and generally it was the last thing we did before climbing into our blankets of a night. That was just one more thing I’d have to give some thought to some day.

  I realized that I’d have to take a chance on Filipe being on the up and up. I had known him for four or five years, but not intimately, I also knew that only the best and most trustworthy men lasted very long working for Don Carlos. Neither the Don nor Enrique, his Segundo, would tolerate a man they suspected of not being primo.