Passin' Through (1985) (8 page)

"I don't see many strangers around," I objected, "not city men, anyway."

"Ever' once in a while," he said. "You ain't here like I am. They all come in this place to eat. There's one in town right now. He doesn't have much to say but he stands around listenin' to folks. He's some easterner, lookin' for good buys. I can tell. Fact is, he's lookin' for ranch property." The cook glanced at me. "That woman who owns the Phillips place? The one you work for? D'you think she'd sell?

Hers was one of the places he was inquirin' about."

I'll bet, I said to myself, I'll bet he asked a lot of questions.

"She might sell," I said, "but I doubt it. She was lookin' for a place to light when she met Phillips. Been an actress," I said, knowing he'd heard it all before, "an' tired of travel. She loves this country."

Turning side wise on the bench, I sipped my coffee, watching the street. Where was he now?

"How much?" I asked.

He spread his hands. "It's a tin roof," he said, "because you come over the trail."

" 'Tin roof?" I asked.

He grinned. "On the house," he said. "Feller sprung that on me one time and I liked it. Next time you can pay, but this is for old times' sake."

"You can't make any money that way," I protested.

He chuckled. "Don't you worry! These lots will make me rich! You'll see! This here town will boom! John Moss started the town and he knows what he's about. It's named for this big Frisco banker, and you know darned well no Frisco banker is goin' to let his town die! But it ain't that. The mines are rich! Rich, I tell you.

"Then there's cattle. Lots of men running cattle. Feller named Caviness come in with a big herd. Thompson, too. He's in that cove just west of where you're located.

"Some towns are minin', some are cow towns, but this has it all, minin', cattle, sheep, an' now the railroad."

"That's comin' to Animas City, I hear."

"Oh, sure! That's what they say, and it will, but do you think they'd pass up a boomin' town like this? They'll be in here within a year. You just wait an' see!"

A buckboard was tied up across the street, and a man and woman were getting down from it. Walking across, I untied my horse, glancing at the woman as I did so. She was young, quite pretty, and a city woman. The man with her looked like a businessman or an official of some kind. She gave me a quick look, then looked again. I tipped my hat and she looked quickly away, flushing a little. Stepping into the saddle, I rode out of town.

When I saw an opening in the scrub oak I rode through, taking a route a half- mile or so to the east of that I had taken when riding to Parrott City, so as not to follow the same route on my return. Several times I drew up, listening, and whenever possible checked my back trail by sitting my horse and watching the few open areas I'd crossed. Soon I was working my way through and around stands of ponderosa or aspen until I found myself in a clearing on the mountainside with a tremendous view of the ranch. Drawing rein, while sitting horse under a couple of tall pines, I studied the layout.

Backed by the long ridge, at least a thousand feet higher than the ranch buildings, it was a green and lovely place with several wooded knolls like thick fingers reaching out from the ridge toward Cherry Creek and the trail.

Between the knolls were meadows with find stands of grass. As I sat my saddle studying the place I saw three riders come from under the trees on the highest part of the ridge opposite. From where they were they had a great view of the ranch and of my area as well, but I was well back in the shadow of the pines and, I hoped, invisible to them, as long as I remained still.

One of the riders was astride a black horse with a splash of white over its rump. The man who had come to the ranch with Lew Paine had ridden such a horse, the man who had placed the noose around my neck.

They were a good half-mile away, and as I watched they began to ride along the ridge, dipping down into the saddle, riding west and closer to the ranch. There were trails from the ridge to the meadows, as I'd seen one of them. They dipped into the trees and I lost them.

Keeping under cover, I headed for the ranch. What they had in mind I did not know, but when they arrived, I'd be waiting.

Waiting, and with a Winchester . . .

Chapter
Eight

The buckskin would be hard to see against the mottled greens and browns of the mountainside, and my clothes were nondescript. Keeping under the shelter of the ponderosa, I wove a course west above the trail, then dipped down into a draw that ended behind the house.

Unfortunately, I startled a deer feeding on the slope behind the house, but he ran off just a few yards and stopped, looking around. When it seemed obvious I wasn't on the hunt, he just went to feeding again.

Lazy smoke rose from the chimney and I stepped down from the saddle and went to the side door, leaving my horse tied to a willow tree back of the house. Winchester in hand, I knocked on the door.

Matty opened it. "Trouble coming," I said. "I wanted you should know."

"That detective again?"

"Lew Paine and a couple of riders. They're up on the ridge but they're keeping from sight and I don't know what they have in mind. You folks keep quiet and out of sight."

Taking a chair, I sat back inside the window but where I could keep a watch. There was a low ridge back of the creek that worried me some but it did not offer much cover. It did provide an easy place to watch the house and within easy rifle range. They could get to it without me seeing them. If they came down the meadow and around the end of the ridge I'd have them covered. There was a place back the way I'd come that would allow me to cover that ridge. I got up. "Just wanted you to know. No matter what happens, you folks stay inside. I'll be around doin' what's needful."

Taking my rifle, I went back to the buckskin, mounted, and went back along the draw I'd followed from up on the mountain. When some scrub oak and a cedar tree offered cover, I rode up out of the draw and into the trees. Tying my horse to some brush, I went down through the trees until I found the spot I wanted.

It was a warm, clear day. A few puffballs of cloud floated about, as they nearly always did in this country, and it was pleasant setting there, smelling the pines. There was a litter of pinecones among the needles on the ground, and away from the trees the tall grass moved when stirred by the wind.

They came out of the trees at the head of the meadow, then crossed to the near side where I could no longer see them. What they had in mind I'd no idea, unless they meant to try and scare the womenfolks. They knew I wouldn't scare, but they might not know I'd returned from Parrott City.

When they reached the end of the concealment offered by one of those long knolls they stepped down from their horses and led them, keeping to low ground and heading for that ridge. There was some low brush on the ridge, and a few scattered trees. I'd had a look at the ridge when I first rode around on the ranch and knew it was rocky ground with only thin grass.

A magpie lit on a low branch near me and cocked his head at me, trying to decide whether my being there was reason enough to make a fuss. Finally, after pecking at a few items in the grass he flew off about his business, and I eased the rifle from the ground, keeping it out of the sunlight as I wanted no flash from sunlight on the barrel to warn them.

They'd found the place they wanted, and Lew Paine rested his rifle in the crotch of a small oak and tucked the butt against his shoulder. When he done that, I squeezed off a shot. Now, I was of no mind to kill him unless he made it necessary, but I knew what I could do with a rifle, and my bullet slapped that tree trunk right close to his face. Of course, he might have moved into my line of fire, but he didn't. That bullet spat bark fragments in his face and he dropped his rifle like it was red-hot and hit the dirt.

Just for luck I moved over a few paces and put a bullet into the dirt under one man's feet. It was that same gent who looped the rope over my head at the hangin'.

Well, they left out of there. They'd come to scare some women, not to be shot at themselves. They hit their saddles like they'd been scalded and they raised some dust gettin' off down the trail, afraid they'd be shot at again.

Taking two cartridges from my belt, I fed them into the rifle, where I'd be apt to need them. Setting there, just resting. I thought back to that girl I'd seen over at Parrott City, and why she had looked at me as she had. She wasn't anybody I remembered knowing, although she was looking at me like she knew me. Or had she just heard talk around and was curious?

Matty was at the door when I came up on the porch. "I heard shooting?"

"They were fixin' to shoot at the house so I dusted 'em a mite to sort of change their minds."

Shadows were falling when I stripped the riggin' from the buckskin and turned it into the corral. Washing up, I studied about things and found there was something bothered me, but what it was I couldn't pin down.

Supper was laid and Matty told me to sit down and she'd have it on. From my pocket I took the pins and needles I'd picked up for her and she thanked me. "It isn't much of a town," I explained, "supplies are limited. More fixin's for miners than anything else, but there's some grub. Groceries, I mean. Not much to interest a woman."

"We've not been over there," Matty said. "We did drive into Animas City once, but it is such a long drive and we didn't like to be away from the place.

"It's SO; different here than Mrs. Hollyrood expected. When Mr. Phillips spoke of his ranch, she always thought of it like a southern plantation with a big house, white pillars and all that, with a fine carriage and driving horses. She just didn't know what a ranch could be like, and neither did I."

"Pretty rough by your standards," I suggested. "Folks out here have to make do. This house is better than most. The logs were squared off by somebody who knew how to use an adze and a broadax. The granary and barn were built by the same hand. It shows in the workmanship.

"It's a fine place," I said, "but to make any money out of it the owner has to know cattle or somebody who does. I can see where she must have been surprised."

She put a plate before me and I set to. Bein' hungry, I wasted no time. Then I said, "Didn't Phillips tell you what the ranch was like?"

"I scarcely knew him. Yes, he told us about it, but Mrs. Hollyrood had never seen a western ranch and thought of it in different terms. When we were coming out on the train she said we'd have a good life here, and hoped the servants would be the sort she wanted to keep. I believe she was expecting much more."

"It's a rough life," I agreed, "but there's some fine folks in the country around. I mean, good substantial people, all of them working to make something of their land or their mines or whatever."

"I believe she's thinking about selling."

Well, I swallowed what I had in my mouth and waited a minute whilst she filled my cup. "I haven't asked around," I said, "but I'd not imagine she could get much of a price. This here is good land but mostly for cattle or sheep. There's a man over west of here has done well planting barley and oats, but you have to know what you're doing. To tell you the truth, ma'am, I doubt if you could get more for the place than it would cost you to go back east."

"I don't believe that." It was Mrs. Hollyrood, wearing another one of those dressin' gowns she wore all the time. "This is good land, and I am sure someone would wish to buy it."

"Water controls the land, ma'am. You've a good spring here and Cherry Creek runnin' through. My guess is you'd be lucky to get ten dollars an acre for it.

"Eighteen eighty-one has started off slow around here, ma'am, and there's so much free land that cattle or sheep men just don't have to buy. Folks who have money to spend will be buying lots in town now the railroad is comin' in. There's talk the railroad will build its own town an' leave Animas City high and dry. But don't take that for gospel. I just listen when folks talk."

"Do they talk about this place? About me?"

"No, ma'am, not that I heard. Folks are pretty busy with their own affairs. Naturally, your bein' new folks I expect there's some curiosity. And that Pinkerton man, he's been askin' questions."

Her skin seemed to tighten and for a moment there she looked almost angry. First time I'd seen anything but pleasantness on her face.

"You brought back a few things," she said, "and I thank you. I am afraid there is too little here." She looked over at me suddenly. "You spoke of cattle. Have you any idea how many could be sold?"

"It's mostly young stuff, ma'am, just what you need to start a ranchin' operation. With what I've seen, an' I haven't been over but a piece of country, you've got the makin's of a fine little ranch here. Why, in four or five years -"

"Four or five years?" she exclaimed. "But that's impossible! I can't spend that much time here. Why -!" She shook her head. "Mr. Passin', you'll simply have to help us. We know nothing about ranching, and when we came here . . . well, we didn't expect this. All we can do is sell the cattle and the ranch, whatever there is, and go back east.

"I'm afraid I'm not cut out for this, Mr. Passin'. I've been accustomed to people, to lights, music, crowds. I thought when we came here it would be a place to rest, to recuperate. All I can see ahead of us here is a lot of hard work."