The H&R Cattle Company (28 page)

Zack ate the smaller, tender side of his steak without comment, then attacked the larger side. After several attempts to slice the meat, he pushed it aside, resigned to making a meal of his beans and potatoes. “I wonder who buys the meat for the hotel,” he said, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. “Surely it's not that good cook you mentioned.”

Rollins laughed. “Maybe the cook and the buyer are both on vacation.”

Zack had intended to spend the night at the Hartley Hotel, but Rollins would not hear of it. “Hell, Zack,” he said, “didn't you see two beds at my place? You're the main reason I've got two bedrooms.” He was quiet for a moment, then added, “Everybody else who stays there sleeps with me.”

“I can easily believe that, Bret.” Zack paid for their food, then led the way to the street. He pointed in the direction of Bret's cottage. “Since you're bent on saving me the price of a hotel room, I'm gonna let you do it. Lead me to my bedroom, sir.”

They talked till late in the night. Zack lay on the bed with his hands clasped behind his head, while Rollins sat in a chair a few feet away. They discussed a variety of things, including their earlier days in Tennessee, but the main topic of conversation was the H and R Cattle Company. “The ranch might not make us rich,” Hunter was saying, “but it's certainly gonna make us well-off. Jolly says we can run twenty-five hundred head without being overstocked.” He was quiet for a moment, then added, “That property you won from Clyde Post put us over the top, Bret.”

Rollins disagreed. “We're not over the top yet, Zack, not by a long shot.” He got to his feet and circled the room. “But we're gonna be!” he said loudly. “Clyde Post has gotten wealthy dealing in land and cattle, and we can do the same.” He returned to his chair and began to speak more softly. “I'm not through with Clyde Post yet, Zack. The old codger owns a large part of three counties, and I intend to get some more of it.

“He's not an easy man to beat in a poker game. If you happen to doze off, he'll put you to sleeping in the streets, 'cause he understands the game and plans his strategy well. As you know, I got to him pretty strong in the game at Llano, but I damn sure didn't pick up any sleep while I was doing it. Post is convinced that I just got lucky, and he's dying to try me again. I'll give him a chance before the summer's out, but I want to let him stew a while first. I intend to hit him hard, Zack. Real hard.”

Hunter lay on the bed quietly for a while, then raised himself to a sitting position. “I've been wondering about something for quite a while,” he said slowly, scratching his head. “The night you won all that land and money from Post, what were you using to cover his bet?”

“I really didn't need anything, Zack. The hand I was holding was a lock.” Bret left his chair and walked to the kitchen, where he lit another lamp and began to wash some dirty dishes.

Zack followed and leaned against the wall. “Dammit, Bret, you know that I know how the game is played. What the hell did you put up to cover the old man's bet?”

Continuing to wash the dishes, Rollins spoke over his shoulder: “I bet the ranch.”

Zack had suspected as much, but hearing Rollins say it seemed to turn his stomach over. He was thoughtful for a long time, then spoke dejectedly: “Damn, Bret. I've been content for over two years now, working ten or twelve hours a day, thinking I had a good home that nobody could take away from me. Now I find out that even while I'm sleeping after a hard day's work, you're betting the very damned bed I'm sleeping in on a poker hand.”

Rollins dried his hands on a towel, then turned to face his partner. “Of course I know that you understand the game. I also know that you understand what a lock is: a hand that can't possibly lose.” He laid the towel aside and returned to the bedroom, reseating himself in the chair. “I had a damn lock on Clyde Post, Zack. When you get a lock, you not only bet the ranch, you bet anything under the sun that you can get some sucker to call. In that sense, I guess I didn't really bet the ranch, since there was no way for me to lose.”

“Humph,” Zack grunted, and stretched out on the bed.

Rollins talked him to sleep, and the only thing Zack remembered next day was that Rollins said he was going to double the size of the ranch again the next time he played poker with Clyde Post.

18

Jolly Ross and Bob Human returned from Dodge City on the tenth day of September. After stalling for a week and dickering with several different buyers, Ross had sold the herd to a man named Thurston Starnes for eighteen dollars a head. “I considered myself lucky to get eighteen dollars, Zack,” Ross said as he turned the money over. “For a while, I thought I wasn't gonna be able to sell 'em at any price. All the buyers want steers, and they're sure not falling over themselves to bid on brood cows.

“We shot some of the calves that were born on the trail, but we allowed the stronger ones to tag along. The cattle buyers wouldn't even take the damn calves as a gift. I sold a few of 'em to the restaurants for ninety cents a head, then gave the rest to a Kansas farmer. He had plenty of milch cows, so I guess he'll be able to raise 'em.

“There's a whole lot more bargaining going on up there now than there was a few years ago. With so many cattle being driven to Dodge City, the buyers have the upper hand and they know it. They'll try to pick over your herd, offering about eight dollars a head for yearlings and seven dollars for heifers.” He lit a cigarette, blew a cloud of smoke to the wind, then continued: “I expect the day to come when they won't even buy a brood cow, especially a longhorn. People back East want better meat, and they're gonna get it. You did the right thing, switching to Herefords.

“The longhorns are on their way out. Even now they're being used mostly to stock the northern ranches. And the first thing the northern ranchers'll do when they get 'em up there is start breeding the longhorn strain right out of 'em.” He blew another cloud of smoke, then chuckled. “Ten years from now, longhorn cows'll be as scarce as hen's teeth.”

When Ross paid off his crew in Dodge City, the riders scattered, with each man going his own way. A few found work locally, while others caught on with herds headed north to stock new ranches. Three of the riders had decided to accompany Ross and Human back to Texas, but made it no farther than Red River. There they met a drover who was carrying a herd to Kansas. When offered employment, the riders turned around and headed right back to Dodge City. The arrangement was pleasing to Ross, for all three men were slackers and he had no intention of taking them home to County Line Ranch.

Ross had turned over nine hundred forty-three head of cattle to Thurston Starnes and had agreed to give him the first chance to bid on the next herd he brought to Dodge City. Then, looking as if he were already mentally counting his profits, the Chicagoan wrote out a draft for sixteen thousand, nine hundred and seventy-four dollars. A local bank quickly converted the draft to cash.

Ross sold the entire herd of extra horses to a northern rancher for thirty-five dollars a head—five dollars a head more than he had paid for them at Lampasas. He had made enough profit off the animals to pay for the grub eaten by his crew on the entire drive. Even after paying off the riders and all traveling expenses, there was more than fifteen thousand dollars in the poke he handed to Zack Hunter.

The two men were still standing on the porch, with Zack commending the young foreman for a job well done, when one of the hands led Zack's saddled sorrel into the yard. Zack transferred the money to the saddlebags, then mounted. “Gotta get into town before the bank closes,” he said to Ross. “I don't like the idea of leaving this much money lying around.”

“I don't like the idea of you riding around by yourself with it, either,” Ross said, putting a hand on the sorrel's bridle. He motioned to Bob Human, who sat his horse at the corral gate. Human rode into the yard quickly, a Winchester in his saddle scabbard and a Peacemaker around his waist. “I told Bob to ride into town with you,” Ross continued, “just in case somebody wants to look in your saddlebags. You never know, Zack; I believe that there is a certain breed of cutthroat who can actually sniff out money.”

Zack nodded and smiled. “Maybe you're right, Jolly.” He twisted in the saddle to face Human. “Glad to have you along, Bob. Let's go.” They left the yard at a canter.

They had traveled no more than five miles when they saw four men riding down the slope from the north. When the riders reached the road, they turned west, riding to meet Hunter and Human at a slow walk. When they spread their horses out to the point that they blocked the road, Hunter and Human halted their mounts.

As the riders continued to advance, Bob Human removed his broad-brimmed hat. This to hide the fact that as he removed the hat with his left hand, he had slyly drawn his Peacemaker with his right. He now held the gun under the hat, cocked and ready.

Human had been riding on Zack's right. Just before halting the animal, he had moved his horse far to the right-hand side of the road, so that he had been able to ease his weapon out of its holster without being detected. Nor could any of the riders see that his holster was empty, for the hat blocked their view.

On the riders came. Staring at Hunter and Human coldly, they stopped their horses twenty feet away, still blocking the road. All four wore beards and had stringy hair that was badly in need of a barber. Their dirty clothing and dusty hats suggested that they had been living out of doors for a long time. Though each of the riders had a rifle on his saddle and a six-gun on his hip, none had made a move toward a weapon.

At last the larger of the men, who was directly in front of Human, decided to speak. “We can do this peaceably,” he said in a deep voice, his scraggly beard hiding every trace of the mouth from which the voice had come, “or we can do it the hard way, but we aim to have that money you're carryin'. Now both uv ya—” The man never finished the sentence, for Bob Human had shot out his right eye, the heavy slug knocking him completely out of the saddle.

Hunter was on the ground quickly, but even as he drew his own gun, he heard Human's Peacemaker bark twice more. Two of the remaining riders slowly fell from their saddles as Zack brought his six-shooter to bear on the third. He held his fire, for the man had thrust his arms high above his head and begun to whine: “I didn't want no part o' this,” he said, his high-pitched voice breaking. “I told 'em all that it'd prob'ly turn out this a-way.

“No, sir, I never did want ta do it, but they kep' sayin' we wuz all in it tagether, and they waren't gonna be no backin' out. I tell ya, I wuz plum' scairt, 'cause them fellers wuz meaner'n a rattler. Yes, sir, I really wanted ta come tell y'all what they wuz up to, but they always watched me too close.”

The man dropped his gun to the ground as ordered. Then Zack jerked him from the saddle, slapped him across the mouth several times open-handedly and slammed him to the ground. He stepped on the man's throat for a moment, then kicked him in the head. “You're alive for the moment, you sonofabitch, but I can change that very easily.” He pointed to the ditch at the side of the road, where the runoff from recent rains was at least a foot deep. “I'm gonna be asking you some goddam questions, and I'd better get the right answers. Otherwise, you're gonna be breathing water instead of air.”

Zack continued to stand with one foot on the man's chest. “All right now,” he began. “How did you know we'd be carrying money today? Who told you?”

“One … one of th' han's that made th' trail drive.”

“A name, fellow! I want a name!”

“Cain't remember his name. I … jist cain't remember.”

Zack stepped on the man's throat again. “Would you know the name if you heard it?”

When the man began to make a strangling sound, Zack moved his foot. “Yes,” was the answer. “Yes, I'm shore I would.”

Zack spoke to Human: “Come over here and call the name of every man who was on that drive, Bob.” Then to the man on the ground, he said: “Stop him when he calls the right name.”

When Human began to rattle off names, he was stopped on the fourth name. “That's it,” the man said. “That's it right there. Eldon Mays, that's him. I remember 'im real good now.”

Hunter allowed the man, who said his name was Joe Brown, to sit up and tell the story. It seemed that when Jolly Ross had paid off the crew in Dodge City, most of the hands, as well as Ross and Human themselves, had stayed around town for a few days of frolicky activity. Not so with Eldon Mays. Twenty minutes after receiving his pay, Mays made a beeline for Lampasas.

Showing no concern whatsoever for the well-being of his animal, he stayed in the saddle fifteen to eighteen hours a day, reaching home a full ten days ahead of Ross and Human. He lost no time in apprising Will Ballinger, a bearded outlaw of his acquaintance, that two men would be riding from Kansas to County Line Ranch with a poke full of money from selling a herd.

Ballinger immediately got in touch with Ted Peel, John Tate and Joe Brown, each man of Ballinger's own ilk. It was agreed to by all concerned that though Eldon Mays would take no part in the actual robbery, he would receive one fifth of the booty for supplying the information.

The original plan was to waylay Ross and Human several miles north of County Line Ranch, and the quartet had ridden fifty miles for that purpose. They had camped north of the ranch for almost a week before deciding that their quarry had somehow passed them by. When Ted Peel discovered the tracks of two riders and a packhorse headed straight for the ranch, the four outlaws headed south also.

Peel had been lying on the hill with a field glass trained on the ranch house when Ross turned the payment for the herd over to Zack. The outlaw watched as Zack put the money in his saddlebags and made ready to leave. Then Peel mounted and whipped his horse toward the slope where his partners were waiting, five miles to the east.