Harry Castlemon

“ If ever I saw suffering cattle or determined, almost desperate, men, who were fairly spoiling for a fight, it was on that sweltering August day when a big brown-whiskered man, a wealthy farmer of Jacks County, accompanied by the sheriff and two deputies, rode [3] up to the wagon and demanded to see “the boss.” Around the wagon were gathered a weary and dusty party of men and boys, who had come there to slake their thirst, and John Chisholm, the man to whose enterprise and push the great Texas cattle trade owed its existence, was just raising a cup of the precious fluid to his lips. ”

“ Come and shake hands with me, boys, and let me go.”
“You are a brave lad, and I hope you will come out all right,” said Frank, as the boys came up one after the other. Elam and Tom didn’t have a word to say, but they were badly cut up. Bob’s eyes were filled with tears, and he clung to me with both hands.
“Carlos, I am sorry that you have come to this decision,” said he. “Why can’t somebody else go? You have been with me so long that you are like a brother to me.” ”

“ I wished then that I felt as confident of it as Tom did, but somehow I saw too many difficulties in the way. In the first place, there was Henderson, who wouldn’t believe that that pocket-book was the only one Mr. Davenport had, and would be equally certain to send someone to the ranch to look for it. And if he found it, I wasn’t sure that we could get it away from him. When a man pulls a loaded gun on you and tells you to stand where you are, you had better stand. Then, again, there was the invalid, with all his eccentricities of hiding things where no one would ever think of looking for them ”

“ I walked slowly toward the ranch, feeling as if I had signed my own death warrant. [50] There was no bluster about Johnson, he wasn’t that sort; but I knew that I not only would lose all chances of getting any money by going off riding with Mr. Davenport or Bob, but I would lose my chance of life. I would be shot down at once the first time I was caught alone, and, with all my practice at revolver drawing,—that is, pulling it at a moment’s warning,—I would not stand any show at all. These Texans are a little bit quicker than cats when it comes to drawing anything. ”

“ Your luck never went back on you yet, and this is the time to prove it. Yes, sir; everything is just as we left it,” I added, as I pushed open the door. “There has nobody been here.”
Tom placed his rifle in one corner of the cabin and walked over to Mr. Davenport’s bed as confidently as though he already felt the pocket-book in his grasp, picked up the clothing one by one and shook them out, placing the articles carefully on the floor, so that he wouldn’t have to look at them again, and I sat down in the invalid’s rocking chair and watched his movements. ”

“ How are we going to turn them back when our horses are nigh about as ready to drop as the cattle are? I tell you it can’t be done!”
“Don’t you know it means ruin to us farmers if we allow those famishing cattle to get into our fields?” demanded the brown-whiskered man, who seemed quite as ready and willing to fight as the cattlemen were. “They will break down our fences and eat up the very crops on which our lives depend. Besides, there are no more grass and water in the country than we want ourselves.” ”

“ My brother is going to Texas!”
“To Texas?” exclaimed Scanlan. “What in the world should take him into that far-off region?”
“He had a relative down there engaged in the cattle business, and he has died leaving his property to old Bob. Don’t it beat the world how some fellows can get along without lifting their hands? Now, if he had left those cattle to me who stand so much in need of them——”
“If that boy goes to Texas he’ll be out of reach of you,” interrupted Scanlan.
“Yes; but see what danger he’ll be in.”
“I don’t know that he will be in any danger—more than he is here,” said Scanlan. ”

“ Do you intend to go off without letting anybody know it? Remember that you have got some men to deal with that are just as smart as you are. There’s something about that Henderson that I don’t like any too well.”
“That is just what we intend to do,” replied Tom. “From some things I have heard of the man I don’t like him too well myself, and we can get to the house and give the things a thorough overhauling before he gets there. If we can find the pocket-book we’ll come back and tell you of it, and all you will have to do will be to go to that bank and stop the money.” ”

“ For long months not a particle of rain fell upon the parched soil, and when the school-lands, on which large numbers of cattle grazed, were utterly barren of verdure and rendered worthless for years to come, and all the little streams went dry, the ranchmen saw ruin staring them in the face. The sufferings of the walking skeletons, which represented every dollar they had in the world, were terrible in the extreme, and grass and water must be had at any price. The nearest point at which these could be had was on the West Fork of Trinity. ”

“ After supper he lighted his pipe and motioned to Henderson to follow him out on the plains. When out of reach of everybody he threw himself down on the grass and invited Henderson to do the same.
“Now, then,” said he, “I am ready to hear all your plans.”
“I don’t know that I have got any,” said Henderson.
“Yes, you have,” said Coyote Bill, in a tone that showed he was not in a mood to argue the matter. “A man needn’t come around here with such a face as you have got on you and tell me anything like that. What was the reason you did not go on and see Davenport? ”

“ I told him that if Bob ever lived to become his heir, I would follow him up and make him know what it was to be in want as I was at that moment.”
“Well, I’ll try it,” said Bill.
“You will?” asked Henderson, so overjoyed that he could scarcely speak plainly. “I didn’t suppose that you would go there yourself, but thought that maybe you could find some man to send in your place.”
“I would rather go myself, because I will know that everything has been done. You see, there isn’t one man in ten who knows me. I could go there and pass myself off for a miner.” ”

“ Bill always made his bunk under the trees in the yard. He preferred to have it so. He had been accustomed to sleeping out of doors in the mines, and he was always made uneasy when he awoke and found himself in the house, for fear that he would suffocate. When it rained he would gladly come into the ranch and stay there for a week, if it stormed so long. He gathered up the blankets and the saddle which Mr. Davenport had loaned him for a bed, bade us all a cheerful good-night, and went out to his bunk. ”

“ It will only be just one stumbling block out of your way. What do you say?”
“Are the Indians much given to making raids on the stockmen hereabouts?” asked Henderson.
“They do it just as often as they get out of meat,” answered Bill. “The only thing that has kept them from it has been the drought. They know what these white men are up to. All this country will be settled up some day, and then what will they do to get something to eat? It will be perfectly safe putting the Indians on him.” ”

“ Now I want to go to Austin and get there before Chisholm does. I can put him to some trouble before he handles that stock.”
“Is Chisholm going there?”
“He must, to get the will probated.”
“Then you just take my advice and keep away from Austin. Chisholm would shoot you down as soon as he would look at you. You don’t know Chisholm. He’s a mighty plain-spoken man when he’s let alone, but you get his dander up and he’s just lightning. He has got an idea that you are trying to cheat Bob out of his money and that you are a rascal. No, sir; you keep away from Chisholm.” ”

“ I never proved a will before, and so I wanted men enough to back me up.”
“That is all right,” said the surrogate. “Where’s the will?”
Mr. Chisholm produced his pocket-book, Bob’s pocket-book, rather, the one that had taken Tom and me on a four weeks’ journey into the country, and produced the papers, while the rest of us stood around and waited for him to read them. The lawyer read it in a free-and-easy manner until he came to the place where Bob was spoken of as worth half a million dollars, and then he suddenly became interested.
“Where’s the man?” said he. ”

“ Davenport was waiting for, and he began and told us all about those troublous times in Texas during the past two years, and he said that the drought and the farmers were to blame for it. There had been a period in the history of the State when the stockmen had things all their own way; when their herds roamed over almost two thousand square miles of territory, going wherever grass and water were most abundant, and attended by only a few Mexican vaqueros, whose principal business it was to see that their employer’s outfit did not become mixed up with cattle belonging to somebody else. ”

“ What do you want of such an amount of money, any way? You can’t spend it out there on the ranch.”
“No, sir. But some of these men have been remembered in father’s will, and I want to pay them up.”
“Oh!” said Mr. Wallace. “Well, then, what’s the reason you can’t pay them right here? It will make a less load for you to carry.”
“Now, Mr. Wallace, I have got something to say about that,” said Mr. Chisholm. “Not one cent do you give the men so long as we are in the reach of bug-juice. I want them to go home with me as straight as when they came away.” ”

“ While I was thus engaged the Indians bustled about, and when I had thrown myself on the ground, with my saddle for a pillow, I found that they had a little fire kindled; a very little fire, over which a white man would freeze to death, but they sat around it and warmed their hands with evident satisfaction. But not a word was said about supper, and I began to think I should have to go hungry to bed, when I heard the twigs cracking out in the timber, and in a few minutes up came the white man, accompanied by Henderson and Coyote Bill. ”

“ Officer,” said he. “You have done nothing but duty in warning us not to trespass on them farmers’ grounds, but you see how we are fixed, don’t you? We can’t stop where we are. All the cowboys in Texas could not turn the critters back now that they have got a sniff of the water that is flashing along sparkling and cold behind them willows, and what is there left for us but to go on? All we ask of you and your posse is to keep out of the way. We cattlemen know how to take care of ourselves.” ”

“ I don’t believe there was another man in the world that could have done it. My horse neighed shrilly as he approached the house, but there was no one who came out to answer him. I kept on till I got to the porch, and there I found the door open and everything in the greatest confusion. The ranch looked almost as bad as it did when Tom Mason got through searching for the lost pocket-book, only the things were not all piled in the same place. ”

“ He thought his companion was in earnest when he told him to keep still.
“I didn’t know but that it would be a good chance for lucky Tom to try his hand on that mule,” said Coyote Bill, with a smile. “He has been lucky in finding one pocket-book, and he might be equally lucky in this.”
“He will go down among those rich cattlemen and be captured,” said Henderson bitterly. “The men who don’t care a cent for those five thousand dollars will have just that much more to jingle in their pockets; while [324] we, who are hard up for the money—dog-gone the luck! it is so the world over.” ”

“ We found it completely surrounded by men—Rangers, farmers, and cowboys—who had come in to see about it; for it was seldom that a loss like this happened during a drive. But they paid no attention to us. Their gaze was fixed upon a man who had attempted to go into the wagon, but the guard had stopped him. We worked our way gradually through the crowd, and Bob, who gave little heed to what was going on around him, threw himself from his horse, and made his way into the wagon.
“Elam,” said he, “you must go with me. I feel safer when you are around.” ”