Читать книгу Settling The Score - George McLane Wood - Страница 25

Chapter Nineteen

Afterward, Jeff and Smitty loaded up the rustlers’ bodies on their spare horses and took them into Jasper, while Bo and the other two cowboys herded the stolen cattle back across the Saber to the JN Range where they belonged.

Jeff and Smitty caused quite a stir when they showed up in town toting eight dead men to the sheriff’s office. They told Sheriff Sizemore what happened, about one who confessed and one who wouldn’t.

“I can bring Lester Willis into my office and ask him, but he’ll deny it. Your witness is dead. It’s hearsay evidence now, it’s his word agin’ yours. But I don’t doubt he’d behind this, he’s a mean ’un.”

“That’s the second time that hombre’s name has been mentioned regarding me and mine, Sheriff, and both times it brought someone’s death. I reckon I better go have a talk with his boss, Jornett Murphy.”

“I doubt it’ll bring you any satisfaction, Mr. Nelson,” the sheriff replied.

Jeff and Smitty unloaded the eight bodies beside the jailhouse, and Jeff told the crowd, “Spread the word—this is what happens to anyone caught stealing cattle from the JN Brand.”

Jeff and Smitty, with their string of JN-branded ponies, rode over to Emilio’s Saloon. An uneasy crowd soon followed them to stare. They watched the two tough-looking cowmen with Colt .44s strapped on their hips and giving ’em apprehensive stares. The townies said very little as they studied those two hombres who stood with their boots propped up on the bottom rail of Emilio’s Bar and drinking cold beer in grim silence.

Twenty-six-year-old Jeff Nelson rode into Jasper in his wagon on Saturday to buy supplies at the Jasper Mercantile. Jim Budgher, the proprietor, began filling Jeff’s order while Jeff went to Emilio’s Saloon next door for a cold beer. When he came out of the saloon, Ed White was standing by the swinging doors. He introduced himself and asked Jeff for fifty cents to buy a breakfast.

“Man, it’s already dinnertime, Ed. Why are you gonna have a breakfast so late?”

“Breakfast cost fifty cents. Dinner cost a dollar.”

Jeff tossed Ed a dollar. “Have a dinner on me. You want a job, Ed?”

“Doing what?”

“Doing what I tell you.”

“Legal?”

“Certainly.”

“How much does the job pay?”

“Four bits a day and two meals.”

“Mister, you’ve just hired me. Uh, you want your dollar back?”

“Keep it, that’s your first two days’ pay.”

“Now, hop up on this wagon seat and drive this rig over to Jim Budgher’s store and load up my supplies, while I settle up.” Jeff paid Budgher for his supplies, while Ed went to his tent and collected his possibles.

Ed was sitting on the wagon seat when Jeff came out of the store. Where do we go from here, boss?” Ed asked.

Jeff leaned back in the seat next to Ed; he tilted his flat-crowned Stetson forward, closed his eyes, and replied to Ed, “Head the team east, old friend, until I tell you to whoa ’em.”

Ed parked the wagon and put the team into their barn stalls. He moved his possibles into the JN bunkhouse with the other boys and selected himself a nice dry bunk. The cowboys would teach Ed how to be a cowpoke soon enough. Ed enjoyed his above ground bunk and living in a draft free room. He especially loved the luxury of the freestanding outhouse behind the bunkhouse.

Smitty and Bo continued as the coramrods of the JN Brand. They and their cowboys delivered beef when the army wanted it, castrated and branded, and watched over Jeff’s cattle out on the range.