Читать книгу Settling The Score - George McLane Wood - Страница 31

Chapter Twenty-Five

“These your cattle, mister?”

“No, sir.”

“Whose are they?”

“I don’t rightly know.”

“What are you doing here, then?”

“I’m watching after them.”

“Who for?”

“A feller.”

“Look, hombre, we’re gonna hang you in five minutes unless you tell us who told you to stay here with these cattle.”

“My boss told me.”

“What’s his name?”

“He’ll kill me if I tell you his name.”

“That cottonwood tree over yonder will kill you if you don’t. But if you tell us his name, we’ll take you to the sheriff. You can tell him your boss’s name too, and then you can leave this territory. That way that fellow can’t kill you, can he? Now…What’s your boss’s name?”

“Lester Willis.”

“Okay, that’s good enough for me. Tie him up, Smitty. We’ll take him to the sheriff in Jasper after we get these cows home. All right, men, let’s get these cattle moving.”

“How’d you know where those cows were, boss?” Smitty asked Jeff.

“I just got lucky, Smitty. I got it right the first time. I figured they wouldn’t keep ’em on Jorn’s spread, so I looked around to see where that stupid Lester Willis might hide ’em. If they hadn’t been where I found ’em, I’d kept looking around until I did find ’em.”

“You telling me the truth, boy?” the judge asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay, boy, you’ve told it. Now, I suggest you get on your horse and hightail yourself outa this state as fast as he can gallop if you want to keep on breathing. The feller you’ve accused has a bad reputation for seeing folks dead if he don’t have a fondness for them.”

“Yes, sir, I’m gone!”

“Well, son, you’ve got your and your neighbor’s cattle back. You’re still out your other cattle money unless you wanna take it out in Lester Willis’s hide. I’ll turn my head if you do. You know, you’d make us a right good range detective if this county could afford you. Maybe you’ll run for our sheriff someday if we can ever retire our present excuse for a peace officer. Sheriff Sizemore, do your duty. Go arrest that rustlin’ outlaw, Lester Willis, and bring him into my court, pronto.”

Jorn Murphy’s thieving foreman thumbed his nose at the law once more. The jury acquitted Lester Willis because the witness who testified against him couldn’t be found and brought back into court and questioned by the defense. The law had to release Lester Willis. The judge had screwed up. Or had he?

“Damn it to hell, Lester, you can’t seem to do anything right for us anymore. How the hell did Nelson find those cattle? Did you post him a letter telling him where they’d be put?”

“No, Jorn, he musta got lucky or that kid we had watchin’ ’em musta told somebody who told Nelson.”

“I tell you, Jorn, this Nelson is smarter than them other ranchers we’ve stole cows from. They never come lookin’ like this feller does. I think we should kill him, like soon.”

“You just steal the cows for us, Lester, and leave the thinkin’ to me.”

Two weeks later just after sundown, Lester Willis and three men were caught stealing a small herd of cattle from Hobie Gilbert’s east pasture by Gilbert’s nighthawk, an old cowboy named Hank Pool. He made the mistake of letting Lester Willis get too close. When he did, Lester stabbed Pool in his heart. Pool fell from his saddle, and Lester stole Pool’s horse, his saddle, and the fifty head of cattle Pool was night watching.

Hobie Gilbert rode by the JN Brand two days later, on his way home from Hank Pool’s funeral. They’d buried the poor old cowpoke in the Jasper Town Cemetery. Gilbert was heartbroken that Pool was gone. He’d been with Hobie since the beginning of the Double Bar G Ranch. Jeff offered to help Gilbert find his cattle, hang whoever had them, and return those cows to Gilbert’s ranch.

Hobie said, “No, I can get by without fifty cows, and if whoever stole ’em, wanted ’em bad enough to kill for ’em, well, let ’em keep ’em.”

Jeff didn’t look at it that way, but what the heck, they weren’t his cattle; they belonged to someone else. After the JN Brand’s fall calf branding and neutering, Jeff made a total herd tally. He’d had a substantial gain in herd count since the beginning of January ’72. Jeff was very pleased with his operation and the main man who helped him begin the ranch. As his Christmas bonus, Jeff was planning to give Smitty 30 percent of the future profits of the JN Brand beginning January ’73.