“Ed, there may be a guard who’ll see us if we both go riding over these hills. I want you to stay right where you are. You hunker down and guard our horses. Don’t make any noise. I’ll just slip over that hill and take me a look-see.” Jeff crept to the top of the hill, removed his hat, and peaked over the hill. He saw nothing. Oh well, it was a good idea. He started to stand when color caught his eye. Wait. There, off to the left, about two hundred yards out, he saw yellow. A man in a yellow shirt? Then he saw the herd of cattle.
Jeff estimated about one hundred to one hundred fifty head. A man in a yellow shirt was sitting on a rock nearby the herd. At his feet was a small fire; it looked like he was about to drink a cup of coffee. Jeff was glad he’d thought to bring the spyglass he’d found one day after a battle with some Confederates. He looked through his glass; he could see the brands. Some cows belonged to Hobie Gilbert, his neighbor, some to another neighbor. Then Jeff saw some of his own JN cows. Okay, cattle, we’ll come back tomorrow and drive you home.
Jeff slithered back over the hill where Ed sat and leaned against a rock. He was sound asleep.
“Ed, wake up, we’re going home.”
“Was I asleep, Jeff?”
“Yeah, you was, cowboy. Let’s ride.”
Back at the ranch, Jeff sent a rider to ask the owners of the other cows to come to his ranch. “Tell them I know where their stolen cattle are.”
“Herb Maddox of the Slash M and Hobie Gilbert of the Double Bar G were the owners of the other cows. They agreed to send five drovers each, go with Jeff’s five punchers, and drive the stolen cattle back to Jeff’s spread. From there, each owner would drive his cattle home. They agreed to meet at Jeff’s ranch and leave at first light. Smitty wanted to go and Jeff agreed. Ed was instructed to stay close to Sally and guard the ranch. When the seventeen riders came to the bottom the hill, Jeff divided them. He sent five men around to ride in from the south end, five from the east side and five from the west side. Jeff would give a gun fire signal, and he and Smitty would ride in from the north. He wanted the guard taken alive if possible. Jeff fired the shot; that was the signal. The guard in the yellow shirt jumped on his horse to ride away, but when he saw he was surrounded, he sat there and waited.
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.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The JN Ranch continued to grow beef. The spring tally showed another remarkable gain over the previous fall count. One hundred calves now needed to be castrated and branded. Jeff hired eight extra cowboys to help with the extra work. That meant Jeff had thirteen cowboys plus Smitty on his payroll. He was all set to begin branding, when the