Trego, page 20
Melinda had come out and was standing in the door way, she had overheard our little bit of conversation. “Well, we can do better than that. How does a thousand a month sound to you?”
“A thousand a month! Are you sure you want to pay us that much?” Angus said, almost dropping his pipe.
“Sure, why not?” Melinda said, as she reached in her jeans and took out a wad of money. Here is two months in advance.” She counted out the money. Where did she get the money? You remember the money I took from Charlie Kitchen and Henry Clifford, I never did count it, but by the size of the wad she had, it must have been quite a bit.
“You would of never got those calves. I spect that they just wanted your wife close till they got ready to take her.” I said.
“Yeah, sometimes a man makes bad decisions, but this one was real bad. I knew it, but didn’t see the way out, that is till now.” Angus said. Brie came out and joined us.
“The girls are going to sleep in their old rooms, I thought you and I could spread some clean hay under our wagon in the barn, that should be nice and cozy.” She said with one of those come on smiles.
Angus said, “You don’t have to sleep in the barn, we can make room for you in the house.”
“No, I like the barn. In fact a good clean barn smells nice, I’ve always thought.” Brie said.
“You never told me that before. Shoot, I’ve always thought so too.” I said. Do you find that hard to understand? Well, you see, if you keep the old stuff cleaned out daily. Then with new straw and hay, it smells good. To me and my wife anyway… Angus looked at us both and shook his head. Then knocked his pipe out and went in the house to tell Lei about the money. Janie came out and sat down beside the three of us. Melinda said, “Do you guys want to take a nice warm bath? There’s a warm spring over by that tree line, we used to take our baths there.”
“Sure, that sounds good,” Brie said, “come on Tre`, let’s go.” The four of us got up and wandered off that way. Jake followed along. It was a good size pool, I put the back of my hand in, felt like it was somewhere under ninety degrees. While I was busy doing that the girls were already undressing. They jumped in right over the top of me. I took my time. Then I backed in, to their hoots and calls. It did feel good, the hot water that is…. Jake sat down by our clothes and guns, he knew what was important.
Janie and Melinda were getting out then diving in. Then they floated around. We heard a noise in lilac bushes. Bud and his two little sisters were watching us. Brie said, “Are you children coming in?”
Bud said, “I didn’t know this pool was here, is the water warm?” Melinda splashed some on him, “Was that warm?” She said.
“We can’t swim, we’ve never been in water that deep.” Bud said.
“That’s alright, we’ll help you learn.” Janie said. The three children stripped down to their underwear and slowly got in. Janie and Melinda each took one of the little girls, I helped Bud. It didn’t take long till they all three were dog paddling around.
It weren’t long before Lei came looking for them. “What in the world is going on?” She said, looking at all of us. “I didn’t know this was here.” Almost the same words that Bud had said. Only thing, she didn’t wait to be asked, and she didn’t stop at her underwear. Why should she, the other women were in the nude. I was glad that Angus had already went to bed. I remained on the far side of the pool, showing Bud how to do the backstroke. One thing I had found out, if the grownups didn’t make a big deal about something, the children wouldn’t either. Which is a good deal, I guess. Why should they be ashamed about their bodies?
While we were swimming, Brie told Lie all about Jie-le. Turns out she was a cousin. China was expunging excess Princess’s I guess. Sometimes by murder.
The moon had already risen, by the time we got out. None of us had thought to bring towels, so we just carried our clothes back with us. Lei, Melinda, Janie and the children went back to the house, Brie and I went to the barn. Jake slept on the porch of the house all night.
We lay there in the afterglow, listening to the milk cow chewing her cud. It was pleasant and felt quite domestic. Of course the world always intruded on any bliss one might feel. “Honey, what are we going to do about the Sheriff and his Deputies?” Brie asked.
“I don’t know, for sure. But why is it always up to us to straighten things out?”
“Well, who else is going to do it? We don’t have a choice, they are trying to steal this place from the girls. And besides they will kill Angus and rape Lei, plus what would happen to the children if that happened? They would probably just kill them also.” Brie said, while trailing her fingers down my chest.
“It’s funny, people come west because they want a better life and to be free. And what happens, they run into the scum of the big city ghetto’s who will stop at nothing to get what they want.” I said. “Well it is a fact that all kinds of people came west, but that doesn’t stop the promise this land holds out to those who want to work for what they get. Like me for instance.” Brie said, as her hand found its target…..
Chapter Ten
We were awoke by the clanging of the milk bucket and the meowing of the barn cats as Angus was milking the cow. Brie woke and stretched, she had straw in her hair, a more beautiful picture I had never seen. We dressed while still under our wagon. Angus had finished milking and was taking the milk to the house, we followed along behind.
Breakfast was already on the table. After we ate the last flap jack and was drinking the last of the coffee. I said, “Brie and I, thought we would ride into town this morning.”
Melinda and Janie spoke up as one, “Not without us, you aren’t. This is our fight too.”
“I can’t argue with that. Have you two had a chance to practice a little with those new guns? You haven’t have you. Why don’t you go down by the creek and burn up a little powder, you want to be sure just where they’re hitting. Strange guns have their little peculiarities, you know.”
“Do you want me to go along.” Angus said.
“Nope, you stay here and oil up your long gun.” I said.
“I can shoot too.” Lei said.
“Do you have a rifle?” Brie asked.
“No, but I know how to shoot.”
“Brie, didn’t you buy a new saddle gun in Helena?” I said.
“Yes, it’s in the wagon. But it wasn’t new, it was used. It’s a Winchester 73. I bought it as an extra, Lei is welcome to use it.”
“Good, while we’re gone, if anybody comes around, don’t go outside to confront them, stay behind cover. That’s not being a coward, its only common sense, you both aren’t gunfighters, so don’t act like one.” I said.
Brie retrieved the rifle from the wagon. The three women went down by the creek to practice some. Brie didn’t, she didn’t need to. Lei hit what she was aiming at. The girls said that Charlie and Henry’s revolvers were right on. They also had their saddle guns, that I had brought back. I couldn’t leave them there with the dead bodies, the Crow would of taken them also.
Jake wanted to go with us, but I told him to stay with the wagon and not to let anybody around it. Not even the Murphy’s. After all, how well did we know them, to trust them with all of that money? It reminded me of the Lord’s prayer, ‘lead me not into temptation.’ I sure didn’t want to stumble anyone.
Now here you are thinking again; that I was a reprobate and a confirmed sinner, quoting from the Bible, how incongruent. But who else was the Bible aimed at, if not us sinners? Along that line of thought, who are the righteous anyway? Now if they think they’re righteous, they ain’t. They are only self-righteous. Now the only one that can declare them righteous is the one who created them, and I ain’t ever heard the Almighty say that one is righteous and that one ain’t. Have you?
I was mulling that over in my head as the four of us sinners rode toward Boulder Town. It weren’t no use me pondering on something like that, it only served to confuse me further. So I just went to enjoying the ride, with three beautiful women, who were armed to the teeth, they were just as deadly as they were pretty.
It was coming on to lunch time when we arrived. It must be about the middle of the week, as far as I could tell, I never kept track of the days, exactly. Boulder was an up and coming place. People going about their business, here and there. My stomach was growling. I knew that Hotel we stayed at last time had a restaurant. So we tied up at the hitching rail, we loosed our cinches a might, so the horse’s could lounge around comfortable. We must have been quite a sight, the women in their pants with twins six-guns on. We pulled our rifles out of the saddle scabbards and took them with us. Never could tell, you know?
We walked in and spied a table in the corner with four chairs, that nobody was setting at. Of course I took the chair against the wall, it eased that creepy feeling in my back.
There were three waitress’ looking our way, they did rock, paper and scissors to see who would wait on us. The one with long black hair and sort of an Indian look to her lost, I guess. Because she came over to wait on us.
She looked at Brie and the girls, with just a little bit of fear in her eyes. Now me, she just smiled at me, she knew I was harmless. Strange thing about women, they knew how to handle men, but it was their counterparts, they were unsure of.
Brie did the ordering, she was the matriarch of the family, I just sat there. I didn’t mind none, shoot I never knew what to order anyway. We were just about done forking our vittles when two men with deputy badges on came in.
They looked around for an empty table, their eyes swept across us, then came back right quick. They had seen Melinda and Janie. Then they looked closer, I guess they recognized me also. I had seen them around town when we came through the last time. They pondered a second, then ran out.
“Well, it won’t be long now. I expect Gentlemen Jim Hansom should be coming through that door in about ten minutes.”
“You think he’ll come alone?” Brie asked.
“Sure, for now. He’ll want to see what we know, he don’t know if we been out to the ranch or not.” I said.
“Can we shoot him?” Melinda asked.
“Well, I expect you’re capable of shooting him. But what you should of asked was: May we shoot him? And the answer is, no, not at this time. That is of course unless he tries something first.” Brie said.
I was right about the ten minutes, but was wrong about him coming alone. He had four deputies with him. The four of them spread out to different parts of the room. Gentleman Jim smiled big and came toward us.
“Well, well,” he said, in a false hardy way, “If it isn’t Mr. and Mrs. Trego and they’re with the Fox girls. How did you all find each other?”
“Now you have that a might wrong, its not Mr. and Mrs. Trego, our last name is Shelby. And as far as these two little defenseless girls go, we sort of adopted them. And sense you seem to know them, then you know where their ranch is. And speaking of that ranch, we stopped there on our way here. There seems to be a lot of cattle on their range, and they have your brand on them. Now how do you figure they got there?” I asked, as sweetly as I could.
“Well, the girls abandoned it, so we just moved in and claimed it.” He said.
“Now, I don’t see how they could of abandoned it, since they have a legal deed to the property.” I said.
“Well, they didn’t pay their taxes, so they forfeited that.” He said, getting some nervous.
“Well now, that’s another strange thing, I seen their deed and also a receipt from the Territory government, that said their taxes were all paid up. What do you think of that?” He sort of turned a little pink around the gills, he glanced around to his boys, they all came walking this way. The people round about got up and vacated their seats. The smell of impeding death hung heavy in the air.
“There must be some sort of mistake, I have a copy of their quit claim deed, that ranch is legally mine.”
I looked sideways, sort of, without taking my eyes off of the carrion. “Girls, did you sign a quit claim deed on your ranch?” I asked.
“No, we did not, he’s a filthy liar, can we shoot him now?” Janie said.
“There you go again, its not ‘can’, its ‘may’ we shoot him. And the answer is still the same, you have to let him draw first.” Brie said.
“That’s threatening a peace officer, I’m going to have to arrest the lot of you.” He said, as he reached for his gun, he got it most all of the way level, when there came a blast from under our table. Both Janie and Melinda had cut loose, they had both fired at the same time. Gentlemen Jim was blown back about ten feet, he lit on his back deader than a catfish that had been left to rot in the sun for a week.
Of course that weren’t the end of it, those other four were bound and determined to get their two cents worth in. It was too bad they were so slow, Brie had stood up and had both of her guns spiting fire, shoot by the time I got in action, she had left only one of them for me.
Janie said, “He drew first, it were all self-defense, ain’t that so?” she was looking at the other patrons that hadn’t skedaddled at the outset. They all nodded their heads. Shoot they would have been fools not to. Besides they didn’t like him none at all….
Turns out the Circuit Judge was in town. It didn’t take long to hammer out the details. Especially since the Sheriff didn’t have any relatives, that was known about anyway. We made a deal, the government got the mother cows, and the girls got any calves that were born while they were on their land. That Judge was some happy about that. You pretty well knew whose pocket was going to get lined. It would take a couple of weeks to sort it all out.
Before we left town, we sat up a bank account in the ranch’s name. The Fox Cattle Company. The girls insisted that Brie and I become partners in the company. Seems our monetary interests were getting spread across the western part of the Montana Territory. Funny thing, when you didn’t care about material things, they seemed to come at you from all directions.
The bank had instructions to pay Angus’ salary every month. Plus there was a maintenance account of so much, that he could draw on to keep the ranch in good shape. The only thing was, was that Lei had to confirm the expenses. Nothing like a good woman to keep a man in line. Angus’ salary was exorbitant, for the time and local, but Brie liked Lei. Plus the girls did also. Me? Shoot, I was a man, I liked all women, but I loved only my wife…
As we rode out of town, I suppose everyone was giving a big sigh of relief. I know I was, I didn’t particularly like Boulder. Well in fact I wasn’t too fond of town’s in general. They were nice to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live in one all of my life. In fact the time I spent in Coolidge, was the longest I had ever spent in one.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t neighborly, I think I am. I am always ready to give someone a hand if they need it. But I just don’t think man was created to live on top of each other. What do you think?
As we rode into the yard, the first thing we noticed was some yahoo tied hand and foot to one of the corral poles. He had a badge pinned to his vest. Lei heard us ride in the yard, she came out of the house wiping her hands on her apron.
We unsaddled our horse’s and turned them in the barn yard, then hung our tack in the tack shed. Lei said, “He showed up not long after you left. He’s one of the bunch from Boulder. He tried to get in the house and I hit him over the head with a frying pan. He’s been tied up there for hours. I suppose he’s getting a little stiff.”
“Well, not as stiff as his friends. They’re all dead.” Brie said. Then she went over to him and snatched his badge off, tossing it in the air, she drew both guns, she not only hit it, but kept it in the air till it got so far away you couldn’t see it anymore.
Brie stood there reloading, then she twirled the guns and stuffed them back in their holsters. Then she raised her pants leg and got one of her stilettos, bending over she cut his ropes. She said, “You have a choice, I’ll give you back your gun and we can shoot it out, or I’ll still give you back your gun, and you light a shuck out of this territory, it’s up to you.”
He pulled himself up on the corral rails, he was more than stiff. “I’ll cut and run, I know which side my breads buttered on. I suppose you killed them all?”
“All? Nope not all, just the one’s who were trying to kill us.” Brie said. I was just leaning up against the corral watching. He looked at me. I said, “You ought to feel very fortunate, you have a chance to make a new start. Just because you fell in with a bad bunch in the past, doesn’t mean you can’t change.”
He looked around, his eyes hesitated when they fell on the twins. They were quite the sight. “Can they shoot like your wife?” He asks me.
“Nobody can shoot like my wife, but those girls did for at least two of your friends if not more.” While we were talking, Brie had unloaded his gun and tossed it back to him. “Your horse is in the corral, Lei unsaddled it, just because you’re stupid, is no reason to take it out on your horse. Get it and get out of here, don’t let the sunset catch you within twenty miles of here.”
“What about my bedroll, its in town, also my other stuff?” I reached in my pockets and took out some double eagles and tossed them to him. “That should get you what you need and more besides. Just saddle up and hit the trail.” He made hast to do so.
I hadn’t seen Angus, “Where’s Angus at?” I asked Lei.
“He’s out checking the cattle, he said he had to pull a couple of calves this morning. He probably could use some help” Lei said. I started walking toward Jim, when the girls said, “No, we’ll go.”
“That’s fine, but I’ll go also. Brie can stay with Lei and the children in case some more of those rannies show up.”
We found Angus about two miles out. He had just finished pulling a calf and was washing up in the creek. “Well, you’re a day late and a dollar short.” He said, then added. “They are all just about done, might be one or two more cows yet to calve, but I don’t think so.”
“So how many calves does that make?” Janie asked.
