The O'Malleys of Texas Read online

  Going home Kate asked him, “Where will you get enough help for all this? How will you manage three herds on the trail?”

  He set in to explain his plan.

  When he finished, she asked, “Those girls have no family heirs, do they?”

  “No. They were never married nor had any children.”

  “They won’t, now, for sure. I think listening to them today, they may ask you to be their heir,” Katy said.

  He turned and blinked at her. “Katy, you warned me about people getting jealous about our branding the mavericks. That happened. Are you a mind reader?”

  “No, but I get things in my mind that might happen. That just did in there. Like my mind told me on that day when you and I met for me to stay close to the store—that you were coming.”

  “You never told me that before.”

  “I didn’t want you to think I was a gypsy. All my younger life they scorned me for the fire they thought I set or something. Did my mind say Get out of the house, little girl? I don’t know if it did or not. As for these sisters, I have a feeling those two are considering it. Our baby in my belly may have made them think that this is the way they might have heirs.”

  “Let’s keep it a secret,” he said, thinking deeply about what she said. “If it comes true at least you will live in that house.”

  She poked him. “Try for ninety dollars a head in Abilene.”

  “If you say so. Don’t tell me much more or I’ll have brain overload and it will spill out of my head in pink matter.”

  She shook her head and laughed.

  At Camp Verde that evening they told Easter about parts of their adventure. The crystal ball things he left out.

  He used lots of paper and pencil lead that night listing his necessities and the money he must borrow to cover those needs. Katy finally dragged him off to bed knowing that this night might be their last time to share sleeping together—for days.

  On a fresh grain-fed horse, the next day, he made a fast trip to the Underground Ranch. Arriving in the camp after lunch, he sent the horse wrangler after Long and his dad.

  They arrived in a short time, all dust coated from branding and grinning.

  “What’s up, bro?”

  “I have pasture number four from the sisters, rented for one dollar.”

  “For one dollar? How’d you manage that? And that pasture . . . there hasn’t been anything in there in years I bet,” Long said while his dad poured coffee.

  Hiram agreed. “Cattle should do good. But you didn’t say how you managed it for a dollar.”

  “On the condition we take a herd of their steers to Kansas with us. Fifty-fifty.”

  “Three herds?” Long asked.

  “Three herds. Dad, will you take one?”

  “I better ask my wife first.”

  “Fine; we have time. Start thinking, guys. We need two more crews, two more remudas, two more wagons, two more cooks.”

  “We will have over fifteen hundred head branded here by today,” Long said.

  “Several steers among them?”

  “Yes. Lots of big steers we can move to number four,” their dad said.

  “We have lots of work to do.”

  “One of us needs to go to hiring help,” Long said.

  “Borrowing money and finding things,” Harp added. It would be March in no time. And he knew most of the business rested on his shoulders.

  Hiram laughed. “Why you two, even a year ago, had no worries in this world. Now you are overloaded. Isn’t it nice?”

  Harp shook his head “I guess. I can recall as kids how busy you got when we moved to Fort Worth and then the place west of there.”

  “That was a long move from Arkansas.”

  “Well, I’ll go back to town, borrow money, hire help, and try to get ready for Kansas.”

  “We will shut down here temporarily, get the big cattle rounded up, and move them to pasture number four,” Long said. “Then we will know how many more we need.”

  “Be careful. My trip back home the last time, I had six Comanche after me.”

  “Aw hell. Take a hand along back with you. Doug could make a good interviewer and he writes good reports.”

  “That short you?”

  “Hell, no. Just find more good ones to help us.”

  Harp rounded up Doug, who got his things, and they rode back to Camp Verde, arriving in the night. Katy met them with a lamp. “What’s next, guys?”

  She sounded happy. Harp explained, “We need to hire more drovers. Doug rode with me so I didn’t fall out of the saddle. He’s going to help us find more help.”

  She kissed him. “You are doing much better. Thanks, Doug. Anything else happen?”

  “Dad, Long, and the crew are going to move all our big steers to pasture four next. Long thinks, at this rate, we will have enough steers for our own herd. We are getting more consignments for herd number two and the Diamond Ranch will provide the third herd. I asked dad if he’d take the job—he wants to talk with Mom about it.”

  She nodded. “You guys get unsaddled. I will have some food ready for you.”

  When she went back inside, Doug held the lamp up for Harp to finish putting up his saddle. “You’ve got to be the luckiest guy I know. That gal is as sweet as she was when you brought her along up there in Arkansas. I can’t believe it. She ever get mad? Complain?”

  “She told me the day she saw it that New Ranch did not suit her.”

  “Wow, hell, half the women in this world would turn down that place.”

  “I am lucky, Doug, damn lucky I found her that day, ’cause she was moving away.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Katy had some sewing to do with Easter, so she stayed at the ranch while Harp and Doug rode into Kerrville, arriving about mid-morning. Harp went straight to the bank where he saw his banker in his private office. They talked about his money needs, Harp explaining to Jim all that was happening and how he figured twenty thousand would get them there. He also told him he’d have enough steers not to have to buy any for the first herd; the second herd would be on consignment, and number three would be from the Diamond Ranch herd on shares.

  Jim whistled a wow. Then he said he would run everything by his board, but he felt they would approve. Satisfied, Harp went to meet Doug at the diner.

  “I have some news that might help us. The soldiers they recently moved to Texas found a large Comanche bunch, charged the camp, had a big fight, and their huge horse herd got scattered from hell to breakfast. A man said they were some great buffalo horses like you and Long ride among those loose horses.”

  “Where did it happen?”

  “They said west of here, forty miles on Pearl Creek.”

  “We need to grab some hands, bedrolls, and packhorses, then run out there and find them. We’ve got time enough to break them.”

  “How many hands?”

  “Five.”

  “I can get them. They are all afoot. They’ve got tack. We get them out to the ranch today, we can leave in the morning to find them.”

  “How many horses did they scatter?” Harp asked, excited about the opportunity he needed.

  “They said over a thousand.”

  “Get those boys hired. Hire a wagon and meet me at the mercantile. I’ll get the supplies and we’ll load them and the boys and take it all to the ranch.”

  “They’re all real good guys.”

  “Sounds great. Once the banker gets the nod on the loan, we will be all right.”

  Doug frowned at the notion of denial. “Hell, you ain’t no risk.”

  “Money is very tight. In fact there is none in Texas at this moment, I bet.”

  “You might be right. I’ll get the wagon rented, tell the boys we’re going to the ranch, and meet you at the store.”

  “I’ll wait for you there.”

  The young clerk waiting on him made a list of his wants and needs and said he’d have it in boxes on the porch in no time. Harp thanked him, then went for the mail at t
he post office across the street. He had several letters from ranch hands wanting work, plus the San Antonio newspaper that he subscribed to.

  He had a cloth sack for it all. The wagon arrived and the ranch hands Doug hired shook his hand one by one and thanked him for the job. Next they loaded the supplies the clerk had placed on the front porch as promised. Harp got a teenage boy to help.

  Before they left, Harp stopped the boy and gave him three silver dollars.

  The youngster looked at them. “That’s a dollar more than I said I’d do it for.”

  “I know it, but for you being so polite I added one.”

  “Thanks a lot, Mr. O’Malley. Next year Maw says I kin go to Kansas with you all.”

  “I’ll hire you then, son.”

  “Whoopee. I’ve got a job.”

  He ran off with Doug laughing. “Hell, they all want to be a part of us.”

  “And that ain’t bad.”

  “How long do you think it will take all of us to get to Pearl Creek?” Doug asked.

  “A day, day and a half.”

  “You think we might get some good horses huh?”

  “Oh, yes. If we can catch them.”

  At the ranch Harp had one problem. When he told Kate that evening, she wanted to go along.

  “I am sorry, but no. I can’t leave you in camp while we chase horses. I want to have a wife when I get back. Those damn Comanche will sure want those horses back. We may have a fight on our hands when we get out there.”

  “I can—” He put his finger on her lips.

  “This time trust me. Mother, do you have any rifles I can borrow?”

  “Two of those tube-feeding Spencers. Dad’s got his Winchester.”

  “I better borrow them. Is there ammo for them?”

  “Of course. I’ll get it.”

  “You going to war out there?” his wife asked, looking concerned.

  “Only if they want one.”

  “You just remember there is more than me waiting here now.”

  “Oh, I hope not, but if they try me I will fight.”

  She hugged him. “I just dread ever losing you, big man.”

  “You won’t.”

  They inventoried the guns they had. Five rifles—his ; Doug had his Winchester; one of the men had a Winchester, too; plus the two Spencer models. They all had .45-caliber cap-and-ball ammunition for their side arms. Plus Harp had his extra. 30-caliber in his saddlebag. With plenty of ammo for the guns, he felt they should be fine.

  The sun still had not crested the eastern rim when they were trotting their saddle horses and pack ones westward in the cool winter west Texas morning.

  Not one horse bucked, which was a new record for Hiram O’Malley’s ranch horses.

  His dad lived by the verse, There had never been a horse couldn’t be rode nor a cowboy hadn’t been throwed. He went by the rule that a horse that didn’t buck a little was not worth the salt you fed him. Harp held them to a hard trot all morning. Mid-afternoon the solar heat was up and they began to find loose Comanche horses. They roped several and found a brush corral to hold them in. These horses were broke. They let the mares and colts go, the tough stallions, too. The Comanche gelded the horses they usually rode—he had seen some hard-nosed bucks ride stallions but most rode the neutered horses.

  They had several horses in the pen when they shut down for the evening and had coffee and jerky for supper. Before dawn they made coffee and oatmeal, and when the short day dawned they went after more. By late afternoon he felt they had the good ones in the area caught. There might be more, farther west, but Harp and his crew had stayed out there long enough to suit him. There was an itching under the shirt material on his back between his shoulder blades—some of those bucks might be coming back to look for those good horses they had lost.

  In the morning, one of the riders caught a broke mare. The horses they’d penned followed her and they headed home. There was lots of color in the herd: paints, piebalds, buckskins, and two snow-white horses. Not albino, either. With forty horses, he considered the men had sure earned their keep.

  It took a day and a half to get back, driving them right through Kerrville and arriving at the home ranch about dark. He’d be glad when the days grew longer.

  He signed up the five hands. Then he set them to breaking those new horses to ride under a saddle. Also to swap sides, mounting from the right to the left. They’d learn fast and make super cattle drive horses. All he needed was another seventy or so. Whew he had lots to do to make it work, and not much time.

  The next morning three men stopped by the ranch—Amos Thornton and his sons Wade and Corley. Harp had never met them before, and Thornton said he heard that Harp needed some more using horses.

  “How many do you have?”

  “How many horses do you need?” Thornton asked, dismounting and hitching up his pants.

  “About seventy-five.”

  “Whew. I can probably get them. Can you pay thirty a head for sound ones?”

  “Round it off. Seventy-five head for two thousand dollars.”

  “I can do that. I won’t bring you junk, but some will be green-broke.”

  “March first? Will we have them by then?”

  “Can we do that, boys?” the older man asked his sons.

  They both nodded. Harp shook hands with the man.

  “The women will feed you breakfast.”

  “We’d take it. I pushed pretty hard to get here to catch you.”

  “I appreciate it. That makes one less thing to worry about.”

  “You won’t need to. We can get you those horses.”

  His wife came out on the porch. “Katy, please fix breakfast for these horse traders. They’ve just solved one of my problems. His name is Thornton and these are his sons.”

  “Come on inside. Easter and I can sure do that,” Katy said.

  “Their names are Wade and Corley. Ma’am, that man of yours ever treats you wrong, me and them boys will court you.”

  She laughed. “I doubt he’ll ever do that.”

  “I do, too. But I had to offer. You two been together long?”

  “Oh, six months I’d say. But I am very happy with him.”

  “My, my, he sure is busy.”

  “Yes, he is, and he will be more so heading north.”

  “We heard the story how he went to Missouri last year and sold them high-priced cattle.”

  “He can tell you all about it.”

  “It wasn’t a story? He did sell the cattle?”

  Harper had heard the conversation. “Yes, we sold them high, but it was hell. After taking those cattle up there I was glad to even be alive. I am looking forward to be headed for Kansas this spring.”

  “You think that is the way?”

  “Yes. Missouri has laws against coming there to start with, and there are folks up there don’t like Rebs.”

  “You expect them to be like that in Kansas?”

  “I hope not. I get real anxious about folks stopping me.”

  “Thanks for doing business with us. We’ll go home and get those horses gathered. There isn’t much money in Texas these days.”

  “You’ll get my money, but you won’t get my wife.”

  They agreed, laughing.

  With a smile for her, Harper was off to check on more things he needed to get done. He had a list and was going over it when Doug came in from checking on the horse-breaking crew.

  “We, maybe, can find some boys in San Antonio,” Harper said to him.

  Doug shrugged. “I think we hired all that’re worth a damn in Kerrville.”

  “Let’s take the stage to San Antonio tomorrow and take a few days at the stockyards and around. We need several more hands.”

  “I think these guys we have will make good hands. They are working those horses hard and doing it right.”

  “The three men here this morning promised me seventy-five more horses in a month. Those, with the Comanche ones, will solve the horse problem. Now it w
ill be cowhands we need to hire.”

  “Our crew is down three guys,” Doug pointed out, “so we need three there.”

  “And I say two dozen more to make up the other two crews. But Doug, we need to share those experienced men on all three crews. You be thinking who’s who so we don’t have all new men on any herd.”

  “I can do that. You said we’re going tomorrow to San Antonio?”

  “Yes, and my wife will want to go along.”

  “Fine with me.”

  “I’ll talk to her. We will need two camp wagons, too, and that might be the place to buy them.”

  “I bet the good ones will be in short supply the closer we get to leaving. If everyone in Texas is going north this spring with a herd, it might be good to buy them now. As for the men, I know several guys that have job promises. We could hire them, because a bunch going north won’t want to pay until right before they leave and most won’t pay to go back. We can use them now and pay them. They’ll want to work a sure thing with us.”

  Harp quickly agreed. “Good idea, I can stand the expense if they’re good.”

  The next morning, Katy, Harp, and Doug bundled up against the cool spell and rain, to take the stage to San Antonio. A-day-and-a-half hassle to get there but it beat riding horses in the wet weather. They made it and got hotel rooms, then met for dinner and had a nice meal. The rain swept in and out, but it was a good soaking moisture and the kind his dad called a kick in the ass for spring/winter oats.

  They found a dealer of farm machinery, and he told them the cost of a horse-drawn mower and rake would be around two hundred dollars. Delivery was suspect, but he could order one set for him and try to get it up to Kerrville soon as possible.

  Harp ordered it to be delivered to Hiram O’Malley at Camp Verde, Texas. Harp paid the man, who was grateful, and gave the receipt to his wife. Kate would be there and she could arrange for Hoot to get it.

  “Mr. O’Malley, are you the man who sold those cattle in Missouri last summer?” the dealer asked.

  “Yes, my brother and I drove eight hundred head to Sedalia last fall.”

  “Mr. O’Malley, I am sure proud to meet you, and every need of any kind of farm machinery, I would sure like to sell it to you.”