Sharpshooter Read online

  “My kids are getting along fine over at your sister and Sarge’s place. Cody’s taking a herd every other month to New Mexico for Sarge, letting him stay home more. That boy is making a real hand. I saw him as the boy stealing my daughter and you saw him as a foreman—taught me a lesson there.”

  “He was cut out of the same wood as Robert, who runs the timber-hauling business up on the rim.”

  “I see those reports. He makes real money for this outfit and he isn’t much older than my son-in-law.”

  “You know Robert’s Mormon wife fixes coffee for us when we go up there?”

  “He takes her to church, too.”

  “They kind of picked at her for marrying outside the church. But not anymore. He makes a real good living and she has a new house like yours.”

  “A good-paying job in Arizona is hard to find.”

  “Things will change when they get the tracks laid, but it won’t be tomorrow. We’ll have a small ranch party Wednesday night and leave Thursday.”

  “Millie and I will be up there at lunchtime Wednesday but I’m sending Salty your way in the morning.”

  They shook hands and Chet went for the rig he’d haul his bride home in. He already had Hampt set to go along, a camp cook borrowed from Tom, and some good hands—this Salty would be a good addition for the trip if he was half as good as Tom said he was.

  The trip back up the canyon to the upper ranch ate up the rest of the day. Lisa told him stories she’d heard that were funny and when they topped out he let the sweaty horses stop and rest.

  “Chet, I am kind of excited about this venture. Millie thinks there are some little people that live up there by themselves.”

  “I doubt we’ll find them. People, beginning with the Spanish centuries ago, searched this land out with a fine-tooth comb, even up there.”

  She hugged him hard. “I don’t care. I will be with you, seeing land not many others ever saw.”

  He kissed her. Damn, she was neat to love. How lucky could one man get? They’d have some fun exploring a new country.

  CHAPTER 2

  The ranch crew at the home place knew how to have a party. Roast a big fat steer over a pit of dry hardwood for a long while. There were roasting ears cooked in a similar way. Fried onions, green and red sweet peppers, and lots of cooked hot peppers as well. Two giant kettles of frijoles, flour tortillas, corn tortillas, and several large Dutch ovens full of peach cobbler from the ranch orchards in Oak Creek Canyon.

  All the ranch people worked shoulder to shoulder to get it set up and completed. Plenty of musicians and singers were there, their fiddles crying in the setting sun. Townsfolk and ranch people alike all came, and everyone enjoyed the comradery of the party. The Quarter Circle Z had a great reputation as the place to be when they hosted any event, large or small.

  Salty had fresh-shod all their horses with a crew of two. He wanted to start out with everything fixed and both wagons’ wheels were gone over and two spare wheels loaded. Harnesses were gone through and then even a collar was changed to better fit a draft horse. Chet had to agree this new guy was thorough and he’d added things to the load that they might need, including two spools of rope.

  Chet had a good visit with both his sons and promised them they’d elk hunt with him in the fall. Rocky lived with Cole and his wife, Valerie. Adam lived on the Verde with Victor and his wife, Reba, at the big house down there.

  Before Chet moved from Texas, a woman he’d had an affair with was murdered by members of the family that he had all the hell with. She used her own blood to name her attacker on the sheet. When he discovered Marla’s body, he’d found a note she’d written to her husband earlier that she was quitting him for Chet. He never let anyone see the good-bye note but destroyed it instead.

  His first wife, Marge, had paid the bills he left behind him when he first came to Preskitt, thinking he needed help. He finally paid off the debt and told her that he had a woman in Texas and never offered her any part of his life. When some ruthless stage robbers murdered his nephew on his return trip to Texas, Marge came to his aid. The woman in Texas had invalid parents and she couldn’t move out with him. Later, when she died of pneumonia, her daughter told Chet he had a son he didn’t know about. Chet’s first wife had been killed in a horse-jumping accident so Cole and Valerie were raising Rocky.

  He met wife number two, a Spanish woman Elizabeth, on the Santa Cruz River below Tucson. After he’d seen her wading in the river, he dried her feet and she always felt he was like Jesus, who washed his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. Elizabeth died of cancer unexpectedly, and now he had married Lisa.

  That last night in their own bed at home, Lisa told him how much she loved the things he did for her and the people—how fortunate she was to have him. Then she buried him in her kisses.

  * * *

  The next morning in the predawn with Lisa on the wagon seat beside big Hampt, those two were warning Chet that the sidestepping horse he rode might throw him before he passed under the gate bar. He even believed the big bay horse under him might break in two at any moment—but that time passed. He was still in the saddle to saw at his mouth, getting the bay’s attention off bucking, and they short-loped away. The wagon train caught up with him at the north-south road junction before they went off the steep downhill road into the canyon. By then the gelding was settled, and Chet smiled big when the lead wagon and the rest of the riders joined him for their steep descent down to the Verde Valley.

  They didn’t stop at the ranch and were over on the North Rim of the Verde River Valley by late afternoon, ready to camp out. Next day they’d pass by Robert’s house at the sawmill south of Flagstaff. Things went without a hitch. No doubt the efforts of the new man, Salty, who made the preparations for a long haul, were paying off.

  After supper, he gave the younger guy, Eldon Grimes the horse wrangler, the name of the roan horse, Butch, as the one he’d ride out from the remuda in the morning. Lisa was in charge of dishes that night and when she completed them, she and Chet went off to the bedrolls he’d laid out for them. Like he guessed, she planned to sleep together with him, which didn’t upset him one bit. Nice to have her, and he told her so.

  They were up early. As the smoke from the cooking fire began to rise, Tom’s second roundup cook, Tad Newman, was getting breakfast under way. Lisa planned to ride horseback that day with Chet. So he saddled the horses the wrangler brought over. They were high up in the pungent pines that morning.

  Cole came by and commented how cool and nice it was up there.

  “Except for when we are on the main Kaibab Rim. It won’t be this cool over there.”

  His man laughed. “Still be nice to see some new country.”

  “I agree. Take us three days past Flagstaff to cross the Colorado at Lee’s Ferry and then another day or so to cross House Rock Valley.”

  “Are those deer up there as big as they say?”

  “There are lots of big antlered mule deer up there.”

  “Hey, I am enjoying every day of this trip.”

  “So am I.”

  “Are we camping at the part you kept of the old stagecoach yards in Flagstaff tonight?” Cole asked.

  “Yes. I have two of those houses rented to keep them in shape to use if we ever need them again.”

  “Good idea. They may be worth something when the rails arrive.”

  “I don’t need to sell them. So, if I do, they will have a husky price tag on them.”

  Cole agreed. “I sure enjoy ranching a lot more than the stagecoach business. But I always knew that.”

  “You did a helluva job running it. I don’t think those people now running it do one serious thing to make either it or the telegraph office operate like a business. I hear horror stories all the time from folks dealing with both the wire and the stage line.”

  Cole agreed. “They like steam engines and whistles better than working at that.”

  “They do. That operation made money for us. It is costing them
but I don’t care.”

  “They’re not stage line people.”

  “Amen.” They crossed the proposed graded train track bed going east to west, which had been scrapped up to appear like the ties and steel were only days away.

  Chet stood in the stirrups. The builders wanted to sell more of the sections they owned on opposite sides of the train route, sections that were of high value. The government gave them a mile-wide and -long strip on one side, then the other side, land adjacent to the tracks, to sell. So, this grading was to show any potential buyer where they would be if they bought a section. It was smart for real estate sales and this was where folks wanted land adjoining the tracks. His own land on the tracks was west of town, where he felt he could build a loading area and stockyards if it showed a profit was out there.

  Chet made his shy horse cross the railbed, moving on to his own land. The day was about over and they’d made good time, but everyone, including Chet, was tired. Both wagons and remuda followed him up the hill to the land he kept out of the sale of the company.

  To close the day, some late-afternoon monsoon showers hurried the tent-raising as thunder rolled off the mountains rising above them. In record time, they had the tent up and saddles with bedrolls went inside to stay dry so they could be used later.

  Once unsaddled, horses were gathered up and put in a rope corral until the shower went on its way. Men worked in raincoats and soon the camp was set up. By then the sun peered out. Chet smiled and shook his head as the curtain called rain moved away.

  Lisa found him. “Supper is cooking and things look good. You need anything?”

  “No. Glad things are happening. You all right?”

  “I am fine. I’ll go help them get the meal out.”

  He kissed her forehead. “Go. I know you can hustle them along.”

  She ran off.

  “Sir?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where did you ever find a woman that sharp about things?” The question was from Salty. Chet hadn’t had much chance to talk to him during the trip.

  “Lucky, aren’t I?” he asked.

  “Luckier than most men I know. She gets more done than two people could.”

  “Salty, she was standing in a patch of sagebrush in Colorado. Said she was broke and had no transportation out of there. I offered her meals and a ride on a packhorse I had left if she’d make herself handy helping my crew make camp and meals on the way back to Arizona.”

  “She’s been handy ever since, I guess?”

  “Well, I am not leaving her behind.”

  “She’s cute and smart.”

  Chet nodded. “Tom told me that you were pretty sharp, and I believe him now we’ve come this far.”

  “Thank you, sir. I appreciate being invited.”

  “Well, let me know when we begin to fail.”

  “You won’t fail. Thanks again for inviting me.”

  Chet gave him a wave and went on to eat supper. They were a week away from what they called the North Rim. But they’d soon be on the road again and headed for their goal.

  Chet found Lisa seated on a bench, scooted in, and began eating the plate of food she’d filled for him “You have a new fan.”

  “Who?”

  “Salty Meeker. He says you do two folks’ jobs.”

  “He is unreal himself.”

  “He’s a good man. It was a compliment.”

  She nodded. “You satisfied with the progress we are making?”

  “It’s going fine, for my part. Take three to four days to get to the ferry from here.”

  She agreed. “Just so we are doing what we should be doing. You want more peach cobbler, I’ll go get it.”

  “My legs are not broken.”

  “I just want to save you for when we really need you.”

  He laughed. “I’ll take it, then.”

  She tweaked her nose at him, then took his tin plate and left to get more.

  He shook his head after her cute exit for the Dutch ovens.

  They turned in early that evening. As planned, they headed for the Little Colorado Crossing in the morning. Chet knew it was a gathering place for horse thieves and riffraff. By midday they were able to view the distant deep cut of the Grand Canyon on the left-hand side of the road. By dark they reached the trading post. Chet told the men to buy some hay from a Navajo squaw and keep the horse stock under guard that night since the reputation of horse thieves ran high in that area.

  Salty and the other wrangler, Eldon Grimes, took over guarding the horses. Chet and Lisa went to eat in the restaurant in the trading post. Chet promised to bring Salty and Eldon back food later, and they agreed. He stopped Lisa outside the doors and told her to go inside, to get them both a plate plus a place to sit. When she had gone inside he knelt down before a Navajo woman seated cross-legged before her silver jewelry.

  He asked her the prices of the silver necklaces on the colorful blanket, and he shook his head. “Too high.”

  “Silver is not mold that grows on rocks,” she said.

  He agreed, found a turquoise-and-silver one he liked, held it up, and asked her price.

  “Too high,” she said.

  “No. How much?”

  “Hundred and twenty dollars.”

  “Give you eighty.”

  She shook her head.

  “Ninety.”

  She gave him the same sign.

  He whipped out a hundred-dollar bill from his wallet.

  She smiled and held out the necklace, then took his money. “Gracias, amigo.”

  “Mucho,” he said, and got off his knees.

  Inside, he found Lisa, looking worried and seated with two plates piled with barbecue, beans, and biscuits. “Shut your eyes.”

  “Huh. You better eat. It won’t taste good cold.”

  “Close your eyes.”

  She did and he made her put her hands down. Then he hung the necklace on her and snapped it in back.

  “What have you done—oh my gosh, what is it?”

  “Looks damn pretty on you,” Cole said.

  “He did good,” Jesus said.

  “Sit down,” she said, and Chet slid in beside her. “I don’t deserve this.”

  “I’ll decide that. Give me that bottle of hot sauce. These beans need firing up some.”

  “Chet Byrnes, do you hear me?”

  “No. Eat. It looks better on you than it did on her.”

  Then she broke out laughing. “He won’t listen to a thing I say.”

  “Better eat. It will get cold.”

  “You tricked me.”

  “Haven’t I got that right? I mean, can’t I do that?”

  She shook her head. “Guys, there is never a dull moment being his wife. Never.”

  “Lisa, the two of you make the greatest couple in the whole world,” Cole said. “Keep him. We love him and you won’t find a better man on this earth.”

  She dropped her chin and shook her head. “I love it but I may get a crooked neck wearing it.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “Two more days and we should be across the Colorado and headed for Kaibab.”

  “We made great time today,” Cole added.

  “Really good time. Jesus, you getting food for the horse wranglers? Who gets the first shift watching the horses? I think we need two men.”

  “Jesus and I can take first run,” Cole said.

  “The cook’s helper, Eddie, and Billy Bob Kimes can take the second one. See you at daylight, men.”

  Chet and his bride went to the camp area.

  “I hope you aren’t mad at me. No one—but no one—ever gave me a pretty hunk of jewelry like that ever before.”

  “No one ever appreciated anyone as much as I do you.”

  “No. No one ever did that, either.”

  “We’re going to make it, girl, and have fun doing it.”

  She agreed.

  He wondered if they’d make it to the ferry in two days. The sun squeezed shut for the day. H
eck, he still had her to love—oh hell, it was going great.

  * * *

  They woke up in the predawn. The cooking team boiled oats. They had not lost a single horse to thieves but Chet felt that was the results of his guard shifts and penning the horses up overnight. They set out before the sun was full up and were headed to the ferry across the roiling muddy Little Colorado. On the far bank, they crawled north, skirting the Grand Canyon’s gorge on the west side of them, and the red cliffs rising on the right-hand side. It was no grassy land and Chet wondered what those small flocks of Navajo sheep and goats that grazed along the road ate.

  Several buggies and small wagons were headed south on the road, with red-faced young freshly married couples out of Utah, who were headed south to settle around St. David or Thatcher, the prime areas for young Mormon couples to settle in the Arizona Territory. He pointed them out to Lisa and she agreed that was who they were.

  “What will they do for a living?” she asked.

  “Oh, they are clannish enough to find jobs among their own.”

  “I am glad I am married to you.”

  “Hey, so am I. I doubt anyone would hire me.” He laughed as they rode apart from the train.

  “Don’t offer to go to work for anyone if you don’t want a job,” she said. “I know several outfits that could use you. You built a four-hundred-mile-long telegraph line across a vast wasteland in record time.”

  “You know I have never worked much for the other guy, besides that stage line–telegraph deal, in my life.”

  “You said your dad ruined his health looking for your siblings.”

  “Yeah, the Comanche kidnapped them.” He always felt guilty about the loss of his two brothers and a sister but there was nothing he could have done at the time. And he was only a teenage boy. If his father couldn’t find them, how could he have saved them? Still, the notion stayed that savages kidnapped them, and it was doubtful they were even alive after all this time. Even talking about it upset him.

  “Are there Indians on the North Rim?”

  “Paiutes. General Crook called them grasshopper eaters.”