.44 Caliber Man (12 page)

‘
You’re sure that’s an old Indian saying?’ April smiled. ‘I
learned it in school.’

‘
You white folks’re allus taking the red brother’s land,’
grinned the Kid. ‘Looks like you’re wide looping his sayings
now.’

That broke the
air of tension. Sinking back into his chair, Colin relaxed. He
looked at Jeanie, but she turned her face from him.

‘
I’ve got to go see that Army hoss buyer this afternoon,
Dusty,’ Ma said.

‘
I’ll go with you,’ Dusty promised. ‘On the way back, Colin and
I’ll pick up our gear from the hotel.’

‘
You’d best bring your things from the Black Bear, April,’ Ma
went on.

‘
Thanks, Ma,’ April replied. ‘Only what’ll your neighbors say
when they hear you’ve got me staying with you?’

‘
Nothing to me,’ Ma grinned. ‘And what I don’t hear ’em say
won’t make me lose sleep.’

‘
You can maybe make some arrangements with your boss about
working,’ Dusty told the blonde. ‘Couple of us’ll go with you and
see you safe back here.’

‘
If you’re looking for volunteers—’ Mark began
hopefully.

‘
Put me down top of the list,’ Temple interrupted. ‘Depot agent
allows I’d best not take any stages out until this blows
over.’

‘
You and Lou go help Miss Hosman move in, Mark,’ Dusty decided.
‘Colin and me’ll be with you, Ma. Reckon you can hold the house if
I leave Lon to do the heavy toting, Jeanie?’

‘
I’ll make a whirl at it,’ the girl replied.

So the matter
was decided. The men finished their meal and the two parties left
the house. Neither Dusty nor Mark carried his Winchester, but
Temple toted his Spencer. On reaching the main street, April went
with her escort to the saloon. Ma Dusty and Colin made their way
towards the hotel. People on the sidewalk eyed the young Scot with
interest. There was the man who had killed two of the Flores
brothers. One topic of conversation ran through Fort Sawyer; how
much longer would Colin Farquharson live.

Two horsemen
galloped along the street as Dusty’s party approached the hotel.
Although the small Texan tensed slightly, he soon relaxed when he
recognized them. They were the cowhands who had helped to deliver
the small herd of cattle to the Army post and their coming solved a
problem for him. Up until then he had been wondering how to deliver
their property to the Schell house. Bringing their horses to a
sliding halt, the cowhands dropped from the saddles. Tall, lean,
wiry youngsters, they wore cowhand clothes as if born to them—which
they had been—and each carried a low-hanging Army Colt. Going by
the names ‘Shad’ and Tex’, they had impressed Colin the previous
night by their happy-go-lucky natures and loyalty to Dusty Fog.

‘
Heard about the fuss, Cap’n Dusty,’ Shad announced, his
youthful attempt at a moustache quivering with
eagerness.

‘
We was over to Aunt Emmie’s for the night and only just now
got the word,’ Tex went on, feeling their lack of support called
for explanation. ‘Where’re they at and when do we take
’em?’

‘
Later, maybe,’ Dusty replied. ‘Right now I want you to get a
buckboard and take our gear around to Ma’s place.’

Disappointment
flickered on the cowhand’s faces, but they nodded and tied their
horses to the hotel’s hitching rail. Showing an expression of
concern, the desk clerk watched Ma and the four men coming to his
desk. However relief replaced the concern when he learned that
Dusty and Colin planned to leave. It saved him the unpleasant
task—passed down by the manager who had departed after doing so—of
informing them that their rooms would be required that night for a
mythical party of guests. After offering to help remove Dusty’s
party’s property, the clerk told Ma where she could find the Army’s
horse buyer.

‘
I’ll tend to the gear, Ma,’ Dusty suggested. ‘Tiburcio
Flores’s too slick to make fuss for you with an important Army
officer here. Come on up and pack your stuff, Colin.’

‘
I thought the clerk would object to us leaving at such short
notice,’ Colin remarked as they went to the stairs.

‘
He’s likely pleased to see us go,’ Dusty replied. ‘If Flores
comes, we’ll be away from the hotel.’

‘
Flores seems to have a lot of people worried,’ Colin
said.

‘
He has, that’s why he’s lasted so long,’ Dusty answered.
‘Keeping people scared’s how he stays alive. So he has to get you
and the other stage passengers to show folks nobody can kill his
kin or men and live to tell about it.’

Going along a
passage, Ma knocked at the door of the horse-buyer’s room. It was
opened by Colonel Monaltrie, whom she knew. Big, hearty, he had the
well-padded comfortable look of a professional desk-soldier. Yet Ma
knew him to be a shrewd businessman and capable in the matter of
horse-trading.

‘
Ah, Mrs. Schell,’ Monaltrie greeted, his voice still retaining
a Scottish burr. ‘Come in. I was sorry to hear about your
husband.’

On entering the
room, Ma found it already had an occupant. Sprig Branch slouched in
a chair by the table and grinned at her with all amiability of a
Mississippi alligator about to engulf a bowfin fish.

‘
Thanks, Colonel,’ Ma said, taking the seat he offered her. ‘I
hear the Army wants horses.’

‘
We do,’ Monaltrie agreed. ‘At least five hundred and as many
more as we can get. Geldings mostly, but we’ll take mares. Whole
colors, not paints. We’ll pay ten to thirty dollars a
head.’

‘
Delivered here?’ Ma inquired, although the words had been
directed at both of them.

‘
Yes,’ Monaltrie agreed. ‘But Mr. Branch said that your family
had gone out of the mustanging business.’

‘
I figured you had, Ma,’ Branch put in, full of false apology.
‘What with Kenny getting shot up and all.’

‘
Kenny?’ the colonel repeated. ‘Isn’t your son with you, Mrs.
Schell?’

‘
Like Sprig couldn’t wait to tell you, he got shot this
morning.’

‘
He’s not—’

‘
No, Colonel. Just wounded. He’ll be all right in three-four
weeks.’

‘
I’m afraid we can’t wait three or four weeks,’ Monaltrie told
her. ‘Whoever gets the contract must be prepared to start out
within forty-eight hours.’

‘
Me ’n’ my boys’re ready to go right now,’ Branch
commented.

‘
And so are we!’ Ma snapped.

‘
But with Kenny wounded—’ Monaltrie began.

‘
Jeanie and me both know mustanging,’ Ma stated. ‘We’ve been
out with Trader on all his trips and he taught us all he
knew.’

‘
Now, Colonel,’ Branch interjected. ‘I’m not doubting Trader
taught Ma and Jeanie plenty, or gainsaying there were few could
touch him at the mustanging game, but two women-folk can’t go out
alone after wild hosses.’

‘
We won’t be alone,’ Ma replied. ‘Our mesteneros’re waiting for
us at—’ The words chopped off as she caught a flicker of interest
on Branch’s face and realized that he would like to know where she
planned to hunt. ‘Well, they’re waiting for us and’ll likely have
some mestenas
^xi
scouted out
by now.’

‘
Greasers,’ Branch grunted. ‘You reckon you can trust ’em, two
white women out there alone?’

‘
I can trust them!’ Ma stated, but she could see that Branch’s
point worried Monaltrie. ‘Both Jeanie and me’ve been on our
lonesome with them afore now, and separate from each other comes to
that.’

‘
And they knowed that Trader ’n’ Kenny was around to tend to
their needings if they tried anything,’ Branch pointed out. ‘This
time you’ll have no men along.’

‘
Damn it, I tell you I can trust my mesteneros!’ Ma snapped.
‘Colonel, we can bring in those horses for you.’

‘
So can we,’ Branch said.

Monaltrie
looked from Ma to Branch and back again. Since taking on the duty
of Army horse-buyer, he had come to know much about mustangers. All
the horses brought in by Trader Schell had been good stock and in
fine condition. The same could not be claimed for Branch, whose
methods ruined the spirits of many of the mustangs. Some officers
claimed that Branch’s stock trained easier, but others swore that
he produced more than his share of over-nervous mounts, or outlaws
no man could tame. If Trader Schell was still alive, there would
have been no doubt in Monaltrie’s mind—but Trader had died a few
months before. Could two women fill the contract?

‘
I’ll have to think it over,’ the officer decided. ‘If you will
come around tonight at eight, I will give you my
decision.’

‘
That’s fine with me,’ Ma said and Branch could do nothing but
agree.

Escorting his
guests from the room, Monaltrie saw Colin waiting outside. For a
moment the colonel stared, his eyes taking in the young Scot’s kilt
and lifting to Colin’s face.

‘
¡Càrn na cuimhne!’ Monaltrie said, advancing with an
outstretched right hand.

‘
¡Càrn na cuimhne!’ Colin replied, although surprised to hear
his clan’s slogan
^xii
from
the lips of an officer in the United States Army.

‘
Lad, it’s long since I last saw the Farquharson tartan,’
Monaltrie boomed, pumping Colin’s hand. ‘My name’s Douglas
Monaltrie, my folks came from Aberdeen.’

‘
I’m Colin Farquharson of Inverey,’ Colin
introduced.

‘
And what brings you to this land, lad?’

‘
I’m working for Mrs. Schell.’

A low grunt of
disbelief broke from Branch and, if he had been looking her way,
Monaltrie might have read the surprise that flickered across Ma’s
face.

‘
You are, are you?’ the colonel said thoughtfully.

‘
He’s only a dude and never been mustanging!’ Branch growled
indignantly.

‘
The Farquharsons of Inverey’re noted as horsemen,’ Monaltrie
contradicted. ‘Didn’t John, the third Laird, the Black Colonel,
escape from the Hanoverians by riding up the steep side of the Pass
of Ballater?’

‘
That he did,’ Colin agreed. ‘I’m no claiming to be his equal,
mind, but I’ve ridden ever since I was a wee lad.’

‘
And you’ve come out here to be a mustanger?’ Monaltrie
asked.

‘
To learn the business,’ Colin agreed. The Schell family were
recommended highly as the best people to teach it to
me.’

‘
You’re with the right folk to learn,’ Monaltrie admitted and
stood for a moment, looking at the roof. ‘Like I said, I’ll make my
decision and tell you about it at eight this evening.’ Then he
looked at Colin and went on, ‘Will you have dinner with me when I’m
through?’

‘
With pleasure, sir,’ Colin replied. ‘Unless my boss wants me
to work.’

‘
You and your daughter will be welcome to join us, Mrs.
Schell,’ Monaltrie invited. ‘And you, Mr. Branch.’

‘
Thanks, colonel,’ Ma smiled. ‘We’ll be here.’

With that they
separated. Monaltrie returned to his room, while Branch stalked
angrily from the building. Not until she and Colin stood in the
hall waiting for Dusty did Ma raise the points which were bothering
her.

‘
How long’d you been listening in the passage?’

‘
Not listening, Mrs. Schell,’ Colin corrected. ‘I came to see
how long you would be—and the colonel’s voice carries
well.’

‘
And how long’ve you been working for me?’

‘
Ever since Kenny was shot saving me.’

‘
Monaltrie seemed tolerable took with you.’

‘
He belongs to my clan,’ Colin explained. ‘I knew it as soon as
he gave the slogan.’

‘
And you reckon he’ll give us the contract because of that?’ Ma
asked.

‘
No. But he’ll be the more willing now he knows you have a man
along,’ Colin replied. ‘That is, if you’ll let me come
along.’

‘
Son,’ Ma grinned. ‘I’ll be pleased to have you—Only, if we
don’t get that contract, you’ll’ve lost a job.’

~*~

Seething with
anger, Branch crossed the street to where he had left his men in a
small, dingy bar room. He found them talking with a gangling,
hook-nosed man.

‘
Did you get the contract, Sprig?’ Moore inquired.

‘
What happened?’ Eric Trimble went on. ‘We saw Ma go in with
that Scottish son-of-a-bitch and the fellers from the OD
Connected.’

‘
She was after the contract,’ Branch growled. ‘Then, turns out
that Scotch bastard’s kin to Monaltrie and’s working for the
Schells.’

‘
So?’ Sam Trimble asked.

‘
Monaltrie’s going to think on it and tell us tonight who’s
getting the contract.’

‘
You reckon that Scotch cuss might swing it for Ma?’ Eric
wanted to know.

‘
He could,’ admitted Branch. ‘I had Monaltrie going again’ Ma
’cause she’d no man along afore the Scot showed.’

‘
Then let’s get rid of him,’ Moore suggested.

‘
Who’s this?’ Branch snapped, nodding towards the lanky
man.

‘
Hacker Boone,’ Moore introduced. ‘He wants a riding chore and
I told him we’d likely need men.’