Bendigo Shafter (Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures) Page 16

  He took me over the trail that he had traveled and about which he had listened to much talk. “There’s bad stretches, but no way as bad as the trails out of California. There’s more dry country to the south.”

  I studied over it, worrying about what I was about to do. They’d sent me out to use my judgment, and the deal I made for cattle could mean life or death for our town…and for some of its people.

  Money was a scarce thing amongst us, and if something went wrong we’d not be able to send out another man with more money. Nor could we hope to stay on where we were without cattle to feed us and to build a future. With daybreak I breakfasted and took to the trail. Diamond Springs was next, and this was dry, dry country I was crossing. I rode carefully around every bit of cover, carried my rifle ready in my hand at the passes, and was ready to play my cards the way they fell.

  It was a hard day, a brutal day. The wind was cold off the snow-capped mountains, and the road had been chewed up by passing hoofs and had frozen that way.

  Constant watching was wearing on the nerves, and this was a country where one had to be constantly aware. Twice I saw antelope in the distance, and several times coyotes and rabbits, both of which seemed to abound in the country. Coyotes had begun to learn about trails—that where travelers were there might be the bodies of stock that died along the way or scraps of food thrown aside, so they stalked the trails, alert for any tidbit.

  When at last I rode over Chokup Pass and saw Diamond Springs Station on the bench, I was ready to stop.

  CHAPTER 20

  * * *

  WHEN I’D STRIPPED the gear from my horses, I tied them to the manger in the shed that acted the part of a stable. It wasn’t very convincing.

  I’m a man who believes in caring for his stock. Western horses, most of them half-broken mustangs from the wild free range, were used to roughing it. Winter and summer they had run loose, finding what shelter as they could, fighting mountain lions, wolves, and men who chased them, and finally coming under the saddle.

  They were accustomed to rough living, but when a horse gave me what I required of him, which was a lot of travel over rough country, he deserved the best care I could arrange. That shed at Diamond Springs Station was nothing to write home about.

  Usually, these western places had only a corral where the horses would stand, backs to the wind and storm or whatever, and they survived. The shed was an advantage but the wind was picking up to blow so I stayed on in the shed patching up a few holes to keep the wind out. I fixed most of the holes, but there’s work a man can do that’s helpful to his thinking, and working with the hands is one way.

  It was time I decided what I intended to do with myself. Buying cattle was only a venture for the town, but when it was over I’d still have my problems. Traveling at this rate gives a man a chance to think, if he’ll take it.

  The study of law was one means to success, and I’d given it thought. Ranching? Well, ranching promised well, but I was not sure. Mining, from what I’d heard, seemed chancy.

  Reading books was making me ask questions of myself. I was learning how other folks lived and had lived, and I could see that as Ruth Macken had said, it was a larger, wider world than I’d known.

  Working around the stable kept me busy for most of an hour. Suddenly I realized that if I was to get any sleep I’d better go inside and to bed. I found myself reluctant to enter the station.

  I kept thinking of the folks back in our town and knew I daren’t make a mistake.

  I was alone, carrying the fortunes of my community, and with a long ride ahead of me.

  CHAPTER 21

  * * *

  DAYBREAK FOUND ME in no good mood, and for no good reason, and that was unusual for me. Usually I awakened in fine shape, feeling good and ready for the day, but this time it was different. I woke up with a chip on my shoulder and sense enough to know it and to warn myself to be careful.

  I had killed a man in a gun battle, but I was not proud of it or wanting it talked of. It had been a matter of life or death, not only for me, but for those people back yonder who trusted me.

  It was wild, rough country through which I rode that day, but I made good time and I saw no Indians. The only game was an occasional rabbit or a far-off glimpse of antelope. There was white sage and rabbit bush, and in the coves of the mountains, bunchgrass.

  I rode with care, but it was a lucky thing that it must be so, for I saw the country. How many times have I talked with people who have ridden the trails where I have ridden, yet had seen nothing? They passed over the land just to get over it, not to live with it and see it, feel it.

  There was beauty out there, even in the heat-shimmering white desolate lands that lay in long valleys between the mountains. I learned where to look for water, and when. I knew the birds or insects who might live close to water and those who had no need of it. The kangaroo rat, whom I came to love, manufactures his own water within his body and has no need of a drink, nor does the powder-post beetle.

  The desert and the wild country taught me not only to look, but to see…and there is a difference. Many look but do not see, for the land about them that seems so changeless is changing even as they watch, a change unbelievably slow yet nevertheless there. A rock falls, stirring a small slide; a root grows and spreads and splits the rock; snow falls into the crack, freezes, expands, and splits the rock still wider.

  I learned that the wilderness never looks twice the same, and one must look upon it at different hours to even know the land close about. The shadows of night and morning bring out hidden canyons and cliffs, places that are blurred under the hot sun. Yet the thing I watched for was movement, for where there was movement there was life, and it might be trouble.

  When I rode up to the stage station it was already dark. I called out with a long halloo to let them know I was coming. In Indian country it was considered proper to announce yourself, otherwise you might find yourself ducking lead.

  The door opened, throwing a shaft of light across the hard-packed clay of the yard. At the end of the light I could see the bare bones of the poles that formed the corral.

  The stage station was newly built of adobe after the old one had been burned. It was a solid, comfortable building with a couple of rooms. There was a board table, benches, and near the fireplace a couple of chairs.

  There were two men at the station. “Was three,” the station keeper commented, “but Joe, he rode off one day to hunt meat…three weeks ago. We ain’t seen hide nor hair since.”

  “Hunt for him?”

  “Yeah…we found tracks. Lost ’em six or eight mile out. We hunted two, three times for him but I reckon the Injuns come up on him.”

  How many had died that way? How many had ridden off, never to return?

  “Did he have a family?”

  “He never said. Worst of it was, he was ridin’ my horse. A blaze face sorrel with three white stockings…one of them white clean to the shoulder. Long mane an’ tail. I used to keep ’em combed like a baby’s hair…best horse I ever did have. Smart, too.”

  The food was good. The best I’d had since leaving Fort Bridger.

  The station keepers talked all through dinner. I guess they were glad to have outside company and neither of them drew a breath for long. When one wasn’t talking the other one was.

  After the dishes were cleared I moved to one side and opened my Blackstone, although not much in the mood for reading. I was thinking about Joe…one of the many who died somewhere out there.

  They had looked, but there was small time for looking. Just to exist in this country took hard work and there was little time for idling, or for anything that had not to do with the business of living. And these men had to keep horses ready for the stages that came along, had to prepare food for the passengers, had to change horses and get in hay, and all the while stay alert for Indians.

  CHAPTER 22

  * * *

  I RODE OUT BEFORE daylight, determined to get my bearings and some useful in
formation.

  “Cattle?” The blacksmith looked up from his work. “We’ve had a killing winter, man. You’ll be lucky to find any for sale, but ride over yonder,” he said, pointing with his tongs, “and talk to Ben Snipes. He knows ever’ cow crittur in the Klickitat Valley by its first name. Tell him Ike Lancaster sent you.”

  When I rode up to the house a stocky man of some five feet eight inches, weighing about one seventy or a bit better, came to the door. He was wearing a white shirt and suspenders, his sleeves rolled up.

  “I’m Bendigo Shafter, and I’m up from the South Pass country to buy cattle. Ike Lancaster said you could help me.”

  “Get down and come in.” He turned to an Indian boy who had come up. “Charlie, put the gentleman’s horses in the corral, will you?”

  He turned toward the door. “We’re just setting down to supper. Will you join us?”

  After supper he pushed back in his chair and lit his pipe. “We’ve had a rough winter, so there’s not much stock around. I’ve got a few head of steers.”

  “I want breeding stock.”

  “Figured you would.” He drew on his pipe. “Fellow over on the creek has a few head…have you got cash money?”

  “I have.”

  “Then you can buy. He needs money. I don’t, and if I had the stock I wouldn’t sell. This winter was bad but it’s only one winter, and this is cattle country. This fellow I speak of, he’s running scared.

  “I’d say he had about sixty, seventy head that pulled through the winter. Young stuff, mostly, and at least one good bull. He wants to sell and get out.”

  “Why don’t you buy his stock?”

  Ben Snipes chuckled. “I’m short of cash money myself. I’m going to sell the steers for beef and borrow to buy cattle. That sixty head wouldn’t be a patch on what I want, so make your own deal.” He grinned at me. “I don’t figure you plan to pay much, do you?”

  “I’ll pay what I have to. From what I hear all this stock is in bad shape, and I’ll be taking a risk moving it out of here, but if I take it slow I think I can make it.”

  “All right.” He took up a tablet and drew a map on it. “This man has a good place over there, but the winter scared him, and scared his wife worse. He’ll sell cheap.”

  “How about horses? I’ll need a few.”

  “Buy from the Indians, but be careful. They are shrewd traders and they’ll skin you out of your eyeteeth if you aren’t careful. They’ve got a lot of horses, good, tough stock, mountain bred and used to cold, and they make fine horses for working stock.”

  It was a good time to listen, for despite the killing winter they had been through, I sensed that Ben Snipes was a good cattleman, a man who knew what he was about, and a man to learn from.

  Ben Snipes was right, of course. The man he told me of was in an itch to get out, but I had nothing to say about buying, not at first.

  When I stopped by Tellegen’s house he asked me to light and set, as was custom in the western lands, so I sat up to table with him, and we talked of the hard times, of the rough winter, and of the chance for good grass, come spring.

  “I am going to buy some cattle,” I told him frankly, “but I’m looking for somebody who wants to sell cheap. I’ve got cash money, but the folks I represent are poor and they have little enough to do with.”

  “I’ll sell you mine for ten dollars a head,” he said, putting down his cup.

  I shook my head sadly. “More than I can afford. You see, all this stock up here is in poor shape after the winter they’ve been through, and it is not yet really spring. We’ll have some more bad weather, and some of the stock around here won’t last the time until grass grows.

  “I’d have to take very slow drives. They can’t stand much, and finding grass is going to be a hard thing to do. If I started out of here with a hundred head I doubt if I’d get to the river with sixty. That raises my price per head by a good deal.”

  They were good people, but neither of them was cut out for this country, or this life. She was eager to be out of it, and deep down, so was he. I knew they were going to sell those cattle, and sell them cheap, because it might be a couple of years before anybody came along again with gold to pay for cattle.

  We had ridden around over his place. Snow still lay upon the land, his stacks of hay were about gone, his cattle were skin and bones…but they were Durhams, young stuff mostly, and had good conformation and their eyes looked clear, bright, and healthy.

  Our count showed fifty-two head including one good bull and one young one coming on.

  “This is good country,” I said. “A man would ride far to find better country than the Klickitat. I am sorry I hit it just after a bad winter. I’d better ride back down to Oregon and buy there.”

  “I might cut my price,” he said, at last.

  When I made my deal it was for five dollars a head, and I hired an Indian boy he had working for him to help me. The boy was about fourteen, I’d guess, a Umatilla Indian from the eastern Oregon country.

  My buying the cattle would have put him out of a job, but I needed the help. Tellegen told me he was a good, trustworthy boy. “Won’t sleep on the ranch,” he added. “Come night he takes to the hills.”

  That didn’t disturb me, as we would have hills to take to wherever we were. He agreed to hire on, then began to look worried, and as we moved the cattle eastward at a slow walk, I got the idea something was on his mind.

  We made only five miles that first day, but I had located a pretty fair patch of grazing where the snow had blown away, and I wanted to make it that far. We broke the ice for the cattle to drink, then turned them on the grass.

  They were not trail broken by a long shot, but were far too tired to give me any trouble. Also, the grass I had found them, while poor enough, was sufficient to keep them busy.

  When I started to cook, that boy started to fidget, and finally I asked him straight out what was bothering him. It took awhile to get the story from him but finally I did.

  It was his grandfather. The old man was living in a cave about three miles back, and the boy had gone each night to take him food. He wanted food for him now.

  “Bring him down to camp,” I said. “We’ll take him with us.”

  So I had two Indians and had made a better deal than I knew.

  Uruwishi was old…I never could guess how old, and his time for death was near. He had sung his song to the Great Spirit, but there was strength in him still, and despite the fact that he had prepared his way, he lingered on, as he told me, to see Short Bull, his grandson, grow strong.

  The Umatilla were a small tribe, but its warriors had been brave, great trackers and hunters, he assured me, but Short Bull still had much to learn.

  Now I’d always had a feeling for Indian ways, although I’d had little enough to do with them. Ruth Macken knew Indians and their tongues, and she had often told me of their ways, as had Ethan Sackett.

  Now, seated beside the fire, I told the old man of my plans. “The cattle are poor,” I said, “the winter has been hard, and the man who sold them to me did not expect to see them come even this far.

  “My people need the cattle to raise other cattle, and if they are hungry, to eat. I must get them to Wyoming, and it is many suns.”

  Uruwishi talked to his grandson and then Short Bull turned to me. “My grandfather asks where you will cross the great river?”

  I shrugged. I had been giving that a good deal of thought. Near The Dalles might be the easiest place, but I had thought little of that and planned to use a ferry if need be, no matter what the expense.

  Uruwishi spoke long and Short Bull explained. “You must cross at Umatilla Landing, east of here,” he said, speaking slowly. “There is grass, and by the time your wo-haws get to the Landing they will be stronger.”

  “Grass? Where?”

  The old man drew in the dust. We were near Golden’s place, and east of us he drew several creeks flowing into the Columbia, or creeks that we must cross if we went
east along the north side.

  “Rock Creek,” Short Bull said, “beyond it Pine…Alder here. There is grass.” He looked up from the drawing. “There are also men there who have cattle. They do not like strangers. They are bold men, and fierce.”

  “I’ll be passing through,” I said. “I hope they’ll not mind.”

  They looked at me but they said nothing, although the old man was grim. Short Bull listened to him, then turned to me. There was a kind of wry amusement in his dark eyes. “Uruwishi says he is an old man. It is his time to die…but is it yours?”

  “If the grass is good, we will drive that way,” I told them, “and I do not think it is my time to die…or yours. Anyway,” I told Uruwishi, “you cannot die now. You have hired on to ride to Wyoming with me.”

  He chuckled a little, then put out his pipe and went to his bed.

  Short Bull was with the cattle, and I remained by the fire trying to think things out. No news from home worried me…there should have been a letter somewhere along the line.

  I wanted to hear how our town was getting along, but I also wanted to hear from Ninon. Somehow she stayed in my thoughts even when I tried to forget her.

  Also, I needed help with these cattle. They were tired and hungry. Once they got fed up they’d be a handful. And I needed horses, needed them the worst way.

  We drove a slow five miles or a shade better on the second day, reached Rock Creek, and forded it before bedding down. There was good grass in the meadows not far from the creek, and the cattle were willing to stop.

  Short Bull pointed toward the mountains to the north. “There is Horse Heaven,” he said.

  “There are horses there?”

  “Many…and Indians.”

  “Your people?”

  He shrugged. “My people are few, and not there. They are Yakima.”

  “Do you know them?”