A FALL OF CRUMBS
An active day followed. The two trail foremen left early to overtake
their herds, and the trio at the homestead was fully employed. The
cripples were brought up, brands were copied, and the commissary stores
assorted and arranged. Before leaving, the men had stretched the
sunshade, and the wounded magician sat in state before his own
tent door.
The second contingent numbered forty cattle. Like the first, they were a
mixed lot, with the exception of a gentle cow. Occasionally a trail
foreman would provide his outfit with a milk cow before starting, or
gentle one en route, and Seay had willingly given his cow to the
hospital on the Beaver.
A fine rain fell during the night. It began falling during the twilight
of evening, gathering in force as the hours passed, and only ceased near
the middle of the following forenoon. The creek filled to its banks, the
field and garden freshened in a day, and the new ranch threw off the
blight of summer drouth.
"This will bring the herds," said Forrest, as the sun burst forth at
noon. "It's a general rain, and every one in Dodge, now that water is
sure, will pull out for the Platte River. It will cool the weather and
freshen the grass, and every drover with herds on the trail will push
forward for Ogalalla. We'll have to patrol the crossing on the Beaver,
as the rain will lay the dust for a week and rob us of our signal."
The crippled man's words proved prophetic. One of the boys was daily
detailed to ride to the first divide south, from which a herd, if timing
its march to reach the Beaver within a day, could be sighted. On a
primal trace, like the Texas and Montana cattle trail, every benefit to
the herd was sought, and the freshened range and running water were a
welcome breeze to the drover's sail.
The first week after the rain only three herds reached the Beaver. Each
foreman paid his respects to Forrest at the homestead, but the herds
were heavy beef cattle, purchased at Dodge for delivery on army
contracts, and were outfitted anew on a change of owners. The usual
flotsam of crippled and stray cattle, of galled and lame saddle stock,
and of useless commissary supplies, was missing, and only the well
wishes of the wayfaring were left to hearten man and boy at the
new ranch.
The second week brought better results. Four of Don Lovell's herds
passed within two days, and the nucleus of cattle increased to one
hundred and forty odd, seven crippled horses were left, while the
commissary stores fairly showered, a second wagon load being necessary
to bring up the cache from the trail crossing. In all, during the week,
fifteen herds passed, only three of which refused the invitation to
call, while one was merely drifting along in search of a range to take
up and locate with a herd of cattle. Its owners, new men in the
occupation, were scouting wide, and when one of them discovered
Hackberry Grove above the homestead, his delight was unbounded, as the
range met every requirement for establishing a ranch.
The tyro's exultation was brief. On satisfying himself on the source of
the water, the splendid shade and abundance of fuel, he rode down the
creek to intercept the trail, and on rounding a bend of the Beaver, was
surprised to sight a bunch of cattle. Knowing the value of the range,
Forrest had urged the boys to nurse the first contingent of strays up
the creek, farther and farther, until they were then ranging within a
mile of the grove. The newcomer could hardly control his chagrin, and
as he rode along, scarcely a mile was passed but more cattle were
encountered, and finally the tent and homestead loomed in sight.
"Well, I'm glad to have such near neighbors," affably said the stranger,
as he dismounted before the tent. "Holding down a homestead, I suppose?"
Only Joel and Forrest were at home. "Not exactly," replied the latter;
"this is headquarters ranch of Wells Brothers; range from the trail
crossing on Beaver to the headwaters of the same. On the trail with
cattle, I reckon?"
"Just grazing along until a range can be secured," replied the man.
"I've found a splendid one only a few miles up the creek--fine grove of
timber and living springs. If the range suits my partner, we'll move in
within a few days and take possession."
"Notice any cattle as you came down the creek?" politely inquired
Forrest.
"Just a few here and there. They look like strays; must have escaped
from some trail herd. If we decide to locate above, I'll have them all
rounded up and pushed down the creek."
Joel scented danger as a cub wolf scents blood. He crossed the arbor and
took up a position behind Forrest's chair. The latter was a picture of
contentment, smiling at the assurance of his caller, and qualifying his
remarks with rare irony.
"Well, since you expect to be our neighbor, better unsaddle and stay for
dinner," urged Forrest. "Let's get acquainted--at least, come to some
friendly understanding."
"No, thank you. My partner is waiting my return to the herd, and will be
anxious for my report on the range above. If possible, we don't care to
locate any farther north."
"You ought to have secured your range before you bought your cattle. You
seem to have the cart before the horse," observed the wounded man.
"Oh," said the novice, with a sweeping gesture, "there's plenty of
unclaimed range. There's ample grass and water on this creek to graze
five thousand cattle."
"Wells Brothers estimate that the range, tributary to the Beaver, will
carry ten thousand head the year round," replied Forrest, languidly
indifferent.
"Who are Wells Brothers?" inquired the newcomer.
Forrest turned to the stranger as if informing a child. "You have the
name correct," said he. "The brothers took this range some time ago, and
those cattle that you met up the creek are theirs. Before you round up
any cattle and drive them out, you had better look into the situation
thoroughly. You surely know and respect range customs."
"Well," said the stranger explosively,--they mustn't expect to hold the
whole country with a handful of cattle."
"They only took the range recently, and are acquiring cattle as fast as
possible," politely replied Forrest.
"They can't hold any more country than they can occupy," authoritatively
asserted the novice. "All we want is a range for a thousand cows, and
I've decided on that hackberry grove as headquarters."
"Your hearing seems defective," remarked Forrest in flute-like tones.
"Let me repeat: This is headquarters for Wells Brothers. Their range
runs from the trail crossing, six miles below, to the headwaters of
Beaver, including all its tributaries. Since you can't stay for dinner,
you'll have time to ride down to the crossing of the Texas and Montana
trail on this creek. There you'll find the posted notice, so that he who
runs may read, that Wells Brothers have already claimed this range. I'll
furnish you a pencil and scrap of paper, and you can make a copy of the
formal notice and show it to your partner. Then, if you feel strong
enough to outrage all range customs, move in and throw down your glove.
I've met an accident recently, leaving me a cripple, but I'll agree to
get in the saddle and pick up the gauntlet."
The novice led his horse aside as if to mount. "I fail to see the object
in claiming more range than one can occupy. It raises a legal question,"
said he, mounting.
"Custom is the law of the range," replied Forrest. "The increase of a
herd must be provided for, and a year or two's experience of beginners
like you usually throws cattle on the market. Abundance of range is a
good asset. Joel, get the gentleman a pencil and sheet of paper."
"Not at all necessary," remarked the amateur cowman, reining away. "I
suppose the range is for sale?" he called out, without halting.
"Yes, but folks who prefer to intrude are usually poor buyers," shouted
the crippled Texan.
Joel was alarmed and plied Forrest with a score of questions. The boy
had tasted the thrill of ownership of cattle and possession of a range,
and now the envy of others had threatened his interests.
"Don't be alarmed," soothingly said the wounded man. "This is like a
page from life, only twice as natural. It proves two things: that you
took your range in good time, and that it has a value. This very
afternoon you must push at least one hundred cattle up to those springs
above Hackberry Grove. Let them track and trample around the water and
noon in the shade of the motte. That's possession, and possession is
nine points, and the other fellow can have the tenth. If any one wants
to dispute your rights or encroach on them, I'll mount a horse and go to
the trail for help. The Texans are the boys to insist on range customs
being respected. It's time I was riding a little, anyhow."
Dell returned from scouting the trail, and reported two herds due to
reach the Beaver that evening. "I spent an hour with one of the foremen
around the ford," said he to Forrest; "and he says if you want to see
him, you had better come down to the crossing. He knows you, and makes
out you ain't much hurt. He says if you come down, he'll give you a
quarter of beef and a speckled heifer. He's one of Jess
Pressnell's bosses."
"That's the word I'm waiting for," laughed Forrest. "Corral the horses
and fix up some kind of a mounting block. It'll take a scaffold to get
me on a horse, but I can fall off. Make haste, because hereafter we
must almost live on horseback."
The words proved true. Forrest and Dell, the latter bareback, returned
to the trail, while Joel rode to drift their cattle up the Beaver, in
order to be in possession of Hackberry Grove and its living springs. The
plains of the West were a lawless country, and if its pioneers would not
respect its age-old pastoral customs, then the consequences must be
met or borne.
Three weeks had passed since the accident to Forrest, the herds were
coming with a vengeance, and the scene of activity changed from the
homestead to the trail crossing. Forrest did not return for a week,
foraging on the wagons, camping with the herds, and never failing to
levy, to the extent of his ability to plead, on cattle, horses, and
needful supplies. As many as five and six herds arrived in a single day,
none of which were allowed to pass without an appeal: if strangers, in
behalf of a hospital; if among friends, the simple facts were
sufficient. Dell was kept on the move with bunches of cattle, or
freighting the caches to the homestead, while Joel received the
different contingents and scouted the threatened range.
Among old acquaintances there was no denying Forrest, and Dell fell
heir to the first extra saddle found among the effects of a trail
outfit. The galled horses had recovered serviceable form, affording each
of the boys a mount, and even the threatened cloud against the range
lifted. The herd of a thousand cows crossed the Beaver, and Forrest took
particular pains to inform its owners of the whereabouts of unclaimed
range the year before. Evidently the embryo cowmen had taken heed and
inquired into range customs, and were accordingly profuse with
disclaimers of any wrong intent.
The first three weeks of July saw the bulk of the herds north of the
Beaver. Water and range had been taken advantage of in the trailing of
cattle to the Northwest, fully three hundred thousand head having
crossed from Dodge to Ogalalla. The exodus afforded the boys an insight
into pastoral life, brought them in close contact with the men of the
open, drove false ideas from their immature minds, and assisted in the
laying of those early foundations on which their future manhood
must rest.
Dell spent every chance hour with the trail men. He and Forrest slept
with the wagons, met the herds, and piloted them in to the best water.
The fact that only experienced men were employed on the trail made the
red-headed boy a welcome guest with every herd, while the wide
acquaintance of his crippled sponsor assured the lad every courtesy of
camp and road. Dell soon learned that the position of point man usually
fell to a veteran of the range, and one whose acquaintance was worthy of
cultivation, both in the saddle and around the camp-fire.
"I'm going to be a point man," Dell confided to Forrest, on one of their
trips up to the homestead. "He don't seem to have much to do, and nearly
always rides with one leg across his horse's neck."
"That's the idea," assented Forrest. "Aim high. Of course, you'll have
to begin as a drag man, then a few trips to Montana in the swing, and
after that you have a right to expect a place on the point. The trouble
is, you are liable to slip back a notch or two at any time. Here I've
been a foreman in other years, and this trip I was glad to make a hand.
There's so many slips, and we can't be all point men and bosses. Cooks
and horse wranglers are also useful men."
The first serious cloud to hover over the new ranch appeared early
during the last week in July. Forrest's wounds had nearly healed, and he
was wondering if his employer would make a further claim on his
services during that summer, which was probable at the hands of a drover
with such extensive interests. He and Dell were still patrolling the
ford on Beaver, when one evening a conveyance from the railroad to the
south drove up to the crossing. It brought a telegram from Don Lovell,
requesting the presence of Forrest in Dodge City, and the messenger, a
liveryman from Buffalo, further assured him that transportation was
awaiting him at that station. There were no grounds on which to refuse
the summons, indefinite and devoid of detail as it was, and preparations
were immediately made to return with the liveryman. What few cattle had
been secured during that trip were drifted up the creek, when all
returned to the homestead for the night.
To Dell and Joel the situation looked serious. The crippled man,
helpless as he was at first, had proven their rock of refuge, and now
that he was leaving them, a tenderness of unnoticed growth was revealed.
As an enforced guest, he had come to them at a moment when their poverty
had protested at receiving him, his unselfishness in their behalf had
proven his friendship and gratitude beyond question, and the lesson was
not lost on the parentless waifs.
On the other hand, Forrest lightened all depression of spirits. "Don't
worry," said he to the boys. "Just as sure as water runs and grass
grows, I'll come over this trail again. So far in life, I've never done
any good for myself, and I'm going to play this hand out and see if you
lads land on your feet. Now, don't get the idea that I've done any great
feat in rustling you boys a few cows. It's one of the laws of life, that
often we can do for others what we can't do for ourselves. That sounds
like preaching, but it isn't. Actually, I'm ashamed of myself, that I
didn't get you double the number of cattle. What we did skirmish
together was merely the flotsam of the trail, the crumbs that fall from
the supper table, and all obligations to me are overpaid. If I could
have had just a few tears on tap, with that hospital talk, and you boys
being poor and orphans--shucks! I must be getting doty--that plea was
good for a thousand strays and cripples!"
The brothers took courage. So far their chief asset was a fine range.
Nearly three hundred and fifty cattle, imperfect as the titles to many
of them were, had been secured and were occupying the valley. A round
dozen cow ponies, worthless for the present, but which in time would
round into form, were added to the new ranch. Every passing commissary
had laughed at the chance to discard its plunder and useless staples,
and only the departure of the man behind the venture, standing in the
shadow as it were, threw a depression over the outlook.
Funds, with which to pay his reckoning, had been left with Forrest. The
boys had forgotten the original agreement, and it was only with tact and
diplomacy that a snug sum, against his protest and embarrassment, was
forced on Joel. "It don't come off me," said the departing man, "and it
may come handy with you. There's a long winter ahead, and the fight
ain't near won yet. The first year in starting a ranch is always the
hardest. But if you boys can only hold these cattle until grass comes
again, it's the making of you. You know the boy is father to the man,
and if you are true-blue seed corn--well, I'll bet on two ears to
the stock."
Forrest's enthusiasm tempered the parting. The start for the railroad
was made at daybreak, and in taking leave, each boy held a hand, shaking
it heartily from time to time, as if to ratify the general advice. "I'll
make Dodge in two days," said the departing guest, "and then I'll know
the meaning of this wire. It means something--that's sure. In the mean
time, sit square in your saddles, ride your range, and let the idea run
riot that you are cowmen. Plan, scheme, and devise for the future.
That's all until you hear from me or see my sign in the sky.
Adios, señors."