The Hart Brand by Johnny D. Boggs

Author:Johnny D. Boggs [Johnny D. Boggs]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781428504936
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
Published: 2009-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Back we drifted toward Hart range, only not the way we had come. Instead, we rode east and northeast, camping the first night at Hueco Tanks on the old Butterfield line, then crossing the Salt Flats and through the Guadalupe Mountains, riding up to Seven Rivers.

We met the first Hart rider at the line shack on Four-Mile Draw. Land here was dry, desolate, and I doubted if it would support many head in the wettest of years. The line rider was a man of color named Old George, white-haired with a glass eye, and he seemed mighty happy to have company, especially the boss’.

They talked about cattle, about the weather. Old George hadn’t even heard about the Fountains, but the news didn’t surprise him. The captain, however, didn’t have any interest in repeating old news.

“We lost any head down here?” he asked.

“Mild winter,” the old-timer answered. “Gonna be a wet spring, too. Or so my bones tell me.”

“Don’t mean natural causes,” Captain Hart said. “I mean….”

“I know what you mean, Capt’n. Not enough head to keep a rustler interested down here. I ain’t talked to a body in a coon’s age, sir, but, well….”

“Well, what?”

“I spied some riders here back two weeks, pushin’ a dozen beeves…toward Eddy, I suspect.”

“How many riders?”

“Three.” He refilled our cups with chicory so bitter it made me appreciate Rex Steele’s coffee. “When I rode toward ’em to say howdy, one reined up and fired a shot over my head. Gave me the impression they weren’t sociable, so I let ’em go on. Ain’t ready to get killed, Capt’n, not even for you, sir.”

Captain Hart nodded. “That’s smart thinking, George.”

“Well, I don’t reckon them boys got them cows from any of my pastures. Else I’d have sent word to you.” Old George paused to carve a piece of plug tobacco with his pocket knife. “Might have been H-Bar or Rockin’ R beef. Might have been Hart beef from up north of here. Might have been honest cowpokes who took me for one mal hombre.”

“You recognize the riders?”

He tapped his glass eye with the point of the knife blade. That I’ll remember to my dying day. If I had turned white talking to Lee and Reed, there’s no telling how pale I got hearing that click-click-click.

“No, sir. Too far for me to see their faces really.” After folding the blade and shoving the tobacco into his mouth, he continued: “But I’d know that horse one was ridin’. My one eye ain’t that bad, especially after a body takes a shot at me with a repeatin’ rifle. Big dun horse. Good stock. And he appeared to have dark hair and was wearin’ a red shirt. That’s about all I could tell, though.”

Well, he didn’t need to say any more. The description might not have meant a thing to the captain or Old George, but it sure painted me a mighty clear picture.

Mary Magdalene Holliday.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.