“Sit down, Josh. If I could think of a charge, I’d shackle you to the rail along with the others, but I can’t.”
“Gimme a chance to catch up on my whittlin’,” Josh replied. “I found them horses,” he added, “at least, I found where they been.” He pointed south. “There’s a draw over yonder. Ain’t much. Little corral over there and a lean-to. I done checked what tracks was left out behind where they first left their horses … I found two tracks like those in that old corral.” “Whose corral is it?”
“Nobody’s. Built years back by some passerby with horses or cows to hold. She’s only a hundred yards or so from here, but I reckon nobody in town goes there ‘lest it’s the youngsters. Some of them play Injun over there. One of those horses was a dark gray … unusual color. I found some hairs where he’d rubbed hisself on the snubbin’ post.”
Shanaghy thought about it. Yet he hesitated to ask the question. Finally, he did. “Josh, do you know whose horse that is? The dark gray one?” “I do.” He glanced at Jan, then dropped his eyes. “I guess ever’body does.”
“It belongs to my brother,” Jan said.
Shanaghy felt the sweat break out on his brow. He hesitated to speak, but Josh interrupted before he could frame any words.
“That doesn’t say he rode it. Them horses been runnin’ out. Anybody could rope up a horse an’ it’s often done, often of necessity. Folks don’t really consider it stealin’ unless somebody tries to ride out of the country or pens up a horse. “Of course, a man who does that sort of thing better have a good explanation. I’ve roped up an’ ridden other folks’ horses many a time when mine played out, or I was in a gosh-awful hurry.”
“There were a half dozen of Dick’s horses running loose in a little pasture down by the creek,” Jan said. “Father was saying the other day that they must be back in the brush, because he hadn’t seen them the last few times he rode past.” “Was one of them a little black mare?”
“No.” Jan smiled at him. “Was that what she was riding?”
“Holstrum has a black mare with two white stockings … pretty little thing.”
“It sounds like the mare I saw.”
Shanaghy was slowly putting things together. Suppose some strangers came into town and needed horses for a few days? Might they not catch up some they found running loose, use them and then turn them loose? “Looks to me like I’d better do some riding around the country,” he suggested. “You tell me and I’ll ride,” Josh suggested. “Nobody would be surprised to see me. I’m always out roundin’ up strays or whatever.” “All right … but watch yourself. Whoever is doing this doesn’t intend to lose. They tried to trap me into a shootout where I’d be killed, and they’ve already killed Carpenter … I guess he got on to something.” “He was a friend of mine,” Josh said quietly. “He was a man I liked.” “Josh,” Shanaghy said, “maybe the best thing you could do right now would be just to talk about the people here. I don’t know much about them. Just whatever you know about where they came from and what connections they have.” “We came from England,” Jan said pertly. “We run a few cattle, and my father buys and sells cattle. My brother works with him.” “You know most of it,” Josh said. “The town was started by Holstrum, Carpenter and Greenwood. They still own most of what’s around here. Pendleton’s got him a fine place. Holstrum and Greenwood both have a good bit of land around. They think highly of the town. Some folks don’t.
“The three of them worked to get the railroad right-of-way where it is. Now they are working on the state capitol to get the town made the county seat. Judge McBane is with them on that, and so is Pendleton. If it goes through property values will go up.”
“Tom,” Jan was suddenly serious, “what are you going to do? I hear Uncle Vince is bringing his cattle up tomorrow.”
“I’ve talked to him. He won’t make trouble.”
“Some of his hands might. When they get here, their job is finished. Some of them will go back to Texas to join another drive, but some will drift. Once they are paid oft” Uncle Vince no longer controls them.” “I’ll have to handle that as it happens.” Shanaghy looked up at her from the coffee cup. “I’m thinking about buying the blacksmith shop. Give me a toehold. A sort of place to start.”
“Don’t pay too much. Mrs. Carpenter is careful when it comes to money. When she sells anything she gets her money’s worth. Papa told me that about her. She was angry when Carp first sold land here … said he should have leased it, instead.”
“Holstrum wanted to buy her place,” Lundy said.
“Her home, you mean?”
“She has a section of land south of here. It adjoins Holstrum’s place and he wanted it, but she wouldn’t sell. They had several long discussions about it but she wouldn’t sell at all. I think Holstrum gave up. “It was taken as grazing land but most of it is good farming land with a good spring and a small creek running through it.”
“She proved up on it? What’s that mean, exactly?” Shanaghy asked. “Sink a well, plow some land, build a house, and then live on the land. They don’t all do that. She’d go out there, time to time. Sometimes both of them would go but usually it was just her. Carp was busy with the shop.” “Did they build out there?”
Lundy shrugged. “Like they do … it was nothing much. Somebody had built a dugout, years ago. She fixed that up a mite and then had the fellow who takes care of Holstrum’s place come over and build her a soddy … a sod house.” “I’ve never seen one.”
“They just cut squares of sod and use them like bricks, then roof it over with poles. It makes a snug, warm place in winter when snow gets packed around it. But building one is more of an art than you’d figure. Takes some savvy.”
“And Holstrum’s man? He’s good at it?”
“So they say. Name’s Moorhouse. He’s a good man with stock but damned unfriendly … Sullen sort, always packing a grouch. He’s big and he’s mean. Comes to town about once a month.”
All the time Shanaghy sat there, he had the haunting feeling that he was missing something, that events were building in a way he did not suspect, that he was in deeper water than he could handle.
Josh made his excuses and left and they sat silent for a while. Then Jan said, “I wish I could help.”
“Just your being here helps,” he admitted. He looked at her and shrugged. “I don’t know what to do but wait and handle it as it comes.” “There isn’t much else you can do.” She paused. “Tom? If Uncle Vince’s men don’t create a diversion of some kind, what will they do?” “I think the robbers have planned for that. Maybe it will be an attempt to release those men I have shackled to the rail down there. Maybe it will be something else.
“When the train comes in and they unload the gold-“ “What if they don’t unload it?”
That idea had passed through his mind before this. “You mean if they leave it on the train?”
“It’s been planned so well, so what if they simply take the gold off elsewhere? If they have horses or a wagon waiting for them? What if there is a lot of shooting here in the streets and the train leaves?” “But they’d have to get it off. Where would they unload?” Shanaghy asked.
“Let’s get our horses. I’ll show you where. It’s only a little way.” They rode swiftly where the long winds blew, over the buffalo grass and the blue grama, here and there prairie flowers blooming. They startled a rabbit, then a small herd of antelope. To their right was the railroad, tracks shining bright in the sun.
They dipped into a hollow, then walked their horses up the far side. She rode well, this girl did, and she knew how to handle horses … But, like him, she had grown up with them.
She pulled up atop a small knoll.
“There!” she pointed. “I think that will be it.” A railroad construction shack, a pile of ties, a water tank. “They call it Holstrum. Before they had the water tank in town, they always stopped here for water, and they unloaded track materials there. Pa showed me,” Jan added, “and Dick and I used to ride here and water our horses and rest before starting back. “See?” She pointed. “There’s a trail leading off across the country to the south, and another northwest.”