Way of the Gun (9781101597804) (13 page)

“I can see that,” Carson said with a grin.

“Listen, you two, I haven't seen my family in six years, and we're sitting here only a few miles away. I can't wait any longer.”

Not wishing to delay the reunion, the men ate quickly, loaded up the packhorses, and got under way immediately. Frank commented that they broke camp quicker than they had done during the time when Red Shirt was chasing them.

* * *

Mathew Cain, owner of the M/C Ranch, stepped down from the saddle and handed the reins to his son Lucas, who had ridden in from the south range with him. Lucas took the reins and had started leading the horses toward the barn when the riders caught his eye. “Pa,” he called back to his father, then pointed to the three. “Riders comin' in.” They were leading five horses.
Probably wanting to sell Pa some horses,
he thought. It was not an unusual occurrence.

Cain turned to look in the direction Lucas pointed. He waited until they had come a little closer before speaking. “Ain't none of the boys,” he said when he didn't recognize any of the three. “Looks like one of 'em's a woman. Wonder where in the hell they're goin'.” He did not see many strangers riding across his ranch, and whenever he did, they were usually lost. “I'll tell Lizzie she might have to feed some extra mouths.” He stepped up on the porch and stood waiting for the strangers to arrive. “You go ahead and put the horses in the corral.” He stared hard at the woman riding between the two men. Something about her looked familiar. He was reminded of his daughter. Then the thought struck him.
Nancy? Could that be you?
It had been at least six years since he had seen his elder daughter. He walked back down the porch steps to stand in the yard. The two men with her were both strangers to him. He was sure he had never seen either of them before, so he spent no time in studying them. His attention was pulled back to the woman, who was now smiling broadly.
It is Nancy!
He started walking to meet her. She threw her leg over and hopped down from the saddle when still several yards from him. Carson reached over and took her reins.

“Papa!” Nancy squealed as she ran to greet her father, causing him to stagger back a couple of steps from the impact when they met. She locked her arms around his neck and they embraced for a long moment before she stepped back.

“Nancy, darlin', I don't know if I can believe my eyes. Is it really you?”

“It's me, all right, and we've gone through one helluva time to get here,” she replied, beaming broadly. “This is Frank,” she said then.

“Frank?” he responded, unable to remember at the moment.

“My husband, Frank,” Nancy exclaimed.

“Oh, Frank,” Cain replied, somewhat awkwardly. “Course it's your husband.” He turned to face Frank, who stepped forward with his hand out.

“Glad to finally meet you, Mr. Cain,” he said. “I guess we fell in on you kinda unexpectedly.”

“Not a'tall,” Cain quickly assured him. “I'm so tickled to see my eldest daughter. I'm just wonderin' why it took you so long to decide to come out here.” He turned to take a longer look at Carson, who was holding the horses. “And who's this you got with you?” Then he remembered. “Where's Jonah? I was expectin' him. Did he decide not to come?”

“My brother's dead, Mr. Cain,” Frank announced solemnly. “He was anxious to come help you, but he didn't make it.” He went on to tell the circumstances that had cost Jonah his life.

“I swear, I'm sorry to hear that,” Cain said. “He was a good man and a good friend. I'm real sorry for you, too. I know it was a terrible tragedy.” He turned back to Nancy then. “Sounds like you folks had a rough time of it.” Then remembering, he said, “You never told me who this feller is,” nodding toward Carson.

“This is John Carson,” Nancy said. “And if it wasn't for him, Frank and I might not have made it.” She went on to tell of their chance meeting with Carson and his part in leading them to the Yellowstone.

“Nancy's telling it straight,” Frank offered. “We might not have made it if he hadn't come along.”

“Well, I reckon I owe you some thanks,” Cain said with a wide smile. He offered his hand. Carson didn't say anything; he just shook the outstretched hand. “Well, if this don't tie my day up with a ribbon,” Cain went on happily. He took another look at his daughter. “I swear, if you ain't lookin' more and more like your mother.” He gave her a wicked wink. “And she was the prettiest woman in the state of Nebraska. God rest her soul.” He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a hard squeeze. “Let's get you folks settled.” He paused then and yelled out toward the barn, “Lucas! Get up here and say hello to your sister.”

“Well, get over here and give me a hug,” Nancy told her brother when he came up from the barn, but only stood there, gaping at the three visitors. A shy boy of eight when she last saw him, and now a strapping boy of fourteen who only vaguely remembered his big sister. With an embarrassed grin, he stepped forward to submit to a hug, and waited patiently until he was released. “My goodness,” Nancy remarked, “you're al-most full grown, almost as big as Papa.” Lucas grinned anew and stepped back to gawk at the two men with his sister. “This is your brother-in-law, Frank,” she told him.

“Pleased to meet you, Lucas,” Frank said, and offered his hand.

“Me, too,” Lucas returned.

“Where's Justin?” Nancy asked then. Justin, her big brother and eldest of Mathew Cain's offspring, was always the serious one, perhaps because of his role in helping to raise his younger brother and sisters after their mother died.

“He took a couple of the boys over toward the moun-tains to round up a bunch of strays,” her father said. “He oughta be back for supper. He's sure gonna be surprised to see you.”

“Well, what about me?” The voice came from the porch as a young girl stepped out the door and stood squarely with hands on hips. “Don't I get a hug?”

“Millie!” Nancy exclaimed delightedly. “Come here!” After a long hug, Nancy stepped back to look at her. “I declare, you're a grown lady. I wouldn't have recognized you.”

“Trying to take care of this wild bunch will make you grow up fast,” Millie replied. “Either that or kill you.” She smiled at Frank then and said, “Welcome to the family, Frank.” Back to Nancy, she remarked, “You look as good as the last time I saw you. I believe married life agrees with you.” She cocked an eye in Carson's direction, lingered for an instant, but said nothing.

“Well, let's get you all in the house so you can rest a spell,” Mathew Cain suggested. “Millie, you'd best tell Lizzie we're gonna have extra mouths around the table.”

“I already told her,” Millie said. “I sent her out to the smokehouse to cut some off one of those hams we smoked last fall.”

Standing apart from the reunion, patiently watching, Carson said nothing until the family started to go up the steps to the porch. “I need to take care of the horses, Mr. Cain. Is it all right if I let 'em out in the corral?”

“Oh, sure, young feller,” Cain replied, having forgotten about him in the midst of all the greeting and hugging. “Lucas, go help the young man with the horses. What was your name again?”

“Carson,” he answered, “John Carson.”

“Right, John,” Cain said. “You and Lucas take care of your horses, and then come on back and we'll get you somethin' to eat.”

“Thank you, sir,” Carson replied, then spoke to Frank. “I expect you'll wanna unload your packhorses here at the house, won't you?”

“Oh, I guess that would be the smart thing to do, wouldn't it?” Frank responded, having forgotten about it amid all the excitement of the reunion.

An interested witness to the exchange of words, Millie commented, “Why don't you just unload it and leave it on the porch? We can take it in later, and Mr. Carson can take the horses to the corral.” She looked at him in an appraising manner, the way a buyer might look at a horse he was considering.

“Yeah, Millie's right,” Cain said. “Just unload it on the porch. We can do somethin' with it later.” Carson got the impression right off that it was Millie who ran the house, and when he locked his gaze on hers, her expression told him he had guessed right.

While the men unloaded the horses, Millie locked arms with her sister as they ascended the steps to the porch. “So, how well do you know this stray you picked up on the way out here?”

Nancy told her that Carson had just appeared one night when they were camped on a creek near the Beaver River. “We were in a terrible fix until he showed up.”

“Like an angel out of the blue,” Millie said, facetiously, “just sent down to rescue you and Frank.”

“He happened to be in the right place for us at the time, that's all,” Nancy said.

“I just wonder what he's after,” Millie insisted.

“He's after a job working with cattle, that's all. Why are you so suspicious?” Nancy said. “John's really a nice fellow, and he's worked as a drover on several trail drives. And he's certainly handy with a rifle. Papa would do well to hire him.”

“Maybe he'd be more comfortable eating in the bunkhouse with the other men,” Millie said. “I mean, if it's a job he's after, that's where the hired hands usually eat. Justin can talk to him about working on the M/C when he gets back tonight. He does most of the hiring.”

“Well, tonight he can eat with us. He's our friend, and he's certainly earned our courtesy,” Nancy insisted, finding it hard to understand Millie's attitude toward someone she didn't even know. After what she, Frank, and Carson had been through together, she found it difficult to think of him as simply a hired hand.
She'll see when she gets to know him,
she told herself.

* * *

When Frank and Nancy's belongings were unloaded, and the horses were taken to the barn to be unsaddled and fed, they were turned out in the corral for the night. “We can let 'em out to graze with the rest of the horses in the mornin',” Lucas said.

“Good,” Carson responded. “I was gonna suggest the same thing.” He could tell that he was going to like the fourteen-year-old boy. Lucas seemed to have his head on straight, and he appeared to be pretty good with horses. Carson couldn't help seeing a little of himself in the boy when he was about the same age.

Leaving the corral, they saw a few of Cain's ranch hands riding in. They gave Carson a nod, which he acknowledged as they passed by on their way to the barn. When they returned to the house, they went in the back door to a large kitchen where Lucas introduced Carson to Lizzie Krol. Lizzie, a slight German woman with streaks of silver running through her long black hair pinned up in a large bun, nodded politely to Carson. Sitting on a chair in the corner was the small towhead who had been sent to the spring to fetch water. Carson was to learn later that he was Lizzie's son, Karl. When Carson said he hoped he hadn't put her to too much trouble, having another mouth to feed, she responded with a pleasant chuckle. “It makes no difference to me. I cook for five people in the house and six in the bunkhouse. A few more don't make no difference.”

“Well, it sure smells mighty good, whatever you're fixin'. I appreciate it,” Carson said. He followed Lucas into the parlor where the others had gathered.

They walked into the room in time to hear the end of the story Nancy was telling her family about their meeting with Carson. “And then, when it looked like these outlaws were going to sneak up on us, all of a sudden we hear a rifle go off behind us, and one of the outlaws fell dead.”

“Nancy and Jonah thought it was me that shot him,” Frank interrupted.

“That's right, we did,” Nancy continued. “Then another one of the outlaws tried to sneak up closer, and bang! Down he went. It turned out that there were only three of them, and the other one ran.”

Mathew Cain turned to greet Carson as he found himself a chair in the corner of the room. “Well, that was a good piece of work, young man. I'm glad you came along when you did. You certainly have my thanks.”

Carson acknowledged his comment with a slight nod of his head, unaware of the appraising eyes of Millie as she continued to study the young stranger. “Yes, sir,” she finally remarked, “like a guardian angel watching over them.”

Her remark was puzzling to them all, and especially to Carson. Why, he wondered, did she gaze so suspiciously at him? She had eyed him the same way when he was still standing out in the yard when they had just arrived. Feeling he should reply in some fashion, he said, “I don't reckon I'm much of an angel. It's just lucky I was there at the time.”

“Pretty handy with a rifle, are you?” Millie asked boldly.

“I get by,” Carson said matter-of-factly, wondering where her questions were going to lead, and what he had done to get on the wrong side of the cynical young woman.

“Nancy says you came out here looking for a job,” Millie went on. “Is that right?”

Carson was growing more uncomfortable by the moment. He had hoped to get an opportunity to talk to her father about that at the appropriate time, instead of applying with his young daughter, who looked only a year or two older than her brother Lucas. “Well, miss,” he replied, “I expect I was fixin' to talk to your daddy about workin' for him, but I reckon that'll be between me and him.”

At that point, Millie's father interrupted the interrogation. “For goodness' sake, Millie, let the young man be. I'll be glad to talk to him about goin' to work for the M slash C, but now ain't the time. We're fixin' to eat some supper in a minute, just as soon as Lizzie gets it on the table.”

Millie was not willing to abandon her curiosity without at least one more comment. “I'm just hoping we hire men who know something about working cattle, and can help us out. We've already got too many gunmen in the valley who are handy with a rifle.”