each train,” Smoke said. “Since we are going to have a very difficult winter drive, I figure we may as well take what comfort we can, while we can.”
“Nobody can find any fault with that,” Falcon said.
“Smoke, are you sure you don’t want Cal and me to come along?” Pearlie asked. “You’re going to have a long drive with just the five of you.”
“I’ve been in touch with Big Ben,” Smoke said. “He has promised to send some drovers up to meet us. He will also be furnishing the chuck wagon and a wagon to carry our gear.”
“Still, a drive in the wintertime,” Pearlie said. “That’s going to be rough as a cob. I wish you would let Cal and me help out.”
“You and Cal just keep things under control back at the ranch,” Smoke said. “That will be help enough.”
“All right, if you say so,” Pearlie said.
“How have the Angus worked out for you, Smoke?” Duff asked.
“Best decision I’ve ever made,” Smoke said.
“Oh?” Sally asked with an arched eyebrow. “Switching from Longhorns to Black Angus cattle was the best decision you ever made.”
“Yes. They are easier to handle, they pay more at the market.”
“Smoke, you might want to rethink that ‘best move you ever made’ comment,” Pearlie suggested. “I mean, seeing as you decided to ask Sally here to ...”
Pearlie didn’t have to finish his comment because, belatedly, Smoke caught on.
“Best move I ever made regarding cattle,” Smoke said, doing damage control. “Of course, marrying Sally was the best move I ever made.”
Sally’s laugh told him that she had been having some fun at his expense, and the others laughed as well.
There was a lot of discussion during the rest of the meal, much of it driven by curiosity as to whether the relationship between Duff and Meghan was more than partnership in a ranch. Neither Duff nor Meghan provided an answer to the speculation.
From the
BIG CATTLESHIPMENT.
Intelligence has been received of a large rail shipment of cattle which will pass through Colorado Springs on the night of the 14th Instant, for Dodge City, at which point they will be taken from the cars and driven to a ranch near Fort Worth, Texas.
The shipment is the result of a business transaction conducted by Mr. Duff MacCallister of Chugwater Valley, Wyoming and Mr. Smoke Jensen of Big Rock, Colorado with Mr. Benjamin Conyers of Live Oaks Ranch in Tarrant County, Texas. Black Angus Cattle are a much better breed than the Longhorn in that they have more weight, and the beef is said to be of the finest quality. A measure of the animals’ superiority can be ascertained by their price at the Kansas Market. The price for Longhorn cattle has fallen precipitously, while the cost for Black Angus remains around $17.00 per head. Two thousand five hundred of these valuable beasts are being shipped, that number being sufficient to require a total of four trains.
Most people who read the article did so with an interest that was generated only by their curiosity in the transaction, or by a bit of pride in the fact that cattle from Wyoming and Colorado were being shipped to Texas.
One of the readers was Red Coleman, and his reaction to the article was considerably different from that of all the other readers. The first thing he noticed was the name Smoke Jensen.
“Lookie here, McDill,” he said. “Looks to me like we might be able to square things with Smoke Jensen after all.”
“How?” McDill asked. The two men were having a beer at a saloon in the small town of Salcedo.
“It seems that Mr. Smoke Jensen is in the cow business. And not just the Longhorn cow business, but a special kind of cow that’s worth seventeen dollars a head. He is puttin’ them real valuable cows on four trains that’s going to be passing right through here, and we’re goin’ to steal them cows.”
“How we goin’ to take four trains?”
“We ain’t. We’ll only take the first train, and we’ll take it when it reaches Lajunta.”
“When will it be comin’ through?” McDill asked.
“According to the paper, they’ll be comin’ through tomorrow night.”
“How many cows will be on that train?” McDill asked.
“Well, if it is one of four trains, I figure that means that it breaks down to about six hundred and twenty-five,” Red replied. “And that’s about ten thousand dollars.”
“Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money all right, but it’s for sure and certain that we ain’t goin’ to be able to do this alone,” McDill said. “We’re goin’ to need some more folks.”
“You don’t worry about that. I’ve got a couple of men in mind,” Red said. “I’ll gather them up and we’ll meet back here this afternoon.”
Though it was still mid-afternoon, the saloon was already crowded and noisy with the sounds of idle men and painted women having fun. Near the piano, three men and a couple of women filled the air with their idea of a song, their discordant voices killed whatever melody there might have been, and their interpretation of the lyrics, complete with ribald phrases, would render the song unrecognizable by the composer.
At the moment McDill was standing at the bar, his foot propped up on the rail as he stared into the single beer he was nursing. Every time someone new would come in, he would look over to see if it was Red. After waiting for an hour, all the time nursing a single beer that had grown flat, he saw Red come in with two other men. One, a man named Woodward, McDill recognized. McDill and Woodward had been in jail together back in Denver. But he had no idea who the other man was.
The three men ordered beer at the counter, then started toward an empty table at the back of the place. McDill followed.
“All right,” Woodward said. “Now, what’s this job you were talkin’ about?”
Red told of the four trains that would be going from Denver to Dodge City, Kansas, each one filled with cattle.
“And these ain’t your ordinary kind of cows neither,” Red said. “They’re Black Angus, and Black Angus cows are worth a lot of money.”
“How are we going to take four trains?” Woodward asked.
“We ain’t,” McDill said, speaking up quickly to show that he and Red were the ones who came up with the idea. “We’re just goin’ to take the first one.”
“Still, there’s only goin’ to be the four of us,” Woodward said, keeping up the argument. “You think we can off-load a whole trainload of cows before the next train comes along?”
“We ain’t goin’ to be off-loadin’ ’em,” Red said. “We’re goin’ to leave ’em on the train.”
“Leave ’em on the train? Now, that don’t make no sense at all,” McDill complained. Even McDill had not been filled in on Red’s ultimate plan.
Smiling, Red looked around the table at the men he had recruited just for this job. “Burgess, I think it’s about time we tell these other two men what you used to do.”
“Until I got fired for bein’ drunk while workin’, I was a railroad engineer,” Burgess said.
“Really? You mean you used to drive the trains?” McDill asked, obviously impressed with Burgess’s resume.
“That’s what I did, all right.”
“And he’s going to do it again,” Red said. “Burgess, tell them what we have in mind.”
“We’re goin’ to steal the train,” Burgess said. “When it gets to Lajunta, we will steal it, then we will leave the Santa Fe tracks,” Burgess said.
“What do you mean leave the tracks?” McDill asked. “That don’t make no sense a-tall. Hell, even I know you can’t drive a train unless it’s on tracks.”
“We won’t be leaving the tracks,” Burgess explained patiently. “There is a switch track at Lajunta. When I