'Yes, but it won't ease your pa's mind to have you in their hands, too. You just wait'
The valley where the ranch lay opened into another, wider valley that we could see as we moved along. There were a few cattle in the first one, and we could see more beyond. The grass was green and rich, and running down the streams there was all the snow water that any rancher could want for his stock. Costcllo had found a good place.
'They're hid out,' Galloway said finally. 'I have it in mind they're expecting us. No ranch is quiet like that, this time of day. Not with so many men somewhere about.'
We had moved along to a lower bench among the trees, a place not forty feet from where the mountain dropped off into the valley. We saw a man come from the ranch house, saw the screen door shut behind him. From where we were, we could hear it slam.
This man, after a few minutes of talk, seated himself on the steps, while the first man went inside, apparently relieved from guard duty.
'Your pa,' Cap surmised, 'must be in the house. Certain sure, there's something or somebody down there to be watched over.'
Nobody was saying what we had been thinking, that it would make little sense to keep Costello alive ... unless they were worried for fear some neighbor might insist on seeing him. By this time the Fetchens would know about Tom Sharp, a man not likely to be put off, nor one to trifle with. Yet time would be running out.
They might hold Costello as they had planned to hold Judith, one to be used in controlling the other. If Black Fetchen could get hold of Judith, marry her, and so establish legal claim to the Costello ranch, then Costello might be made to disappear, leaving them in control. It was a likely thing, but there was much that was puzzling about the whole affair, and about their possible connection with the Reynolds gang.
We waited under the trees, moving as little as possible, and keeping wary for fear we would be discovered. The whole thing was growing irksome, and Judith had my sympathy. Her pa was down there, and it was natural she should want to see him. Only we needed to know a few more things before we could act against them. We needed to know if Costello was alive, and how they were holding him, and we needed to know what they were after.
By now we were all pretty sure that the cattle had been incidental. They had the Half-Box H herd, and they would try to hold it, but I felt certain there was more to it than the herd, or even the ranch.
We had to wait them out. I knew they were not patient men and would soon tire of lying around in the brush, doing nothing.
'We've got to know more about this setup,' I said. 'Cap, do you know the story of the Reynolds outfit?'
'No more than everybody hereabouts knows. They gave it out that they were Confederate sympathizers, and began robbin' some gold trains and the like, letting it be known they were gettin' the gold to hold for the South. But most folks thought they had no such idea - not after the gold started pilin' up. They figured they planned to use it for themselves.'
'What happened to the gold?'
'I can't say as I ever heard, although no doubt folks who lived round here could tell you.'
'Sharp would know,' Galloway suggested.
In the fading afternoon the Costello ranch looked mighty pretty. Shadows were stretching out, but down there the light was mellow and lovely. I could see why a man, even a mover like Costello, would like to settle in such a place. And there was good grazing in the hills around.
But we saw nothing of Costello, nor of anyone else at all.
The stars came out and the wind grew cool. Restlessly, I walked out to a place where the valley could be seen in more detail. There were lights in the ranch house, and shadows moved before some of the windows. Suddenly the door opened and someone went in. It was open long enough to admit two or three men.
Judith came up beside me. 'Do you think Pa is down there, Flagan?'
'Uh-huh.'
She said nothing more for some time, and then wondered out loud, 'Why did this happen to us?'
'I reckon folks have wondered that always, Judith. In this case it's no accident, I'm thinking. Your pa or your grandpa knew something somebody else wanted to know, or else for some reason they need this ranch.'
'Flagan, I've been thinking about what you wanted to know ... you know, if Pa had been, in Missouri in seventy-one. I am sure he was, because I've just remembered something.'
'What?'
'Pa had an uncle who wasn't much good. He'd gone off and left us after he got into some trouble with the family, and he went out west. Nobody would talk about him much, but he got into more trouble ... in Denver, I think it was.'
'And so?'
'He came back one night. I remember I woke up and heard talking in a low voice, in Pa's side of the tent. I heard another man's voice, a man who sounded odd ... as if he was sick or something.'
That was all she remembered right then, but it was enough to start me thinking.
Maybe what the Costellos knew was nothing they picked up in trade. Maybe it was something that renegade told them that night in Missouri.
That renegade had been in or around Denver. So had Tirey Fletchen. And so had the Reynolds gang.
Chapter 11
We rode away down the mountain to a hollow in the hills, sheltered by overhanging cliffs and a wall of pines, and made camp there where we could have a fire.
'I figure if we go down to the ranch we'll get so shot full of holes our hides wouldn't be worth tanning,' Galloway said. 'That outfit's all laid out for an ambush, so let's leave 'em wait.'
'Seems to me a likely time to be thinkin' of them cattle,' Cap suggested.
'Now, there's a good thought. Let's dab a loop on some and check out the brand.'
So we settled down over coffee and bacon to consider. It stood to reason that if most of their crowd were waiting for us to show up, there would be only a few watching the cattle, if any at all. In these mountain valleys, with plenty of grass and water, cattle needed no watching.
The upshot of it was that when the sky lightened with another day coming, we saddled up and went off. The only one who was upset by our decision was Judith.
'This isn't taking me any closer to Pa!' she objected. 'I wish I could find a man like Ivanhoe or the Black Knight! He would ride right down there and bring Pa back!'
'You know,' I said, 'I don't carry any banners for the Fetchen boys, but if the Black Knight was to ride down amongst them in his tin suit he'd have a sieve for an overcoat. Those Fetchens may run short on morals, but morals don't win no turkey-shoots! I know those boys, and they could part your hair with the first bullet and trim around your ears with the next two.
'If you want to choose up heroes to help you, you'd be a sight better off to pick on Robin Hood or Rob Roy. My pa always said you should never walk into a man when he's set for punching. Better to go around him and work him out of balance.'
'Well, while they're waiting for us to come down on 'em, we'll simply round up and drive off a few head of cattle. Then we might sort of scout around down to Sharp's place at Buzzard Roost. I'll lay a bet Fetchen has somebody staked out down there to bring him word.'
By the time the sun was high we were at Buzzard Roost and sitting alongside the stove eating crackers and sardines, and I mentioned the Reynolds outfit I'd scarcely said the name before Sharp was giving us the story.
The Reynolds gang had buried a treasure, some said, somewhere near the Spanish Peaks. They were right over there to the south of us, only a few miles away.
Contrary to what some folks said, they hadn't been a very bloody outfit. Fact was, it was claimed they'd killed nobody in their robberies. Reynolds had some reputation as an outlaw before the war began, and then supposedly he was recruited by the South to loot Colorado of its gold and silver shipments. 'There's been a lot of talk about how much he stole,' Sharp said, 'and how much they buried when the law caught up with them; but no matter what anybody says there's small chance they had over seventy thousand dollars.'
'That's a lot,' Galloway said, kind of dryly. 'That's more money than I'm likely to see in this lifetime.'
