bought your cattle.”
“Mrs. Hilliard, did they give you a piece of paper when they took your land?” Hawke asked.
“Yes. I wasn’t even going to take it, but they said I would need it if I planned to apply for compensation.”
“I’d like to see it, if you don’t mind?”
“I don’t mind,” Cindy said. She looked through her handbag, took out the paper, and handed it to Hawke. He looked at it for a moment, thanked her and handed it back.
“Mr. Dorchester, could I speak to you in private for a moment?” Hawke asked.
“Yes, of course,” Dorchester said. Then, to Cindy and Pamela, “Would you ladies excuse us?”
Dorchester and Hawke left the parlor and stood out in the hall, next to one of the suits of armor.
“Were you serious about buying the cattle if she had brought you the herd?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t have paid the same price Mr. Hilliard would have gotten at the railhead, but I would have paid a fair price.”
“What if the herd was delivered to you now? Would you still buy it?”
“Well, of course I would,” Dorchester replied. “But how is the herd going to be delivered to me?”
“I’ll bring it to you,” Hawke said.
“What? You mean you would steal the herd?”
Hawke shook his head. “It wouldn’t be stealing,” he said. “The paper they served her said that she had to vacate the land, and she had to leave the fixed property there. But it specifically granted her the right to take all movable property, including her livestock. And there was no time limit.”
“No time limit?”
Hawke shook his head. “It gives the property owner twenty-four hours to vacate the property, but it does not say when the livestock must be moved. Technically, even though the herd is still there, it belongs to her.”
“So you think if you just ride up and ask for the herd, they’ll turn it over to you?”
“I don’t plan to ask for the herd,” Hawke said. “I aim to take it.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Dorchester said. “That’s far too dangerous. I would hate to think of you getting yourself killed trying to do something for me.”
Hawke smiled. “Then let’s say I’m doing it for Mrs. Hilliard. And I don’t plan on getting myself killed.”
Dorchester drummed his fingers on the helmet of the suit of armor for a moment as he studied Hawke.
“Do you really think you can get the herd here?”
“Yes,” Hawke said. “I’ll need a few men to help me, but if you would pay a bonus to anyone who volunteers, I will get the herd to you.”
Dorchester smiled broadly. “Then, by Jove, let’s do it.”
Dorchester returned to the parlor. “Mrs. Hilliard, I am prepared to pay you $12,500 for your herd,” he said.
“What?” Cindy gasped in surprise.
“I don’t want to cheat you. You do understand, don’t you, that you could get more for them if you delivered them to the railhead?”
“Yes, I understand that, but I don’t understand why you would make such an offer. I told you, I no longer have a herd.”
“Not according to Hawke.”
“What?”
“Tell her, Hawke.”
“According to the paper that was served you, Mrs. Hilliard, that herd still belongs to you. It is on confiscated land, but it is still your herd.”
“I thought he said twenty-four hours.”
“Twenty-four hours for you to leave. That has nothing to do with your herd.”
“That may be true,” Cindy said. She sighed. “But true or false, the effect is the same. Thank you for offering to buy my herd, Mr. Dorchester, but I still have the same problem. I have no way of getting them to you.”
“You let me worry about that,” Dorchester said. “If you are agreeable to the deal, we’ll go down to the bank and I’ll write out a draft for the sale and buy them where they stand.”
“I…I…Mr. Dorchester, I don’t know how to thank you,” she stammered.
“Don’t thank just me,” Dorchester said. “Mr. Hawke is the one who discovered the loophole in the contract. And he is the one who is going to deliver your herd to me.”
“Oh!” Pamela gasped, putting her hand to her mouth. “But won’t that be very risky?”
“Life is risky,” Hawke said.
“Father, no. Don’t let him go,” Pamela pleaded.
“My dear, you have already observed this stalwart fellow in action. Do you think for one moment I could stop him from doing anything once he sets his mind to it?”
“No, I suppose not,” Pamela agreed. She looked at Hawke. “But please, Hawke. Be careful.”
Win Woodruff and Eddie Taylor had been cowboys at Northumbria for three years, but four weeks ago they quit their jobs. Buying picks, shovels, pans, and other supplies they might need for prospecting, they went up to the Sweetwater Mountains to try their luck.
So far their luck had been bad.
It was late in the day and the two men were exhausted, having spent the last three days breaking large rocks into smaller rocks, looking for any sign of gold. At the moment, Win was sitting on an old log smoking his pipe, while Eddie was a few yards away, near the campfire he’d made.
“Ha!” Eddie said aloud. “You shoulda seen that, Win.”
“I shoulda seen what?”
“I pissed this here grasshopper clean off a weed.”
“If it’s all the same to you, Eddie, I’d just as soon not watch you take a piss.”
“Well, it was just funny, that’s all,” Eddie said, buttoning his pants as he came back over to the log. “I mean that little grasshopper wrapped his arms and legs around that weed and was hangin’ on for dear life.”
“Grasshoppers don’t have arms.”
“Uh-huh. This’n here did,” Eddie insisted. Getting his own pipe out, he began filling the bowl with tobacco.
“Eddie, you think Mr. Dorchester would take us back?” Win asked.
“I don’t know,” Eddie answered. He looked up from his pipe. “Why? Are you thinkin’ about askin’ ’im to take you back?”
“Yeah, I am,” Win admitted.
Eddie reached down to pick up a twig, then stuck it in the fire and lit it. Using the burning twig, he lit his pipe. “How long—” he started to ask, then took a couple of puffs until the tobacco in the bowl caught. “How long you been thinkin’ about this?”
“I don’t know. At least for a week now.”
“You don’t say.”
“Come on, Eddie. You can’t tell me you ain’t thought of it a few times your ownself,” Win said.
Eddie sighed. “Yeah,” he agreed. “I admit that I have thought of it.”
“Well, what do you think? Do you think he’ll take us back?”
“I don’t know. But if I was a bettin’man, I’d say I reckon he probably would. He’s a good man, even if he does talk funny.”
“Well, I’ll tell you the truth, I’m about ready to go back. I don’t think there’s any gold at all up here.”
“Well, come on, Win, you know there has to be some gold, somewhere,” Eddie said. “Hell, somebody found gold else there wouldn’t be so many folks up here.”
“Can you tell me one person who has found gold?”
“Luke Rawlings has found gold.”
“I mean somebody other than Luke Rawlings and Percy Sheridan. And they don’t count, ’cause they’re the ones that found it in the first place.”
“I know,” Eddie said. “But they keep finding it regular. Sheridan come out the other day with a nugget that was as big as a walnut.”
