He would stay out three days and two nights, hunting small game for his dinner.
Saddled up and mounted, with Buck’s nose pointing toward the forest that encircled the homeplace, Hugh once again felt the indescribable joy at being in the saddle and looking forward to three days of quiet, solitude, relaxation, and sleeping under the stars.
The huge Mann Ranch was oval-shaped, oriented north-south, with the large, log cabin home and barns and outbuildings nestled into a large clearing encompassing several hundred acres of meadows. The property also held a five-acre bass pond, pastures, and hay fields.
Hugh’s destination on this ride out were the hills fringing the ranch home that extended the Mann Ranch property for several miles in the north-south and east-west directions. All totaled, the Mann Ranch comprised about eleven thousand acres.
Hugh senior had picked up that much land cheaply shortly after a forest fire had raged through that area of the Idaho panhandle. That was more than thirty years earlier, and the forest had reseeded itself, leaving scant evidence of the earlier devastation.
Hugh combined pleasure with work on these rides out. Hugh senior and Roly rarely had the time to cover the extent of the property, so when Hugh went out he liked to give everything a good look.
Of concern were squatters who were known to find isolated, forested lands to set up a sort of permanent camp. Those were a problem, but not usually somebody difficult to deal with.
While Hugh had no argument with these people’s desires, he nevertheless did insist they not squat on his family’s land. Unlike the huge tracts of public land throughout the Western states, much of the land in this area was held privately by families like the Manns. Or large tracts of land were owned by the logging companies. In other words, it was all private land.
Of greater concern, especially lately, was the Mexican drug cartels that had been working their way farther north, escaping the successful efforts other states like Oregon and California have had in eradicating the cartel’s large marijuana grows.
They would seek out open patches within heavy forest to plant their marijuana crops far from the spying eyes of the drug enforcement officers. Forest exactly like what Hugh was riding through.
One of the major problems with these cartel operations was they protected their grows with deadly booby traps and armed guards. Hugh had always been concerned Mary might ride out someday and stumble upon one of these operations. So far, there had never been one on his family’s land that he had discovered. But, there had been a couple found in nearby counties. So, he was diligent to make it a priority on these rides out to keep an eye open for such things.
On Hugh’s previous ride out, right after bringing Jenny to the ranch the first time, he had seen no recent evidence of squatters or of cartel involvement on his parents’ land.
That time, he’d stayed on the side of the ridge line facing the ranch far below that had kept him in sight of the ranch house … and Jenny. This time, he planned to cross over the top of the ridge and ride on the side of the hills facing away from the ranch house. If any squatters or marijuana grows were on Mann land they’d be on that side, their lights at night going unseen from the ranch house below.
He began to circumnavigate the ranch perimeter, lost in reflection about recent past events. He was content to give Buck his lead, confident the sure-footed, mountain-reared buckskin would keep them both out of trouble.
Buck knew what to do, and what he was there for. His ears were constantly in motion as he scouted the area for strange sounds.
Hugh was startled out of his half-doze by a rustling in a bush. “Hold, boy,” he told Buck, and then he quickly snapped off a shot at dinner, a nice plump rabbit.
Toward dusk, Hugh located a small open spot flat enough for his bedroll, and room enough for a fire. It had a small stream running nearby for water for him and Buck.
He built a small fire and cut two forked sticks. He cut another longer one to skewer the rabbit with that he placed across the forks over the fire. He sat down to cook dinner, occasionally turning the rabbit by hand so it would be evenly cooked.
While the rabbit roasted above the coals, and while some daylight remained, Hugh took out his Bible to take in some of God’s word. These times in the quiet, darkening forest, lying on the ground with Bible in hand, away from the hustle, bustle and noise of truck parks, were always special times for Hugh to visit with his Lord.
Hugh began pulling at pieces of rabbit meat as they became done, until he had eaten the whole thing.
At full dark, he led Buck to the stream, where Hugh washed up and drank as Buck also drank his fill.
Hugh slipped into his sleeping bag confident his watch-horse would alert him to trouble in the night. Then he quickly fell asleep.
Chapter Forty-Six
In contrast to the usual noise of truck stops and the smell of diesel fumes from trucks starting up, Hugh awoke to the sound of birds singing and tree leaves rustling in the gentle morning breeze.
“Beautiful day,” Hugh said to Buck.
The buckskin grazed nearby. Hugh hadn’t bothered to tie or hobble him. For two reasons. One reason was he was confident Buck wouldn’t wander, and the other was that in the event of
