The Ranch on the Beaver
by Andy Adams
Bread Upon The Waters
The improvements on the Albion Ranch, recently purchased, reflected a previous epoch. The house had been built for family use, and only a few years before had dispensed a hospitality in keeping with its domain and holdings. But an evil day befell its owner, and now the signs of decay were noticeable in the general equipment of the ranch. The one exception to the common wreck was the corrals, the necessity of constant use having kept them in repair. They were modern in every respect -- ample branding chute, sorting gate, and with a capacity of holding fully a thousand cattle.
On Joel's return, the cattle were being shaped up for delivery. Round-ups among the neighbors had been granted, and, where there was any chance of the ranch holdings having wandered beyond the home range, the outlying country was scouted. A wide circle of territory had been covered, and the brand was supposed to be well within the home range. Forrest had made a willing hand in the work, and on Joel's appearance the home outfit were riding lines, holding the cattle convenient for delivery.
The bank would be represented in the final transfer by an expert. 'From what I gather,' said Forrest, 'we'll have to side-step some when the big auger gets here. Naturally, he'll show us where to head in and how it was done when he was a boy. But we'll have the ranch outfit and extra men with us. The boys all know that when their time ceases on the bank pay-roll it begins on mine. The only one liable to surge on the rope will be the expert.'
The latter arrived a day in advance of the date set for delivery to begin. He was extremely restless, consulting his watch continually, and, on the slightest contact with others, an air of authority fairly radiated from him.
On arriving, he bowed to the new owner, gave Forrest a passing glance, and inquired for the ranch foreman.
'Let him run on the rope,' said the man from Lovell's ranch, as the expert and the old foreman conferred apart, 'and I'll throw him so hard that he'll see stars at dinner-time. It's a shame, but this cow business does develop some powerful wise men. Before this one leaves, we'll have his measure within an inch.'
'I've ordered the first round-up for this afternoon,' said he to Joel, a few minutes later. 'I'm in a hurry. My services are in constant demand, passing on cattle paper where the banks are in any way interested.'
'This is my foreman,' said the boy, nodding to Forrest. 'Any arrangements you may make with him will suit me.'
'We're all ready,' said the new foreman, taking the initiative. 'We might fill the corrals to-night and begin tallying in the morning.'
'I have no time to tally these cattle,' announced the expert, with marked finality. 'The ranch is sold range count, and we'll count on the range. I haven't an hour to waste. I must go to Montana in June to check over a sale involving three times the value of this ranch and cattle.'
'Well, now,' languidly remarked Forrest, 'if you're so hurried, you'd better deputize the ranch foreman in your stead and start back at once. It's my intention to tally these cattle through a branding chute.'
'Use a branding chute in range count?' openly laughed the expert. 'Can't you count cattle in the open?'
'I'm not an expert,' said the old trail foreman politely. 'I might count a trail herd, or beeves on their way to shipping pens, with you, but a ranch, requiring a week's time, is a cow of a different color. Of course, there's tricks in all trades but ours, and I'm sure that a man of your ability wouldn't try and count a cow twice on a poor boy. This is an open range, and to count without a tally-mark is out of the question. If you can't wait. I'll bring your horse, but if you can spare the time, we'll tally as we count.'
'You may omit intimations,' loftily replied the bank representative. 'I'm employed by the year. My only object in range count is to get the work over and get away.'
'Then let me saddle your horse,' insisted the new foreman. 'We're going to take all the time we want to tally these cattle. Under my programme the steers coming twos or over we'll cut the brush from their tails; any she stuff, due for the spaying knife, will carry the same mark, and the remainder will be tallied with a branding iron. Now, if you can only stay, you'll see our end of the work done in apple-pie order. Of course, the ranch outfit is subject to your orders, and if you can count a single hoof twice, on this boy, or myself, why, hop to it. A man of your front, an expert, that way, might count the same cattle twice on a tenderfoot, but being just simple folks, we'll tally, them. If you counted a cow on me twice, and the bank found it out, they might fire you. Yes, they would. And you'd be a hard man to replace. Colonel, it won't do.'
The expert winced under Forrest's grilling. 'I wasn't sent here to take orders from a common cowhand,' he retorted. 'There is no occasion to waste a week when a count can be made in three days.'
'Joel, bring his horse,' commanded the new foreman. 'Our guest won't even stay for dinner. Awful sorry, but we'll worry along without you. The contract will stand; there's an earnest payment on it, you know.'
'The buyers of this ranch were reported to be up-to-date cowmen,' sneeringly remarked the specialist. 'Can't even count cattle on the prairie.'
'No, dear,' cooingly replied Forrest. 'We're not even near experts. Still, no one with your gray matter can flim-flam us on a simple cow trade. Please don't consult your watch so often; it makes me nervous.'
'Must I rot here a week in order to do a few days' work?' disgustedly said the bank man on cattle credits.
'You needn't,' urged the new foreman. 'We'll excuse you, and the work will go on. But you had better stay. In fact, I know you will; that's why you were sent here. You're carrying too much sail for a cow country. Lay off your front, roll up your sleeves, and show this outfit that you really are a cowman. By the end of the week, we'll know whether you are true-blue or a four-flusher.'
The expert made anything but a graceful surrender. Counting the same cattle over was an old trick in range delivery, made possible by the constant influx of new capital and new men. Receiving a ranch was a new lesson to Joel, and only the caution of Forrest, in insisting on a tally-mark, prevented any chance for dishonesty.
The work of receiving began on the day set. The corrals were filled the night before, culled to the straight ranch brand, and the branding chute called into service. The latter would chamber ten cattle, held so compactly that it was but a moment's work to clip the brush from a tail or check the select ones and young stuff with a branding iron. As they left the chute they were counted, and with an indelible tally-mark on hide or appendage, a second tender of the same cattle would be self-evident. By saving the brushes, separate from sex, the cattle were classed and counted, and future work made easy.
The burden of holding the cattle separate fell to the seller. Lines were maintained between those delivered and from others to tender, the work following watercourses from the upper limits to the lower end of the range. The outfit was divided into two shifts, holding the lines, filling the corrals, and drifting those delivered to their former range. It took a week of dusty, hard work, and an extra hour to cast up accounts.
The brand tallied out a few short of fifteen thousand cattle, and the ranch passed into the possession of Wells Brothers. The transfer was devoid of any formality, a memorandum of acknowledgment, in duplicate, of the numbers received was exchanged, when the credit man, without comment, prepared to take his leave.
For some reason of his own, the expert had carefully withheld his name.
'Were you ever in the employ of a trust company?' inquired Joel, at parting.
'In the employ of banks and trust companies for years, passing on cattle paper.'
'You use only your initials on this memorandum. Isn't your name Stallsmith?'
'Yes, sir,' came the admission, somewhat blankly.
'The man who approved the loan on this ranch?'
'I recommended the paper as gilt edge.'
'Surely no harm to ask your name. This delivery then, gives you a good chance to check up your acquaintance with the Albion Ranch. Strange how chickens come home to roost, even in a cow country. I hope you'll excuse any rudeness on the part of my foreman and call again.'
The grass was well advanced, and without the loss of a day the outfit took the field to gather the steers for shipment. The latter had numbered up to expectations, with an addition of knotty fours, bringing the herd up to over thirty-three hundred. It was easy work with every hoof on the home range, and the end of the third day saw the steer stuff, above yearlings, made up and started.
'Give yourself a week to reach the railroad,' said the boy to his foreman. 'On the headwaters of the Republican, given another ten days, and the grass will be coming with a rush. With only two days aboard the cars, we want to lay these cattle down on their summer range on a set date. That will give them six months to acclimate in, and with that advantage, they'll weather any winter. For range run aren't they an even lot of steers?'
'Fine as silk,' agreed Forrest; 'split silk at that.'
'I'll order the cars,' said Joel, swinging into the saddle, 'and meet you a day out from the shipping pens. Until these two herds are out. I'm going to be as busy as a farmer getting ready to thrash. I'll have to get in touch with the outfit on the Arickaree, and when they sing out all ready, we want to hand them this herd. The Stoddard shipment will follow a week afterward. Now, treat your cattle well and I'll look for you in a week.'
'Don't forget to throw out those hints,' called the foreman, as the boy reined away.
'About any remnant not delivered? Trust that to me, the very first chance.'
Spring opened fully two weeks earlier in the Texas Panhandle than on the Arickaree. By timing the shipments from the lower ranges to meet the season above, the cattle would suffer no disadvantage in the change of climate. Acclimation must be met, noticeable even in cavalry horses, and the brothers knew the magic wrought by Northern winters on a Texas steer. Hence a full summer on the cattle range was an advantage of real value.
On reaching the station, within a few hours every detail was arranged with railway headquarters to handle the herd. Sargent was hailed and answered within a day, when the young cowman dropped down to the Stoddard Ranch for a single night.
'We're loading out on the morning of the 18th,' announced young Wells to the old ranchman, 'and all arrangements are made for your cattle to follow on the 25th. The live-stock agent will be on hand, and all he wants to know is, how many cattle you are going to tender for shipment. You can't faze me by offering too many, but the agent ought to know well in advance. It's going to take four heavy trains to handle the Albion cattle, and, if you need five, give notice the morning you finish gathering. To make time, twenty-eight cars to the train is the limit.'
'The 25th?' mused the old cowman. 'That's good. We'll begin gathering about the 15th. That will give the railroad five or six days' warning. You dropped the flag on long yearlings, but you left the bars down on knotty threes and fours, and Manly has orders to clean the ranch of all ageing steer stuff. It's too late to beg for quarter now.'
The latter remark was music to Joel's ear. 'The bars may stay down till further orders,' said he to Manly. 'If any one can faze me on Lazy H cattle, at present stock and beef prices, the game's open. Maturing beeves is where we shine. That's my own, favorite department. If you have the cattle, by all means make it five trains.'
With a few idle days on his hands, the boy made a hurried trip to Fort Worth. There were details to arrange with the bank after the delivery, and the vacant time was utilized to advantage. The business affairs passed pleasantly, and, on taking leave, the cashier inquired if the delivery had come up to expectations.
'The brand fell short in numbers,' remarked Joel, 'which was to be expected, on short notice. The chances are that there is quite a remnant of cattle that were not tendered at delivery. It would hardly pay you to employ an outfit to gather any stragglers, but I'll make you an offer on the remainder. Our outfit can gather them at idle times. We'll allow you five dollars a head on everything not tally-marked, or an even thousand dollars for the brand outright. Talk it over with your Mr. Stallsmith, and let us know.'
'You mean to say that the entire brand was not tendered at the recent delivery?' questioned the bank official.
'It's just possible. The Pease River country has recently undergone a drouth, and on that account the ranch may have cattle some distance adrift. Mr. Stallsmith will explain all this to you, the why and wherefore.'
On meeting Forrest, a few days later, Joel reported that he had thrown out hints of possible cattle not tendered for delivery. 'As you suggested, I only sowed the seed. Simply threw out a feeler. When interest awakens, I want to spring the attempt of the expert to count cattle on us twice. Will they bite?'
'Use silver for bait, and they'll take under pole and all. I want another chance at Mr. Stallsmith's cow-sense; I want to powder-burn him as long as my caps hold out.'
'I hope to be standing near when you do. Quince, receiving that ranch showed me that I'm still in the spelling class. But I'll learn cows yet.'
The lesson was worth while. In a way elated over a new feature of his occupation, the boy had relaxed his usual caution, relying on his foreman, and was saved from a possible loss by the tie of friendship. Bread cast upon the waters had returned at a timely moment.
The herd was halted several miles out from the station. The cattle were classed for shipment, the twos into one grade, and the threes or over into another, a few cars of the weakest ones were reserved for the last train. The younger grade was sent to the pens first in trainloads, the yarding capacity lacking for the entire herd.
The railroad furnished a loading crew and the alacrity with which cattle were moved revealed a perfect system. The trains left an hour apart, each one in charge of a man from the new outfit, all of whom were promised a summer's work on the upper ranges. The last train fell to Joel, who made a willing hand, holding the cattle on their feet like a practical shipper.
'I'll be back in time to come through with the Stoddard herd,' said the boy to the live-stock agent. 'We may be able to load out a day in advance of the present programme. The ranch outfit above must receive the next shipment, and we must give the boys time to move this one to the summer range and return. I'll have a word with the foreman and he won't ask for an extra hour.'
On receiving the Albion Ranch, fully two thousand cows and heifers were marked for the spaying knife. It was important to begin the work at once, and a small outfit would be retained until the task was completed.
'You may not see me again in six months,' said Joel to his foreman, 'but rock along with your ear to the ground. I want you to shape up that ranch just like the Lovell holdings. Let the boys go visiting by the week and feel around for cattle in the ranch brand.'
'That's a meaty idea. Those orders just suit me. Mostly visiting. How far shall I let the knife slip on that she stuff?'
'Let it fall on every hoof marked, and then some. Don't leave a drone in that brand of cattle. I'll need them next spring; they'll mature into beef.'
'Get the stock cattle back on a thrifty basis is the idea. No difference of opinion on that point. I'll prune up that ranch like a peach tree. Your train's whistling.'