The Ranch on the Beaver
by Andy Adams
Free Grass
The outbound trip was featureless. Mr. Stoddard was a customer of the bank in question, and repeatedly appeal had been made to him to come to its aid; if not as a buyer himself, he had been urged to find one. The two discussed the range of barter, and on reaching the city the plan of attack, retreat, and re-attack was clearly outlined. Joel remembered the long, patient haggling of his host, the summer before at Trail City, over a few horses, and felt that the present venture would call to the front any latent ability, as a trader, that the ranchman possessed.
'Leave matters to me,' said the latter, 'but you do the kicking. Find every fault you can with the ranch. Complain of its past management, its saddle stock, the cattle; haul off like a hungry ox. Offer resistance even to my suggestions. These bankers may try to show us where to camp, but you and I have slept around a wagon too long to go to town for advice. We know a cow as well as they know percentage.'
A cordial welcome was extended by the cashier to the old and young cowman. Mr. Stoddard introduced his guest in his customary gruff manner, while the boy apparently took a deeper interest in the costly office furniture than in a mere bank official.
The latter was a cocksure, precise man of advanced years, painfully observant in his manners, and not wholly free from the fawning sometimes seen in a greengrocer. 'A cowman from Colorado,' he repeated, melting with politeness.
'Or Kansas, or both,' roughly corrected Mr. Stoddard. 'Runs beef ranches in both States. Taking a little visit through Texas in search of a breeding ranch. The firm's known in the upper country as Wells Brothers.'
'Really,' said the banker, bowing his callers to seats.
'Y-e-s,' growled the grizzled cowman, sitting on the corner of a mahogany table. 'Y-e-s, young-looking; but then a cowman must crowd twenty years of his life into four or five to hold a place in the race. Banking is not near so strenuous. Well, the boys have been my guests, out at the ranch, and I sent them up and had them look over the Captain Albion assignment, now in your hands. If you can offer any inducement, young Wells will talk the matter over with you. You've been hounding me to find you a buyer, and here he is.'
Briefly the bank official stated that, in taking over, as an assignee, the settlement of an insolvent trust company, the ranch in question was found among its assets.
'Our State is paying the penalty,' said he, 'of inflated prices in land and cattle, locally known as the boom of '84. Liquidation is fairly under way, and within a year or two there ought to be a turn for the better. Mr. Stoddard is an exception to the rule; he weathered the boom, but most of our cowmen went down, with the result of throwing a large number of ranches on the market. The banking interests of the State suffered severely and must share in the general loss.'
The banker offered to submit a schedule of the effects of the ranch in question.
'I have ridden over the ranch,' admitted Joel, 'and have a fair idea of its holdings. My interest will depend on the inducements offered.'
'We'll try and make those liberal. You might mention your requirements.'
The boy arose and strolled about the room. 'The main inducement would be a fair price and a working chance to place the outfit on its feet. The ranch looks like a widow woman's farm gone to seed. The only item of ready value is the coming steer crop. The cows run ragged. Modern ranchmen use the spaying knife freely. Your foreman hasn't kept the she stuff up to a point to ensure a vigorous increase. You're not getting a full per cent of calves to your number of cows. Then the remuda is scrawny; I noticed several mares among your saddle stock. That range needs a cowman in charge and needs him every minute. I couldn't shape up that brand of cattle under three years. That is, place it on a thrifty basis.'
'That's the result of a banker running a ranch,' thundered Mr. Stoddard. 'They remind me of a blind man.'
'Our interest in ranching is not a matter of choice,' smilingly answered the cashier. 'Not voluntary on our part. Until we can find a buyer, a rigid economy is necessary.'
'But your system of economy is penny wise and pound foolish,' contended the old cowman. 'What that Albion Ranch needs is a sure-enough foreman. Then you would get results.'
'Possibly. But we are not in the cattle business. We are selling our holdings of land and cattle.'
'Here's a buyer, then,' insisted the old cattle baron. 'Don't let him get away would be my advice.'
The banker set a price per head on the straight brand and Joel shaded the figure an even dollar. 'You have a thousand cows on that ranch,' said the boy, 'that I wouldn't count. If we make a trade on the entire holdings. I'll count that many as nothing. They've outlived their days, dead wood on any man's hands.'
The boy mentioned a small earnest payment, as a matter of good faith, and a second one in six months. 'The management to change on May 1st, and any form of contract to bear that date, the cattle to be counted over to us the week before, and at your expense. Title may remain with you, but absolute management must fall to the buyer. Here are two references, and Mr. Stoddard will make a third. You'll find me at the hotel.' The latter remark was addressed to his host, as Joel withdrew.
'There's your chance,' urged the grizzled ranchman. 'Next fall I'll take off your hands any unpaid cattle paper bearing the signature of Wells Brothers.'
'It's a very small earnest payment,' remarked the official, with the usual caution of a banker, 'but I'll wire our correspondents in Kansas City and San Antonio, and we will have a report within a day. Why do you advise the sale?'
'Because I sold them two trail herds in the past and they protected their credit to a day. Their best asset is their ability to mature beef. They have the ranges. Their office is in the saddle, and there are no leakages in their business. If any one can work out a cattle proposition and put it on its feet, they can. That boy showed me the sale sheets on over seven thousand beef cattle marketed last fall, and if occasion required he can show them to you.'
'Then he ought to have more ready money,' commented the banker, his commercial instincts flashing to the fore.
'How many cowmen, including myself, have as much idle money lying in your bank?' The question was asked in a withering voice.
'I'll take the matter up with our directors at once and by to-morrow we'll have the rating of the buyers. Your guest will surely grant us that time to look up his standing.'
'Say until the close of business to-morrow?'
'That will be ample time.'
The old cowman lumbered out of the office. His long acquaintance with the banks of the town made him a welcome caller, and it was several hours before he returned to the hotel.
'Well, son,' said he to Joel, 'I think you have bought a ranch. I made a little inquiry, and I find that this insolvent trust company is the old cow's calf, an offspring of the bank, which accounts for the one acting as assignee for the other. That was my inkling from the first and I have just had it corroborated. The bank will want its money and you will get the ranch. Stand firm on the offer which I suggested and you made. They may run on the rope and snort like a cow on the prod, but they'll come to their milk. Rest easy; you'll get the ranch.'
The boy had given, as reference, the commission firm in Kansas City, and Don Lovell to the south. There was no question about either report, and the boy felt justified in outlining his plans.
'In case we buy this ranch,' said he, 'Mr. Lovell promised us one of his old men. We know him, and I want him to get a line on the cattle well in advance of delivery. I'll have to go home and I want him on the ground at the earliest moment.'
'Send for him now,' urged Mr. Stoddard. 'The ranch is yours, and we don't want to waste an hour lying around here. He can go right on home with us.'
A message was sent to Mr. Lovell, asking for Quince Forrest. The former would readily understand, with appeals from different sources, that some deal was pending.
'If any one pulls the wool over old Quince's eyes about a ranch, I'll pay the reckoning,' announced the boy.
'That's the idea,' approvingly said the old ranchman. 'Show them from the drop of the hat that you know your business.'
The next day the two reported, near the closing hour, at the bank. In addition to the cashier, two directors were in waiting in the private office. The latter were introduced, and all five drew chairs around the table.
The cashier came to the matter at issue at once. 'Your rating is sound,' said he, nodding to Joel, 'but your earnest payment is out of the question. In a transaction involving this amount, one fourth down is the minimum that we could accept.'
'Very well,' replied the young cowman, rising. 'We had that amount lying idle, but if the earnest payment is too small--'
'Your credit is reported good in cattle circles,' interrupted the cashier. 'You could easily obtain a loan.'
'To buy your old cows?'
'The holdings of the Albion Ranch are thrifty cattle.'
'No one need vouch for them. I rode that range recently, to my heart's content.'
'Now, here,' interjected Mr. Stoddard, 'you boys will never make a trade, hauling off like oxen. Try and pull together or I'll wash my hands of this deal.'
'Mr. Stoddard,' said Joel, bowing to the old cowman, 'I must protect my interest. To do so compels me to think for myself. After riding over the Albion Ranch, it's useless to tell me what the cattle are. Besides, this deal saws off on me nearly sixty thousand acres of land. On our old ranch on the Beaver, we're running nearly ten thousand cattle on a homestead that cost my father fourteen dollars. We're carrying over twenty thousand head on two ranges in the upper country, and our landed holdings haven't cost us as much as the furniture in this room. It doesn't take much cow-sense to know the advantage of free grass. These ranches over in No-Man's-Land, with free range, appeal to me. Money in cattle runs up rapidly, but land is a dead horse. May I withdraw my offer?' The question was addressed to the cashier.
'No, no,' interceded the old ranchman, 'let the trade stand or fall as the difference of opinion between buyer and seller.'
'Land at seventy-five cents ought to be cheap enough to run cattle on,' suggested an old director.
'Just six-bits an acre more than free grass,' replied the boy. 'Figure up ninety sections of land and that will show the dead capital in this sale. I simply prefer to have that amount in cattle and on a free range.'
Joel's argument stood like a stone wall. It was the epoch of free grass in conflict with deeded lands, the former influencing the latter, and the banker winced under the advantage that fell to the youth.
A pause followed, only broken as the young cowman continued: 'My statement of yesterday regarding your holding of steers and our full management, after May 1st, calls for a word of explanation. If we take over the ranch, every steer falling two or over this spring will be sent to a Northern range as soon as grass admits. Title may remain in your hands, but their maturity into beef begins at once.'
'That's impossible,' said the cashier, rising. 'Please don't impose any hardship that will prevent a trade. The very idea! Move the holding of two-and-three-year-old steers out of the State!'
'It's your privilege to declare the deal off,' said Joel, edging towards the door. 'My offer may stand while Mr. Stoddard and myself are in your city.'
The boy bowed himself out and a stormy session ensued. 'I was afraid matters might come to this pass,' regretfully said Mr. Stoddard. 'It's the result of one occupation trying to tell the other that the old cow is a beef. That boy knows his business fully as well as you gentlemen know banking. You wouldn't be holding the sack to-day had you not advanced money on inflated cattle values. The business of Wells Brothers is on a sound basis. Yours isn't, or you wouldn't be sweating blood to sell a few ranches in your hands. You fellows have the money instinct, but you lack cow-sense in cattle matters.'
'Would you advise a transfer in management which would permit the most valuable cattle to be moved to another State?' questioned the cashier.
'As long as title remained in my possession, yes. My neighbors call me a cowman, and I sold these brothers herds, where the title remained with me until the cattle crossed the scale, as beeves, on a market. You're not dealing with cattle-thieves. You bankers must learn to measure up a man by some other rule than percentage. If he's good seed corn, give him rope, and your ship will come safely into port.'
'Would you advise our selling on such a small earnest payment?' questioned a young director present.
'I have offered to take any unpaid paper next fall.'
'Will you enter into writings to that effect?' continued the young bank director.
'If my word is not considered good, yes.'
There was a note of resentment in the old cowman's answer and the cashier rushed to the breach. 'Your word is the equal of your bond,' said he, suavely pouring oil. 'However, there is still the difference of a dollar a head in the price that remains to be bridged.'
'Let it remain unbridged. If I were buying the brand. I'd buy it at the boy's offer or you could keep your ranch.'
'The offer does not meet the liabilities,' politely protested the cashier.
''Anything it lacks, charge it up to your tuition as bankers, and shake hands among yourselves over the sale.'
'But there are a number of other items, a remuda, stock horses, and a complete ranch equipment,' insisted the old director.
'The tail goes with the hide,' announced Mr. Stoddard, moving, hat in hand, toward the door. 'We'll catch the first train for home and look at some ranches in No-Man's-Land. Young Wells leans toward free grass, and I don't blame him. I'm not buying grazing land at six-bits, and if you gentlemen want any more at that price, I know where you can get a million acres. It's your move.'
The cashier followed Mr. Stoddard into an anteroom. 'You believe these brothers to be worthy young men, entitled to any credit we might see fit to extend?' insisted the former.
'Absolutely. All they ask is a working chance, and I know of no one who can pull you out of the mire, the equal of these boys. Their annual harvest of beef will buy a new ranch every year. If you are not satisfied with the references furnished, the banks of your town are sending practical men here and there, looking after cattle paper. Why not send one of them to look over the ranges of these boys in the upper country? Then you would know for yourself. With title remaining in your hands, it gives you ample time.'
'I'll let you know within an hour,' said the cashier, with a friendly bow.
There was a slight swagger in the old cowman's walk as he returned to the hostelry. At a glance, Joel noticed the beaming eye and satisfied smile.
'Did they come to our terms?' eagerly inquired the boy.
'It may take an hour yet, but they'll come. A banker's mind moves slow, like interest accrues. They like to keep their cattle in vaults. We'll give them a little time. They broke their necks to loan their money, and now it breaks their hearts to lose a cent. Son, that free-grass talk of yours broke a rib in that poor cashier. A banker would rather loan his money and lose it than to buy land at a sheriff's sale. We can't get a train before to-morrow, anyhow.'
Within an hour Mr. Stoddard's forecast was fulfilled. 'We have decided to give you a working chance, as you call it,' said the cashier, extending a friendly hand to Joel. 'The ranch equipment, including saddle and stock horses, go in for full measure. The holdings sell, range run, everything under brand to count.'
'Every hoof under brand, one year old or over,' corrected the boy.
The cashier nodded. 'Seven dollars for cattle and seventy-five cents for land. Call in the morning, and we will have duplicate contracts ready for our mutual signatures.'
The bank official withdrew, and Mr. Stoddard threw an arm around Joel's shoulders. 'It's a comfort to my soul,' said he, 'to make a banker lick salt out of my hand. I've had to lick it out of theirs several times, but to-day they came to you and me. Given half a management, that ranch will pay for itself in a year or two. Don't I know those Albion cattle? One crop of beef and the slate's clean!'
A message was received from Forrest, to the effect that he would arrive in the morning. It would barely allow time to execute contracts, meet the train, and catch another for home. By a slight margin, the old cowman and his protege met the passenger from the south.
'There's old Quince now,' said Joel tensely, as the expected arrival swung off; 'that long, hungry rascal!'
'Did you bring your saddle?' inquired the boy, once introductions were over.
'I always carry my saddle and pocket-book,' languidly answered Forrest. 'Something up a tree?'
'Nothing but a ranch, and you are to take charge of it. Supposed to be about fifteen thousand cattle, up on the headwaters of the Pease River. Mr. Stoddard will be your neighbor -- about a hundred miles apart.'
'Is that all?' sighed the newly appointed foreman. 'I figured that you might be getting married and wanted me to act as best man.'