Bucking the Odds
BUCKING THE ODDS
Two stories of the old West
By Robert O'Hanlin
SMASHWORDS EDITION
PUBLISHED BY
Robert O'Hanlin on Smashwords
Bucking the Odds
Copyright 2016 by Robert O'Hanlin
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This is a fictional book and any resemblance of the characters to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
Books by Robert O’Hanlin
The Outlaw Series
The Montana Outlaws
The Alberta Outlaw
Last of the Outlaws
Others
Windfall
O'Bannions Return
Justice in Lonesome Valley
Branded a Coward
Once a Gambler
The Cougar Man
Table of Contents
Bucking the Odds
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Double Trouble
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Bucking the Odds
Chapter 1
The tall raw boned man sat in the shade with his back leaning against the wagon wheel as he watched the paddlewheel boat slowly plying its way up the river. He had been waiting since early morning, not wanting to miss the arrival of the boat, and for him it seemed like an eternity.
Having the wagon there when the boat arrived was important because his goods could be offloaded directly into the wagon saving him the time and work of loading them himself. If he wasn’t there the goods would be stacked on the shore waiting for him by Captain Willow who had been travelling these waters for four years now, and prided himself on his punctuality. It was a trait that made him a lot of money, enough that he was able to own two boats which were kept busy most of the year.
The Little Missouri River that branched off the wider and much deeper Missouri River was smaller and trickier to navigate and for that reason there were few riverboat captains who were taking the risk. Captain Willow was one of the few, and it was quietly making him rich.
His two boats, the River Lady and the River Gent were very special boats that worked well on the shallow twisting Little Missouri. There were two flat decks, one in front of the wheelhouse and one to the rear, and on these decks he could carry tons of cargo. Attached directly behind the wheelhouse were four state rooms for passengers, although his boats were not designed for passengers like many of the other riverboats, they were designed for just what he had…cargo. He piloted the River Lady while his cousin piloted the River Gent.
It was getting late in the day and he was glad to see the smiling face of Captain Willow in the wheelhouse. As he walked over to the river bank he was thinking about what had brought him to this place. There were no towns along the river but he had many customers like Will and Barney Bronson where he would ease into the shore at a place where the bank was high so he could off load goods.
The river was too low in the mid-summer so he had to make his trips when the water was high enough in the fall and in the spring after the ice was out. His home base was St. Louis and it took him two weeks to make it to Barneys Landing, the name he had given the place he dropped Barney’s supplies.
Barney usually had two deliveries in the fall and two in the spring and for the last two springs on his return runs he was taking fifty head of Will’s cattle back to a market in St. Louis. Captain Willow was a resourceful fellow and he designed a portable corral system for the front and back decks of his boat and each day while travelling they hosed down the deck to keep it clean from the cows dropping.
Will went with him on the first trip to make sure that the cattle would behave and not panic on the boat as cows were unpredictable critters, and these were Texas longhorns which made them even more unpredictable. Will was taking a chance that he could find a buyer for the cattle at a decent price, and he was pleasantly surprized when the first place he stopped agreed to take the fifty that he had and one hundred head a year from him.
Will was the older of the brothers and after facing a dead end life in the east he had headed west leaving his only family, his younger brother Barney. He was fifteen and Barney was twelve when their parents died in a fire of their small share cropper house.
Although they were sharecroppers and owned no land of their own they were a hardworking and happy family. Being alone at fifteen and twelve, left them with no option but going to their mother’s brother who owned his own farm. He had no liking for their father and carried that on to his sons, although he did like the work they did because all it cost him was their board.
When Will reached eighteen he had enough, and told Barney he was leaving and going west. Barney was not as willing to leave as Will was, and secretly Will was happy about that because he was not sure how he would look after himself, let alone his brother.
He was not willing to leave Barney on the farm with their uncle, so he managed to get him a job in town at a mercantile store, as well as a place where he could live for little money. It was a tearful day when he left, but the last words on his lips were a promise to Barney that when he had made his way in life he would send for him.
Will made his way west by working with a wagon master leading a wagon train heading for Oregon. This was a time when thousands upon thousands of people were leaving their homes and heading west like Will, looking for a better life.
Will made it as far as the Dakota Territories and there he staked claim to some land along the Little Missouri River in what was being called The Little Missouri River Valley. The thousands of people heading west were bypassing this area and heading on to Oregon because of the hostility of the Sioux, but Will fell in love with the little valley he had found.
Will had ridden into this country shortly after Custer and the Seventh Calvary had been wiped out at the Little Big Horn. It happened about two hundred miles southwest of his claim and there were still hostile Indians roaming the country so his time spent in Texas rounding up a herd would give the army time to hunt down the remaining hostiles and put them on the reservation.
His valley was not far from the Little Missouri River which was travelled much less that the larger Missouri to the north. There was plenty of the rolling prairie grass hills and further up large stands of timber, and it had a little creek running through it so he called it Little Creek Ranch. It had plenty of grazing land and water making it ideal cattle country.
Now all he had to do was get enough cattle to start his own ranch. Many cattle were being trailed in to the Montana territory from Texas and he found out from one of the trail bosses that there were still lots of maverick cows roaming loose in Texas waiting for anyone willing to do the work to catch them.
That was how he found himself in Texas, and after herding and corralling a couple hundred head he realized he could not accomplish his goal of getting a thousand head by himself, so he went looking for help. It was not going to be an easy task because he had no money to pay them, and there appeared to be no one who was willing to travel from Texas to the Dakota Territories with only
the promise of a job at the end of the trail.
He had put the word out in town but he had little expectations, and as he sat by his fire one evening contemplating leaving with the cattle he already had, a man with a woman trailing behind him walked into sight. He waited until they were up to the fire.
“Come on in and have a cup of coffee, I’m sorry I have little else to offer you.”
As the man took off his hat Will was shocked by the look of his head, it was completely bald and shaved that way. There were signs of some scarring, but he looked away again so as not to seem like he was staring. He did notice that he was no older that a boy.
“Thanks, my name is Silvan Richter and this is my sister Rebecca and we sure could use some coffee.”
Will dug out two more tin cups and poured them each a cup.
“I’m sorry I’m not much of a cook to make you something to eat.”
Silvan took the two cups of coffee offered him and he sat one down for Rebecca behind him and noticed her rummaging through the box by the fire that he assumed held some food supplies. Will noticed her too but he didn’t think anything about it because there was nothing she could steal except a bit of food, and he felt if she needed it bad enough to steal it, she was welcome to it.
“Thanks, mister I heard you were looking for some hands to help drive a herd.”
Will looked up at him quickly, this is not what he expected to hear from him, and he thought they were just a couple of hungry kids looking for a handout.
“Well you are right there, but I was looking for someone who at least had a horse to ride.”
Silvan smiled, and Will liked the fact that he could smile even though he and his sister looked destitute.
“I may not have a horse of my own, but I can ride any horse you put me on, and I figure you being a rancher would have more than one horse.”
He had Will there, and as they sat talking Rebecca sat a plate of food she had whipped up in front of each of them. Will had been eating his own cooking since leaving the Dakotas and he gladly took the plate offered him. After a couple of bites he turned to the girl.
“I’m not sure about your brother, but if you can scratch together a meal like this with my meagre supplies I’m willing to hire you.”
Rebecca smiled and blushed a bit.
“Thank you kind sir, but I can’t leave my brother, I been taking care of him for too long now.”
He liked her, in fact he liked both of them.
“Well I suppose I can’t break up a pair like that, but are you sure you know what you are getting yourselves in for?”
He went on finishing up his dinner and scrapped the plate for the last taste, and then briefly explained his whole plan to them thinking that they would probably turn him down in the long run.
She took the plate and dished him out another serving from the pot.
“I’m sure you can tell by looking at us that things are not going that well for us right now, so what you are describing sound like a good offer.”
He laid his fork down long enough to shake hands with them both and then returned to his meal.
“Welcome aboard, tomorrow we start beating the brush again for more of these mangy critters.”
That night around the fire Silvan told him more about their situation and how he had lost his hair and got the burns on his scalp from a fire where he was able to get Rebecca out but not his parents. Rebecca carefully removed the bandanna from her head to reveal that it was the same as Silvan’s. Will looked at her carefully as she hung her head and he knew how much it took for her to bear her head to him. He recounted the similar story that he and Barney had gone through and it seemed to cement them even more together with a common bond.
The next morning, after a good breakfast, he and Silvan started beating the brush for more of the wild cattle. It was not an easy job, most of the easy cattle had already been taken by others and now there was only the wildest ones left deep in the mesquite brush. Riding through the mesquite with its sharp thorns was dangerous enough by itself, but there was always the chance that one of the large contrary cows could jump at you, seemingly from nowhere, and spear either your horse or your leg with one of their long pointed horns.
Needing more supplies and knowing that he needed more help, Will rode into town, leaving Silvan and Rebecca to watch over the four hundred head they had already rounded up. With one or two more riders they could increase their output and be on the trail north much sooner.
He tried talking to the merchant as he bought the groceries but he knew of no one that would be interested, so while his list was being filled he went to the saloon. He was not a drinker but this was the place where lots of out of work people hung around. He went from table to table in hopes he could get someone interested and as he was sitting talking to an older gentleman a chair suddenly fell over as a man jumped up and started yelling at the other men at the table.
It was none of his business, and he was a firm believer in not getting involved in other people’s business, but there was something he saw in this altercation that could lead to a killing. He stood up and walked over to the man who was doing the yelling. He was obviously drunk and it looked like he was a mean drunk who was bent on real trouble.
He walked up to the man and stopped in front of him.
“Why don’t you take it easy and just go home and sleep it off.”
The man looked at him now like it was the first time he saw him.
“I’m going to shoot somebody and you look like somebody to me.”
He didn’t hesitate, and although he was swaying from too much to drink, his hand reached for his gun. Will had a gun on but he didn’t reach for it, instead he swung a wicked blow with his right fist that struck the man full on the left side of his face. He fell backward and hit the floor and didn’t move while Will reached down and removed the gun from his holster. He was standing over the man with the gun still in his hand when a voice from behind him rang out.
“Drop that gun and turn around!”
Will heard the click of the pistol being cocked and let the gun slide out of his hand to the floor. He looked once more at the man in the floor, and he turned slowly to see that the man holding the gun on him also had a badge on his chest.
Now the man behind him lying on the floor moaned, and started to get up.
The man with the badge moved his gun to indicate the moving body behind Will.
“Pick him up and come along with me!”
Will could tell he wasn’t asking him to come along…he was telling him, and as he turned to help the man up, he felt his gun being removed from his holster.
The walk to the jail was grueling, having to carry the almost dead weight of the big man he had knocked down. The sound of the cell door slamming behind him was something he had never heard before.
It was a restless night for him, partly because of the worry about his situation but mostly because of the heavy snoring of the man lying in the cot across from him. As he was sitting on the side of the bed the man stirred and sat up.
“Oh, what happened to my head?”
He shook his head to try and clear it and then he looked over at Will for the first time, he stared for a minute and then looked at the cell door. He started rubbing the side of his jaw that Will had hit.
“Whoa, it must have been quite a night!”
Will was waiting for the moment he recognized him, but it didn’t come, instead the sheriff showed up and opened the door.
“OK, a couple of people came in last night and told me what happened so you’re free to go.
Will was the first to get up and go to the open cell door, as the other man stumbled along behind him. He felt like asking the sheriff why he hadn’t let them out last night, but now that he was free it really didn’t matter.
When they hit the street the man beside him started for the saloon and Will grabbed him by his shoulder.
“Hold on a minute partner, I want to talk to you.”
They
each had their guns back now and for a moment Will thought the man was going to go for his gun.
“Well talk fast, because I have an appointment with a bottle over there.”
Will smiled and looked at him for a minute before he spoke.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, I have a better offer than the one waiting for you in there.”
He could see by the look in his eyes that he had some interest.
“If you have something better than that you better spill it fast.”
Will told him the whole story about gathering the cattle and trailing them to the Dakota Territory in a short form and the man just stood looking at him in amazement as he ended with a simple statement.
“And I can promise you it will be much better for you that going into that saloon.”
The man suddenly held out his hand.
“My name is Jack Ames and you must be crazy, but I’ll ride out with you and have a look.”
Will took his hand with his usual firm grip and gave it a good shake.
“I’m Will Bronson.”
They got their horses, and he stopped by to get the supplies he ordered the day before. It was a quiet ride all the way out to where Silvan and Rebecca were holding the cattle.
They had arrived at noon time and since they hadn’t had anything to eat yet they were hungry.
Silvan ran over and grabbed Will by the shoulder.
“When you didn’t come home last night we thought you might be hurt.”
Will told them the story about spending the night in jail, leaving out the part about punching Jack in the saloon, and as they were talking Rebecca handed them each a plate of stew she had made. Will knew what to expect, but Jack was surprised and it showed on his face. Will looked at Rebecca to see her reaction and she was pleased. After he had finished his second plate of the stew Jack looked at Will.