The Trail West Ch. 07

"Better not leave Maggie out," Daniel said. Laughing he continued, "She'd have all our hides if the girls got to worked cattle and she didn't."

Jerry spoke up for the first time that evening, "I reckon we're gonna do this. When can we start?" He was smiling and excited at the idea of being partners with Mr. & Mrs. Maguire. It made him feel like he had a real family again.

Daniel looked at Josh and Red and then answered Jerry, "We could go to Fountain on Monday and have the papers drawn up. The three younger men nodded at Daniel's suggestion.

"Okay, but there's one last thing," Daniel continued. "We need a name for the new ranch; we can keep callin it the Lazy L and the Maggie M but I think we should have one name for the new deed. Any ideas?"

The four men were quiet for a few minutes thinking about what to call the new place. The Maguire women and Jacob joined them on the porch, listening to the discussion. Jerry looked back and forth at the others as names were brought up and rejected.

Jerry took a deep breath and said, "All we talked about and planned since we left Santa Fe was getting to Chico Basin. How bout we call the place the Chico Basin Cattle Co?" Jerry suggested. "Our brand could be a CBC with a squiggly line below the letters."

"I get the CBC, but what's that line mean?" Red asked with a puzzled look.

"It stands for Black Squirrel Creek; it runs across both of the ranches don't you know," Jerry replied.

After a few seconds everyone started talking at once. It was obvious that Jerry's name had the approval of the whole group. Danni and Sarah stepped over to Jerry, hugged him, kissed his cheek and Danni said, "Thank you for naming our new home."

***************

Monday morning at first light, all the Maguires, Josh, Red, and Jerry headed for Fountain. Danni had to get back to work but would be able to join the others at the lawyer's office.

John Akins looked up as the eight people came into his office. He smiled nodded at the ladies and greeted them. "Hello Daniel. Are you here for a social call or is this business?"

Daniel introduced Akins to the three owners of the Lazy L and explained what they wanted to do. "Any problems gettin a new deed drawn up, John?"

"No sir. I can have the papers done in about an hour. After the interested parties sign I can file them at the Territorial Capitol in Golden. Should I list it as the Lazy L or the Maggie M or do you have a different name you want to use?"

Josh nudged Jerry forward, "Tell him Jerry."

"You should list it as the Chico Basin Cattle Company," Jerry said in a proud voice. He handed Akins a sketch that Sarah had drawn of their new brand. "And this is the brand we'd like to register."

"That's what I'll put on the deed," John replied. I'll file the paper work and register the brand at the same time. See you in about an hour. You know it's funny; Bill Sanders was in here last week doing basically the same thing. He had a new deed draw up to combine Ambrose's place and the S Bar S. He said his boy William would be home earlier than he thought; he's going to live and run the new section of the ranch. He listed his sister, his son, and himself as the owners."

"I plum forgot about William, what with gettin engaged, buying the Lazy L, and joining up the two ranches," Josh said. "I'm glad it worked out for Mr. Sanders and his boy."

Two hours later after revisiting John Akins office, Josh stayed to say good bye to Danni as the rest of the group headed back to the ranch. After walking Danni to the freight office, he stopped at the post office and picked up the mail. There were two letters from his parents, a letter for Red from his folks, and surprisingly a letter from his Ma addressed to Danni.

Josh stopped on the rise overlooking Black Squirrel Creek to read one of his letters from home. This is the place where I asked Danni to marry me, he said to himself. Before he opened his letter he thought back over his journey to where he was now. I came from Fort Smith to Santa Fe to Colorado just gettin away from that damn murderin thief John Fogerty and his Bushwhackers. Now, I won't be goin back home; no that's not my home anymore, this is my home now.

Josh continued thinking about the changes in his life. Now I'm part owner of the Chico Basin Cattle Company; he had to smile at the name of the new ranch. But most important I'm getting married to the prettiest girl in the territory. Not bad for a farm boy from Missouri.

The letter from his folks gave the usual news about the farm, family, and the area. His mother put a few lines at the end of the letter. She wrote how happy she was that he'd found someone to spend his life with and that she had written a separate letter to Danni. He got a few tears in his eyes thinking about his parents and the farm but quickly felt better as he thought about Danni and the life they would make here in Chico Basin.

Josh put away the letter and continued on his way to the Maggie M. He hadn't gotten use to calling the place the CBC yet.

Red was still at the Maguire's when Josh got there; he was sitting next to Sarah on the porch swing. Daniel stepped out of the house as Josh rode up.

"Thought I'd wait for you Josh, before I headed back to the Lazy L."

"I think you waitin was more about that pretty girl next to you than wantin to ride back with me," Josh teased.

"I heard something in town we might want to think about," Red replied. "That's why I waited for you. Of course, I'd rather wait here with Sarah than over to our place." He hugged Sarah and motioned for Daniel and Josh to join him.

"Was talkin to Bill Thomas, the freight driver; you remember him Josh." Josh nodded and Red continued, "He said he'd heard about our new ranch. He said he knew a place that we could get more cattle by just roundin them up."

"If they're so easy to get why haven't the other ranches gone after them? And where is this place?" Daniel asked with interest.

Red explained that the area was called Cripple Creek on the southwest side of Pike's Peak. He said that the cattle were scattered through the foothills and would be hard to round up. There were a lot of canyons, arroyos and scrub brush; tough places to find and gather the cattle. It's was too much trouble for an established ranch to send hands to find them, Red told them; especially this close to the fall cattle drives.

"We got a good handle on the Maggie M and the Lazy L; I think we can spare the time and hands to go. It'd be a good way to increase our herd in a hurry," Red told them. "What'da you think?"

Daniel gave a little smile and said, "You're always one step ahead, aren't you Red? I think it's a good plan."

Josh pointed to Daniel and Red saying, "You two know more about running a cattle ranch than I do. I don't mind the hard work to increase our herd."

"Who do you plan to take Red?" Daniel asked.

"I reckoned Josh and I would take one of our hands with us. Thought we'd leave Charlie White in charge over to our side," he answered.

"Just three of you to ride that rough country?" Daniel asked.

"No sir. Figured we'd take Jerry and your boy Jacob too. That'd give us five hands; should be enough to round em up and drive em back to the CBC."

"I should go instead of Jacob," Daniel remarked.

"Well.....You could go but if you did Josh or I would need to stay here. One of the owners should be here just in case, don't you know," Red replied. "Sides, Jacob needs the experience if he's gonna help run the CBC in the future. No time like now to start learning."

"Didn't know you were so tactful Red," Daniel said grinning at the young Texan. "You're sayin I'm too old and big to get the job done."

"No sir; didn't say such. People round here know you better me or Josh, you're the best one to be here if trouble jumps up."

"Okay, okay, I know when I've been out talked," Daniel laughed. "When are you goin and how long do you plan to be gone?"

The rest of the afternoon plans were discussed and finalized. It was about 30 miles through the mountains to the Cripple Creek area. They would leave Wednesday morning at first light and should be there by Thursday midday. Red wanted to round up cattle for six or seven days and start back; he expected to get about 100 head. It would take them about three or four days to get the herd back on home range.

"Lot of cattle, 100 head," Daniel said. "Think just five of you can handle that many?"

"We've got four experienced hands and Jacob will know what to do by the time we start back. If we don't run into bad luck, we should be fine," Red answered. "When we get back we'll rest and feed em for two or three weeks and then drive em to the railhead. With the cattle we'd plan to ship already we should turn a good sum of money."

Josh rode into Fountain on Tuesday afternoon. He wanted to see Danni and tell her the plan; they wouldn't see each other for about two weeks; Danni took off work and they spent the afternoon together. She was both happy and worried about Jacob but understood that the boy had to grow up sometime. Josh returned to the Maggie M late that evening.

The next morning the crew started on the trail for Cripple Creek.

To be continued...