William Johnstone - Snake River Slaughter

“You fired him?” Kitty said.

“Yes, ma’am. You remember, Mrs. Wellington, you give me the authority to hire and fire. Asa needed firin’.” Tyrone gave no explanation as to why he fired him.

“You are right,” Kitty said. “I did give you the authority, so I won’t question it now. If you fired him, I’m sure you had a good reason.”

“Yes, ma’am, I did.”

“Tyrone, is it possible that Asa might have taken the fence down, then run the horses back out onto the range in anger over being fired?” Matt asked.

“I wish that was it, Matt, then all we would have to do is round ’em up again,” Tyrone replied. “But the truth is, he rode off no more than a couple of minutes before Jake and Crack did. He wouldn’t have had time to take the fence down and run off all the horses before Jake and Crack got there. No, sir, these horses was stole.”

“Rustlers?” Kitty said in a distressed voice. “I thought with Poke Terrell gone, that we were through with rustlers.” She sighed, then sunk back in her chair. “Oh, Matt, what am I going to do?” she asked. “That was more than half of my saddle horses. I don’t have enough left to meet the terms of the army contract.”

“I’m sorry Mrs. Wellington,” Tyrone said, contritely. “I should have put some night riders out. But there hadn’t been nothin’ happen for more than a month now, and what with Poke Terrell dead, well, like you, I just sort of figured that we wouldn’t be havin’ no more trouble.”

“No, no, Tyrone, you mustn’t blame yourself. It isn’t your fault. If I had thought we needed night riders, I would have asked you to put them out.”

“But you shouldn’t have had to ask me, Mrs. Wellington, that’s the point,” Tyrone said. “I’m the foreman, it’s my job to look after things like that.”

“Don’t worry about it, either one of you,” Matt said. “I’ll find the horses and we’ll get them back.”

“How are you going to find them?” Kitty asked with a sense of defeat. “This isn’t the first time we’ve had horses stolen and we’ve never been able to get them back before.”

“They’ve never stolen this many before,” Matt said. “This time they took over five hundred horses. That’s going to be a lot harder for them handle.”

“But there is no telling where the horses are now,” Kitty said.

“It doesn’t matter where they are now. I’ll get them back,” Matt insisted.

“Matt, I know you are just trying to make me feel better. But I don’t see how you are going to find them.”

“I know you have some wonderful horses, Kitty. But they can’t fly, can they?”

“Fly? No, of course not.”

“Since they can’t fly, they are going to have to go over the ground and that means they will leave a trail,” Matt said. “And there are five hundred of them, which means the trail is going to be as easy to read as if the rustlers left arrows painted on the ground.”

“Yes,” Kitty said, brightening a little. “Yes, I guess that is right, isn’t it?”

“They can’t have that big of a lead on me, and with five hundred horses to drive, it’s going to slow them down. I don’t think it’ll take more than a couple of hours for me to find them.”

“What are you going to do when you do find them?” Kitty asked.

“I’ll bring them back.”

“You can’t drive five hundred horses all by yourself,” Tyrone said. “We’ll come with you.”

“No,” Matt said. “Get the men ready. Once I find the horses, I’ll need them. But for now I don’t want you to come with me. Too many men along with me will make it harder to track.”

“What if there are people watching over the horses when you find them?”

“They won’t be watching over them long,” Matt said.

“Sure they will. If they’ve gone to all the trouble of stealin’ ’em, they aren’t goin’ to just leave ’em somewhere without watchin’ over ’em,” Tyrone said. Then, he suddenly realized what Matt was implying.

“Oh,” he said. “Oh, I see what you mean. But, in that case, I would think you would want some help.”

Matt shook his head. “Tyrone, this is what I do,” he said. “I don’t want to get you or any of your men killed, and I don’t want to be worrying about you and the men because that might take my mind off what I’m doing and get me killed. Do you understand?”

Tyrone nodded. “Yeah, I reckon I do,” he said.

“Good. You just have the men ready to come bring the horses back, once I have recovered them.”

“All right, Matt, whatever you say,” Tyrone said resolutely.

Chapter Twenty-six

Back in Medbury, Clay Sherman stepped into Marshal Spark’s office. Sparks had parts of a kerosene lantern spread out on his desk and was busy trimming the wick. He looked up as Sherman came in.

“What can I do for you, Colonel?” he asked.

“No doubt Mrs. Wellington is going to come see you sometime today, reporting that some of her horses have been rustled.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because I took five hundred horses from her during the night. It was the horses she had ready to sell to the army.”

“What the hell, Sherman?” Marshal Sparks replied angrily. “You steal five hundred horses, then you have the audacity to come to my office and tell me about it? What is this, a challenge?”

“Take it easy,” Sherman replied, holding out his hand. “I didn’t steal the horses. That’s what I came here to tell you.”

“What do you mean you didn’t steal them? Didn’t you just tell me that you took five hundred horses from Kitty Wellington in the middle of the night?”

“I did.”

“What is that, other than stealing?”

“Legal confiscation,” Sherman replied.

“What?”

Sherman pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Marshal Sparks.

“Kitty Wellington was, and is, in violation of the herd management law. If you will read this, you will see that it is a violation to raise anything but cattle in this herd management district, unless you have specific authorization from the territory and county herd management council. Kitty Wellington has no such authorization. Therefore, I confiscated the horses on behalf of the territory of Idaho.”

“I’m sure Mrs. Wellington never even heard of that law,” Marshal Sparks said. “Nor have I heard of it.”

“It is obvious you haven’t heard of it, Marshal,” Sherman said. “If you had, you would have done your duty and prevented her from raising horses in cattle country.”

“I wouldn’t have arrested her,” Sparks said. “I would just have told her about the law so she could get a permit. I can’t imagine the county or the territory, for that matter, withholding the permit.”

“It’s too late for the permit,” Sherman said. “The law has been violated, the penalty must be paid.”

“Where are the horses now?” Marshal Sparks asked.

“That’s really none of your concern, Marshal,” Sherman said. “Let’s just say that the horses are somewhere safe.”

“Sherman…”

“Colonel Sherman,” Sherman said.

Marshal Sparks glared at Sherman for a moment. “Sherman,” he repeated. “I may not have known about the herd law, but I do know that before you can confiscate anything, you have to have a court order, and you have to serve it. I’m just guessing, mind you, but I don’t believe you served Kitty Wellington a court order. Not in the middle of the night, you didn’t.”

“Yes, well, here is the thing, Marshal,” Sherman said. “My authority differs from yours. Your jurisdiction is limited to Medbury. Mine, on the other hand, extends throughout the entire territory of Idaho. I can issue my own court order and warrants.”