discouraged at times when then noticed some were missing, but with the lack of carcasses or remains, they had just figured the cattle had wondered off or had been eaten by coyotes.
The main goal of this year’s sales would be to feed his family through winter and to hopefully save up enough to aide in buying up some land that the farmer to the south of them wanted to sell within the next few years. A.J. had hoped with the added land he could talk his brother into letting him have the cabin as his own that had already sat on it for years.
When the two room stone house came closer into view he noticed the smoke coming out of the chimney. “Good, looks like sis is up and cooking Coffee, we are in luck!” he exclaimed to his horse. As he got closer though he noticed something peculiar, Bubs horse was tied to the hitching rail outside the porch. “What in the hell…?” he mumbled to himself in confusion. “There is no way he beat me back here. I would have seen him cutting through the grassland back towards the house!”
A.J. nudged the horse to a gallop to quickly close the distance between him and the house. He tied Coffee next to Duncan on the hitching rail and walked up the small stone path to the house. As he stepped onto the porch he heard loud voices arguing from inside.
“Well it ain’t right!” he heard Bub exclaim to who he only supposed was his sister. “Great…,” A.J. whispered to himself. “They are at it again,” A.J.continued as he pulled the latch to the wooden door. He regrettably stepped into the argument between his brother and sister.
4
Soph awoke way before dawn each morning as Bub made all the racket he could leaving the house to check on the herd of cattle. Soph rolled out of bed unwillingly, and still only half awake, she threw on her undergarments and then pulled over a house dress. After standing and stretching as best she could she headed into the main room of the small house urging herself to start the day.
The small two room house that her father had built with local help was made of limestone and she was very thankful for that. In the winter it held in the heat from the fireplace and in the summer it helped shade and cool them from the hot Kansas sun. It had only one bedroom that her brothers were generous enough to let her have. The two boys, if they stayed the night, would sleep next to the fire place on bedrolls. The main room had a small kitchen, a fireplace, a wood burning stove that her father had installed before they moved to town, three windows, and a table with a few chairs. Outside they had a small wooden porch that was covered by thick wood timbers cut from the trees on their ranch.
Soph had grown up not really paying much attention to anything her mother and father tried teaching her about the ranch. She didn’t acquire much of her mother’s cooking skills and she didn’t care to learn much about ranching either from her father. She was very stubborn in her own way, but what she lacked in cooking and ranching she definitely made up for in raising and caring for animals. She had somehow always had a kinship with animals and knew exactly what it took to heal them when they were sick. People from all around would pay her for help when their animals got sick or injured because of this.
After using the outhouse, Soph drew some water from the well and washed herself in the basin, then returned to the kitchen to start some breakfast. She figured at least Bub would return and he would want breakfast as soon as he got back. She stoked the still warm fireplace and used the fire from it to light the wood burning stove. Then she set out to pouring the flour to make biscuits and put on a pot of coffee.
Their family had always raised beef; however they also had chickens and pigs to use for the eggs and pork. Even though they had a thousand head of cattle Bub loved eating pork. If a meal didn’t have sausage, bacon, or ham in it then it wasn’t worth eating in Bubs mind.
“Crap,” Soph mumbled to herself as she realized she didn’t have any pork to make sausage for the gravy. She had a few strips of salted and jerked beef left so she started to cut it up instead. “It’s going to be a long morning,” she continued as the familiar wave of anxiety hit her.
After she finished preparing breakfast she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table to drink it when Bub came rushing in.
“Good morning sis,” he said.
“Mornin Bub.”
“A.J. been around this morning? We have a problem I need to discuss with you both,” he stated clearly annoyed.
“No I haven’t seen him yet, you know your brother, he comes and goes as he pleases,” she replied as she got up to get his breakfast. “Have a seat I will get you something to eat and some coffee, you can tell me what’s going on.”
“I prefer to discuss it with you both at the same time,” He stated rudely as he sat down at the table.
“Then I suggest you either go find him or wait here in a better mood and see if he shows up!” she bit back at him as she tossed his plate of biscuits and gravy on the table spilling a little of the gravy over the side.
Bub eyed her as she set the cup of coffee on the table next to his plate. He tried to come up with something to say that allowed him to extend the argument out further so he could have the final jab. He shook his head slowly and was about to let it go as he picked up his fork to begin in on the biscuits and gravy. That is when he first noticed the gravy that had spilled on the table. Using his fork to dig at the gravy that spilled out he started to smile to himself. “Breakfast sure does smell good sis,” he calmly stated.
“Thank you,” Soph replied thinking the argument was complete and that she had won. “Now you going to tell me what….,” she never had a chance to finish her question before Bub decided to interrupt her.
“What’s this here?” he asked calmly holding up his fork with a piece of meat stuck to it. “It looks to be some kind of beef or something,” He stated pretending to be confused.
“We are out of pork Bub, just eat it and don’t give me any crap about it this morning!” she replied angrily.
“You got that shotgun there over the fireplace still I see,” calmly speaking to his sister still, “We still have fat hogs in the barnyard out there don’t we?”
“Yes Bub,” She muttered back to him under her breath
“Then butcher one so we have pork!” he yelled at his sister now.
Standing she placed both hands on the table next to his plate and leaned over slowly staring him directly in the eyes as she said to him almost in a whisper “I don’t kill animals I fix them, so if you want your dammed pork for gravy I suggest you go slaughter a pig for yourself.”
As she stood back up she could tell Bub was searching for something else to say as his anger grew. Soph noticed through one of the windows that her brother A.J. was walking up the path to the house. She started thanking God he had showed up to break up yet another argument between her and Bub.
“Well it ain’t right!” Bub yelled just moments before A.J. walked through the door. Bub turned halfway around in his chair to look up at his older brother as A.J. shut the door behind him and secured the latch.
“I see you two are at it again. Do you think it is any wonder why I stay out in the field most nights?” A.J. questioned.
Bub waved his hand at A.J. like he was batting away a fly. “Never mind that, we have a problem to discuss here.”
“Does it have to do with the two people I seen riding on our land this morning?” A.J. asked.
Bub looked at him puzzled. “There were men on our land and you didn’t stop them?” he asked.
“I thought it was you and a buyer looking for the cattle,” A.J. replied.
Obviously annoyed Bub motioned A.J. and Soph to sit down at the table with him. Soph replenished Bubs coffee and set herself and A.J. a place. They all ate and drank coffee while listening to Bubs story of the blood stained ground. Bub also fetched the arrow from his rifle scabbard and showed it to them as well. He explained he thought the arrow was what they were using to hunt their cattle. Trying to make it look like rouge Indians were doing it. After eating breakfast A.J. and Bub each gave their
sister a hug and instructed her to keep the shotgun loaded just in case. As they mounted up she hollered out at them from the porch, “Make sure you all make it back in time to butcher a hog!”
Bub looked over at A.J. as he rolled his eyes while shaking his head, then persuaded Duncan towards the north were A.J. had camped, and headed off at a gallop. A.J. laughed as he waved to his sister then turned to catch up with his brother.
5
Bub and A.J. headed out to where A.J. had last seen the two mysterious figures riding away from him to see if they could pick up any trails. About a quarter of a mile away from the house A.J. started quizzing Bub, “Who do you think them riders were Bub?”
“I have no idea buddy. I will tell you one thing though, whoever they were, they have to be the reason some of our heads of cattle are missing.”
“I thought that would probably be the case,” A.J. replied. “But why kill them? Most cattle rustlers would take them to market wouldn’t you think?”
“Most people in general would yes,” Bub answered thinking about the question still. “But suppose for a moment it wasn’t for profit on the beef though,” he suggested.
“What do you mean by that?” A.J. asked. “You think there is something else behind them killing our cattle other than just money for them?”