Goodnight's Dream (A Floating Outfit Western Book 4) (7 page)

On entering the room, he found General
Vindfallet—commanding the New Mexico Territory army posts—Colonel
Hunter, the Fort’s commanding officer and the two majors from the
previous day seated at a table. In the room also were two civilians
whom Goodnight remembered having seen watching the herd’s
arrival.

‘
I’m sorry I’m late, gentlemen,’
Goodnight greeted.

‘
We understand,’ Vindfallet replied.
‘May I say how sorry we all are to hear of your partner’s
decline.’

‘
This’s Mr. Wednesbury and Mr. Hayden
of the Mutual Land & Cattle Company,’ Hunter introduced,
indicating first the taller then the second dude, who nodded their
response. ‘Now, gentlemen, shall we get down to
business?’

‘
That’s why we’re here,’ Vindfallet
answered.

Blandly overlooking the comment, Hunter told
of the Army’s future requirements. With some eleven thousand
Indians on the New Mexico reservations to be fed, considerable
numbers of cattle would be needed and the Government was willing to
pay well to fill their requirements. Watching his competitors,
Goodnight saw their faces register slight annoyance on hearing that
only steers would be bought. He could understand their feelings,
but knew that the Army had made a wise decision and one beneficial
to the Texas cattle industry. Hunter’s mention of the price the
Army would pay drove all such thoughts from Goodnight’s head. Long
schooled in poker playing and dealing with Indians who could read
correctly the slightest facial expression, Goodnight needed all his
skill to prevent his interest showing.

‘
That’s a fair price,’ Hayden
remarked.

‘
It’s a damned fine price,’ Vindfallet
put in. ‘How about it, can you fill our needs?’

‘
Of course,’ Wednesbury
stated.

‘
I can,’ Goodnight went on.

‘
Will your partner be recovered
sufficiently to do so?’ Hayden asked. ‘We’ve all heard of Oliver
Loving’s ability in handling cattle; it is matched only by your
ability as a scout.’

‘
What you’re trying to say,’ Goodnight
answered calmly, ‘is can I handle the drives without Oliver. I hope
I don’t have to; but if the need arises, I can. I know the trail as
well as any man and have had sufficient experience with cattle to
handle them. Have you gentlemen similar knowledge?’

‘
Our trail managers have. They worked
with Jubal Early during the War.’

‘
Didn’t you have some trouble last
night, Mr. Goodnight?’ Hayden continued when Wednesbury stopped
talking.

‘
Not that I know of,’ the rancher
answered.

‘
You had to draw a gun on a
man.’

‘
That was no trouble.’

‘
The man was objecting to
your men singing
Dixie,’
Hayden said.

‘
That wasn’t why I drew on him,’
Goodnight corrected. ‘The incident was over, ended by two non-coms
from the Fort, before he tried to pull a gun on me. I did no more
than necessary to stop him shooting me.’

‘
We’ve heard of the incident, Mr.
Hayden,’ Hunter injected.

‘
To save further questioning on that
line,’ Goodnight went on. ‘I rode with Captain Cureton’s Rangers
throughout the War.’

Nods of approval came from the listening
soldiers. The fame of Cureton’s Rangers had extended beyond the
borders of Texas. Without their handling of the Indian situation,
both the Union and Confederacy would have faced considerable
difficulties with the various hostile tribes.

‘
The War is over, gentlemen,’
Vindfallet put in. ‘Right now, our concern is not with who fought
on which side, but arranging to supply beef for the Government. And
deciding whether you can deliver it to us.’

‘
We can,’ Hayden declared
firmly.

‘
So can I—’ Goodnight began.

‘
We’ll have fifteen hundred head here
by the end of July,’ Wednesbury interrupted. ‘All steers. And can
follow them up at regular intervals as needed.’

‘
Will you have sufficient cattle to
keep up a supply, Mr. Goodnight?’ Hunter inquired.

‘
In addition to my own ranch, I’ve an
arrangement with John Chisum to fill my needs,’ Goodnight answered,
wondering if he should go on with the scheme he had
planned.

Before the rancher reached a decision, there
was a knock on the door and a young lieutenant looked inside.

‘
Could Mr. Goodnight step outside for a
moment, sir,’ he asked.

‘
Excuse me, gentlemen,’ Goodnight said,
standing up.

After the rancher had left the
room, the men looked at each
other. Hayden coughed, then said, ‘Our men will be
selected, not a pack of roughnecks.’

‘
I haven’t heard any complaints against
Goodnight’s crew,’ Hunter pointed out. ‘They were rowdy, but did no
damage that wasn’t more than amply paid for.’

‘
They’re rebs—’ the veterinarian put
in, still smarting as he thought of how two of them had addressed
him.

‘
They’re civilians,’ Hunter corrected.
‘You can’t bawl them out and expect them to take it like
buck-privates.’

‘
I’d say the matter is not the behavior
of the men when they get here,’ Vindfallet put in, ‘but whether
they can bring the cattle in. The civil authorities can deal with
how they behave on arrival.’

Hearing the low mutter of approval from the
commission, Wednesbury and Hayden knew their first line of defense
had collapsed. Then the door opened and they waited for the
resumption of the discussion.

~*~

With a sinking heart, Goodnight walked over
to where the post surgeon was waiting. The rancher knew what
message the other brought, even before the doctor told him that
Loving had died.

‘
How was it?’ Goodnight
asked.

‘
He was in no pain. In fact he
recovered consciousness just before he died. He asked me to tell
you something—’

‘
Yes—?’

‘
He said, “Make your dream come true,
Charlie”,’ the doctor answered.

‘
Thank you, Doctor,’ Goodnight
said.

‘
Are you all right?’ the doctor
inquired.

‘
I’ll be all right,’ the rancher
replied and turned to walk slowly back in the direction of the room
from which he had come.

Thoughts churned at Goodnight as he
approached the door. However, as he opened it, he reached his
decision. It was the one to be expected from Charles Goodnight—whom
the Comanches called Dangerous Man—and which he knew his dead
partner would have approved of. While his scheme might sound wild
and impractical, he felt certain that he could carry it out. So,
although nothing showed on his face, he was seething with
excitement as he returned to the commission.

‘
If you want, we’ll cancel the meeting
until tomorrow,’ Vindfallet offered on learning of Loving’s
death.

‘
No,’ Goodnight answered.

‘
These gentlemen have offered to
deliver fifteen hundred head to us by the end of July, Mr.
Goodnight,’ Hunter said. ‘What do you say to that?’

‘
I’ll have three thousand head here, by
the first week in July,’ Goodnight replied. ‘And I’ll put up any
sum of money you ask for as bond against my doing so.’

Half an hour later, Hayden and Wednesbury
entered their room at the hotel. Hurling his hat angrily on to the
bed, the bigger man let out a savage course.

‘
So Goodnight got the contract, Stu,’
Hayden said philosophically. ‘It could be good for us.’

‘
How’s that?’

‘
When he can’t make it, none of those
other beef-head bastards will try.’

‘
Where do we stop him? Here, before he
leaves?’ asked Wednesbury.

‘
No thanks!’ Hayden snorted. ‘We’re
going to use better men than that lard-gutted Crutch you paid to
stir up trouble.’

‘
How was I to know some damned
blue-belly’d take the Texans’ side in it?’ Wednesbury protested.
‘At least Crutch had the sense not to come back here.’

‘
That’s about all he did right. He
didn’t start trouble with the Texans, or scare the cattle so that
they ran and were lost.’

‘
Maybe something stopped him from doing
it,’ Wednesbury said.

Only the word should have been
‘somebody’, not ‘something’. In return for their part in giving him
a booster for arrival to Fort Sumner, Major Lane had told his
sergeant major to make sure the Texans received fair treatment and
were not troubled by the local inhabitants. Not only did the
non-com attend to the former condition, he took steps to insure
against the latter. When Crutch had left the saloon, he was
followed by ‘Gypsy’ Smith of the Mountain Artillery Battery. At
first the soldier had thought that Crutch intended to go home. When
the man left town on foot, Smith followed and wondered what was
taking him in the direction of the bedded-down cattle. Maybe Smith
had never been a cowhand,
but he knew enough about animals to figure what
would happen if somebody started firing off a revolver close to the
sleeping longhorns. Seeing Crutch draw his weapon, Smith had moved
fast. Instead of making use of his Army Colt, the soldier had slid
out his knife.

Feeling the clip-point of a Green River blade
prodding at his back, Crutch forgot his idea of stampeding the herd
and laying the blame on a drunken Texas cowhand working off spite
against the Yankees. He was aware, even without Smith’s comments on
the matter, of his fate if news of the attempt became public. Being
a realist, he knew his social standing to be low around Fort
Sumner. Several people would be only too pleased to see him run
out, if nothing worse. So, on being dismissed by the soldier, he
had wasted no time in gathering his few belongings and taking his
departure. He went without visiting the two men who had made him
such tempting offers for his assistance in stirring feelings
against the Texans.

‘
Comes morning we’ll head for
Throckmorton,’ Hayden decided after a brief discussion. ‘We’ll be
there in time to decide our next move.’

‘
What’s it likely to be?’ Wednesbury
wanted to know.

‘
Something better organized than
anything we tried here,’ Hayden promised. ‘We’ll make damned sure
that he never gets here with that herd of cattle.’

‘
Now you’re quite sure that you can
manage all right, Charlie?’ Mrs. Loving asked as she sat in the
stagecoach waiting to leave the town of Graham, county seat of
Young County, Texas. ‘If you can’t, I’ll—’

‘
I’ve all I need,’ Goodnight replied
hurriedly. ‘I only wish that there was more I could do for
you.’

‘
You’ve done too much for me already,’
the woman smiled. ‘With forty thousand dollars, I can live
comfortably in Austin.’

The forty thousand dollars represented
Loving’s full share of the partnership’s money. Under different
conditions, much of the profits would have gone to help with the
fulfillment of Goodnight’s dream. Knowing the precarious nature of
his scheme, the rancher could not ask Mrs. Loving to risk losing
everything by sharing in it. Sure she would have agreed willingly,
but Goodnight wanted to see her settled comfortably and with
sufficient funds to maintain her family. With that in mind, he had
turned over the money and planned to stake everything he owned to
make his dream come true. If he failed, he had no dependants and
could easily start again.

With further assurances that he could manage
and final condolences, Goodnight stood back and allowed the stage
to move off. Watching its departure, he felt a touch of
satisfaction at having done the right thing.

After the coach had passed out of sight,
Goodnight turned. The past was over and done with. Down in front of
the Demon Rum saloon stood the future.

Tall, heavily set, bald, John Chisum leaned
against the hitching rail of the saloon and watched Goodnight walk
towards him. It would be several years before Chisum attained his
title of ‘The Cattle King’ but he dressed at the height of his
fortunes in much the same manner as he did while waiting for
Goodnight—like a saddle-bum. A cheap old Woolsey hat was thrust
back on his hairless dome, while his cotton bandana, hickory shirt,
patched levis pants and scuff-heeled boots were the cheapest money
could buy. If he was noticeable for anything, it was the fact that
he did not wear a gun, an unarmed man being something of a novelty
in Texas at that time. Most of the time his face held an expression
of disarming joviality calculated to make a person feel well
disposed to him. Apart from his cold, shrewd eyes, he looked
amiable and completely trustworthy. Most folk failed to notice the
eyes until too late.

‘
Got her off all right, Charlie?’
Chisum said.

‘
Yes,’ Goodnight answered
shortly.

‘
Ain’t nobody can say you didn’t do
right by her,’ Chisum commented. ‘Say, thanks for sending those
four boys out to hold the herd while my crew come to town for a
spell.’

Although Goodnight had not sent his men to
meet Chisum with that purpose in mind, he did not debate the point.
Wanting to see Mrs. Loving started on her journey to Austin, he had
given the arrival of the other rancher and cattle scant attention.
With his late partner’s widow on her way, he had time to spare for
the work in hand.