the Sackett Companion (1992) (16 page)

He was the best educated of the postwar generation of Sacketts.

LOGAN SACKETT: One of the Clinch Mountain Sacketts, descended from Yance. They were generally a wild, rough lot,
the Clinch Mountain Sacketts, considered outlaws by some, and when they went west they were always riding on the fringe of the wild bunch. A twin brother to Nolan Sackett, but they were rarely seen together, each preferring to go his own way, yet on occasion. . . .

Logan has also appeared in RIDE THE DARK TRAIL.

LAURIE GAVIN: A blood sister to Kyle, and Shanty Gavin was her stepbrother. She was in the Dease River country with no place to go but out, if she could get out. And then she met Logan.

ISOM BRAND: Called Brandy; a young cowboy hired en route. Like many others of his time and later, he had left home to find work wherever and however it could be had. Much of our country was built by such itinerant labor.

SHORTY: A man to ride the river with, and a man who rode for the brand. A man with a love for far horizons, and when he cashed in his chips they buried him where his grave overlooked a lot of beautiful country, with horizons wherever you turned. Shorty would have liked it that way.

BAPTISTE: An old man who wasn't that old and took to the trail again. Once they've traveled the trails of a far country, there is always the urge to go on to a still farther country.

KYLE GAVIN: From Toronto, and headed west, but for what? A full brother to Laurie, and a connection by name only to Shanty Gavin. He, too, wanted to stop the delivery of cattle and hoped to profit from the jumped mining claims, but he was prepared to go only so far, and as the situation developed he became uneasy. His moral judgment was possibly nudged into place by the possibility of decisions by Winchester.

THE METIS: A French-Canadian-Indian mix; hunters and trappers, famed for their well-organized buffalo hunts and their rebellion. The latter began as an effort to protect their rights in land long occupied by them when surveyors appeared and began surveying right across what the metis considered their property lines. Louis Riel, whose father had been a spokesman in the past, was sent for by his mother to return from Montreal. He endeavored to set up a provisional government that would keep things under control until the eastern Canadians decided whether they wanted to be bothered with Prince Rupert's land or not.

The metis were a colorful lot in costume, song, and language. Some of their boating songs, sung to accompany their paddling of canoes or larger boats, are favorites of mine. My father often sang them and since then I've heard them sung by Canadian lumberjacks with whom I've worked.

As for the mix mentioned above there might also be added a touch of Scotch here and there. Many of the early Bay Company factors were Scots, and others came west and fell into the fur trade as if born for it.

Western Canada was a country of rare beauty, of vast distances, and forests that seemingly went on forever, with some fine rivers and along the coast many islands and coves that permitted easy access to the country. There was gold and there was fur, but most of all was the country itself.

There was plenty of wild game, and a man with a rifle could live mighty well without even half trying. The metis were great hunters and had some of the finest horseflesh you'd be likely to see.

They also had the Red River carts, often to be seen in long caravans stretched across the country, carrying buffalo hides to market or bringing back the goods they'd bought in St. Paul or Minneapolis.

It was a wild and beautiful land to which the Sacketts rode, and they were the men to understand and appreciate it.

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RIDE THE DARK TRAIL

First publication: Bantam Books paperback, June 1972 Narrator: Logan Sackett Time Period: c. 1875-1879

Reed Talon knew good land when he saw it and this place had prairie, mountain meadow, timber, and water. Reed Talon was a builder and it was to the timber he looked first because he planned to build not a house but a home. This was to be the place where he took off his boots and hung up his hat, and riding over the land he looked at it with pleasure. This place had everything. Most important, the mountain meadows were bordered by cliffs and protected from invasion, and the open prairie below was useless without water.

Reed did not have a woman but he had one in mind. She lived away back in Tennessee and he had never so much as glimpsed her but he had a working partner who was forever talking about this tall mountain girl who could shoot better than any man he knew, but who could also bake a cake and sew a fine seam. The more his partner talked, the more Reed knew she was the girl for him.

He had worked with heavy timber most of his life, joining and fitting and working with broadaxe and adze. He had built bridges, barns, churches, school buildings, and silos, so when he built for himself he built carefully and well.

When he told Colly Sackett he was going east to propose to that mountain girl he'd been talking about Colly looked him over afresh. "I've had it in mind. She's some kind of cousin to me but a Clinch Mountain Sackett and I don't hold with their ways, although they be kin.

"A year or so back I come through her country and stopped a night thereabouts, and thinks I, there's a woman who needs a man, but an almighty good man. We'd trapped a spell in the Wind Rivers, you an' me, and thinks I, 'that's the man for her.' "

Colly paused, then added, "She's a mite taller than you, but don't you ever let her know it. She's all woman. Not beautiful, but a fine-lookin' girl, an' she could take her pick of the mountain boys, but she's held off. I don't know what she wants but she surely does, and I've a hunch it might be you."

Colly stayed on at the ranch so Reed could go a-courtin', and he took off for the eastern lands. When Reed rode up to Emily Sackett's door he didn't waste around. He told her what he had come for and she told him to get down and come in, that he couldn't do much courtin' settin' upon a horse, thataway.

He was shorter than Em but broad in the shoulders and strong from a lifetime of lifting heavy timbers. He bedded himself down under a big oak tree and helped with the chores. That night they went to a church social and a few days later to a barn-raisin', then a box supper. The womenfolks talked him over at a quiltin' bee and on the third Sunday they stood up before the gospel-shouter and were married. Trulove came down from the high-up hills to give the bride away and Ma-con stood in for best man. The church was crowded because everybody liked Em and most of the womenfolks had 'lowed she'd probably never marry. There was nigh onto a hundred folks there and thirty-two of them were Sacketts. On the other side of the church, the bridegroom having no family present, there were twenty or so of the Higginses.

The Sacketts and the Higginses had a feud going but it was considered right sinful to shoot a man on a Sunday, all forms of entertainment being left for weekdays except for funerals or weddings.

Reed Talon had brought a black broadcloth suit with him and Em had hand-stitched her own wedding gown, having it laid away and ready. They made a handsome couple, folks said. Even a couple of Higginses said it.

After the ceremony one of them said, "Mr. Talon, you all| are a Sackett now, so come daylight when you take out of here you be sure you will be follered and shot."

Reed Talon just looked him over and said, "Boy, if youl foller us you be durned sure you can't catch up."

Colly Sackett had furs to trap and wanted no part of ranch-j ing so he left them to handle it and went off to meet Jir Bridger or Kit Carson or some such person, and Reed went t
o
cutting poles for corrals, cleaning out waterholes and fixing up the barn to handle hay cut for winter days.

When spring came, Reed Talon hired hands. He bought cattle to stock the range, and a milk cow for the house. He built an icehouse near the spring and when winter came next he cut ice from a nearby river and bedded it down with sawdust to keep meat and vegetables fresh.

Reed Talon was a knowing man and a careful man and he killed only what wild meat he needed and put out hay and salt for game as well as for his cattle. There were always elk and deer around and he made it comfortable for them to stay.

By the time he passed on, there was money in the bank and cattle on the range, and Barnabas Talon went to school in England. Milo, who took after the Sacketts, rode the wild country, working here and there, breaking broncs and cutting a wide swath wherever the girls were.

Reed Talon died under strange circumstances, and Em Sackett had her own idea how.

JAKE FLANNER: A man who wanted wealth and power. The trouble was that the best ranch was owned by the Talons, who wouldn't sell and wouldn't scare. He arranged the murder of Reed Talon but Em Talon broke both his knees and left him a cripple, and all his efforts to dislodge her failed. The country was changing and Jake Flanner could see the handwriting on the wall clearly enough. When the change took place he wanted to be sitting on the Empty, the Talon ranch, in complete command. How he acquired the property was his business, and afterward he would be a smiling, affable rancher and businessman, such a one as might be considered for governor or the senate. The only trouble was, he could not move Em Talon.

One by one he eliminated her hands and restricted her movements. He controlled the town but he could not reach Em. It was frustrating, irritating, and a challenge.

At first sight his conclusion was that the man who called himself Logan was a trouble-hunting drifter, a man both useful and expendable. Undoubtedly if he approached the Empty he would be shot at and he would return the fire, hopefully with effect. In any event, nothing would be lost and much might be gained.

EMILY TALON: A Clinch Mountain Sackett, and none of her life had been easy until she married Reed Talon. After that it was hard, hard work but she knew what she was working for and for whom. She and Reed had settled the land when the West was young and she had seen her boys grow tall and strong and each take to his own particular trail. The ranch was theirs, and she would hold it for them until they came to claim it, as someday they would.

The West was built by the strong, men and women, each with a role to play. Often a man was gone on a trail drive or working away from home and his wife ran the ranch or the homestead. It was not only the men who knew how and when to use a gun. Annie Oakley did not become one of best rifle shots who ever lived by doing the dishes, and she was only one of many such.

Em Talon also appears, briefly, in THE MAN FROM THE BROKEN HILLS.

BARNABAS TALON: Named for Barnabas Sackett, the first of the Sackett clan to come to America. Barnabas studied in France and England and fought as an officer in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Excellent rifle shot, middling good with a pistol. A young man with a future.

MILO TALON: Brother to Barnabas, some years younger. Takes after the Clinch Mountain Sacketts, a bit on the wild side but a rover and a gunfighter. Also appears in THE MAN FROM THE BROKEN HILLS and MILO TALON. A man who knows his way around wild country but who knows the cities, too. Well-educated for his time although not a college man like his brother.

LEN SPIVEY: He walked a very wide path in a very small town until he met Logan Sackett. The meeting could have been
educational for Spivey but he was a slow learner. He flunked the six-shooter course and wound up in a shallow grave, wrapped in his own blanket.

ISOM DART: An historical character, known in Brown's Hole. A black man, an outlaw, but well-liked along the trail.

Isom Dart was murdered by Tom Horn, who shot him down from ambush. Tom Horn, using the name Tom Hicks, had been stopping over with Matt Rash, according to the Browns Hole stories, and it was Matt whom he killed first.

SPUD TAVIS: When he asked Pennywell Farman to care for his children, he had more than that in mind. But Pennywell was a girl who knew her own mind and she took the buck-board and ran away. He had no idea anybody would take up for a no-account nester's kid, but the big, rough-looking stranger did, and after a brief discussion of the situation Spud Tavis decided to take his buckboard and go home.

PENNYWELL FARMAN: Not quite sixteen, thin but growing up to be pretty, she had small chance in life with a no-account father and no home to speak of. But she had her own standards of behavior and was prepared to fight for them.

DEKE FARMAN: A natural-born loser who accepted his role too willingly. His daughter had all the backbone he lacked.

CON WELLINGTON: A gambler with rheumatic hands; he could no longer deal them from the bottom so he opened a store, and when a stronger, more desperate man came along he drew in his horns and took to playing soft music until the situation changed. Con Wellington had lived long enough on the frontier to know that nothing was forever.

DUTCH BRANNENBERG: Success had given him confidence and the name of being a tough, dangerous man. The trouble with having such a name is that the time always comes when you have to live up to it, and Dutch didn't choose the time or the man, they chose him.

JOHANNES DUCKETT: A young man who was good with a rifle and had no hesitation about shooting from ambush when the price was right, and Jake Flanner had the price. Flanner trusted in what he believed was Duckett's loyalty and Duckett trusted in what was left of Flanner's bankroll. Johannes Duckett had saved more than a thousand dollars, more money than he could imagine, so when the odds mounted his supposed loyalty disappeared with the morning mist.

JOE HERRARA: Known as Mexican Joe Herrara. A dangerous man, but he left Chihuahua because some quiet but honest men thought he was too much trouble and suggested travel might be softening to his nature. The people at South Pass City thought the same but Brown's Hole was tolerant, up to a point. But they all knew that when Joe Herrara started sharpening his knife it meant trouble. He had a very cutting way about him.

THE OUTLAW TRAIL: Led down the backbone of the Rockies from Canada to Mexico with hide-outs along the way, either on the trail or close to it--the Crazy Mountains in Montana; Jackson's Hole and the Hole-in-the-Wall country in Wyoming; Brown's Hole, largely in Colorado but edging over into Wyoming and Utah; Robbers' Roost on the San Rafael Swell in Utah; a ranch near Alma, New Mexico; and Horse-Thief Valley in Arizona. All of these were spots where an outlaw could find a place to stop, no questions asked, and none answered if he was followed. There were towns a bit off the route, too, such as Baggs, Wyoming, where Butch Cassidy once owned a house (it is still there, owned by one of the family who bought it from Butch on condition they keep a room where he might sleep), as well as a half dozen other such towns.

BROWN'S HOLE: An area in northwestern Colorado and bordering sections of Utah and Wyoming that was a main stop on the Outlaw Trail. Also a rendezvous for trappers in earlier
days, it was home to a number of colorful, exciting characters. Tom Horn pulled off at least one of his killings here, that of Matt Rash.