The Dilemma #6

Robby and I were still riding down the seismograph rode with afternoon turning to evening when I was contemplating a dilemma.

Now let me be clear about this. I am not accusing Robby of being a thief. He never stole anything personally that I am aware of.

But his daddy was. And I would have to say his daddy was what I would call a monumental thief. As in Robert wasn’t just famous for being a thief. He stole anything that wasn’t tied down from all his neighbors and when he did he made sure there was no secret about it and also made sure when he stole something from his neighbors they knew it was him.

It had been going on for decades and most his neighbors and other ranchers had just come to see it as the cost of doing business I guess. Because they never thought it was worth it to call the law. Or worse confront Robert which could turn to violence or even gun play.

Which was true until Robert stole a horse from the Jack Ranch. And it was sort of typical of him. The Jack Ranch had a buckskin saddle horse with a blond mane and tail. Which is pretty rare because they are usually black on buckskins.

Robert first told the owners of the Jack Ranch he thought he wanted to buy the saddle horse from them. But he wanted to borrow the horse from them for a few days to see if was worth the money. Because the owner of the Jack Ranch was firm he wanted $800 dollars for the horse.

So they let Robert take the horse and then of course he never came up with the money or returned the horse. And this went on for a long time.

In fact the owner of the Jack Ranch at one point went out to Robert’s LZ ranch and got his horse back. But then when Robert noticed the horse was missing he just went back to the Jack Ranch and stole the horse again when no one was looking.

Well that was it. The owner of the Jack Ranch finally called the law on him to report the stolen horse. And he reported that to the Shoshoni town marshal, Kenny Hood, instead of the Brand Inspector because they were one and the same.In fact Kenny was the town cop, a county deputy sheriff, and the brand inspector. Holding down all three jobs for the grand sum of $900 a month.

Kenny knew Robert and this thieving ways very well. And maybe had kind of hoped that someone would finally report Robert some day so he could arrest him and uphold the law.

But Kenny still tried to take the easy way first. He went out to the LZ as the brand inspector, found the horse and checked the brand. Which wasn’t really necessary because it’s blond mane and tail were very distinctive.

Then Kenny confronted Robert and told him he knew the buckskin belonged to the Jack Ranch. And that he had to return the horse to the rightful owners. And if he didn’t he would charge him with horse stealing.

Robert first tried to claim the horse was his and he’d bought it from the Jack Ranch. So Kenny showed him a sworn affidavit from the Jack Ranch owner saying he had never paid him for the horse. And then Robert said he would take the buckskin back.

But he never did. Weeks passed. Kenny even warned him again. But Robert still refused to return the horse. And by that time it was personal for both Kenny and the owner of the Jack Ranch. They just weren’t willing to let Robert get away with that kind of defiance.

So the next time Kenny went out to the LZ ranch he went out as both the brand inspector and country deputy sheriff. Meaning he was actually wearing his hand gun which Kenny usually didn’t do very often because he was older and it hurt his hip.

Kenny served Robert with a warrant for his arrest that had a court date for a preliminary hearing on it. But didn’t cuff him and take him to jail.

Kenny had the owners of the Jack Ranch with him to positively identify their horse. And they also helped wrangle the buckskin in. Then Kenny loaded the horse up and impounded the horse in the stock yard in Shoshoni holding him for evidence.

And Kenny was watching that horse like a hawk because like I said he knew Robert and his thieving ways. But Robert had Gerry Spence for a lawyer who managed to get the preliminary hearing postponed.

That meant Kenny had to keep feeding and watering the buckskin every morning. Which he didn’t really mind because like I said by that time it was personal.

But then one morning just a few days before the proletary hearing was coming up Kenny went down to the stock yard and the buckskin was gone.

Now Kenny was no slouch at investigations and he saw one set of horse tracks leading into the corral and two horse tracks going out. And Kenny also had his own horse so he saddled it up and followed the trail of two horses up poison creek to the east.

Kenny followed the tracks until they hit the highway about five miles east of Shoshoni. He found tire tracks and where someone had loaded two horses into a stock truck. And figured that had to Robert.

Kenny road back to Shoshoni on a near gallop. Then jumped into his patrol car and drove at high speed to the LZ ranch. But when he got there Robert was just sitting down to lunch with everyone swearing he’d been there all night and day. Kenny also looked for the buckskin but it was nowhere to be found.

That just totally galled Kenny no end. He knew damn well Robert had stolen the horse again but couldn’t figure out how. And he also couldn’t figure out the trail of horse tracks. Because there were no other tracks to be found.

But obviously if Kenny didn’t have the horse he didn’t have any evidence and had to cancel the preliminary hearing. And then it was more personal than ever.

And the whole thing would have remained a mystery if not for a few days later when Kenny was driving to Thermopolis and just happened to notice some deep truck tracks in the borrow ditch. Like someone had gotten stuck there facing the highway.

That was worth investigating Kenny thought so he pulled over and took a look at them. The truck most definitely had dual wheels like a stock truck. It was facing the highway on a steep slope that would let someone unload or load horses. And if it hadn’t gotten stuck the truck at least it had a hell of a time getting back on the highway leaving really deep tracks still visible.

There were no horse tracks clearly visible. But what looked like maybe old horse tracks. But Kenny didn’t need tracks because there was horse manure there. And that was all Kenny needed to finally solve the mystery.

Standing in the borrow ditch the whole thing became obvious to Kenny. The LZ like most outfits had two stock trucks. Robert or his accomplice had driven one truck with two horses in it down the Badwater Road to the north of Shoshoni. While Robert or his accomplice drove the other stock truck to Moneta and took the highway east of Shoshoni with one horse in it.

The truck that took the Badwater Road unloaded the two horses on the highway about tree miles north of Shoshoni. The truck with one horse unloaded about five miles east of Shoshoni and headed down Poison Creek to the stock yard. Which is very sandy and would leave a very clear trail.

There were no other horse tracks going into Shoshoni or out because they road down the pavement leading a horse on the highway leaving no tracks.

Then Robert and his accomplice met up at the stock yard. There were no horse tracks there because the stock yard was also right off the pavement. Robert or his accomplice switched horses there. With one of them leading the extra hose out of the corral down to Poison Creek leaving the obvious trail. While the other one took the buckskin right back down the highway leaving no tracks to follow.

Kenny was a little pissed off at himself for getting suckered into following the false trail. Which was five miles out of Shoshoni to buy more time for anyone being followed. And he never thought of an obvious decoy.

Kenny couldn’t go after them right then because he did have to get to Thermopolis on official business. But first thing next morning, and I mean grey light in the east, Kenny loaded up his horse and drove out to the LZ.

He confronted Robert before he left the breakfast table that morning. Told him he knew it was him and exactly how he had stolen the horse. He told Robert that was going to be two separate charges of horse stealing as well as tampering with evidence. But Robert just sneered at Kenny and said prove it.

Then Kenny told Robert he was going to ride his place looking for the buckskin. And didn’t need a warrant because he was acting as a brand inspector instead of a deputy. And brand inspectors don’t need a search warrant to look for stolen livestock. And Robert said be his guest.

Like I said it was already personal but Robert’s sneer made it a moral imperative. So Kenny rode the whole LZ ranch. He came up empty so a few days later Kenny rode Roberts bother’s place. Still no buckskin. Before it was over Kenny rode the entire mountain clear to the top at Hollywood and Vine.

Which was actually just an intersection of barely dirt roads at the top of the mountain where someone with a great sense of humor planted a street sign reading Hollowood and Vine. Because when you looked at the sign from on what looked like the top of the world it looked like as far away from the real Hollywood and Vine you could get.

Let me tell you that is a shit load of riding for a man in his 60’s who didn’t cowboy for a living. And right off Kenny had also alerted every band inspector in the state and all ports of entry to be on the look our for a buckskin horse with a blond mane and tail with a JT brand on its left shoulder. Kenny even went to all the ranches on Bridger Creek and Copper Mountain asking them to keep a look out for the buckskin or even hide or hair of one.

But Kenny never got a break on any of it. And it galled him from then on because he knew exactly what had happened. But true to Robert’s sneer he couldn’t prove it.

I was thinking about all that which I might call just the latest incident while Robby and I were riding along back to the Berger Place. And I lit up another one of Ted’s nasty Salems and thought I didn’t want to be a part of helping Robert expand his thieving horizons clear into the places on Copper Mountain.

Evening was actually turning to dusk when Robby and I finally rode back into the Berger Place. And for exploring or a pleasure ride we had actually put about the maximum number of miles on our horses. I was trying to add up the miles and it had to be close to 20 miles which is about as far as you can ride a saddle horse in one day.

Which made me think what the hell was I supposed to do. Because you need to rest a horse after that many miles and Robby had two horses but I only had one horse; Y-E.

But it turned out I guess I didn’t need to worry about that. Because as we rode into the Berger Place thee was another horse in the corral. And while it was almost too dark to see it at first the horse in the corral was good old Friday.

So I at least had a horse to ride the next day so I could rest Y-E. But Robby also saw Friday and said since he was in the corral we could just unsaddle our horses and turn them loose. Meaning big surprise I would still have to wrangle the next morning.

Now obviously Ted had been there. There was no other way Friday could be in the corral. But once we got back down to the sheep wagon there was something else very strange. A dog barking.

That was beyond either Robby or me and the barks were coming from inside the Berger house. So we went in there to find one of Ted’s sheep dogs; old Rover. Which just happened to be the oldest of Ted’s dogs and the only one that liked me.

As soon as we walked into the Berger house Rover laid motionless flat on the floor not really even looking at us. That is the way Ted trained all his dogs.

But I could see Rover’s tail twitching just a little bit and knew he recognized me. So I got down on one knee and called him over so I could pet him and shake hands or paws as the case may be.

Which you aren’t really supposed to do with sheep dogs and especially not Ted’s dogs. Sheep dogs are supposed to be more like hired hands. They are there to do specific work. And at least in Ted’s view no emotion should be involved.

But while I was down there on the floor I noticed one hell of a mess in the Berger’s message system. At least back then none of the places on the mountain were locked. Because no one could ever know what might befall them on the mountain. And getting inside a house or cabin might save a life.

A person could get caught in a storm, injured, or even just lose their horse. So they were welcome to use the place for emergency shelter including stove wood and at least some food that could be used in an emergency.

But there was a specific protocol involved. Every place would have a guest book, or note book, paper, maybe even a calendar. And something to write with nearby.

So if you went in a place when no one was home you were supposed to leave them a note. Giving the date, and saying who you were, why you were there, and what if anything you used. It was kind of on the honor system.So I made sure Robby and I left a note at the Conant and Parker place earlier that day.

But the Bergers had a whole different system and a damn interesting one I thought. About shoulder high on the wall was what resembled a toilet paper hanger with a roll of adding machine tape. And then on the floor was another hanger that you rolled up the excess paper on.

It was really interesting because all the latest entries would be visible on the wall between the two holders. But when there was excess paper you rolled it up on the bottom holder. You could also unroll the bottom paper to and read notes going back years or even decades to see who all had been there and what they did.

But someone hadn’t been keeping up. And instead of a nice neat roll on the bottom there was a whole bunch of paper piled up.

I pointed that out to Robby and we thought we had better take a look. And it was Ted. The entry at the top was actually the last one he wrote.

That one read “You get the god damned sheep in the pasture and keep them there.” And the next one down read, “I am going to fire both of you.”

So Ted said he was going to fire us and then told Robby and I to round up all the sheep and keep them in the old hayfields. Robby and I laughed at that.

There were several more entries before we finally got down to the first one. Which was Ted saying he had come up there to tell us to get ready to dock sheep. But we weren’t there and the sheep weren’t in the hayfield like they were supposed to be.

And then the longer he waited the more pissed off he got and the more entries he made cussing us out on the adding machine paper. Which both Robby and I found very amusing.

But it wouldn’t have been if we rode in before Ted left because he would have been throwing a cussing yelling shit fit. And probably threatened to kick both our asses.

After a few more chuckles I dutifully rolled up the excess paper and Robby and I headed to the sheep wagon. It was almost dark or at least dark enough we had to light a lantern when Robby got the fire built in the stove.

Robby decided it was soup night and opened a can of Campbell's Scotch broth soup. So far so good I thought I liked that kind of soup. But then Robby opened a can a green beans and poured the whole can into the pot with the soup.

I wasn’t sure I would like that but things were about to get even worse. Robby announced we needed to finish the stale saltine crackers. And before I could even protest he crumbled all the crackers up and threw them in the pot of soup and green beans as well.

Which didn’t help one damn bit. Robby figured the taste of the soup would overpower the taste on the stale crackers. But instead it just made everything taste like stale mush.

Clean up was easy though. We only had two bowls, two spoons, and one pot. Which Robby washed and I rinsed, dried, and put away. And once again having to throw the pill bottle with white powder off the silverware to the back of the drawer.

Robby also decided Ted had brought Rover for me and I needed to make sure he had food and water. Which I didn’t mind because I wanted to smoke one of Ted’s nasty Salems hoping maybe the menthol would help get the taste of stale soup out of my mouth.

I did have to use Robby’s flashlight which was another one of his prized possessions to find the dog food and bowl. Which was probably for water. But I had decided I wasn’t going to lock Rover up in the house. And if he wanted water he could just go to the creek.

Robby already had the lantern out when I stumbled back into the wagon so I had to get undressed in the dark, return Robby’s flashlight to the special place he kept it on the bench close to his head. And then crawl over the top of Robby to get under the covers.

But I was having a little trouble trying to get to sleep because I was silently cussing Ted. What an asshole. He bought Friday, Rover, and a little dog food.

But nothing else like more food, any of my clothes, or more importantly my cigarettes. When all he had to do for my clothes and cigarettes was grab my suitcase in the bunkhouse Proving he took better care of his dogs than he did me.

Instead I was laying there listening to the deafening silence. Which I had always felt was the kind of magic to the mountain. There were no sounds at all. Which seemed like one of the loudest sounds I’d ever heard.

Except it wasn’t completely silent though. It wasn’t long before I could hear the mice scurrying around. And then when I did drift off to sleep it wasn’t long before I felt something on my hand that woke me up. And when I opened my eyes there was a mouse standing on the back of my hand.

But all I did was flip it off my hand and heard it hit the floor. And then just went back to sleep still feeling a mouse or two running around on the top of the bed. But I just kept my hands under the covers.

I did want to try and get a good night’s sleep because it would be another long day in the saddle the next day. Because we would first have to find 500 sheep and then herd to the old hayfields.