the Strong Shall Live (Ss) (1980) (7 page)

"The drouth came the way you said it would, too," she said almost accusingly. "Everything seems to turn out the way you say it will."

He flushed slightly. "Anybody who took the time to look could see this country was in trouble," he said. "This country had been so overgrazed there was no grass to hold what moisture we got. Most of it could have been prevented if work had been started a couple of years ago."

He took off his hat and ran his fingers through his thick, dark hair. "Nobody would listen to me when I offered to help. I was just that damned greaser son of Molly O'Brien's, so what could I know?"

There was a bitterness in his voice that came through no matter how hard he tried to hold it back. He had lived too close to this for too long a time.

Mirror Valley had been outraged when pretty Molly O'Brien had married Miguel Merrano. He had been a top-hand, hired only for the roundup. Pete Drake had his eyes on Molly, and so had others, but she had made promises to no one until she met Merrano.

Miguel bought the Table Mountain place and for four bitter years struggled against the hatred and the prejudice directed against them. Finally,when young Barry was almost two, they had gone away.

Surprisingly, they prospered. Barry heard many tales of Mirror Valley as he was growing up but nothing of the reason for leaving until he was fifteen. He determined then to return and fight it out if it took twenty years.

"My father certainly should know how to run cattle," Candy protested. "He's raised more cattle than you have ever seen."

"I'm twenty-six," Barry said, "and I've a lot to learn, but simply growing old doesn't make one wise. Your father came into a rich, new country and nothing could convince him it would not always stay rich.

"The others were the same. They ran more cattle than the range could support. Once when I was visiting at your place I tried to suggest some changes, but he just thought me a fool."

"But Barry," she protested, "millions of buffalo used to run on these plains, so how could they be spoiled by a few thousand cattle?"

"Your father said the same thing," Barry said, "but you both forget that the buffalo never stopped moving as they grazed. They were constantly moving and as they moved on, the grass had a chance to grow back before they returned again. Now the range is fenced and die cattle are continually feeding over the same ground."

Candy was exasperated. "We always have the same argument," she protested. "Can you talk of anything else?"

"Many things, if you'll listen. Candy, why don't you come over to my place and see for yourself?"

"To your place?" She was shocked, yet as the idea took hold, she was intrigued. Like all in the valley she was curious. What was he doing back there? Nobody had visited the basin since he took over, and they all knew Barry Merrano paid cash for everything. How could he do it?

That he ran cattle, they all knew. He had drivencattle into Aragon to sell and Aragon was out of the way for people from the valley. They knew he did it to avoid meeting them.

"It wouldn't be proper," she said, but as she said it she knew it was a feeble excuse. She had done many things that were often considered improper. "Anyway, that dark tunnel would frighten me. However did you make it?" "It was not hard. Want to come?" Her father's disapproval and what might be considered proper was opposed to her curiosity, which resulted in a sweeping victory . . . for her curiosity.

Interested in spite of herself, she followed along. He drove the buckskins into the dark tunnel, and she fell in behind them. The buckskins trotted along undisturbed by the darkness until rounding a small curve they saw light before them. When she emerged from the tunnel she pulled up with a gasp.

The first impression was of size. She had thought of the basin as a small place, yet there must have been thousands of acres within that circle of hills. When she looked again she saw nothing was as it had been.

The basin, in contrast to the country she had left, was green and lovely. A winding road led to a stone cottage that stood on a wide ledge and on either side of the road there were fenced fields, the one on the right of clover, on the left of corn, and the corn was shoulder high as she rode past it on her horse.

The old trees she remembered from a time she had come here as a child, when it was abandoned, but there were younger trees, including a small orchard, carefully set out. The valley of .the basin itself was green, with here and there a small pool that caught the sunlight.

"Is that grass down there?"

"Most of it. Some is black grama, some is curly mesquite grass. It has always grown in this country but I am careful not to overgraze it. The basin opens at the other end into a canyon and then into Long Valley, the old Navajo sheep range. I made a deal with the Navajo to graze some of it. I run about fifteen head to the section but actually most of this will support twice as many."

Her father should see this, she thought. He would never believe it if she told him.

"But what about water? Where do you get water?"

"This country never has enough, and most of the rain comes in late summer. When I came back I already knew the problem I faced. I did some blasting, built three dams the first summer, damming three draws that open into the basin. Wherever I found a low spot I made some kind of a reservoir. Now I have a couple of small lakes behind the dams and there are pools scattered all over the basin and down into Long Valley. Toward the end of summer most of them do dry up, but by that time the rains are not far off.

"In this country water runs off the hills like off a tin roof so you have to save what you can. Of course, I've drilled a couple of wells, too."

Amazed, she listened with only half her attention. Suddenly, she was frightened. If Joe Stangle saw this place his hatred and envy would be doubled.

She thought of something she had wondered about. "Barry? However did you make that tunnel?"

He chuckled. "Candy, over two-thirds of it was a big, natural cave. I paced it off, then went on top and measured the rock and found I only had a little way to go and much was an up-thrust from below that I could take off with a pick.

"As far as the grass goes, I never graze much stock on it at any one time, and I shift them around to give the grass a chance to grow back."

"Don't you have trouble with old Two Moons?"

"Not at all. I explained what I had in mind, andhe understood right away. The Navajo have always understood grazing pretty well, and I offered them a fair price."

As they walked back her eyes strayed toward the house. She would have liked to see the inside, but he did not suggest it.

He stripped the harness from the team and turned them into the corral, then saddled a horse. "It's getting late," he said, "I'll ride home with you."

The ride to the TD was silent, for neither felt like talking. Barry was happy and miserable at the same time. He was in love with Candy, but her father had been one of those who tried to drive him off the place, and her father had lent his tacit consent to building The Fence, if no more than that.

The feeling against him had grown stranger rather than otherwise. The incident in the store would make them turn even further away, and as none of them liked him, most would be only too quick to accept his walking away from Stangle as cowardice.

When they drew up at the gate he said, "I wish you'd come again. And bring your father."

"He wouldn't come, Barry." She was puzzled about her feelings toward him. He had talked more than ever before, and for the first time she had seen something of the kind of man he was, yet she could not quite understand him. He was, she suspected, a much more complex human being than any she had known.

"You're beautiful, Candy." The words came so suddenly that she looked up, surprised by them. "You're so beautiful it hurts. I wish--"

A dark figure loomed near the gate. "Candy? Is that you? Who's that with you?"

"Price? I was just saying good night to Barry Merrano."

"Who?" Astonishment mingled with anger.

"Has that dirty Mex been botherin' you? If he has,

I'll--!"

"I simply rode home with Miss Drake," Barry said. "There's no reason to get excited."

Price Taylor shoved open the gate and came out. "Listen, greaser! You turn that horse and cut loose for home! Don't you be tellin' me not to get excited! I'll take you off that horse and beat your skull in!"

"Price!" Candy exclaimed. "This is outrageous!" Taylor was beside Barry's horse. He was a large, somewhat top-heavy young man. As foreman of the TD he had become almost one of the family and he had long looked upon Candy Drake as someone very special and reserved for him, although he had had no encouragement from her and certainly none from Tom Drake, who would have been appalled at the thought. Seeing her in the moonlight with Merrano turned him ugly.

"This is no business for womenfolk: ! You get along to the house now. I'll take care of this I"

He reached a big hand for Barry and Barry went, much faster than Taylor expected. As Taylor laid hold of him Barry swung his other leg over the saddle and drove his heel into the bigger man's chest, sending him staggering. Then he dropped to the ground.

Coolly, he waited until Taylor recovered his balance. "I'd rather you'd go along to the house," Barry said, "but if you want a licking you can have

it"

"A lickin'? Me?" Taylor's size had won several brawls for him, and he fancied himself a tough man.

He started for Merrano and a stiff left stopped him, smashing his lips. Taylor dropped into a half-crouch, arms wide to grapple, and moved in. Barry caught the larger man's sleeve and jerked him forward, off-balance, then kicked his foot from under him. Taylor sprawled forward, falling on his hands and knees.

Merrano stood waiting, and Taylor came half erect, then launched himself in a long dive. Merrano sidestepped and waited.

Slowly, carefully, Taylor got up from the ground. Putting his fists in front of him in an awkward simulation of a boxer, he moved in. Merrano moved to the side and Taylor caught him on the cheekbone with a clumsy swing, but Merrano stood his ground and struck three hard, fast blows to the body, then an uppercut thrown in close that tipped Taylor's chin back.

Taylor bored in, swinging wildly. Another punch caught Barry but again he failed to step back and, moving in, sank a wicked right into Taylor's belly and hooked a left to his face.

Taylor turned, Barry feinted a left and Taylor pawed at the air to knock the punch down, but the feint was followed by a stiff left, then another and another. Taylor was big, but lacked any semblance of fighting skill. He came in, legs spread wide, swinging. Barry hit him with a left, then knocked him down with a right. Taylor got up slowly and Barry knocked him down again.

Taylor got to his knees but was unable to get to his feet. "I'm sorry, Taylor, but you asked for it You're a game man, but you're no fighter."

Taylor made it to his feet, weaving. Barry thrust out a hand. "As far as I'm concerned, there's no hard feelings. Will you shake?"

Price Taylor ignored the out-thrust hand.

Barry swung to the saddle. "I'm sorry, Candy. I didn't want this to happen."

"You'd better go," she replied coldly.

He swung his horse and rode away, cutting across the plains, gray and empty under a wide White moon.

Taylor wiped his face. "You must think I'm an awful bust, gettin' whipped that way."

Candy shook her head soberly. "No, Price, I don't, but I think we've all made an awful mistake!"

Taylor grunted. "Looks like I made one, anyway."

When she opened the door into the wide living room of the ranch house Candy was surprised to find five or six men talking with her father. Jim Hill was there, and Joe Stangle. Also there were Cab Casady, Rock Dulin, Vinnie Lake, Hardy Benson and a big, powerful man whom she did not know.

"We've got to figure out something or we're finished," Benson was saying. "My cattle are dying like flies!"

"Mine, too," Stangle said, "water holes are dry, and there's no grass."

"If you ask me," Dulin commented, "it ain't only the drouth. There's been some ruslin'."

"There's been no rustling in this country since we got rid of Bert Scovey and his outfit."

"That greaser always has money," Stangle said. "Where's he get it?"

"If you could see that Basin Ranch of his," Candy interrupted, "you wouldn't wonder. You should all have listened to him a long time ago."

Her father looked up sharply. "Candy? What makes you say that? When did you see it?"

"Today," she replied calmly. "He invited me to see it and I did."

"You went into the basin with that low-down Mex?"

"Hold on a minute, Tom!" Stangle lifted a hand. "You mean he's got grass?"

"Yes, he has!" Candy was pleased with the effect of her words. "The whole basin is green and beautiful! He's got water, and lots of it. He's dammed some of the draws, he's dug out some pools, and he has a lot of water. He's even got a grain crop!"

"Grain?" Hill exclaimed. "You mean he's farmin'?"

"Not farming, just raising enough for his ownstock. He told me he fed during the winter or just before taking them to market."