While he, Pocus Pete and Mr. Bellmore rested after the meal Mr. Carson and
the others finished the round-up work, branding such cattle as had not
already felt the iron. Then the herds were separated, the ones for
shipment being cut out from the others.
The next few days were busy ones, the work going on from the first peep of
daylight until it was impossible to see. And in due time the shipment was
successfully made.
"Well, I can breathe more easily now," said Mr. Carson, when the train had
departed, some of his cowboys going with it to see that the cattle were
fed and watered on the trip. "No matter what Molick does now he can't ruin
me completely."
"That's so, and now we'll take up this water matter," said the engineer.
"I'm afraid it's going to prove a legal tangle, though."
And so it did. The chief fight was about the ownership of the water rights
at the point where Molick had built the dam that the Bar U boys had
destroyed.
It had at once been rebuilt, as was expected and all water was shut off
from Mr. Carson's land in that vicinity. But as he was not pasturing any
cattle there for the present, no damage resulted.
"But you have a right to that water, and I'm going to see that you get
your share of it," said Mr. Bellmore. "It was partly my fault that Molick
built that dam, for if I had not mentioned it to him he probably would
never have thought of it. So it's up to me to make this fight for you, and
I'm going to."
Nor was the fighting all on one side. Molick brought suit against Mr.
Carson for the destruction of the dam, but it would take some time to
settle this, since many questions were involved.
In turn Mr. Carson sued the owner of Centre O ranch for shutting off the
water supply. Mr. Carson, Dave and Mr. Bellmore also went before the Grand
Jury and gave information about having seen Len starting a prairie fire.
That body lost little time in returning an indictment against the missing
bully. But of course it was out of their power to go after him and bring
him back.
"But if he ever does come back I'll get him," the sheriff assured Dave.
"He daren't set foot in this county again. Of course I'm not saying he's
guilty, but I'll arrest him and he'll have to prove his innocence."
"That's all we want," said Dave.
Meanwhile the legal tangles increased. A number of suits were started on
both sides, and as a result there were several physical clashes between
the cowboys of the Bar U and the Centre O ranches.
The horse of Pocus Pete was more seriously hurt than he had at first
thought, and he had to give his mount a long rest.
"But I've got Len's critter!" Pete chuckled, "and I'm goin' to ride that."
This he did to his own great satisfaction. Several times when he and his
boys got into more than verbal arguments with the Centre O crowd Pete used
Len's horse.
"It's like gettin' th' enemy's ammunition an' firin' it at him," said Pete
with a laugh. "I guess they don't relish it none."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account