Jake C. Petit (e novels to read online txt) 📖

to the ranch Saturday afternoon because he wasn’t feeling very well. All the ranch hands and the cook were still in town because they’d just been paid. As he rode past the ranch house, he heard your father and mother arguing. Dave said it was louder than he’d ever heard before. They were still fighting after he unsaddled his horse. He said it wasn’t his business, so he went to his foreman’s house to lay down to calm his gut.

“About an hour later, he had run to the privy. The house was silent, but he didn’t pay much attention because he had to avoid having an accident. He stayed in the little house for a while, then when he came out, he saw your father riding away. He said that he was surprised for two reasons. Your father wasn’t riding Emperor and he was leading a heavily loaded packhorse. Both animals were plain brown geldings with almost no markings and your father had them moving fast. Dave said it bothered him, but after your father had turned onto the westbound road, he had to run back to the privy. By the time he came back out, your father was gone.

“Dave said he almost returned to his own house because he didn’t want to bother your mother. He thought she’d be crying and upset. But your father’s unusual behavior bothered him enough to make him go to the ranch house. He found the front door still open and tapped on the doorjamb. When your mother didn’t answer, he took one step inside and found your mother lying on the floor near the main fireplace. He rushed to help her, but she was already dead. She’d been beaten badly. Dave then covered her with a blanket and hurried into town to tell me what happened.”

Jake was being shredded by conflicting emotions as he listened. He was angry and saddened by what his father had done and ashamed of himself for not being there to protect his mother. But he had to put all of his emotions aside. He needed to have a clear mind now more than ever before.

“Did anyone see if my father continued west?”

Sheriff Zendt shook his head as he replied, “Nope. That’s probably why he headed that way. Before I rode out to the ranch with Dave to start my investigation, I sent Joe Farley to try to find your father. But it had already been more than two hours, so I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t even spot him.”

Jake had many more questions but thought that he’d get better answers from Dave Forrest.

After Jake hadn’t said anything for a few seconds, the sheriff asked, “Do you have a horse?”

“No. I took a steamboat. I was going to walk to the ranch. It’s just a good stretch of the legs.”

“It’s more than five miles to your ranch house, Jake. Borrow one of our horses out back. We keep them saddled in case we need to get away fast.”

“Thanks, Arv. I’ll have one of the boys bring him back in a little while.”

“There’s no rush. We have spares.”

Jake stood, shook the sheriff’s hand, then pulled on his hat and grabbed his duffle before leaving the jail.

Arv watched him leave and wished that it hadn’t taken the dual family tragedy to bring him back. But having Jake out of the army and in control of the Elk Ranch gave him a measure of relief. Jake may have been almost as tall when he left Fort Benton, but he had been just a big boy. Now he was a big man and Arv was sure he was up to running the spread even better than his father had.

Jake rode west out of Fort Benton ten minutes later. He hadn’t bothered adjusting the stirrups because it was just a thirty-minute ride. As he rode, he envisioned a map of the territory. If his father had continued riding west, he would have reached the end of the road at Fort Shaw. Then he’d either have to ride north to the small settlement of Woman’s Breast or take the longer and more mountainous southern route to Helena. He was sure that his father would go south. He realized that he should have asked the sheriff if he’d sent a telegram to the largest town and territorial capital to be on the lookout for his father. He hadn’t even asked the sheriff if they’d issued an arrest warrant. He’d been too lost in his thoughts. Maybe Dave Forrest could answer both of those questions.

He soon left the same road his father had taken to make his escape when he turned onto the Elk’s long entrance road. It began at the southeastern corner of the Elk Ranch and was more than a half a mile long. He spotted the ranch house at about the same time and felt his gut tighten. He hadn’t seen his home since he enlisted. Knowing that he wouldn’t see his mother’s joyous face when he opened the door drove home the permanence of his loss.

Aside from that overpowering sense of emptiness, the ranch itself seemed unchanged. He could see some of the ranch hands in the large corral between the two barns. He couldn’t see any of the herds yet, but knew they’d be grazing somewhere on the ranch’s almost fifty thousand acres. It was an almost ideal setting for a cattle ranch. The only area that was inaccessible to the cattle was a quarter-section patch surrounded by a rocky border and filled with a scattering of pines and more rock formations. The scattered pines merged into a healthy forest to the north that ended at the Teton River. He had used the place as his personal playground before he was put to work by his father. Then when he and his father entered their confrontational years, he began using it as his private sanctuary.

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