Authors: Robert Vaughan
“We can’t leave yet,” Eckert said.
“Why not?”
“I haven’t been officially served with the papers to dissolve the injunction.”
“Exactly,” Gilmore said.
“We need to wait for them.”
“If we leave without them, what will happen?”
“They will be sent to me by registered mail.”
“And if you don’t pick up that mail?”
Eckert looked confused. “Why wouldn’t I pick up the mail?” he asked.
“Think, Eckert. Why would it be sent to you by registered mail?”
“Because I will have to sign for it?”
“Because?” Gilmore continued.
“Because until I have signed for it, there is no proof that—” Eckert stopped in mid-sentence. “There is no proof that I received it.”
“Precisely,” Gilmore said. “And until there is proof that you received the order dissolving the injunction, the old injunction is still in effect.”
“Ah, but that won’t do any good,” Eckert said. “If I don’t sign for it, the judge will just send the papers to me by courier.”
“Yes, but that’s not going to happen tomorrow, is it?”
“No, I guess not,” Eckert said.
“Right now, all we need is a little time.”
“I THOUGHT YOU SAID WE WOULD HAVE A SIXTY
day delay,” Creed said angrily. “We are worse off now than we were when you went to Mountain Home. At least then we had a court injunction saying they couldn’t use the open range.”
“You have nothing to worry about,” Gilmore said.
“What do you mean I have nothing to worry about? Did the judge or did the judge not rescind the injunction?”
Gilmore smiled. “That’s just it,” he said.
“What’s just it?”
“You don’t know if the injunction was rescinded or not.”
“You aren’t making sense,” Creed said. “Didn’t you just tell me that it had been?”
“Yes, I told you,” Gilmore said. “But I’m not the court.”
“You’re not the court? What is that supposed to mean?”
“The injunction was vacated by verbal decree only. We left before the order dissolving the injunction could be written and signed by the judge. As of right now, Eckert is still operating under the injunction that bars the sheep from grazing.”
“When is he going to be served?”
“At least thirty days, perhaps longer,” Gilmore said. “And even then, it won’t have any immediate effect on you.”
“Why not?”
“Because I also got the judge to agree that the sheriff will not enforce the sheep ranchers’ right to graze in the open range. As far as you and the other cattlemen are concerned, you still have the right to graze your livestock on the open range, and, to the best of your knowledge, the sheep ranchers still cannot.”
Creed smiled. “That’s good to know,” he said. “That’s very good to know.”
Hawke had just finished shaving and was tossing his shaving water out when Hannah came into the barn. At first she didn’t see him, and he watched her as she began saddling her horse. Now that he knew she was Gordon’s daughter, he could see some of his brother in her. He could see some of his mother as well. What a wonderful gift Cynthia had given him when she told that the girl was his niece.
“Good morning, Hannah,” he said.
“Oh, Mr. Hawke,” she replied, jumping at the sound of his voice. “You startled me.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”
Hannah smiled. “Oh, it’s my fault, I know you are stay
ing out here. There is no reason why I should have been surprised.”
“Can I help you saddle your horse?”
“Oh, I think Lancelot would be confused if anyone but I saddled him.”
“Lancelot.” Hawke chuckled. “That’s a lot of name for a horse.”
“Mr. Booker gave me a book about King Arthur and I had just finished reading it when Papa gave me this horse. Lancelot was barely more than a colt then.”
“Well, he is a fine figure of a horse,” Hawke said. “As is fitting for a beautiful young woman to ride.”
Hannah smiled and blushed. “You are embarrassing me, Mr. Hawke.”
“Never be embarrassed about the gifts God gave you,” Hawke said.
“You mean, like the gift God gave you to play the piano?”
“I suppose my being able to play the piano is a gift,” Hawke said. “But it can also be a curse.”
“A curse? Oh, but how could that be? Surely you take as much joy from playing as others do from listening.”
“It’s a curse because it reminds me of—” Hawke started, then abruptly stopped. How could he explain to this beautiful, innocent young girl that he had lost his soul? He laughed self-consciously. “Never mind,” he said. “However I may have squandered the gift is my own fault. Have a nice ride.”
“Thank you,” Hannah said as she mounted Lancelot.
Hawke watched her ride away before he went back into the tack room of the barn, where he was staying.
Meanwhile Hannah rode away from the main house and ranch compound toward a place she had discovered some six years ago, when she was ten. She called her secret
hideaway Cypress Hill, after the stories she had heard her mother tell of the plantation where she was raised. It was actually a grassy glade at the extreme edge of the Macgregor ranch, a high escarpment that guarded the north end of the ranch.
In fact, Cypress Hill, as she called it, had no cypress trees, but it did have a mixture of pine and deciduous trees that offered green all year, while also providing a painter’s palette of color in the spring when the dogwoods and redbud trees bloomed, and again in the fall when the leaves changed. In addition the meadow itself was blanketed with wildflowers of every hue and description. The tranquility and beauty of the place had been her primary attraction, but she also liked the idea of having a hideaway, some place she could go to when she wanted to be alone.
Hannah ground-staked Lancelot then walked over to sit on a large, flat rock. She had discovered the rock on the first day she came up here. It was worn smooth on top, as if people had been coming here for hundreds of years, and she imagined Indians of long ago stopping here to rest.
Of course, now there was another reason why she liked to come up to Cypress Hill. And when she heard the low, warbling whistle, she felt her heart leap in her chest.
“Jesse? Jesse, is that you?”
“‘But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?’” Jesse called. She could hear him, but not yet see him. “‘It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief.’”
“‘Oh Romeo, Romeo!’” Hannah called back. “‘Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.’”
Jesse appeared at the top of the hill then, leading his horse. Hannah rushed to him and they kissed.
“I didn’t think I was going to make it this morning,” he said. “Mr. Creed has called a meeting for all the cattlemen, and Pa wanted Johnny and me to go as well.”
“How did you get away?”
“I told him there were some calves loose in the west pasture and I was going to bring them back.” Jesse sighed. “This business between the cattlemen and the sheep herders is getting worse every day.”
“I don’t think it will last much longer,” Hannah said.
“Oh? Why? Is your pa going to sell his sheep and start raising cattle?”
Hannah laughed. “No, silly.”
“Then what makes you think it’s going to be over soon?”
“Yesterday, Pa and Mr. Hawke and Mr. Booker went to Mountain Home to go to court. The judge lifted the injunction, so the sheep can graze in the open range. And now that this has been settled by the court, I think it will all be over.”
“So that’s what he was talking about,” Jesse said, stroking his chin.
“What?”
“Lonnie is the one who came to tell us about the meeting. He said there had been some new developments, but he didn’t say what it was.”
“I’m sure that’s what it was,” Hannah said. She smiled broadly. “So, don’t you see? It’s all over now.”
Jesse shook his head. “No,” he said. “No, it’s not over. In fact, it might be worse.”
“Why would you say that?”
“The cattlemen have hired Clay Morgan to protect our interests.”
“Clay Morgan? Who is Clay Morgan?”
“I can’t believe you have never heard of him,” Jesse said. “Why, he is one of most famous gunfighters ever. They call him the Regulator.”
“I don’t understand. Why would the cattlemen hire a gunfighter?”
“Why, to go against the gunfighter your pa hired,” Jesse said.
“What?” Hannah asked, her face registering her surprise. “Are you saying Pa hired a gunfighter? Who are you talking about?”
“Mason Hawke.”
Hannah laughed.
“What are you laughing at?”
“You,” she said. “Mr. Hawke isn’t a gunfighter. He is a pianist. Wherever did you get such an idea?”
“He’s not a gunfighter, huh? How else do you explain what happened in town the other day? He killed Poke Tilly and Jules Carr. Or haven’t you heard about that?”
“Yes, I heard about it,” Hannah said. “When he came back to the house, he told us what happened. But he said it was self-defense.”
“Oh, it was self-defense, all right,” Jesse said. “Lonnie, Poke, and Jules all three drew on him.”
“Three? Three to one?” Hannah said. “Well, if even you admit that it was self-defense, then you can’t blame him for killing them.”
“I don’t blame him,” Jesse said. “But don’t you see? The fact that all three drew against him but he still beat them proves my point. Your Mr. Hawke is almost as famous a gunfighter as Clay Morgan. According to Sheriff Tilghman, Hawke has killed over twenty men.”
“What about Lonnie? You said Lonnie Creed drew on him as well, but he didn’t kill Lonnie, did he?”
Jesse chuckled. “No. And from what I heard, Lonnie threw his gun down and ran. I don’t mind telling you, I would like to have seen that. Lonnie is so full of himself, I would like to see him get his comeuppance.”
“If Mr. Hawke really was a gunfighter, wouldn’t he have killed Lonnie too?”
“I don’t know,” Jesse admitted. “Maybe. The point is, Hannah, ever since your pa hired Hawke, matters have gotten worse.”
“Pa didn’t hire Mr. Hawke. Mr. Hawke is an old friend of my mother and father. He grew up on a plantation next to my mother, and he and my father served together in the same regiment. He just came out here on a visit.”
“It was a mighty convenient visit, wouldn’t you say? To have a famous gunfighter show up at just this time?”
“So, you’re chasin’ down calves in the west pasture, are you?” a loud, chiding voice said.
Startled, Hannah and Jesse looked toward the sound and saw Jesse’s brother, Johnny, coming toward them.
“Johnny! What are you doing here?” Jesse asked.
Johnny looked around the small glade. “So, this is your secret place, huh? I’ve been wonderin’ where it was. What other secrets are you keepin’? Hah! No tellin’ what I would have caught the two of you doin’ if I had just been a little later.”
“I asked you what you are doing here,” Jesse repeated.
“Pa sent me after you,” Johnny said. “I knew you wasn’t goin’ after calves, so I tracked you here.”
“You tracked me here?”
“If you don’t want to be tracked, don’t ride a horse with a bar shoe,” he said.
“What does Pa want with me?”
“He’s your pa. What difference does it make why he wants you?”
“If it’s to go to the meeting over at the Creed place, I’m not interested.”
“Boy,” Johnny said sternly. “I think it’s about time you learned that you are a cattleman, not a sheep herder.”
“I know that I’m a cattleman,” Jesse replied.
“Do you? Or does this little girl have you counting sheep?” Johnny laughed. “Counting sheep,” he said. “That’s a good one.”
“Yeah, it’s hilarious,” Jesse said sarcastically.
“Look, you’re wastin’ your time sniffin’ around this little ol’ girl anyway,” his brother said. “You know you ain’t goin’ to marry no sheep herder’s daughter. And as for any-thin’ else, why, the soiled doves at the Cattleman’s Saloon are a lot easier to get to. You want my advice, you’ll tell this girl good-bye now.”
Jesse sighed, then took Hannah’s hands in his. “I’ve got to go,” he said.
“No,” Hannah replied. “No, you don’t have to go. You could stay with us. I know Pa would let you.”
Jesse shook his head. “No,” he said. “No, I can’t do that. You are asking me to turn my back on my family, on who I am. I’m sorry. I can’t do that. But,” he said brightly, “you could come with me.”
“And do what?”
“We could get married,” Jesse suggested.
“Hah!” Johnny said, laughing out loud. “You’re seventeen, and she’s what, sixteen? I can see the two of you getting married.” He laughed again.
“Johnny’s right,” Hannah said. “We can’t get married. Not now, not yet. We’re much too young.”
“Then what is to become of us?” Jesse asked.
“I don’t know,” Hannah said as her eyes welled with tears. “God help me, I don’t know.”
Jesse started toward his horse but stopped and came back. Putting his arms around Hannah, he pulled her to him and kissed her full on the lips. She returned the kiss, feeling both the sweetness and the bitterness of this impossible situation.
“Will you be going into town for the Fourth of July celebration?” he asked her.
“Fourth of July? That’s three weeks away.”
“Will you be there for it?”
“Yes,” Hannah said. “Yes, I’ll be there.”
Jesse smiled at her. “I will too,” he said.
“Come on, let’s go,” his brother called impatiently.
Jesse stepped away from Hannah, gave her one long, heartrending look, then turned and went quickly to his horse. Hannah didn’t weep out loud, but she did wipe away the tears as she saw them ride away.
“So, what does that mean, exactly?” Jared Wilson asked.
Wilson, Fenton, Rome Carlisle, and a handful of other ranchers had gathered yet again at Joshua Creed’s house to discuss the latest events concerning their ongoing dispute with the sheep herders. Creed had just told them that the judge had set aside the injunction.
“Actually, it doesn’t mean anything,” Creed replied. “You haven’t been told.”
“What do you mean I haven’t been told? You just told me,” Wilson said.
“Do I work for the Bureau of Land Management?” Creed asked.
“No.”
“Then until Hodge Eckert or another field manager of the Bureau of Land Management tells you other
wise, the injunction is still in effect, and we still have the authority to keep the sheep off the range.”
“Are you sure about that, Creed?” Carlisle asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Eckert left Mountain Home before he could be served. And until such time as he is served and then informs us, the injunction is still in effect.”
“How do you know that?”
“Gilmore told me.”
“That’s just what I’m afraid of,” Carlisle said. “Have you ever thought that Gilmore might be telling us just what we want to hear because we are paying him?”
“Nah, I think he’s right on this one,” Creed said.
“But the sheep herders think the injunction has been lifted, don’t they?” Carlisle asked.
“Yes.”
“So that means they’ll probably be putting their sheep out on the range again,” Carlisle said.
“I’d say the chances are pretty good that they will,” Creed said. “Probably as early as tonight.”
At that moment Johnny and Jesse arrived.