CHAPTER 15 – JESS AND THE TREPASSERS

Jess rode along the Laramie road till he reached where Slim and Andy had repaired the fence. Seeing everything looked normal he continued towards the Canyon Road cutoff. Reaching the cutoff, he turned onto an old trail heading towards the line shack.

Suddenly, Trav, pulled up short and pawed restlessly at the ground. Jess looked up from where he'd been studying the ground for tracks and noted vultures circling in the distance. He reined Trav towards the black birds, curious to see what they'd found. As he got closer, he lifted his bandanna to cover his nose and continued riding towards the vultures.

Eventually, he could make out a large mass laying on the ground covered by the feasting birds. Riding closer, he identified the body of a large grizzly, it's hide and paws missing. The Texan rode a wide circle around the bear's carcass searching for tracks. Finally, he found the tracks of at least five horses. He followed the fresh trail till the riders crossed a stream and the trail disappeared.

Jess followed the stream both ways. No luck. Circling back to where he'd last seen hoof tracks, he dismounted and studied the ground closely. Finally, he figured out the riders had stopped to wash the bear hide in the fast-flowing stream then turned and backtracked. Boy, Harper, you best be concentrating on what your doing. He'd been tracking one eyed, his left eye still watered constantly in the bright sunlight. Using his banana, the Texan wiped away the tears, took a deep drink from his canteen, mounted Trav and followed the trespassers trail. Jess often walked now, as the tall grass and rocky ground made tracking difficult. He spotted another kettle of vultures in the distance. This time they hovered over the carcass of a large bull moose. The animal's rack had been removed. The carcass otherwise remained untouched except for a few choice cuts of moose steak missing, Jess circled the kill till he cut the trail of the hunters, again, leading South towards the line shack. As he neared the shack, he stopped, wiped his eye free of tears, dismounted and crept up behind a copse of trees close to the line shack.

He watched as two of the four men salted and cleaned the bear skin. The moose's antlers hung in the sun to dry. Jess pulled his coat closer about him. It was cooler up here in the higher elevations. Should he approach the men or go back and get Slim? If he rode home for Slim, the hunters could slaughter how many more bear or other game? He wondered

Jess watched the four men as they admired the size of the bear skin they'd stretched over a wooden frame to dry. His temper got the better of him. He stepped out where the men could see him.

"Hold it right there. Don't move." he called out, his voice gruff with anger. "Drop your irons. Easy now!"

The men stood utterly still. The tallest, clad in deer skins, dropped his rifle.

An older man, also dressed in dirty deerskin garb, stood up straight and positioned his hand over his six shooter.

"You must be a pretty good shot, if'in yer thinkin' you can shoot all of us, Son." he challenged.

Jess lifted his rifle. Even at this distance he could smell the man's dirty buckskins.

Noticing the two other men appeared to be dressed in some sort of Eastern hunting gear, Jess figured they was most likely the hunters.

The mountain men were large in stature, standing taller than Slim even. They wore knee high moccasins, not boots and he figured, both men out weighed him by at least fifty pounds. Their gun belts rested low on their hip with a large skinning knife stuck in the top of their moccasins.

All of a sudden, the blond city dude yelled out excitedly.

"Oh my, do you know who this man is? Why he's the famous gunslinger all the newspapers back East have been running stories about. Everyone's talking about you and the notches on your gun handle. Why, you're Skinny Smith, the famous gunslinger. That's your name isn't it? The newspapers say you're the fastest gun in the West. Where's your partner, Johnny?" The man's eyes searching behind Jess for the other man.

"What of it?" Jess asked. He pointed his rifle towards the tall mountain man that had threatened him.

"I sure ain't gonna draw against you, Smith, not from what these two been tellin' me 'bout ya. Hear, yer got a reputation as a cold-blooded killer, Well, I ain't no idjit, Yew sure look mighty young to have so many notches on that gun of yern."

"'Sides, what yew got against a little huntin'?" The younger mountain man snarled.

"Nothin' personal. 'cept you're huntin' on Hart land. This cabin belongs to Johnny and he ain't gonna be happy 'bout you shootin' game on his private property. I want you to clear out, pronto, but before ya leave, you're gonna drag these rotting carcasses off into the woods. If I ever see you around here again, I'll shoot first and talk later. Ya understand?" Jess' deep voice resounded with anger as he pulled the rifle's trigger, shooting the antlers off the post they'd been resting on. The men jumped.

"We're leavin', you don't hafta ask twice. We don't want ta fight with ya, Smith." The younger mountain man shouted back. He turned as if to walk away, his back to Jess. Suddenly, he stooped as if he was going to pick up the antler. He came up fast, swung his rifle to his shoulder and fired.

The shot knocked Jess' rifle from his hands, The bullet ricocheted into to his arm. Jess felt the bullet graze the flesh of his upper arm. He dropped to the ground and pulled his six gun, fanning the hammer as he rolled. The first shooter dropped, a hole appearing in his forehead above his left eye. The second mountain man aimed his shotgun at the cowboy and fired. Jess gasped as the bullet passed through his leg. He fired back. The mountain man dropped his rifle and stumbled forward grabbing at his chest.

The other two men raised their hands yelling, "Don't shoot, don't shoot!"

"Get down on your bellies." Jess yelled as he struggled to his feet. He strode forward, kicking rifles and sidearms out of the Easterner's reach.

He knelt down best as he could and tied their hands behind them.

"Please, don't kill us Mr. Smith, we thought the land and cabin was theirs. We'll pay you for the use of your land and cabin." the blond-haired man begged.

" We didn't know we were trespassing." The other man begged.

Jess walked around the men. His left arm was bleeding. The bullet from the second man had passed through his left leg just above his knee. It was bleeding and hurt like hell. He took his bandanna and wrapped his leg tightly. Jess wasn't sure what to do. It was a good couple hour ride to the ranch from the cabin and he didn't know if Slim would still be there or not.

"I'll untie ya, but you're gonna bury these two hombre's and get the yard cleaned up. You understand! I'll leavin' ya two horses if you'll promise to ride out and I'll never have ta lay eyes on ya again."

"You can't leave us here, Mr. Smith, we don't know where we are. We'd just die up here. The mountain men placed baited wolf traps all around the place to attract the wolves we've been hearing howl at night. We'd offered them a bonus if we had some wolf pelts to take back home".

Jess rubbed his sore cheek as he tried to think. He couldn't be in two places at one time, plus his arm burned and his leg throbbed.

"It would serve ya right. I should leave ya both," he threatened.

"Your wounded grizzlies have been causing havoc back at the ranch. One killed a colt and almost killed our foreman. Another charged my partner's younger brother. Get up! Get these men buried, then we're headin' back to the ranch. We'll see what Johnny want's to do with ya."

Jess cut them loose. The two men rubbed their wrists as they got to their feet.

The Texan's s right hand ached. He holstered his iron and held the men at bay with a rifle he'd picked up from one of the dead mountain men.

"Now, ya drag the bodies over yonder." Jess pointed to a small tree at the end of the yard. There's shovels in the lean to. Once their buried, saddle up your horses, we're leavin."

Jess went over to the pump and removed his shirt. He cleaned out the wound in his left arm and wrapped it. He knew he should clean the wound on his leg, but it had stopped bleeding and he didn't feel up to undressing and dressing again.

Watching the men finished burying the dead, Jess decided to leave the carcasses and antlers and ride back to the ranch. Maybe if they left right away, they'd be back before Slim and Andy left with the cattle.

"Get your horses saddled we're heading' out now!" he ordered.

"What are we gonna do about the bear skins and antlers? We need to take those with us, plus all our gear is inside."

"You're alive ain't ya. Count you're blessings. We're leavin'. I need to catch up to Johnny. Told him I'd be back by noon and it's after ten already."

The men were angry but did as the Texan ordered. Once they were on their horses, Jess showed them the trail. He tied the spare horses together, looped the end of the rope over his saddle horn. "Keep up." he reined Trav towards home at a good pace.

Jess led them cross country. If they hurried, maybe he'd make it home before the brothers left.

Jess was surprised to see a herd of cattle in the distance. As the cattle got closer, Slim spotted Jess and with the two riders accompaning him, he reined in to wait for Jess.

"How'd it go, Pard? These our trespassers?"

"It's a long story." Jess answered.

Jess. turning to the two men next to him, introduced Slim. "This here's my partner Johnny," Jess introduced Slim, "and dang I don't know your names."

"Hank Johnson, Mr. Hart, and my friend Carl Thompson. Sorry to say we're the ones that caused all the trouble you've been having. We didn't know we were trespassing. We're sorry sir, we thought our guides, owned this property and the cabin." The lanky blond explained.

"We just wanted to experience the West, the excitement of hunting big game and take a few trophies back home with us."

"So why are they with you now?" Slim asked Jess as he wrinkled his forehead and pushed his hat back to get a better look at the two men with his partner.

"I figured to leave 'em to pack up and clear out on their own, but they claimed they didn't know which way ta go ta get back ta town. These two idiots was payin' the mountain men extra to get some wolf hides. You won't believe it but those hide hunters threw out meat ta bring the wolves ta the cabin where they'd set out traps ta catch and hold 'em so these dudes could shoot 'em, like fish in a barrel."

Slim smiled. "Jess. You're hurtin', go on home. Take these two with you and put them on the morning stage. Your leg's bleeding, I can see it dripping down onto your stirrup. Besides, I want someone there in case another bear shows up."

"Didn't tell you the best part, Slim. These two dudes was so 'fraid I'd leave 'em at the cabin, they paid me $300.00 in gold to cover the stock ya lost 'cause of their being such idiots." Jess pulled a small deer skin pouch from of his saddle bag and threw it to Slim.

Slim's face lit up as he looked inside. "You get home and have that leg taken care of. The money goes in the hidey hole in the fireplace for safe keeping."

Slim handed Jess back the deerskin bag. He slapped his friend gently on the back. "Go on now, you look done in Pard. We'll handle the beefs. See you in a few days."

Jess rubbed his hand along Trav's neck pulling absently at the bay's mane. He wanted to fight Slim on this but decided he'd just lose. Once Slim set his mind to somethin' there was no changin' it. Traveller stomped. "Is Jonesy doin' OK?" he asked. Trav's ears moved forward and back as he listened to his master voice. The bay gave his head a big shake, mouthed his bit, and pulled at the reins, eager to get going.

"Looks like Trav's ready to head home." Slim teased. "Get goin. Doc said, Jonesy's gonna be fine. Guess that Indian's salve really works."

Jess swung Trav around. "We're goin' home, boy. No trail drive for us. Gotta keep the boss happy." Jess looked back at Slim. A smile lit up his tired features.

"See ya soon, Johnny." he teased as he saluted his partner and returned to where the two hunters were waiting.

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