The Mission

CHAPTER 1

Another Job Lost

Shep and Sam have had words about Ella in the past this one particular evening "O Shep had just put Beulah in the barn, his bridle and gear up and steps out of the barn and their stands Sam, red in the face mad.

I’m not going to tell you again you leave off Ella or I am going to whip you good. Sam said.

And just when did you put your brand on Ella? Shep asked.

Don’t you never mind my branding you leave off Ella or we can fight it out right now. Sam said.

They’ are standing eyeball to eyeball and Shep steps back and hits Sam on the jaw, knocking him down. Sam was up quickly kicks Shep on the knee, then hits him on the left eye , Shep, went down and rolled and got up hit, Sam in the gut and then broke his nose with the left hook, Sam backed off, shook his head to clear his vision and came back swinging. They traded punches for a while, Shep’s right ear was bleeding so was his upper lip. Sam has a cut on his cheek and broken nose and his left eye was swelling shut.

After a short period of time of trading punches Sam knock Shep down, Sam leans toward Shep, Shep kicks him in the jaw and knocks him out cold.

Shep gets up and goes over to the horse trough washes up knowing full well he can kiss this job goodbye. After a few minutes Sam groans sets up and shakes his head. He focuses his right eye on Shep, his left one is swollen shut.

You are a fired Shep, go drawl your pay and get off this ranch, Sam said.

Shep goes into the barn to get Beulah and his gear while he was trying to put the reins on Beulah she bit him tried in knocking him down, then head butted him not wanting to leave the barn after being out all day, finally he got the reins and saddle on her, at the barn he climbed up in the saddle to ride to the house, she tried to rub him off on the fence he got off and led her away from the fence, claimed back on, she tried the go back to the fence, and he slapped her head and finally they headed to the house, leery of her he rode to the house, half expecting her to buck or rollover or something to get him off.

Shep dismounted and tied her to the hitch rail in front of the house turns to go speak to the old man Weyland to drawl his pay, Ella wouldn’t even look at him, Shep figures that she was using him to make Sam jealous, the old man paid him off without a word, Sam stood off to the side glaring at him.

Oh man Weyland was a tough old bird he had fought off the Indians to build this ranch, he has contended with numerous rustlers, both white’s and Indians, Mexican bandits, and the heat, so another hand been firing wasn’t a big deal and it wasn’t the first time hands had fault over his daughter.

He went back, untied and remounted Beulah this time she tried to throw him and almost succeeded once again he swatted her upside the head she stopped coming down stiff legged jarring Shep’s whole body, after having this little understanding, Beulah starts off toward Tucson. One of the other bad things about Beulah is the fact she was noisy; it was like if she wasn’t happy she was complaining if she was happy she made a different noise like she was laughing at Shep after she had aggravated him which is most of the time, this noise was blowing and snorting rubbing it in, her unhappy noises was more like nickering.

Most times her being noisy wasn’t a big deal but, it could be a very big deal when riding through Indian country particularly here where they’d rather shoot at you than look at you.

This is one way Shep and Beulah were a lot alike, Shep was rather noisy also like now he was complaining to Beulah how it wasn’t right that he was fired because of Ella, Sam just couldn’t stand it because she liked to talk to Shep more than she did Sam, of course Shep realized she was using him to make Sam mad, old well looks like Sam gets to keep Ella and Shep gets the go look for a job.

Beulah we’ll go to Tucson maybe gamble for a little while then go look for a job again, Shep said, Beulah acts as if she likes the sound of that she blows and snorts while she was shaking her head up and down.

About the time he decides this is what he’s going to do his right stir up was jerked off of his foot, then he heard the shot and Indians whooping and hollering, Beulah takes off like she was shot out of a cannon nearly dumping Shep off of her back he hangs on while he tries to retrieve his stirrup and stay in the saddle and look behind them at the same time, this wasn’t an easy task because Beulah was running for all she was worth, which she did every time she heard Indians whooping and hollering it seemed that whenever she heard them she got stung by a bullet.

They left flying over a rise and around the corner and almost run head on into Salt Billow’s the Wayland’s Cook, Beulah came to a dead stop throwing Shep over her head, Shep rolls head over heels four times, he gets up hollers Indian’s right behind me, as he runs for Beulah grabs the reins she tries to bite him he slaps her jumps in the saddle and starts to throw the Spurs to Beulah. Then he sees Old Salt just sitting there laughing at him. Now the short time he had known Salt he has called him a little strange but with Indians coming at him just sitting there he thought he was crazy cause any second those Indians were going to come around the corner and Salt just sat there.

What’s Shep didn’t know was the Indians just knew old Salt was crazy and they were scared to death of him as he would soon to find out.

CHAPTER 2

The Legend

Shep rode behind Salt’s wagon, dismounting and grabbing his rifle while doing this as the Indians came around the bend in the road, they cried out in fear stopped their horses, turning them so fast a couple almost fell off their horses and took off like their tails were on fire.

Old Salt laughed hard, and holler down to Shep, You can come out now them Indians done thought they had seen a ghost, Salt said as he was chuckling.

Cautiously Shep came out from behind the wagon keeping his gun ready just in case they came back; he walked up beside Salt.

Why did they run like that? Shep asked.

Well it’s because they think I’m crazy and I have great medicine, their scared to death of me and after this they probably won’t ever chase you again, they’ll figure you turned into me; say what are you doing out here this time of day anyway? Sam fire you? Hum looks like he did it with his fist, Salt said.

Yeah he tried and he hits pretty hard but he had to wait till he woke up to fire me, Shep said.

"You whipped him fighting over Ella? Salt asked.

Yeah, Shep said around a sheepish grin.

She’ll fool around until she gets Sam killed one of these days, yes sir he thinks she’s going to marry him someday and he’ll get the ranch one of these days after her daddy dies but, she ain’t gona do no such thing, no sir, she’ll marry someone her own age, Salt said, sooner or later Sam is going to pick a fight with the wrong person and it’ll be a shooting affair then someone will shoot him dead, figured it might be you. He explained.

No I like to fight but I don’t want to kill unless it’s defending myself or someone else, but not for some girl and beside if you kill someone in a gun battle next thing you know he’ll have to defend your reputation as a gun hand or your picture is on some Sheriff’s wall, Shep said.

Yeah you have a good point there, it will be dark way before I get home let’s go back to the last waterhole which is about a half-mile and camp for the night, you can have a couple more meals on Wayland, Salt suggested.

All right, Shep said and went back behind the wagon mounted Beulah again who tried to throw him this time she was having fun blowing and snorting, she almost succeeded, Shep finally swatted her with his hat and she quit fooling around and headed down the road toward a waterhole that Salt had suggested. Salt turned around and followed.

They went back up the road to the mouth of a little canyon turned to the right and went up it just a little ways there was a really good spring, there were a few cotton wood trees around it plus a couple that had blown down, Shep tied Beulah to one of the downed trees started gathering wood for the fire so that Salt could begin fixing supper he gathered a pretty large pile hopefully enough to last the night and breakfasts. Salt started getting his utensils out for cooking his tripod, bean pot, skillet, and coffeepot.

Shep set the wood in order and started a fire which Salt set the tripod over; he then went and got water for the coffeepot and the bean pot. Shep had found some flat rocks to set the skillet and coffeepot on right up next to the fire, while Salt attended to the cooking, Shep attended to the horses taking them to water and picketing them on a little grass that was near the spring. Beulah was the last one that he attended to; being a little suspicious because she didn’t try to do anything until he tied her to the picket line and started to walk away she turned around and tried to kick him he was barely able to evade her kick.

Now Salt’s horses didn’t give me any trouble and why do you think you had to try and kick me? Shep asked.

Beulah, knickers and blowed, shook her head and started eating grass, supper was well on its way by the time Shep returned to the fire.

It won’t be much longer, Salt said. He had bacon frying, bread frying beans in the pot and coffee on to boil, Salt also got out a can of peaches that they shared later after they had eaten, Shep helped salt clean up all of his utensils to be ready to go the next morning.

Salt why is it the Indians think you are crazy?" Shep asked.

When I was a young man Kiowa’s caught me at a water hole, there were several of them, so I come out of that waterhole screaming doing a war dance and a hollering running at them, trying to pull them off of their horses’, acting plum loco. Well one of them got off of his horse with a rope he had an idea he was going to tie me up, every time he gets his rope on me I’d slip out of it, one of them got to laughing at us and I turned on him throwing my hands up at him at the same time said you die, his horse sidestepped he fell off broke his neck, within seconds I was all alone and I haven’t had any trouble with any Indians sense, even some white folks are scared of me, Salt explained.

The Indian has a freak accident and now all Indians are scared of you? Shep asked.

My Indian name Crazy Ghost, I guess they call me that because I acted like I wasn’t afraid of them and they think I have great medicine thinking I killed that Kiowa without touching him, Salt explained.

Salt your lucky, now myself trouble follows me wherever I go, I can even get sweet on a gal without getting into a fight, Shep said. Now I don’t mind getting into a fight now and then didn’t even mind losing my job but Ella sure is one sweet little gal, he elaborated.

That may be, but it wouldn’t work her being a homebody and you having itchy feet, inside of two months you’d be gone, Salt said. Maybe in time you’ll be ready to settle down if you was to find a serious type woman, you were attracted to, not the wild nature side like Ella, Salt said.

You’re probably right I haven’t had the habit of staying in one place for long, I’ve been at this job five months and as long as I’ve been anywhere and yes Ella’s the reason I’ve been here this long, Shep explained, oh well there’ll be more jobs and more gals down the road, Salt I think I’m going to turn in for the night see you in the morning.

It’s as good a time as any, I’ll see you in the morning, Shep, Salt said.

Lying there still pondered things, Shep wondered if Salt had in the past loves in his life.

Hey Salt you ever have any sweethearts in your life? Shep asked.

One particular one that I really loved, but her daddy was rich and I was just poor drifting cowboy and he had a slug of rough hard hands and I wasn’t welcome only took two beatings to convince me she didn’t love me so I drifted on, Salt said. After that I found a spot of love here and there in my life so it hasn’t been too bad of a life, now go to sleep these old bones need their rest, he added.

I understand that; maybe a good nights rest will take some of the soreness out by morning, goodnight, Shep said.

Goodnight, Salt said.

CHAPTER 3

Shep gets an Indian name

The night went by quiet and peaceful for Shep and Salt but not for the four Apaches they raced into camp told their story of how they were chasing the cowboy was fire hair with the Bay horse with a white star on her forehead that could run like the wind, and that they turned into Crazy Ghost.

It didn’t dawn on them that Salt was sitting on a wagon that had two horses pulling it, all they knew was they were chasing Shep and he turned into Crazy Ghost, and this started the legend of the Crazy Ghost Son and his horse that could run like the wind and their fame spread like a wild fire across the country.

Next morning Salt woke up at four in the morning like he had been doing for what seemed like a hundred years, of course no one knew how old Salt really was, and he wouldn’t tell no one, he rolled out of bed stretched his old tired body and then stoked the fire up, and started fixing breakfast for him and Shep.

Shep was awakened by the smell of coffee he set up, dressed, shook his boots out and put them on, he was a little stiff this morning from the fight of the previous evening with Sam, and he wasn’t moving very fast, his left eye was swollen and he could barely see out of it, his lips were swollen but that wouldn’t stop him from eating, little would stop him from eating, Shep sure did like to eat he had eaten more than one meal with a swollen lip.

Shep managed to harness the team to Salt’s wagon and had Beulah saddled by the time Salt hollered breakfast was ready, breakfast consists of bacon and fried bread, after they had eaten, Shep help Salt clean up and put his cooking utensils back in the wagon.

Well thank you Shep for keeping me company helping with supper and breakfast and all, now you have a good life, hang on to your hair, and good luck finding a good woman and I’ll give you some advice don’t look for outward beauty only look for the beauty within, Salt advise Shep.

Salt it has been a real pleasure knowing you, I thank you for the food and company, the advice, and your wisdom, Shep said, oh Salt keep an eye on Ella some day she’ll grow up and make a good wife for someone.

I will Shep, Salt said as he was climbing on to the wagon when he was situated he get to break off hollered for the horses to take off at the same time waved to Shep, let’s get this wagon home, Salt added.

Shep watched Salt go out of the canyon he lingered to make sure the fire was out, he looked over at Beulah trying to decide whether kick her first or wait and see if she tried to kick our bite him.

Now Beulah wasn’t anything beautiful to look at, she was long in body stood fifteen hands tall she was considered a Bay with a white star on her forehead, she had a split in her left ear were Shep had tried to shoot a rabbit while he was drunk at which time he thought he had killed her because she dropped to the ground rolling to her side pending his leg between her and the ground.

She proceeded to get up and tried to bite Shep’s arm it was a good thing he pulled it away because she got a mouthful of shirt ripping his whole sleeve off.

She wasn’t pretty and on top of that she was ornery but she could run and had saved their lives many times by her speed.

Satisfied that the fire was out, Shep went over and mounted up, figuring, Beulah would try some deviltry but she didn’t, so they moseyed out of the canyon to the trail to Tucson they had a long and uneventful day finally camping that night by another waterhole, Shep was suspicious because Beulah had not tried anything all day not even one time which is very unusual, he thought she