Don Ulma had heard of the Bell ranch but who hadn’t in this part of the country. By a fluke in being in the wrong place at the wrong time Don had the chance of working on the ranch. While taking the money which Harmon Bell had recovered from bank robbers Don was involved in a shoot out at the bank when the bank was being robbed again. Then Don and Cup Madden along with Noak Oaks made a trip to Montana to purchase Appaloosa horses for the ranch. On the way back the horse herd was stolen and Cup died while Don was saved from being killed because he carried books to read. In recovering the horse herd Don rescued two women who was being evicted from their property by gun man shooting at the house. A speculation man was trying to take over the range because of the water rights he wanted to sell to a railroad.
Not long after that Don married one of the women and bought the herd of the Flying U from a dieing rancher. Don moved the cattle back to his land holdings in No Mans Land or some folks called it the Cimarron Strip which was a haven for outlaws and rustlers. What it took to hold the Flying U was guns and guts along with savvy on how to make things work for the ranch
Don Ulma had heard of the Bell ranch but who hadn’t in this part of the country. By a fluke in being in the wrong place at the wrong time Don had the chance of working on the ranch. While taking the money which Harmon Bell had recovered from bank robbers Don was involved in a shoot out at the bank when the bank was being robbed again. Then Don and Cup Madden along with Noaks Oaks made a trip to Montana to purchase Appaloosa horses for the ranch. On the way back the horse herd was stolen and Cup died while Don was saved from being killed because he carried books to read. In recovering the horse herd Don rescued two women who was being evicted from their property by gun man shooting at the house. A speculation man was trying to take over the range because of the water rights he wanted to sell to a railroad.
Not long after that Don married one of the women and bought the herd of the Flying U from a dieing rancher. Don moved the cattle back to his land holdings in No Mans Land or some folks called it the Cimarron Strip which was a haven for outlaws and rustlers. What it took to hold the Flying U was guns and guts along with savvy on how to make things work for the ranch.
Excerpt
There had been nothing to do all day except to set there on the wagon seat and watch the horses. They were well trained by someone because they followed the road without having to saw on the reins. So he thought about when he first came west. He could still hear the clickty clack of the wheels of the freight car as it hit the joints in the railroad track. The only thing about riding the brake rails of the rail cars was it had to be done at night. If not the brakie would catch the free loaders trying to get from place to place riding in the box cars or on the brake rods and bash their heads in or break a leg or arm.
The rhythm of the noise and the sway of the car would either drive you batty as a bull frog or put you to sleep. That was dangerous if you happened to fall a sleep for you might drop off the brake rods and onto the track to be run over by the big steel wheels of the train cars. Thinking back he did not know where he had been born or even what day or month. He had no idea of who his parents even were but he was glad he had run away from the orphanage.
The last beating he had received at the grocery store where he had to clean was for eating and apple. Then they had beaten him at the orphanage for Mister Caldwell not wanting him back at the store. It had taken three days before he could get out of bed and make it to the table to eat his bowl of corn meal mush. He was gong to make sure that didn’t happen again.
While he had worked at the store he had listened to the old men setting around and talking about what they had eaten and how they had eaten the wild plants and things which had grown in the wild. He had picked up five of the tobacco sacks people had thrown away, managed to fill them with salt, and hide them under his bunk in a crack in the wall. When he left the orphanage he took only the blanket, a two bladed knife with one blade broken off he had got out of the trash at the store, the five bags of salt, a box of stinker matches and a chunk of ham from the kitchen side board.
After leaving the orphanage it had taken him a week of going through the woods and avoiding people for fear they would catch him and send him back to the orphanage. He remembers the night he went across the railroad bridge over the Mississippi River. He had been caught on the tracks as a train decided to pass over the bridge heading back towards the way he had just come from. He had crawled down on the big cross beams just under the edge of the track and had been scared to death the train would hang on to him and drag him back to where he had started.
However when that train had passed it was only a short while that another train going the opposite direction came over the bridge. He had made it almost across the bridge before he had to hunker down on the cross beams again. The train had stopped on the track and from where he sat on the cross beams he was at about the middle of the train. He had heard about ridding the break rails under the freight cars to keep the railroad Bulls and Brakes from beating you with clubs before you could get away from them.
That is how he came to be where he was. It must be because of his small size that when the train stopped for water and fuel the brake man who looked under the car did not see him. Although it might have been it was black as pitch in the middle of the night. The train had stopped several times for water or fuel out on the prairie and no one had walked along the cars looking under them. It was coming daylight and he knew that he had better get off at the next stop or the brakes would find him for sure. They had stopped like this once before because of a hot box and a wheel had been smoking. However the train crew had pushed the rail car into a rail siding and then continued on its way.
Then he had heard the shooting and a loud explosion up to-wards the front of the train. That is when Don decided it was time to leave before something bad happens. He slides over the side of the tussle and into the water. The water came underneath the arm pits and he half swum and half walked down the side of the creek in the water until he could climb out into the brush. The came out of thinking for the wagon hit a chug hole and he bounced in the seat.
The sun had gone down hours ago and the cold was almost
unbearable. Don had wrapped in the two wool blankets, he had brought from the ranch, long before the lights went out. His hands were too cold to even pull back on the reins to stop the horses if he had the need for his fingers felt as if they were wooden. As the wagon rambled on mile after mile with more prairie that hills and timber Don was looking for a possible campsite where there might be some firewood. The last wood that he had seen was at the small creek where the horses had stopped on their own to drink and that was three hours ago. Even that wood you would have to gather up several armfuls to have enough wood to burn and get warm by be-cause it was just scrubby brush. However out on the Stake Plains it was hard to find wood or anything else to burn to make a fire to get warm unless you happened to stumble on a small water way or where a cow or Buffalo herd might have passed through before the rains and the dung was dried out and harden by the sun.
The only reason he didn’t buck up and not want to come after the supplies was because of the weather. But he owed Charlie Diditmore and he had seen him talking to Harmon Bell before Bell came over to the long table in the dinning area of the bunkhouse. What surprised him more was that Mister Bell had in trusted him with the money from the bank robbery, which had occurred at Mobatee last week, and with cash in envelopes to pay on his accounts in Mobatee. Don had thought when Mister Bell had said, “Be sure you get a receipt from the banker and make someone else count what the banker takes and have them sign the receipt also.”
Don had commented in his cocky way, “You don’t trust me?”
Mister Bell had replied, “I trust you but I never trusted a Banker before and don’t intend to start now.” That had made Don feel very small but he knew some about Mister Bell and if he trusted you that you had better live up to it.
In the distance up ahead Don thought he saw some lights which could be his imagination or possible the lights of Mobatee. The horses hitched to the wagon started stepping out more than that humdrum walk they had been in for the last five or six miles. In another half hour the horses were in a trot and really stepping out as the lights commence to materialize into buildings out of the night.
As the horses slowed to a walk, after entering town, and moving down the street he saw the sign of Davis General Store up a head and Don started to pull the reins on the horses but they turned down beside the store and pulled the wagon up close to the loading dock behind the store stopping in their tracks. One side of the wagon you could step from the wagon onto the dock. “Hell theses horses have done this a lot.” Don said out loud, to no one predominantly, and from behind him he heard, “Two or three times a month.”
Don turned slowly as he was stepped down from the wagon wheel, letting his hand hang near his pistol, as he worked his fingers to try and get some feelings back in them, He saw a shinny badge reflecting from the moon light. “I’m Nolan White the Deputy Sheriff here in town.” The tall man replied as he came near the wagon.
“Don Ulma. Work for Charlie Diditmore and Harmon Bell.” Don replied as he relaxed some and not have to worry about someone stealing the saddle bags with the money in them.
“I’ll help you unhitch the team.” White said as he came forward towards the horses. It didn’t take long to get the team unhitched and take the harness from the horses. Don put the harness into the wagon bed and then Don retrieved the saddle bags, which were under the seat of the wagon. From moving around unhitching the team his legs and arms had warmed up from the almost frozen state they had been in on the trip into town. The two men led the horses up the street to the livery. The livery was closed and no light was on in the building so the two men turned the horses into the corral next to the livery. The horses went straight over to the shed attached to the livery and started munching on the hay hanging in the feeder. Don and Deputy White walked over to the hotel and when they entered the lobby the clerk looked over at them from a news paper he was looking at on the desk.
In this collection of Western fiction, I’ve endeavored to bring the reader a little laughter at the expense of my characters, even though they are at times engaged in life threatening adventures. Learn to say something nice to all of your enemies l
In this collection of Western fiction, I’ve endeavored to bring the reader a little laughter at the expense of my characters, even though they are at times engaged in life threatening adventures. Learn to say something nice to all of your enemies l
An adventure-filled time-travel western. Given a 5-star editorial review in 2020 by the InD'tale Magazine. "The weaving in of actual historical connections between the characters is fascinating. Fans of this genre will love the originality with the a
