“Well, has anybody actually seen him?” Elias roared. Arlen Granger, along with Treach, Bo Harker, Gabe Andes, and Alvin Deckerd sat in the parlor of the main house to discuss exactly what the plans were for a spring attack on the Lost Lake Ranch. The current subject who was the target of all of the planning, one Shade Thornton.
The men looked one to the other, but no one had anything to say regarding the owner of the huge spread bordering on the west and southwest of the Evergreen. The enormous expanse of the Thornton holdings was not what Elias wanted, far from it, killing Shade Thornton was what he wanted, that and the ‘Blackbird Lodge’ was left in shambles.
“Now, when the spring roundup happens on their spread, pickin’ off any number of their hands surely would be easy. Might wanna consider whittlin’ down the odds some.” Treach suggested.
“He’s got him a point, Boss,” Granger said. “Sittin’ up top shootin’ down, well. It’d be some easy. ‘Course we got our own cows ta round up, but that’ll be much easier, and go a whole lot faster than it will fer them, only need two, three men on that ridge.”
“Yes, yes, that would be one way to get at them alright. Been a while since I was up there, but it could be done, that’s for sure.” Elias stated. The plan was a good one, and he would not need to use a lot of his men to rain death down on the Lost Lake hands.
“The way I see it, they gotta come out for supplies, right? A couple good ambushes an’ then they’ll be afraid come outta Ishmael’s Gate.” Bo Harker chimed in.
“‘scuse me Boss, but didn’t I hear that Case came up over the mountain and down to Ishmael’s?” Gabe Andes asked, “I mean, that’s what I heard.”
“Believe you’re right. Maybe we send over a few boys and we nail them when they try to get out of that damned canyon. That might be the only way in, but it’s damned sure the only way out as well.” Elias stated with a grin. “I think we have a way to button them in tight as your sister's corset!” They all laughed because they realized that in fact, they could pen them in easily. How many men we got?”
“Thirty-four.” Granger said, counting himself.
“Thirty-four.” Elias beamed.
"First off though, we need all the cattle down out of the upper meadow, can't have them trapped up there. That's going to take quite a few men to not only drive them down but those that will be rousting them out of the draws and such. Plus, herding those down here closer in to make feeding easier." Elias explained, "Now don't get me wrong boys, I surely want that place, but cattle have to come first."
No one said anything, but they all nodded their heads in agreement. "Gonna take ten, maybe a dozen to get 'em down from that meadow, as well as maybe eight 'er ren fer the canyons, daws an' such like, they do tend to wander some." Andes stated. He was not just a man good with a gun, he was a top hand, as were most all of the Evergreen hands, Elias insisted on it.
"So then boys, we'll plan to get a solid plan ready for spring, much as I'd like to start right now, we'd lose the advantage good weather would bring. And what better way to start the new year, as far as the cattle work is concerned!" And they all laughed with Elias.
"Boss," Treach interjected, "Ishmael's Gate ain't the only way in or out, but the trail that does go through would be miles outta the way for any of us. She goes down an' around Broken Finger Lake an' out to the west. Now, there's a couple fingers offin' it here an' there, but they lead nowhere. So for what we been jawin' on it is the way we'd have to bottle 'em up. It'd take anybody, us 'er them, maybe a week to get around it."
"And you would know this how, Treach?" Elias wanted to know.
"It's an open road west. When I was prospecting I used it all'a time." Deckerd explained. "But, if you wanted to for sure trap 'em, spending the time to send a half a dozen men and supplies to hold out over there." He laughed, "Pass is narrow, passable fer say a stagecoach 'er a freight wagon but ain't a lotta room ta spare."
"Now see, that's what I'm talking about. Bottle them up at both ends of the Gate! Then shoot down at them from the top and take the ranch by attrition of their hands. I mean, who would want to sign on with a spread under siege?" He asked with a grin. And it was true if they did just that.
"That would work like a charm, they'd lose any number of riders. Us? Why we'd be steppin' in high Cotton!" Bo Harker exclaimed.
"All we need to do is get them ta start it, or maybe look like they started it. They might get some testy if we was to try an' set 'em up fer it, but it could work out." Treach warned.
"Yeah that saloon brawl weren't enough to get it done." Andes stated. "Short a gettin' one of the boys kilt by one of 'em, no way to make it look different than it would be."
"Won't do that. No sir, I might be a lotta things, be willing to do a lot of things, but getting one of my boys killed to start a fight, no sir. Not now, not ever." Elias protested. "There's got to be a better way."
The front door opened and closed unannounced and a man stepped into the parlor where everyone stared at him for a long, silent, minute.
"Case!" Elias shouted as he rose from his chair. "For God's sakes boy, where've you been?"
"Been around. The boys headed south for the winter so I been holed up out to the place." Case never called it 'the hideout' in public. Public of any kind. "Thought I might ride in an' see how you were doin' hope I ain't interruptin' anything important."
Tryin' to figure out some way to get somebody from the Lost Lake to start a row so we ain't the guilty party. They start, we finish it sort of thing, you know." Eliias explained. "You know Granger and these boys? "Maybe not Harker or Andes. This here's my son, well one of them anyway. Case Harker and Andes." The men stood and shook hands.
"So the crowds grown since I was last here then? Good." Case replied. "Gonna be tough to pull off. Heard about the tussle at the Stardust, that won't be enough to start much of anything, except maybe another brawl. Likely take blood to get that one goin'. Thornton's careful about that"
"I'll not give up one of my men just to get at that tin horn! Be damned if I will." Elias bellowed once again at the idea, even though he mentioned it.
"Then we need to do some talkin' about it. Got any coffee on?" Case asked.
Coffee was brought in by the hired man as Case took a seat. "Killing would start it for sure, but forcing the Lost Lake boys to open the ball might not be so easy as you might think." He began, "Fact is Pa, if you want it started, you're likely gonna have to start it yourself. It's war you're after, well then, what are you afraid of?"
The room fell silent, what Case just said was not what they had been discussing. The idea was that Lost Lake be the instigators, that the Evergreen would be the initial victims and justified by whatever they chose to do and that would be the start of the war. The term range war would not be accurate, for this was not about some disputed range. It was a vendetta!
"So you best swallow that and get comfortable with it." He said plainly. "My boys are not close to hand, but unless you're at this before spring, well then, we'll join in when they get back. Now, you might be able to force something between a couple of you and them in town, that might work, but Thornton's savvy, and he's not about to get bullied into a gunfight, and that would go for Cantrell and the rest!"
"So what do you suggest, son?" Elias asked.
"Yeah, let's hear it, what would you do?" Harker all but demanded, the others waiting.
"Take it to 'em, plain and simple. I figure you already know attacking the ranch is suicide because it just can't be done with out taking heavy losses. Now I think maybe you realize that snipping from either side would work, but not for long. Thornton ain't going to just let his men get picked off willy-nilly. So you've got to draw them out of that fortress over there, and that's not going to be easy either." He paused, "We need an ace up our sleeve."
"So, just how do we take it to 'em?" Harker asked, wanting to see if this man had any ideas on the subject they had been discussion before his arrival.
"If you haven't considered ambushing a supply wagon, I suggest you start there." Case replied.
"Well yes son, we have. Sniping along Ishmael's gate, from the top of ridge, even as they come out of town with their supplies." Elias stated. "That gun store fella was supposed to deliver five thousand rounds, but it seems he delivered himself elsewhere instead, least for the time being."
"So then you boys have covered just about all you can do." Case said, then added, "You could block off the Gate so's they can't get through to start with. You are aware that Guyer has the authority of a County Sheriff, but I'd say the chances of a posse of any size are somewhat remote."
"Though him and Pike now, that's a pair that are Hell on Wheels with them guns of theirs, and don't be you be fooled about either's resolve, them two will collect a heavy price when they get involved, and they will, no way around it. You might get the both of them in the end, but at what price?"
The room fell silent.
"Seems I heard the Marshal stepped into a bullet easy enough." Andes announced. "If he was shot once, he can get shot again!"
Case snapped around toward the young outlaw, "Shot from ambush, a coward's way!" He looked at Elias, "Ain't that right Pa?" then he almost snickered. "That fella's dead n' I'm wearing his guns. Now, I don't mean to trample on your party here, but was one of you to kill him from ambush, well, you can look forward to runnin' into me again."
"Now son, no call to get riled up, Andes here just made a remark, nobody said we ought to ambush Marshal Guyer," Elias said attempting to cool things down. "And I don't believe we need to talk about that sort of end for Deputy Pike either, that understood?" The tone turned stern.
"It's alright Pa, I was stating the facts about my friend the Marshal. You boys may need to dry gulch Pike though, I heard of him when I was in Texas, and none of it good. But you boys just do what you think you got to with that one." Case said with a smile that was anything but warm or friendly, they had been warned and he was sure that word would spread in the bunkhouse.
But the room was suddenly very tense, the son of their boss had laid out how it was in no uncertain terms.
Case laughed out loud. "You boys sittin' there with your mouth hangin' open. Them two are just men. Guyer, he can do what has to be done, Pike, well, I haven't seen his graveyards, but I've heard about them. He surely isn't a man that whittles notches in them pistols, but he knows how to use 'em and ain't shy about it neither."
"You talk them up like they was the second comin' of Bill Hickock!" Teach said.
"They can be took down easy enough." Deckard stated boldly. "From in front 'er behind, just a matter of when and where."
"Sure can, never said they couldn't be had either direction, just whose the ones to do it? You want to ride roughshod over this country, they're all that's in the way." Case explained. Guess you need to figure out the details of gettin' it done, if the town don't stand up an' send you to hell on a shutter for your troubles. All I'm saying is, it won't be as easy as you think."
"Case, maybe you're right about those two." Elias interrupted, "It's not the law were after, and about the town standing up, well you're surely right. It's Thornton and Cantrell I'm talking about. Those two are the ones in the way. It's those two I want sent to hell on a shutter!"
"Cut from the same cloth and just maybe more dangerous because of it." Case said. "But likely as not, easier to get at. I mean ambushes, shootin' down on 'em, you won't have to face them same as Guyer or Pike."
That gave them pause for thought.
Elias had learned long ago that action without a plan was to invite disaster. Something he did not want to do. There was no future in failure, at least in so far as he was concerned, not that he had not experienced his fair share of failures since he had arrived in Kalispell, though, in good conscience he could not take the destruction of Whitefish as his failure, hardly, that was an angry God that did that.
No, there were those things he could not control, his daughter as one example, his wife as another. Then other schemes failed, the town council takeover, a glaring case in point. Sometimes, no amount of planning, scheming, and conniving can carry the day. Now, the Mayoral contest was lost even before it started, so there he was, the second-largest ranch in the northern part of the territory, trying to destroy the largest spread, but only because he wanted revenge on the owner!
"So men, we need a rock-solid plan for this. It has to be smart, and it has to be exact. Thornton and Cantrell have to be dead!" Elias stated emphatically.
"Now Pa, there is this, if you had forgotten, Speed Guyer has gubernatorial authority to act as County Sheriff, which as you would know would allow him to raise a posse and intervein in whatever plan you have for Lost Lake and the Thorton demise.
"Balderdash! Raise a posse, and who would ride in that posse?" Elias wanted to know. "You think any of those merchants in town would go on the suicide ride with him and Pike?" Elias demanded to know.
"Well, now a body can never tell what the folks in town would be willing to do, but you forget, there's always the small ranchers and their hands that might just jump at the chance. And, while we're at it, you aren't about to win any popularity contests in Kalispell." Case pointed out.
"They bleed an' die like anybody else, and thats a fact." Treach said. "Maybe we suffer some losses, maybe we don't, provdin' we play our cards right."
"Yeah, that's a fact. But the way we go about this is the key. The less chance they got to get at us the better. An' danged if we can't bottle 'em up in that so called fortress they got. Be a prison!" Harker stated.
"We can stop 'em alright, stop 'em cold. An' was we to play our cards right, there'd be no way they could get at us, or get themselves that posse you was talking about." Granger added.
"So you see Pa, it can be done." Case agreed. "These boys know how to get at them without them having any way of getting back at you. And, you have the luxury of time. It is on your side to plan for this strike at Lost Lake. Time to get every detail worked out as to how you want to do this." He produced one of his signature cold smiles.
