Ambush Valley Read Online Free PDF

they made to get there. The country was mostly head-high juniper and open spaces. They spooked range cows and calves and a British breed bull or two. Couple of them were Herefords and some were red and roan shorthorn males. They reminded Chet about his own planned upgrading breeding program. He’d have to buy more of those kinds of bulls. The mountains ahead looked tougher and he knew the quarter moon wouldn’t rise until later.
    Pretty brazen rustlers to take ranch horses out of a pasture, then halter and lead that many away. It was a big decision because folks would sure notice that many passing by. He bet several folks saw them when they came through Mayer.
    â€œHow much farther to the ranchmen?”
    â€œ Señor , it is over another mountain from where we are. Those banditos were really moving on when we discovered there were men leading them. I saw them from one mountain to the next. I guess they saw us coming too. Buck was mad as hell.”
    â€œI can’t stand a thief either. Back in Texas, three men once stole my whole remuda and I hung them when I caught them about two hundred miles away from our ranch. Over eighty horses,”
    â€œOh, how did they do it?”
    â€œJust rode in and took them. One of the mothers of the hung rustlers later said, ‘Oh, they would have brought them back.’ Dumb woman. We caught them near the Red River—that’s the line that goes into the Indian Territory. Their execution caused a feud with that family that made me move out here.”
    The starlight grew brighter, but the trail grew much steeper and slowed their pace even more. A coyote howled and another answered. An owl hooted for its mate. Chet settled in for a long night. The trail was obvious enough that he figured the law could trace their tracks in the daylight. They’d bring a posse. But this was tough terrain they went down then up again, and their horses had to cat-hop up. It would sure sift out the weak ones in a big hurry. He wished he had his roan horse that had been shot out from under him. The one he rode was tough, but that pony was made for this steep, hard country.
    They chewed on jerky about the time the quarter moon rose. And the new light really outlined the steep mountains they were in. Way past midnight they approached the ambush site that Raphael had pointed out to him from across the dark canyon.
    â€œThey may have come back and caught their horses and took them too.”
    He agreed with Chet. “I bet they did.”
    That in consideration, they rode in silence off the mountain, then up the even steeper trail. Raphael held up his hand in the lead. “This is where they started shooting at us from up there.”
    Even in the starlight he couldn’t see any bodies. There was little more than some pear cactus beds. Raphael was off his horse and looking. He struck a wooden match. “There’s blood here.”
    Chet dismounted. “What in the hell did they do with their bodies?”
    Raphael pushed his sombrero back on his shoulders. “I don’t know. This is where Buck told for me to go get help.”
    â€œI don’t doubt you. They must’ve taken the corpses with them. Let’s go up on the mountain and wait until dawn so we can track them.”
    The blood was real. Why take the bodies except to hide them? Corpses would make a loud call for the arrest of the killers. Horse thefts were just things that happened every day, though ranchers were upset any time they happened. But dead men raised big rewards for the capture of the killers.
    â€œI hope not, but I think they’re dead and the thieves want to hide the bodies.”
    â€œI savvy. But when I find them I may strangle them myself with my bare hands.”
    â€œI understand,” Chet’s stomach roiled over the thoughts of the men’s demise. Not a good picture to consider.
    They emerged on a large mesa of grass and pear cactus beds. With matches for light,