The Legend of Eli CrowChapter 47
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“Look at those mangy hides. Don’t touch them with your hands. Cut a piece of that blanket off and wrap your hand before you drag them over to the fire on the beaver dam,” Eli told his brothers as they looked down at the nearly starved, disease infested animals with hairless splotches of dry scaly skin exposed.
Returning from the first trip to drag the dead dogs to the fire, Isaac came back with Eli’s bloody hatchet in his hand.
“I owe you, Brother.”
“Because you are my brother, you’ll never owe me – Brother!”
During the night, they heard more of the howling, but there were only a few joining the chorus and the sounds came from far away.
The full moon rose in the east after midnight and shown bright as day, reflecting off the snow. The Bucks slept in shifts of three, trying to get some rest before the last leg of their trip home.
Eli, Isaac, and Pike were up for the last watch as daylight came quick and silent across the frozen, snow covered plains. Before the sun was above the horizon, the glare off the snow was close to unbearable.
Before packing and leaving out, they took the remaining three sticks of dynamite and set charges across the beaver dam where the logs and limbs still made a cover for the wild dogs. Timing their fuses with the first one longest, then shorter as they came nearer the camp, they were ready.
“I’ll go set fire to the fuses, y’all get packed an lets get the hell out of here,” Eli told them. He picked up one of the torches and re-lit it. Without looking back, he ran for the far side of the old beaver dam.
His five brothers couldn’t pack up for watching him as he lit a fuse then ran to the next one. They were laughing and clapping their mittens together as he lit the last one and raced right into the midst of them. He was blowing steam with each breath, but he was laughing too when the first charge exploded.
Then with a series of three explosions coming in a matter of seconds, the charges chased across the beaver dam to the last one, right where Isaac had fallen through the night before. This one seemed to take longer, then it blew the last of the logs from the pile.
With temperatures never rising above freezing over the past two weeks, the icy crust on top of the deep snow was even thicker and harder to break through than before. The mules were having a hard time at first, breaking a path through the deep, crusted snow. They soon took to the task, stepping high and plodding on into midday when Pike yelled out.
“There’s the Barkley’s place!”
William, Ben, and George Barkley were in the barn feeding their horses, and throwing down hay for the cattle that milled around the back of the barn. They heard the shout and sounds of the mules breaking the crust on the frozen snow and looked out to see the Young Bucks.
The Barkley brothers took the Bucks in the house to get them warm and feed them after putting their horses and mules in the barn to feed and water them.
They stayed for close to two hours, warming by the fire and telling of their hunt. When they saddled up to leave again, they left two deer hanging in the barn for the Barkley’s.
“Eli, if y’all cut across that ridge where you see our tracks, you can follow that long draw all the way down to Crow Ridge without any deep snow. We’ve been down there twice in the past week just to check on your folks and feed the cows along the way,” William told them as they prepared to pull out.
“Thanks, William and thanks for feeding us and letting us warm up. How’s all the cattle been making it in this cold weather, with snow this deep?” Eli said.
“We’ve been out each day since the snow storm started and we’ve fed all the cattle at the hay barns, and up and down the line from the oil wells to the loading pens. Looks like we haven’t lost any so far. We’ve taken a few of the older momma cows and their small calves up to the big barn. They looked like they were getting weak. We had to build a few fires under the windmill pumps in the mornings, but they’re going good too.”
“We’ll feed the cattle up and down the pipeline starting tomorrow morning, William. We’ll see y’all in a few days I reckon.”
“Thanks for the deer meat, Eli. Our wives will start on them before the day is over,” George told them.
The sun was brighter than ever as they started out again. They had to pull their scarves up over their faces, with the flaps of their fur-lined caps nearly covering their eyes, just to keep the glare out.
The arrival of the six Young Bucks at Crow Ridge was met with the whole family coming out the back door to welcome them home. The women quickly returned to the warm house, as the Crow girls and the men entered the barn with the Bucks.
As soon as Little Eli stepped to the dirt floor of the barn, Kit was on him.
She was so happy to see him, she was crying as she hugged and kissed him in front of the others.
Isaac received the same welcome from Ruby, as she too hugged and kissed him, welcoming him home.
Next came the boys’ dads as they welcomed their sons home from their long hunt.
“From the looks of the way those travois are loaded, you men had some fair luck up there,” Eli told them as his sons each gave their dads a hug and a handshake.
“We sure did, Dad. We hunted in that small valley you told us about and the place was overrun with deer,” Micah told him as they took the saddles off their horses.
When the girls had returned to the house to get out of the cold, the men helped the Bucks hang their deer in the barn, then helped them take the travois and packsaddles off their mules.
“What in tarnation do you men have in this packsaddle? It must weigh three hundred pounds,” Duncan said as he and Moses lifted the rig from one mule.
“You’ll have to help me with this one over here too, it weighs at least that much,” Joe said as he tried to lift a packsaddle from another mule.
The six Bucks grinned at one another, knowing this was going to be fun, telling them about the gold coins and money they’d discovered while hunting.
Ezra and Isaac both nudged Little Eli as they looked at him to tell their dads all about their outlaw booty they’d discovered.
“Well, when the full force of the blizzard set in up there, we lucked up and found a cave in a rock bluff not far from the Arkansas and moved our camp in there. We found some human bones and three skulls and it looked like two had been shot in the head. We started poking around and found some paper money and gold coins that had been in there for what we figured, a lot of years,” he told them as the men looked at them, then one another and grinned.
“I know you counted it, how much did you find, gold and paper money all told?” Duncan asked as he grinned proudly at Isaac.
Isaac looked at Little Eli. He just grinned and nodded back at Isaac to answer his dad.
“We counted the gold coins pretty close and just counted the bundles of paper money after we counted the bills in one. Near as we could figure, we found a total of three hundred and sixty eight thousand dollars!” Isaac told his dad.
“Whoooooeeee. Hottt Damnnn ... That’s a lot of money!” Duncan yelled and grabbed Isaac in another hug.
“What are you men gonna do with all that money? I know you’ve already thought of a hundred things you could buy,” Eli said, looking at Little Eli with a grin.
“Well, we sort of wanted to give it to you and Jon David to put back so we could buy some ranch land for each of us to have when we get old enough.”
“Eli ... I’m proud of all you men. More proud all the time, and now you’ve gone on a hunt by yourselves and killed food for the family and you’ve even found yourselves some outlaw loot and already planning to save it to buy land with. You men are men in my book,” Eli told him as he grabbed his four sons.
“You men know that would mean each of you could buy around forty thousand acres with that kind of money. Do y’all really want a ranch with that many acres?”
“We talked about it and I told them I’d like to have about that much, maybe a little more to raise cattle and breed horses. I’d like to do like y’all are doing here on Crow Ridge and raise all our own hay, corn, and oats for feed too.”
“Then we’ll let Jon David handle all this money. I’ll tell Jefferson and Howard to be on the lookout for a big spread for each of you as they travel.”
“We know it may be hard to do, but we’d like our ranches to be close together ... even joining, if we can.”
“There’s still a lot of land out there to be bought when the government buys back the Indian lands and sells it off. We’ll find you something. I reckon y’all want to be off on your own, is that what you’re saying?”
“We’d kind of like that. Y’all have taught us how to be independent, work, hunt, use any gun we have. We’ve learned a lot about cattle with y’all and the Barkley brothers teaching us.”
“Then I’ll make sure all of you get what you want. I’m ready for my Bucks to be grown and have me some more grand babies.”
“We’re ready too Dad, we just have a few more years to go.”
“It’ll pass before you know it, too. Don’t let me push you too fast and don’t y’all hurry your life away either. I know you’ll be some fine young men, and after this hunt, we all know you’ll always be on the lookout for the means to get what you want in this world. Didn’t no one give it to me and the other men. they won’t give it to you either. Just don’t let this discovery be known to anyone outside the families.”
“We won’t and thanks, Dad.”
“Y’all go on in the house and spend some time with your mommas and sisters, they’ve missed y’all like we have.
The next day in the barn the men and their sons walked out to the barn to get out of the house for a while. The temperatures were still cold, but with the warm sunshine, the snow was melting more each day.
They wanted to hear the details of the deer hunt. Each of the men knew the Bucks had just skimmed over the most of the story. Now, they wanted to hear it all.
They laughed and grinned with pride at one another as their sons told their stories about the hunt, and about finding skeletons in the cave with the buried gold and money. They listened to each of them tell the story about killing their first big buck and how they were excited just to be out there together.
When the Bucks told them of making travois for the mules so they could haul their deer and supplies back on, they thought the story was about to wind down.
“How deep was the snow when you started back across the open plains?” Duncan asked.
This was the time to tell their dad’s about the encounter with the huge pack of wild dogs.
As soon as they told about seeing the first small pack, the men stopped smiling and sat in silence as they told about killing two packs of dogs that had came out in the open to look them over.
From there, the story grew until they each told parts, telling the men what the others did, never telling what they, themselves had done during the ordeal with the feral dogs.
“You men did the right thing by staying where you had firewood,” Moses told them. “You’d have been in real trouble out there in the open with mules and horses too tired to run and the snow belly deep to them,” he finished.
“Moses is right. We’re all proud of you men. Each time you handle yourselves like men when you’re faced with danger, you prove again how much you’ve learned and how much all of you are growing up. We’re all proud of you Bucks,” Duncan told them.
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“Kit, would you and Ruby want to wear buckskins like we do?” Caleb asked as they all talked, ate, and became friends. “We sure do. Marshal Eli told us we could, and said he’d even give us our own horse,” Kit answered. “We’ll have to round up our horses in the morning and see how many we have now. Daddy may have to get more horses from our friend, Iron Hammer. He’s the main man in the Cherokee Tribe that owns all the lands around us,” Little Eli said. “Momma told me we could all go down to...
Crow Ridge Cattle Company Tulsa, Indian Territory Thanksgiving Day November 27,1884: “Here come the Buffalo Soldiers, they’re crossing the river now!” Isaac yelled as he jumped off the back porch, headed toward the barn where the men, the girls, and the rest of the Bucks were gathered. The women had run the men and younger ones from the house so they could finish cooking and get the dinner ready. This was to be the biggest feast and biggest celebration they’d had to date. The men, the...
When they finished unloading the flatcar, they headed back to the house. Smitty, Leon, James, and Albert were on the wagon and Eli drove. “Smitty, I need to have a talk with you. Want to walk down to the river with me?” Eli asked. “Sure Eli, let me get a drink from the pump and I’ll be ready.” “I’ll meet you out front.” Eli went through the house and into the kitchen where the women were fixing supper. “Corinne, come go with me,” Eli said. “Eli, I’m not sure about this now. Can we wait...
After an early start in the cold hours of morning, they rode hard and steady all day, stopping to relieve themselves twice and eat from the grub sack. They made Kansas City, Missouri late in the day as the sun was sinking behind the cold flat horizon, across the river in Kansas. They stopped at a big fancy hotel and registered as Eli and Rose Crow. The desk man was hesitant at first to let the two Half-Breeds stay in his hotel, but saw the Deputy U.S. Marshal badge and the Indian Police...
“ELI! You’re back. Did you get the last one? Dal said you thought there was a woman with them too,” Sam Connor greeted his grandson when he came through the back door, stomping the mud off his feet. Eli was soaked, his buckskins wet and clinging to his body, his moccasins filled with mud and water. He hadn’t even put his long coat on when he left Young’s Store. The back of his coat was shot out anyway. “They’re all taken care of, Grandpa. How’s Grandma? She alright after all this?” He...
When they reached the river’s edge, Kit laid the fuses and caps on a stump. Ruby handed Kit a stick of dynamite and picked up a cap and a short fuse. Eli and the others watched as she inserted the end of a fuse into the open end of the blasting cap, then put her fingers about an inch from the end of the brass. She stuck this short end of the exposed brass into her mouth with the extra fuse trailing down her chin. They could see her straining her jaws as she bit down on the brass, clamping it...
Eli had planned their trip himself and since he wanted them to stay a few days in Boones Crossing without being in a rush, he decided to take his dad’s advice and travel to Kansas City first then come back to Boones Crossing. Though he and Isaac didn’t wear their guns, they did have their knives on their hips, with their guns packed in their traveling bags. Both were dressed in buckskins and their girls dressed in finery like the other women traveling on the train. They ate one meal in the...
Saturday October 3, 1896 Crow Valley, Oklahoma Territory “Let me see that map again, Deuce,” Ezra said. He stood next to Eli and Isaac as they looked at the map. They had just gotten their first orders as Deputy United States Marshals two days ago, and the six of them were excited as they saddled up. They’d packed the night before and already had their two packsaddles loaded with tents, food and supplies for at least a two-week stay once they reached their destination. They were being sent...
Dal Hopkins had been half asleep, half-awake as he worried about his town. He heard a man whisper something behind him in the cell. Was he dreaming? Could it really be? HE KNEW THAT VOICE... He’d know that voice in the middle of a windstorm on the plains or in a howling snowstorm on top of a mountain. No matter where on earth he was, he would know that voice... Eli was here. He knew it was him! How – he didn’t know, but that was Eli Crow behind him, he’d bet his life on it. “Marshal,...
Eli knew he had a battle on his hands convincing the mommas of his sons and daughters that his plan was the best way to keep the Bucks, the Crow girls and the rest of them from having babies and still let them spend time with their friends. He figured the best way to handle this was to get them all at once and get it over with. Miranda, Clarissa, Tin Yu, Catt, Eva, Rose, Sissy, Suh, Juni, and Grandma were gathered together out away from the others. Eli wanted all of them to listen to what he...
Boones Crossing, Kansas July 23, 1889 Little Eli, Kit, Ruby, and Isaac arrived in Boones Crossing early, making the short trip from Kansas City in only a matter of two hours. They had accompanied their friends to the train station the evening before and watched as they boarded the train to Colorado. This was a tearful parting of new friends with all of them vowing to meet again soon. The McInnis sisters especially took it hard, sobbing as they sat on the train and waved out the window to...
Crow Ridge September 1, 1896 “Come on in, Ezra. Your dad and I wanted to talk to you before you head back to Crow Valley,” Rose told her son. Jefferson was sitting up in bed with the covers pulled to his waist. “Dad, are you feeling any better?” Ezra asked as he walked over to sit at his bedside and lay his hand on top Jefferson’s right hand. “I feel better today, Son. This has actually been one of my better days in the past few months. “Dad, I suppose I’ve always taken for granted that...
When the Buffalo Soldiers rolled in from Little Tree with empty wagons, all of them jumped in and loaded them as quickly as possible. There were fifteen more loads to ship after they held back the last three loaded wagons to take to Tulsa. Willis turned fifteen of his men right back around, telling them to get on back so they could all head over to Tulsa and start learning to be oil well drillers. The next morning early, Eli and Jon David were sitting by the fire outside, drinking coffee...
Eli knew he had to get over to the women as soon as he could. He saw them laughing and talking with Analisa, pointing now and then toward where he stood. Even Sissy, Miranda, and Grandmother were huddled with the young Mexican woman, whispering and laughing. When Catt and Eva pulled her aside, they were laughing aloud and Eli knew it was time to go. “I see all of you have met Analisa. I hope you’ll make her welcome. I’ve asked her to work for us when we get back to Tulsa,” Eli told them when...
Two weeks earlier, when Duncan and Eli had split as they arrived in Tulsa, Duncan felt alone as he rode north toward Kansas. Though he’d been a deputy marshal for over two years when he met Eli, he’d grown to like hid friend so well that he missed his company and the friendship they shared together on their trips into the Territory. He rode into southern Kansas two days later, after riding late like he and Eli often did when they first met. He wanted to hurry and do his law business, then...
The men of Crow Ridge Cattle Company loaded the second trainload of cattle bound for Kansas City and knew there wasn’t time to load another fifteen cars before dark. The first trainload would have to make it to the next sidetrack, near the Kansas state line, before the two empty trains could travel on down to Tulsa. They made plans to start loading at daylight the next day. The empty trains would arrive during the night and have to lay over. They gathered around after the first day of...
The Waco Kid never raised his head as he reached out to pick up a stick and thrash it across the bedroll nearest him. “Get your asses up, we got a score to settle this morning and I’m ready to get started!” he said loudly. The other men began to stir in their bedrolls and The Waco Kid rolled over to sit up. He had yet to look up as he pulled his boots on, then picked up his two pistols and shoved them down in his holsters. He stretched his arms over his head, wincing at the pain in his ribs,...
Crow Ridge March 29, 1889 The family was up before dawn to see the Crow girls and the Young Bucks off. Even their younger brothers and sisters were up. Eli cornered Little Eli and Ezra as soon as they came downstairs and pulled them aside. “I need to give you men something. I’ve been wanting to tell you about this, but never felt like it was the right time until now. “Eli, back when you told me that you Bucks wanted to have a place of your own and still wanted it to be near each other, I...
Union Station Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania June 19, 1885 Eli had been on the train for four days when he arrived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They had an hour layover there, one of many layovers they’d had on his long train ride from Indian Territory. After he’d found the toilets to relieve himself, he sat inside the huge train station and watched the hundreds of people coming and going. He’d never seen this many people in one place ever before, not even in Kansas City at the ballpark. He kept...
“This is absolutely beautiful. I just love the way the houses and barns look with all the pecan trees around,” Miranda said. “It does look good and shady back in them trees. We need to plant some pecan trees over at the other place to shade it a little, I reckon,” Eli agreed. “You boys get you some clean buckskins and go back behind the barn and get a bath,” Eli told the six boys. “Miranda, would you help Sissy get the girls back there and get them bathed?” “I will, but first we’re going...
There were snow flurries blowing in the wind, with a light blanket already covering the ground when the Bucks started out the next morning after saying their goodbyes to the family. They were dressed in their buckskins with their union suits underneath and heavy boiler overalls over their buckskins. Each had a leather fur-lined cap pulled down over their head and ears. They wore wool scarves backed with flannel over their faces, leaving only a slit with their eyes exposed as they rode...
Eli and Duncan headed out of town with their wagon load of prisoners. Bud Parkins drove the wagon, Duncan and Eli rode their horses. “Eli, I already like this horse pretty good. He’s as tall and long legged as that big stud you got.” “Yep, you got a good’un, Duncan.” They turned south at the creek crossing, and rode right by Noonan’s ranch. “You could at least let me see my wife before you take me back,” Noonan said. “I’ll go see if she wants to see you... “Duncan, you keep them headed...
“What can I do for you, Mister? You look to be part Indian. Are you?” The man behind the window at the train station said as Eli walked up to the window to send a telegraph message back to Little Tree. “I need to send a message over to Little Tree, Texas. Can you do that for me?” Eli said, ignoring the man’s remark. “I sure can. Who is it for and what name do you want on it?” “Put my name on it, Marshal Eli Crow. Send it to Hoke at the livery. Tell him I need him to get word to my folks at...