The Baron of Coyote River by L. Ron Hubbard
“Poor Howdy,” choked Poison. “Poor Howdy. He give up his life to rid us of disaster. But his noble sacrifice shall never be forgotten. We shall build a monument to his civic pride that his fame shall forever endure. Gentlemen, let us drink to the unselfish heroism of Howdy . . .”
“Make mine rye,” said Howdy, pocketing his silver watch.
Not a man moved.
“I said ‘rye,’” repeated Howdy, grinning.
They gave him rye. They gave him quarts and barrels of rye. They set before him all the rye in Powderville and helped him drink it down.
They plied him with questions, they ladened him with praise. But Howdy just sat and drank and grinned.
The Slash Bar crew heard the news and rode hilariously in. Guns banged in the streets. Three mirrors were splintered in the first hour. Before nine o’clock five fights had started. By ten, a man had to shout to be heard more than two feet.
In the midst of happy bedlam sat Howdy. He beamed with fatherly pride. He was fondly observing the feet of his workmanlike job which protruded from under the pool table.
Poison, weary of dispensing, at last found a moment to talk.
“Howdy, anything you want is yours. Anything! Whatever you’d like to have us gents do for you, just speak up. We won’t ask you how you done it; we won’t ask nothing but the privilege of honoring your presence amongst us. What’ll you have, Howdy?”
“If it won’t be no bother,” said Howdy, peering over a glass rim and digging into his shirt, “there’s a couple bills I can’t square on account of not having no money.”
Poison took them and read them.
THE RINGTAIL PRINTING SHOP
Printing 50 reward posters for
H. Johnson . . . . . $5 Bucks
“Then,” gasped Poison, “that Chicago shooting was just a come-on! But—”
The other bill said:
POWDERVILLE BLACKSMITHY
Fine shoeing and Iron Work
Howdy Johnson . . . . . $25.00 bucks
For tailoring one ¼ in. sheet-iron shirt
as per specification.
J. Olsen, prop.
Story Preview
NOW that you’ve just ventured through some of the captivating tales in the Stories from the Golden Age collection by L. Ron Hubbard, turn the page and enjoy a preview of Cattle King for a Day. Join Chinook Shannon as he seeks the real identity of the man who killed his grandfather and is now after his ranch—with forgery, sabotage and murder riding by his side.
Cattle King for a Day
ACROSS the street the swinging doors of the Diamond Palace jumped outward. Two hard-looking riders strode down the steps and started to cross the street.
Chinook did not have to be told that these two were part of Kendall’s outfit. Somehow, all of Kendall’s men were of a similar stamp.
Chinook flipped Kendall’s hog leg out and into a pile of straw. The oldster scurried into the dimness, still covering Kendall.
“Come on,” said the bowlegged one to Chinook. “Don’t stand there gawping. We’ve got to get the hell out of here before them two arrive.”
Led hurriedly out through the rear of the building, Chinook had no time to speculate upon his savior’s identity and the oldster seemed to take it as a matter of course that Chinook knew.
They skirted the back of the livery stable, walking over piles of rubbish and, at the bowlegged one’s request, entered another smaller shack which had barred windows.
A man with a big nose and flabby jowls looked up from a newspaper, over his upraised boot toes and at the two callers. A large star was prominent upon his chest.
“Hello, Deke,” said the sheriff. “Who’s your friend?”
“He’s Chinook Shannon. Can’t you tell it? You always was blind in one eye. You got to give him a hand. Kendall was just trying to knock him off over in the barn.”
“My, my,” said the sheriff, rubbing his nose and looking apprehensively at the door. “Er . . . aw . . . do you suppose they know he came in here, Deke?”
“No, they think maybe he rode away. Shannon, in spite of that jackrabbit expression on his face, this is Sheriff Taggart. Your grandpappy put him in office.”
Chinook shook Taggart’s flabby, wet hand.
“In case your grandpappy never mentioned me to you, I’m Deacon Murphy, his foreman.”
“Pleased to meet you,” said Chinook. “Now that we’re all properly introduced, let me inquire about this Kendall. How come he’s running Bull Butte?”
“Took it over this spring,” said Deke. “The son of a jackass took over a mine up Pan Creek, poisoned all our stock with cyanide and raised hell in general. Damn him, he didn’t fight square. He murdered your grandpappy and then went over the rest of us like a prairie fire. The boys scattered to hell and gone but I’ve hung around Bull Butte for two months waiting for you to come. And now that you’re here, you’ve only got the place for a day and we can’t do anything in that length of time.”
“How about the courts?” said Chinook.
“Er . . . aw . . . ahumph,” said Taggart. “When the circuit judge came . . . er . . . Deke Murphy was the only witness that could be got—”
“Because you was scared to testify,” snapped Deke, rubbing emphatically at his gray whiskers. “But what you going to do, son?”
“Murphy,” said Shannon, “the least I can do is nail the man that shot my grandfather.”
“Kendall,” said Deke.
“And I can at least make a try to save the Slash S.”
“Borden’s got his bug eye on it,” said Deke.
“I know. I’ve talked to him. Murphy, all my life I’ve wanted to be what they call a cattle king. I’ve drifted around and I’ve never really amounted to much. Well, I’m one now, if only for twenty-four hours. Sheriff, if I shoot it out with this crowd, where do I stand with you?”
“Well . . . aw . . . er . . . ahumph . . . aw . . . that is, if you were to get all of them, Shannon, all of them, I think you would find me quite agreeable. But I . . . er . . . aw . . . cannot countenance any slaughter which would . . . aw . . . fail to clean out them all. You are, after all, Shannon, but one man and they are twenty-one. I am afraid . . .”
“You don’t have to tell him how scared you are,” snapped Deke. “If we get them all, is it to be an even break in the eyes of the law?”
“An uneven break,” said Taggart, “if you should ask me. I am afraid, Deke, that this young man is committing suicide—”
“That’s my lookout,” said Chinook. “First, Murphy, we’d better look over the Slash S and that mine. Sheriff, you’ll please give us a hand in getting our horses?”
“Not me,” said Taggart, definitely.
“Then you cover me, Murphy,” said Chinook. “Daylight’s burning.”
To find out more about Cattle King for a Day and how you can obtain your copy, go to www.goldenagestories.com.
Glossary
STORIES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE reflect the words and expressions used in the 1930s and 1940s, adding unique flavor and authenticity to the tales. While a character’s speech may often reflect regional origins, it also can convey attitudes common in the day. So that readers can better grasp such cultural and historical terms, uncommon words or expressions of the era, the following glossary has been provided.
angoras: chaps (leather leggings the cowboy wears to protect his legs) made of goat hide with the hair left on.
barker: a gun.
batwings: long chaps (leather leggings the cowboy wears to protect his legs) with big flaps of leather. They usually fasten with rings and snaps.
beller: bellow; to emit a hollow, loud animal cry.
blamed: confounded.
blow “charge”: to sound a bugle call that signals cavalry to go into battle.
bung starter: a wooden mallet used for tapping on the bung (cork or stopper) to loosen it from a barrel.
calaboose: a jail.
carbines: short light rifles, originally used by soldiers on horses.
cayuse: used by the northern cowboy in referring to any horse. At first the term was used for the Western horse to set it apart from a horse brought overland from the East. Later the name was applied as a term of contempt to any scrubby, undersized horse. Named after the Cayuse Indian tribe.
Chi: Chicago.
chuck: food.
chuck wagon: a mess wagon of the cow country. It is usually made by fitting, at the back end of an ordinary farm wagon, a large box that contains shelves and has a hinged lid fitted with legs that serves as a table when lowered. The chuck wagon is a cowboy’s home on the range, where he keeps his bedroll and dry clothes, gets his food and has a warm fire.
Colt: a single-action, six-shot cylinder revolver, most commonly available in .45- or .44-caliber versions. It was first manufactured in 1873 for the Army by the Colt Firearms Company, the armory founded by American inventor Samuel Colt (1814–1862) who revolutionized the firearms industry with the invention of the revolver. The Colt, also known as the Peacemaker, was also made available to civilians. As a reliable, inexpensive and popular handgun among cowboys, it became known as the “cowboy’s gun” and a symbol of the Old West.
concha: a disk, traditionally of hammered silver and resembling a shell or flower, used as a decoration piece on belts, harnesses, etc.
coup stick: a stick with which some North American Indian warriors sought to touch their enemies in battle as a sign of courage.
cow town: a town at the end of the trail from which cattle were shipped; later applied to towns in the cattle country that depended upon the cowman and his trade for their existence.
crust: nerve.
cyanide: an extremely poisonous compound. It is used in mining as a method of extracting gold and other metals from raw ore. Cyanide is applied to the ore, where it bonds with microscopic flecks of gold that are then recovered from the cyanide solution.
dast: dare.
’dobe: short for adobe; a building constructed with sun-dried bricks made from clay.
dry washes: dry stream beds, as at the bottom of a canyon.
end man: a man at each end of the line of performers in a minstrel show who engages in comic banter with the master of ceremonies. A minstrel show is a comic variety show presenting jokes, songs, dances and skits, usually by white actors in blackface.
fan: to fire a series of shots (from a single-action revolver) by holding the trigger back and successively striking the hammer to the rear with the free hand.
faro: a gambling game played with cards and popular in the American West of the nineteenth century. In faro, the players bet on the order in which the cards will be turned over by the dealer. The cards were kept in a dealing box to keep track of the play.
fork: mount (a horse).
foundered: gone lame.
four-flushing: fake, phony or fraudulent; characteristic of someone who bluffs or otherwise can’t back up his bragging.
foxed: trimmed.
G-men: government men; agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
gold-chased revolvers: gold-engraved metal, as ornamentation on a gun.
hair pants: chaps (leather leggings the cowboy wears to protect his legs) made with hair-covered hide.
Hannibal: (247–183 BC) Carthaginian general (the ancient city of Carthage was on the coast of North Africa) whose march on Rome from Spain across the Alps remains one of the greatest feats in military history.
hard-boiled shirt: clean shirt; also called a “boiled-collar shirt” as the removable collar was often boiled clean, separately, to allow for an extra day or two’s wear. The collars were often stiff and uncomfortable because they were heavily starched.
Henry: the first rifle to use a cartridge with a metallic casing rather than the undependable, self-contained powder, ball and primer of previous rifles. It was named after B. Tyler Henry, who designed the rifle and the cartridge.
Henrys: cartridges designed by B. Tyler Henry for use in the Henry rifle. The metallic cartridge case, made of copper or brass, had the primer inside a folded rim and contained 25 grains of gunpowder.
hog leg: another name for the popular Colt revolver also known as the Peacemaker.
hogshead: a large barrel or cask with a capacity ranging from 63 to 140 gallons.
hogtied: tied up with all four hands and feet together.
hombres: men, especially in the Southwest. Sometimes it implies rough fellows, toughs; often it means real men.
hone: to yearn; long.
hoss: horse.
howitzers: cannons that have comparatively short barrels, used especially for firing shells at a high angle of elevation for a short range, as for reaching a target behind cover or in a trench.
Hudson Bay: a large inland sea in the northeast of Canada. On the east it is connected with the Atlantic Ocean and on the north with the Arctic Ocean.
iron: a handgun, especially a revolver.
Laredo: a city of southern Texas on the Rio Grande.
lariat: a long noosed rope used for catching horses, cattle, etc.; lasso.
light out: to leave quickly; depart hurriedly.
lights: to land; come to rest.
lobo: wolf; one who is regarded as predatory, greedy and fierce.
lobo wolf: gray wolf.
longhorn: a mean and temperamental person, from the name given the early cattle of Texas because of the enormous spread of their horns that served for attack and defense. Longhorns were not only mean, but the slightest provocation, especially with a bull, would turn them into an aggressive and dangerous enemy. Used figuratively here.
lucifer: a match.
macheer saddle: a saddle covered with a heavy leather called a mochila. The mochila, Americanized by the cowhand to macheer, was split at both ends to fit around the horn and cantle and covered the whole saddle.
man alive: used as an intensive or exclamation.
minstrel show: a comic variety show presenting jokes, songs, dances and skits, usually by white actors in blackface.
monte: a card game in which two cards are chosen from four laid out face up, and a player bets that one of the two cards will be matched in suit by the dealer before the other one.
muleskinner: someone who drives mules.
Nevadas: Sierra Nevada mountain range of eastern California, extending between the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and the Nevada border.
opines: thinks; supposes.
Peacemaker: nickname for the single-action (that is, cocked by hand for each shot), six-shot Army model revolver first produced in 1873 by the Colt Firearms Company, the armory founded by Samuel Colt (1814–1862). The handgun of the Old West, it became the instrument of both lawmaker and lawbreaker during the last twenty-five years of the nineteenth century. It soon earned various names, such as “hog leg,” “Equalizer,” and “Judge Colt and his jury of six.”
Pecos: a city in western Texas and near the southern border of New Mexico.
pemmican: a traditional native North American food made with strips of lean dried meat pounded into a paste, mixed with melted fat and dried berries or fruits and pressed into small cakes.
Pike’s Peak: a mountain, 14,110 feet high, in the Rocky Mountains in central Colorado.
plugged peso: a worthless coin.
port: the position of a rifle or other weapon when it is held with both hands in a slanting direction across the front of the body, with the barrel near the left shoulder.
prop: proprietor.
puncher: a hired hand who tends cattle and performs other duties on horseback.
quirt: a riding whip with a short handle and a braided leather lash.
remuda: a group of saddle horses from which ranch hands pick mounts for the day.
riata: a long noosed rope used to catch animals.
rimfire saddle: a saddle with one cinch that is placed far to the front; also called a Spanish rig or rimmy.
romals: extensions to the reins that function as riding whips.
rowels: the small spiked revolving wheels on the ends of spurs, which are attached to the heels of a rider’s boots and used to nudge a horse into going faster.
running irons: branding irons that are not bent into the shape of the mark, but rather require the user to write the desired brand.
saddle boot: a close-fitting covering or case for a gun or other weapon that straps to a saddle.
Saint Peter: the most prominent of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ.
sandbox: a primitive sort of spittoon, consisting of a wooden box filled with sand.
scabby: covered with scabs, short, flat pieces of wood used for binding two pieces of timber that are butted together, or for strengthening timber at weak spots.
scatter-gun: a cowboy’s name for a shotgun.
Scheherazade: the female narrator of The Arabian Nights, who during one thousand and one adventurous nights saved her life by entertaining her husband, the king, with stories.
scrappin’: scrapping; disagreeing; fighting.
Sharps: any of several models of firearms devised by Christian Sharps and produced by the Sharps Rifle Company until 1881. The most popular Sharps were “Old Reliable,” the cavalry carbine, and the heavy-caliber, single-shot buffalo-hunting rifle. Because of its low muzzle velocity, this gun was said to “fire today, kill tomorrow.”
shootin’ irons: handguns.