Two days after Hank told Lester he saw Tyler checking brands on the strays, he and Lester are in the barn saddling their horses to go out onto the range.
“I saw Senior and Johnny riding out about a half hour ago. Do you have any idea where they’re going?”
Lester replies, “No, one thing I know for sure though is when they ride out together, it’s because they don’t want their conversations overheard. I figure they’re planning something for us to do. We’ll know soon enough when Johnny tells us.”
John Sr. and his oldest son ride for over an hour, to a section of the ranch that has a stream running through it. The area is very flat and they can observe a full 360 degrees around them for a long distance. John Sr. dismounts along with Johnny. They bring their horses down to the stream and then picket them where there is some grazing. Afterwards they pick a shady spot under a rock formation.
“What do you have in mind, Dad? We only come out here when you want to make sure no one in the house can hear us.”
“It’s been three months since we hit the Martins, that leaves us nine more to file a claim for their land. About ten months to file on the Evans place. I don’t like McLane’s changing attitude lately. I think he is going to become a liability once he comes back from the fort.”
“If I hear you correctly, you don’t want him to get back from the fort.”
“That’s what I’m thinking. It needs to be on the fort’s record that he arrived. Suppose something happens to him on the return trip, it could take months to find out what did. They may never find out. We need some breathing room to wait this out.”
“That means someone or a couple of us have to ambush him on the return trip. I figure I know the trail he would take and if I remember right, I know just the place to do it. He would be around two days ride out of the fort and three days ride from Silver Lake. I doubt if there will be anyone searching for him very far from either direction.”
“I want you to do this alone, Johnny. I don’t want any of the boys involved any further than what we already did.”
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