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“No time to waste,” Rafe said, shaking both their hands. “Arthur, I was out checking the herd, and some of them look like they’d be ready for market.”
“You have a good eye. Yes, about half of them are, and you’ll get a good price for them too. The others will either be for the spring or they are raising calves. I can help you out, if you’d like. Your uncle always sold to Banion’s. I can call their man and help you separate the herd. The Banions stay close for the winter, so I’m sure someone will be around.”
“They do more than ranch?” Rafe asked.
“Yeah, they own a beef processing facility. They only accept very high quality, and largely sell to the high-end markets or ship it overseas. They pay top dollar for good head, and your uncle always kept up to their standards.” Arthur pulled off his hat and smoothed back his hair. “It used to be that Mack ran five, six hundred head here. It was a good-sized operation for a ranch this acreage. But as he got older, he kept downsizing. Not that I really blame him.”
“Sounds good. I met Russell already.”
“Young Banion? He’s an interesting one. Some kind of ranching and farming computer system genius. Don’t know all that much about it, but a lot of the big operations use his computers. Makes all the tracking and animal breeding and control information super easy for them, or so I’m told.” He plopped his hat back on his head. “The family is well off, but I hear the son is worth more than the rest of them put together. He’s supposed to be a real genius at business.”
“Dad…,” Luther said warningly.
“I ain’t said anything that people in town wouldn’t share if asked.” Arthur smiled. “Luther does work for them sometimes.” Luther cleared his throat, clearly a little uncomfortable. “Don’t worry, son, I don’t know nothing about nothing.” He rolled his eyes, but it was pretty clear that Arthur was proud of his son.
“If you’d give them a call, I’d appreciate it. Russell Banion offered to send some of his hands over Saturday afternoon to help out around here too.” Rafe pulled his jacket closed around him. Now that he wasn’t working so hard, the cold seeped in.
Arthur and Luther shared a look that Rafe couldn’t quite figure out.
“That’s right neighborly of him,” Arthur said.
“And I had another visitor today. Grant Mendeltom made me an offer on the ranch. Or at least, he said he wanted to buy it and that he’d give me a good price.”
Concern flashed in Arthur’s eyes for just a second. He glanced at Luther and then began looking around. “Son, I’ll give you my opinion, and you can take it for what it’s worth. This land, what you got here, is a real good place. And Mack left it to you. Why, none of us know. But this is your place, and God ain’t making any more land. And once it’s sold, then Mendeltom will do whatever he wants with it, and you’ll be standing over there, looking in, wishing you still had a place like this to call home. There ain’t many of us small ranchers left. Every year, the big guys get bigger, and the smaller places sell, either for homes or to guys like Mendeltom who want to get as big as they can.”
Rafe smiled. “Thank you. I appreciate your honesty.” And it only helped confirm his initial opinion.
Arthur grinned. “Son, I ain’t being honest. If I were, I’d say that I’d give my eyeteeth to have this place. It’s got amazing pastureland and all the fresh water you want, coming right down out of those mountains. If the cattle don’t pan out, you can feed yourself from the trout in the stream.”
Rafe didn’t quite know what to say. “You make this place seem like an Eden.”
“It ain’t that, but son, let me tell you, it’s as close as you’re going to get in the state of Colorado. Especially for men like us.” Rafe liked that Arthur included him in that category.
“Well, thank you. And I don’t want to sell. I have memories here. They’re faded and kind of misty, but they’re there.” This place could be where he made a home. Besides, there were things here that he felt he had to do. And one of them was to head down to the bank to see what was in the box his uncle had left him the key to.
“Can I offer you some coffee?” Rafe asked, motioning toward the house.
“No, thank you,” Luther said. “We just wanted to check in. Dad will call Banion’s and arrange for the cattle transport. He can also give you the names of some breeders who will sell you some calves, though Banion might be able to do that too. They often have some to sell.”
“Good. I’d like to increase the herd come spring.”
“We’ll get you fixed up, don’t worry,” Arthur told him. “I was a friend of your uncle’s for a lot of years.” He patted Rafe on the shoulder.
“Thank you.” He was starting to feel a little overwhelmed. “I’m going to go to the bank on Monday,” he said to Luther. “I was wondering if you’d mind going with me, just in case there’s something in there of a legal nature.” He had no idea what he was going to find in his uncle’s safe-deposit box.
“Sure. I can meet you there at ten,” Luther said. Then he looked back to their truck. “Dad and I should go and let you finish up your work.”
“I’ll have the Banion rep call you to settle the details for getting the cattle to market,” Arthur told him.
Rafe thanked both men, then watched them drive away before he returned to his work. If he wanted to get this ranch back on its feet, then he had a lot of work to do in a very short time. At least he’d finished one paddock. Once everything was put away, he let the dogs out with the herd, then got in his truck and headed into town.
Groceries were the first item on his list, followed by building supplies, and then a huge bag of food for the dogs. By the time he was ready to head back, the truck was loaded to the gills.
Twenty minutes later, he was home again. But when he turned into the drive, he found yet another visitor standing in his yard. “Is this fucking Grand Central Station?” he asked out loud. He got out of the truck as the man strode over.
“What are you doing here?” Rafe asked as his father approached. He hadn’t seen his dad in five years or so, and the man had put on a lot of weight.
“I heard that you had inherited the ranch from Mack.” He shook his head as he looked around. “The wages of sin.”
