Boys Become Men: Book Three ~ Mountain Ranch

All three blossomed under the care of Paul Black Stone, for all his rough looks, the man was a gentle and kind father to the three boys. Paul had done two years of the University before he had been called up by the Navy and he valued education greatly. He had a large collection of books and each evening he sat down with each boy and helped them read. He saw that his oldest son, Gordy, was interested in the medical books he had, so he encouraged the boy and, by the following summer, Gordy was assisting his Papa in treating the medical problems of the folk living on Red Mountain Ranch. All three boys asked if they could have their Papa's name and soon, everyone knew them as the Black Stone Brothers! Spring comes late to the high mountains, by late April everyone was ready to be released from the house and begin working outside. Gardens needed planting, the fields needed turning and both the cattle and the horses were anxious to be let out to pasture.

The Black Stone Brothers were much loved among the people at Red Mountain Ranch and what had been done to them was a source of anger among them all. The oldest brother, Gordy, had become the assistant to his new Papa, Paul, and he was the one who treated the boys for blisters, splinters and hammered fingers as they assisted around the ranch.

Everyone thought Gordy was doing fine until Paul discovered the young man huddled in the corner of their bedroom, sitting on the floor crying. He sat beside his son and held him until his sobs subsided, then he asked him, "Son, what is troubling you, how can I help you?"

Gordy replied, "Papa, that man, The Master, he is stilling hurting kids and I keep dreaming he will come here and take Robby and David back! He were doin' nasty, sexy things to them."

Paul's stomach dropped into a deep pit as he asked, "What kind of things, son?"

Gordy replied, "Ya know, sex things Papa, he were usin' them like they was girls."

Paul was very calm, but his insides were boiling with rage. He helped Gordon back into bed and tucked him in, kissing him and telling him that The Master would never be able to reclaim him or any of his brothers.

He sat with Gordy until he was sure the young man was asleep before he went to George Yellowbush and repeated his son's story. Both men were angry beyond words and George said, "We must tell this to Mr. Oliver and Mr. Jim. They will help us put a stop to this monster!"

Neither man was able to sleep that night, their rage was seething and their jaws hurt from gnashing their teeth

The next morning, while Gordy was holding "sick call" for the boys working on the ranch, George and Paul called on Oliver and Jim. After Paul had repeated what his son had told him, both Oliver and Jim were in a rage, their faces scarlet and their fists were knotted in anger.

Jim asked, "I wonder how long this has been going on, I think I will have a talk with some of my school mates. Are Georgie and some of the others busy right now?"

George replied, "Last I saw them, they were patching the hen coop, a coyote tried to get in last night."

Jim was off in a flash, Carl was right behind him. Both young men had the look of fiery anger on their faces. After both Jim and Carl had spoken to several of their high school classmates and a number of the younger boys who had been rescued from Flagstaff, the two men were in a total rage and were nearly unable to speak!

They collected all the young men about their own age and Jim told Oliver that they had some business that had to be taken care of in Flagstaff.

Both Oliver and George knew what the two younger men had been investigating and they asked Jim and Carl, "Guys, do you need some help?"

They both replied, "Nope, we got our own Posse!" He was pointing to a dozen young men, White teens and Indian teens, saddling up their horses. It would be the last time any of them ever made the distinction of skin color.

It was early in the next morning as the group rode towards Flagstaff, they were all armed with rifles, except for Carl, he was carrying a 12 ga. shotgun, loaded with double ought buckshot, in his scabbard. He had reloaded the shells himself the night before, making sure the powder charge was maximum and the shot chamber completely filled with buckshot!

They didn't push the horses, they rode at a gentle trot, their faces grim and speaking little. They arrived in the early afternoon, there were few people around and those few, upon spotting the grim-faced young men, scattered in the direction that would get them out of the line of fire the fastest.

The rumor spread rapidly that the Red Mountain Men were in town and that they were angry! Mothers called in their children and men made themselves scarce. Those boys were all huge men and they worked on a ranch, where their muscles got a workout almost every day.

Between the bulging shirtsleeves and bull-like necks of the young Ranchers, the few men of Flagstaff decided it weren't their fight, they heard their mothers and their wives calling them for lunch! RIGHT NOW!

They rode up to the warehouse the small boys had described to them, and Carl called out, "Jason Traske, we have business with you. Come out or we will drag you out!" There was no answer and Carl repeated his challenge. They waited another five minutes before Carl dismounted and blasted the door open with his shotgun.

Jim remained mounted, and Carl led six men into the dim confines of the warehouse. There were children everywhere, chained to cables run between the pillars of the building. Carl shouted, "Where are you Jason Traske?" Just then a shot rang out, barely missing Carl and splattered on the concrete floor, making the horses shy and skitter.

They found the man hiding in an office, and Carl blasted the door open with his shotgun. Two young men dragged a screaming and kicking man from the office. Carl demanded of the man, "Jason Traske, what have you done to these children?"

The man sneered and replied, "Got them jobs so they could eat!"

Carl backhanded the man, leaving his face bloody and repeated his question. The man, Jason Traske snarled and said, "So I used them a bit, theys only brats n' theys doesn't deserve no better!" Carl again backhanded the man and sent him sprawling against the building wall. He attempted to get up and Carl kicked him in the ribs, sending him sprawling across the floor. He lay still, shuddering and trembling hoping he would not be kicked again.

Two of the riders dismounted and tied the man's hands behind his back. They goose stepped him outside, where there was an ancient oak shading the front of the building. When he saw Jim throwing a rope over the lower limb, he began to cry and scream. Jim said, "Gag him!"

By now a small crowd had gathered, and they watched in horror as Carl fitted the noose around the man's neck and handed the other end of the rope to Jim. Carl ripped the gag from the man's mouth and said, "Do you have any last words?" The man remained defiant and screamed obscenities at Carl, spitting in his face!

Carl calmly wiped the spittle from his own face and shouted to the crowd, "This man rapes children and uses them for his foul pleasures. He keeps children as slaves and rents them out for others to use. If any of you are those who hurt these children, or ANY CHILDREN, you shall join this monster who calls himself, 'MASTER'! We will come for you all, NEXT!"

Several men dodged out of the crowd and headed up the street, not knowing that three very angry Indian men were waiting for them with ropes in their hands. The men did not survive their meeting any longer than it took the Indian men to hang them. All Indians had a love for children, even those not their own.

He signaled Jim and the man was hoisted up, his feet dangling above the ground as his face turned beet red. When his struggles ceased, Jim tied the rope off to the tree, leaving the dead man swinging in the afternoon breeze.

He gazed over the crowd and said, "See that you do not join this beast, we shall not allow children to be hurt!" Many of those in the gathered crowd shivered and hurried away.

The three Indian men brought back the several men who had tried to run away, and they hanged them without ceremony, alongside their "master"!

The young men gathered up the remaining children and placed them on their horses in front of them. They held them as they rode off, making sure each child felt safe in their arms. They brought thirteen additional children back to Red Mountain Ranch to be cared for.

It took Gordy and Paul several hours to care for the children's hurts and just as long for Mr. Oliver and Miz Emma to dry the tears of the young men who had gone to Flagstaff to retrieve them. They might have the stature of men nearly grown, but they remained yet, teen boys and they were hurting as much as the injured children, only their wounds did not show on the outside.

It would be weeks before they could sleep the whole night through and, for the rest of their lives, those wounded children would haunt their dreams. They still had some more emotional growing to do.

As spring progressed, the soil warmed and the boys got the garden plowed while the cowboys moved the herd down to the spring pasture, the cows were ready to drop their calves and two of the mares were in foal.

Tommy led the small boys around the ranch, showing them the things they could help by doing. His leg no longer bothered him and Mr. Oliver had made him a new crutch, proof he was growing taller.

They were out of room again and the older boys bladed another row for more apartments. Soon, the sawmill was announcing logs being run through the ripsaw and smoke came belching out the stack on the dry kiln combustor. The clatter of the two steam engines could be heard all around the ranch.

Miz Emma gathered all the younger children and began teaching them their letters and numbers, while Paul held classes for the older boys and girls. The mystery of sums and division was snarling through their brains that were more interested in being outside in the bright sunshine.

After classes, many of the older boys were seen riding with the cowboys or helping frame the new apartments. The older girls helped Miz Emma in the kitchen, or worked on sewing new clothes for the boys, who were growing like weeds.

Mr. Oliver showed a couple of the boys how to work leather, their first few attempts at making boots were pretty awful, but, before long, usable cowboy boots were seen sitting on the front porch for any who needed new boots. Some of them had been hand stitched with colored leather panels in them, the older cowboys looked in wonder at the new boots, they didn't last long, sitting on the porch. It was rarely more than an hour before a cowboy had decided they would fit him!

The community was growing and the young men who had gone to Flagstaff with Jim and Carl, reported there was no more supplies to be had from that town. They enlarged the gardens and experimented with a wheat field. They kept all of the calves that had been dropped, trying to enlarge the herd.

A couple of the boys captured a small group of sheep that had been abandoned from a neighboring ranch and brought them home. They hoped to raise them for meat and the wool. Several of the Indian women had looms and told the boys they would weave them some shirts from the first shearing.

The boys brushed and cleaned those sheep trying to make the wool grow faster! Many of their shirts were getting too small and they had already been seen drooling over the beautiful shirts the Indian men were wearing!

The boys were sure they were going to be old and gray before those sheep were ready for shearing! But, it was only that summer that several Indian men showed them how to shear the sheep and, by fall, they were wearing their, brightly colored new shirts!

They didn't try to corral the pigs that had gone feral, but several Indian boys showed the others how to make spears and Mr. Oliver had to start up the smokehouse, there was going to be ham and bacon back in their diet!

The first pig hunt brought in twelve boar, the smell of smoking pork and ham had everyone drooling! The first morning that Miss Emma served pork sausage mixed with the abundant sage that grew wild everywhere, and fried crisp, several more boys volunteered to hunt feral boar despite the fact that the meat was a bit tough and chewy"!

As summer began, Billy Paige, Carl's younger brother, came to Carl begging his assistance. A short time later, the two brothers were seen knocking on the door of Ken and Willow Running Deer's apartment. A very frightened Billy was asking permission to wed Laughing Bird, their daughter.

Ken Running Deer had been expecting Billy, his wife, Willow, had already warned him of the couple's love for each other. Ken let Billy squirm for a while, until he could no longer contain his laughter. He welcomed Billy into the Family with a tight hug. Poor Billy was ready to collapse, but his wide grin told Carl that his not-so little brother was very happy.

Willow stood quietly, while Billy spoke to her father, and when her father hugged Billy, she squealed in delight and kissed both Billy and her Father. She even gave Carl a hug and a kiss and whispered in Carl's ear, "I will give you another kiss to take home to Jimmy." Carl blushed, but he dutifully took that kiss home and gave his own to his mate, Jimmie!

The two of them chuckled all evening and each time they did, Billy just grinned and his cheeks flamed red.

There was no minister living among them so the duty of marrying the new couple fell to the elders of both groups, Mr. Oliver and Chief George Yellowbush. The women went all out and, on the appointed day, the area in front of the Ranch House was cleared and set up for the wedding.

Billy was dressed in new jeans and a hand woven red-checked shirt. He was wearing brand new boots and a new bolo with a large turquoise stone set in a silver setting. Tommie had helped his Papa Paul pound out two silver rings made from silver coins for the couple and he served as usher, guiding the new couple to stand before the two elders.

Like all weddings, the women cried and the young men whooped and hollered as soon as the "I do's" were said.

Miz Emma created a wedding feast and there were many stuffed stomachs by the time the new couple retired to their new apartment. There were also two very red faces the next morning, until Miz Emma told the other boys to be still! Still, there were snickers when miz Emma was not around.

Summer passed rapidly, the cows had dropped their calves and the ewes produced a large number of lambs. Several of the hens had gone broody and there were little yellow chicks running all over the pen. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon, Chief Yellowbush had held a service honoring the Great Spirit and everyone was taking a day of rest.

Jim looked down the road and saw two horsemen approaching in a cloud of dust. They were riding hell bent for election, with foam and froth flying from the horses' mouths!

He signaled Carl and they both went down to meet the two riders, both men were concerned that something was very wrong as they did not recognize either of the riders.

Two young Indian men flung themselves from their horses gasping, "HHHhHeelp us, please help us!" The two men were exhausted as well as frighten that these white people would not assist them.

They found out the two young men were from the small village of Cameron and they had been hit by raiders. Many villagers were hurt and the trading post had been burned. The young men's horses were done in, so Jim told their own young men to saddle up two horses for their visitors while they were saddling their own.

In less time than the telling, there were fifteen riders racing northwards towards Cameron. They were pushing their horses as fast as they dared, it was a long trip and they dared not founder their horses.

That the riders were angry was evident in their grim faces and clenched jaws and anyone seeing them would be sure to get the hell out of their way, NOW!

Doc Paul was riding with them, and Little Tommy was riding behind his Papa, hanging on for dear life. The packhorse carried Doc's bag and a large sack of clean bandages, towels and soap to help the wounded villagers get cleaned up.

Gordy was on his own horse and had a new medical bag tied to his saddle, a gift from his Papa, it was filled with surgical instruments, a small stock of precious medicines and a small envelope of dried marijuana leaves to be used as a pain killer. They had run out of medicines like that and were forced to rely upon what they could find.

It was dark by the time they got to Cameron, they could hear the wails of hurt adults and children coming from a partially burned out buildings. The two young men who had brought the help to their village, ran interference, as the men of the village barred the entrance to damaged buildings, fearing the raiders had come back.

Doc Paul and his son, Gordy, got right to work, the local men had to find lanterns as the two worked as a team, all night long saving the lives of those who had been injured.

By morning, they had saved all who had been hurt, and both Father and Son were exhausted and hollow eyed. Just as they were about to sit and rest, a young Indian teen came to them and said, "Please to come, please Sirs, me woman is having baby now!"

Weary, the Father-Son Medic Team stood and followed the excited young man to a partially burned shelter, where a young woman was obviously in labor. Their fatigue forgotten, Paul ordered buckets of water to be heated and clean towels found. Gordy laid out his brand new instruments and washed his hands besides his Papa.

Paul whispered, "Gordon, you do this, I will stand and guide you!"

Gordy almost shrieked, "MEEEEEEEEEE?"

Paul replied, "Yes, you, son. You know what to do, and I will be right there beside you."

The two men prepared the young mother and helped her bring forth her son. Paul held the baby while Gordon tied the cord and cut it off. They checked the baby over before wrapping the baby boy in a clean towel and handing him to the new father. Paul watched as Gordon delivered the afterbirth and cleaned up the new mother before he retrieved her new son and laid him against the new mother's breast. He began rooting for his first meal and was soon snoozing comfortably with a full belly.

The young parents named their first born son, Gor-Don Tall Oak.

Finally, Paul and Gordon were allowed to rest, the day was warm, and they were soon asleep in the shade of a tree right outside the burned-out trading post. Their own men stood guard, allowing the village men to rest from their ordeal. That evening, the village Elders held a meeting and asked Paul to attend.

When Paul arrived, he discovered his youngest son, Tommy in deep conversation with the Chief Elder. The old man stood and said, "This young man has told me of a protected place where we might live, without fear of attack. A place where others of our kind live already, and we would be welcomed as friends. There are both Indians and White people living all as one folk. Shall we go to live at this place of safety or shall we remain here and hope the raiders never come back?"

Thus began the trek of the people of Cameron Village to Red Mountain Ranch.

Paul sent two men back to the ranch to alert their people there that the people of Cameron Village were coming home. The villagers gathered their belongings and made ready to accompany the people from Red Mountain Ranch back to their home. With a new baby, it was a slow trip and took them three days to return home.

Young Gor-Don was a hero among the villagers from Cameron and Tommy was determined that his big brother was going to be known back at the ranch, also! Mary Tall Oak insisted that the young White Medicine Man, Gor-Don was the only person to touch her baby, other than her husband Mike Tall Oak.

Mike had been a sailor on a Navy Ship and he knew what Corpsmen could do, he had no problems letting Paul or his son, Gor-Don, tend his firstborn son. His faith in the two men encouraged others to come for treatment, rather than suffer in misery and silence. Before they could return, both men spent a whole day seeing new patients. Paul patiently assisted his son in doctoring the people of Cameron, they had never had a Medicine Man before now.

Gordon was riding tall beside his father as they entered the yard of Red Mountain Ranch and Tommy was telling the story of his Big Brother as he was getting off the new pony the Cameron Indians had given him.

They were constructing yet another row of apartments for the new folks, it would be a couple of weeks before the new apartments were completed. Miz Emma brought the new baby and his parents into the ranch house to stay until their own apartment was completed. Uncle Gor-Don Black Stone was a frequent visitor and was allowed to hold his namesake. The remainder of their small tribe lived in tents the villagers had set up for them until their new apartments were constructed.

Another fall approached, the wheat was cut and threshed, the corn harvested, and the vegetables were cleaned and stored in the cool room. It was fortunate they had planted more than they thought they would need, now they had another twenty mouths to feed from Cameron.

They would need to be careful, but there was enough to keep everyone fed until the next spring. Deer were scarce in the high country, but what the hunters could bring in, would supplement the stores they had on hand. Oliver had the smokehouse running full-time as they had slaughtered five feral pigs and were making bacon, hams and sausage out of them.

There was a pile of wool from the first full shearing and the women would be busy all winter weaving clothing for their families. They could hear the sound of wooden shuttles clack in the looms in every apartment. Old mothers would sit in the warm fall sunshine, running their embroidery needles back and forth through the cloth that was to become a shirt.

Oliver and George felt it was a good idea to have a Fall Festival of Thanksgiving to thank The Great Spirit for their safety and many blessings. Soon, there were smells of good things cooking and the women broke out their pretty clothes that had been stored away. There was going to be dancing after they had eaten. The newcomers washed what they had and were assisted in making new dresses for themselves and new shirts for their menfolk.

Mary Tall Oak presented Gor-Don with a bright red and white checked shirt that was nearly as red as his face when she kissed him. He would treasure that shirt for his entire life, even after his wife had created a new one, he kept it carefully folded in his trunk of treasures.

Doc Paul received a bright blue and white shirt that he would treasure for the rest of his life wearing it only for special occasions. His son, Paul, would break out his shirt and the two of them stroll through the village, pointing out all the children they had cared for.

The morning of the festival, two small boys were dragooned to turn the crank on the steer being bar-b-cued and they had lots of help when it was discovered the dripping could be caught in a small pan and slurped down while they were cranking! That is, UNTIL their mothers caught them and snatched the drippings away to make a sauce.

Pumpkin pies were made, chickens were roasted, and squashes were baked. By nightfall, there were many groans as women pulled their men to their feet so they could dance! Oliver had set the old windup Victrola out on the porch and there were young Indian men attempting their very first waltz! A good time was had by all!

It would not be long before the winter snows fell upon them, the next day the men began putting the shutters on the windows and moving the hay up to the loft in the barn.

The cowboys brought the herd up from the summer pasture, and they put the sheep in the paddock next to the barn. They repaired any weak places in the coyote fence around the hen house and moved the firewood into the basement of the ranch house.

By the time the first snowflakes began to fall, everyone was snugged down in their homes or apartments for the duration.

Will they all survive the fierce mountain winter? What new horrors will the next year bring and, will civilization ever return to their mountains?