THE TRAIL TO TOMBSTONE 11

the next morning billy saddled his horse and rode up the wagon trail to gleeson. he would meet the two wagon loads of stuff that dale had bought and show them the way down to the ranch. dale caught his saddle horse and was brushing him in preperation of saddling when judd wilkinson rode into the yard leading his race horse.dale didnt say anything as he watched wilkinson stare about. he took in all the improvements and especially the little stream of water. when dale stepped around the back of his horse judd looked up." you got my ranch looking pretty good when i get back from the horse races ill move in." dale amiled" dont count on it. you dont have a ranch, i do." " if you think that quit claim i gave you will hold up your nuts. this is my ranch and it will stay mine."judd leaned a bit forward in the saddle to make his point. "your right, the quit claim was worthless.you gambled a ranch you didnt own.. but after a trip to the county seat i got everything cleared up.. this ranch, the brand and all the cattle are mine. so i advise you move on. go on to the horse races and dont come back this way."dale unloaded on jud. " i built all this its mine!"wilkinson almost screamed. " no its mine now move along, i got work to do." dale turned to his horse to saddle him. "wilkinson sat there boiling mad. he started to reach for his side arm, but before he could touch it dale laid his rifle across the back of his horse."you like it so much here ill see you get buried heree if you touch that gun. now git! and dont come back." wilkinson slowley turned his horse and started to ride away glareing at dale all the time" ime comming back and ill bring some help this ranch is mine!" dale said no more but kept the rifle trained on wilkinson until he rode out of range. he saddled his horse and stuck the rifle down into the saddle scabbord. he would have to keep a eye out for the crooked gambler. he steped on his horse and rode out to the south he was going to try and find some cows.he had no idea where the cattle ran or if they were still around.. he hopedm there was some natural water down below but he wasnt sure.the san pedro river was 20 miles or so to the west. it had a good stream of water most of the time.. he hoped his cattle had water closer than that.- a couple of miles from the house he started seeing cattle tracks.. he kept going south following the tracks.. all the tracks drifted south . occasionally he would see cattle grazeing on the ridges on either side of him. they didnt seem wild they simply stood and watched him ride by. the faarther he rode south the thicker the tracks became. soon he rounded a bend in the arroyo he was following and he could see strings of cattle climbing up the slope up ahead. he came to a place there was a drop off over solid rockk of 20 feet ot so. he had to climb the bank and ride around. while up on the slope he looked down and saw a large pool of water. from the rock face of the drop off water was trickling and running down into the pool. dale rode on down to the pools edge and let his horse drink. he was amazed. he didnt know how many cattle this pool would support but it looked like a large amount were drinking here. he needed to lay claim to this before some one else found it. it could be the key to his cattle business. he turned back to ward home.

THE TRAIL TO TOMBSTONE 10

billy had the wagon driven right to the front door in the hous on the back end of the wagon was a wood cooking stove.. it took 4 men to take it of the wagon and carry it in the house.there was sundry other house hold peices. when dale asked him about them billy semed evasive with a answer but finally as they were getting into the load he told dale he knew of a miner who had throwen his hands up and quit the country. " i just got it all before some one else did." one of the teamsters got busy setting the stove up and running the smoke pipe up through the ceiling. out side the other teamster and bill rolled a big wooden barel out of the wagon and stood it up next to the house with the little stream of water running by. there was ten sections of pipe in the bottom of the wagon. therese were laid out next to the barrel. dale stood back wondering what all this was about. all billy would say was you will see. with the wagon empty the two teamsters turned it around and headed back to gleeson. billy was unsaddling his horse whistling a tune. he looked over his horses back"he partner, you better cut us some stove wood when ya do ill cook us some supper later." dale turned as if in a dream and stumbleed over to where the ax was stuck in a mesquite stump. for the next hour or so you could hear the ax ringinging as dale chopped the wood into peices that would fit it the stove. billy had hobbled his horse out with dales and was laying out the pipe from the spring to the barrel he hoped there would be enough drop that he could put the pipe in the top of the barrel.as it turnned out he had to bury the barrel almost a foot to get the water to free flow by gravity into the top of the barrel. when the barrel over flowed the water would fall back into the ditch that carrie it to the corrl. when he had finished it was late in the day. he walked over to the wood pile and with a wink at dale he picked up a arm load of stove wood. dale buried the ax in the wood stump and started across the arroyo to bring the horses.. tomorrow his wagon loads of materiel should show up. looking over at the house a plume of blue smoke was comming from the stove pipe.