THE WILL 5

it was still dark the next morning when robertos head lights shone through the front windows of the house. tobey was eating breakfast. he got up and put his dirty dishes in the sink and set another cup of coffee on the tablea few seconds later roberto knocked on the door. " come in roberto" tobey yelled. when roberto came in he was followed by a pretty mexican woman. " this juana, she was blakes novia, girl friend. she cleans the house three times a week." tobey thought to him self now i know what is next. " ok. pour her a cup of coffee and sit down" when every one was seated tobey explained about the hay comming and he needed to go to town. he told juana to make a list of what she needed for the house and any grocerys she thought was needed." roberto finished his coffee and stood up " i better make room in the barn for the hay thats comming and maybe clean up the scrap. hay so the stack will sit square and solid. when juana gets done ill run her home unless you want her to stay and cook your supper." " how do i pay her? by the day, the week or month, how?"tobey asked. " how ever you want" roberto answered before juana had a chance to. tobey looked the woman in the face " what do you say?" she looked up at roberto then back to tobey" by the week if i keep comming every week.. its 35 a day. if you want me to cook its 45."she answered. "lets figure on keeping like it was with blake. if you stayed and cooked thats fine just tell me what you need"tobey told her. she ducked her head" with blake i didnt go home , i stayed here all the time."she answered. tobey sat back in his chair, " i didnt mean that, as long as roberto can bring you and take you home." the woman didnt look up " thats ok with me." the sun was comming up out side. it was shinning through the front windows. tobey stood and took his hat from the nail next to the door." ill feed the horses while you get the barn squared away. we will have to wait until the bank opens so i can get cash for the hay." when they went out the door juana was running water in the sink to wash the dishes. just as tobey finished feeding the horses the hay truck rolled in the gate he pulled past the barn and turned around then lined back up with the gate next to the barn with enough room for the hay squeeze to work un loading the hay. tobey went to the truck driver and exclaimed the bank didnt open for a couple hours they would have to wait until then. they assured him it wasnt a problem. roberto had the barn cleaned out when the hay squeeze arrived. a couple of times tobey could see juana looking out a window. " blake had a hell of a deal here," was all that tobey thought. he went in the house to his bed room and got the folder with all the documents he would need for the bank. juana handed him a list of what she needed . it was short.

THE WILL 4

the sorrel, stocking legged, bald face horse stood like a statue in the little rise that tobey had riden on to. looking west as far as he could see it was scrub mesquite, palo verde and cat claw. but between and under it was galleta, love grass, and some gramma.. if it would rain he saw where there would be filaree. when he had ridden out of the corrals he saw a few cattle tracks in the water lot. and the farther away he rode he saw more. he didnt have a improvement map showing where the waters were , he was going tohave explore to find them. that was fine, he enjoyed seeing the country from the back of a good horse. he hadnt seen very many cattle and the ones he saw wernt any specific breed. they were all breeds and colors. ahead he saw the top of a wind mill slowley turnning. as he rode up he saw a steel storage tank with water dribbling into it from the wind mill. a cement water trough was in a big corral made from net wire and ceder posts and fence staves. in the corral and scatered around in the brush out side was a large bunch of cattle. cows, calves, bulls, steers and heifers. there was represenatives of every breed and sex. quality wasnt a issue they were feom the best to the worse. tobey rode slowley through the cattle trying to get a count. they didnt seem a bit wild, they just stood up, stretched and walked out of his way. many of the calves wernt branded. and a lot of the yearlings were fresh branded, many carried the stick on sale tag from the auction. it looked like blake had been buying what ever he thought might show a profit at some time down the road. tobey turned the sorrel in the direction of the home corrals but he took a different rout, to see more country. one thing he didnt see any where ws block salt. he made a mentel note to get a good supply . when he rode back into the corrals at the house roberto was still loading out pick up trucks with baled hay. he couldnt believe there was this big of a demand. when he had put his horse away he fed the three and started walking toward roberto. as he drew near he was shocked to see the amount of hay that had been sold. a sizeable hole was in the stack was easily seen. they would run out soon if this kind of sales continued. when the last truck had been loaded out roberto came over to the house. he handed tobey a large wad of green backs "we may need a truck load brought in soon." roberto stated. " i see that, you got any idea where blake was buying his hay?"tobey was flatening out the crumpled bills. " some times a truck with the name DEWITT brought the hay.but mr. blake never told me. he had a lot of business cards he looked at maybe they tell us." roberto was sitting on the steps to the house. tobey nodded. "why did you work for him like you did? the attorney said blake didnt like mexicans especially illegals."tobey ask absently mindley as he counted the money. " thats not true. mr blake liked everyone unless they lied or cheated. then he just staed away from them. color didnt matter to him. his novia is mexican. he trusted me with money every day never acted like i stole any, and i could have. but he was good to me. " roberto almost yelled defending blake. tobey listened and wondered why the attorney would tell him that. for a while they talked about the hay sales. roberto thought it would slow down as many of the customers had bought more than usual. but he stated many days they would still get a few buyers. tobey listened takeing it all in. then tobey asked him what he knew of the cattle out on the ranch, mr. blake some times sold some cattle and some times bought some . he always bout the thin cattle and always sold fat ones. if it didnt rain very much he kept the thin ones here and fed them the scraphay or the real cheap hay or maybe the spoiled hay." roberto explained. after a while he stood to leave, tobey counted out some of the cash and handed it to him " thank you roberto. you have been a great help. ill see you in the morning." whe roberto had driven out the gates and shut them tobey went in the house and added the cash to the pile from yesterday. then he started searching through blakes paper work. he found invoices from the dewitt hay company in welton. there was more of them than any other invoice. he made the call. in short order he had a truck load comming to be delivered the next day, early. he started makeing plans for the next day, he needed to go to the bank and have his name placed on blakes accounts he wanted to go to the auction barn, then it hit him, he was staying with out a concious thought or decision he was staying. but one thing nagged him, why was blake painted as a mexican hater? when it was plain he wasnt. tobey called the ranch where he had been working and told them he wasnt comming back. they were to mail his last check to him here at the double horse shoe ranch. when he hung up the phone tobey poured a glass of bourbon and sat back. in a short time he had gone from a plain cowboy to a property owner, a stock man and hay retailer. he wondered what other surprises awaitted him. he took a swallow of whiskey.