Those two treasure hunters staying at the Calaway’s house, before it was turned to ash, gave me a bad hunch. I’ve been burned before so I struggled with trusting anyone. My former husband had done work with Bill Calaway and that’s how I knew their family. We had two things in common, we only trusted each other and a lot of people wanted what we had. The difference is I didn’t hold on to my share of the spoils.

The ranch hands carried bucket by bucket of water to the home. Hoping, just maybe, that they could save the Calaways. I didn’t bother, if they didn’t make it out then they didn’t make it. I had seen Bill do the same to other people’s homes back in his days before settling down, it’s not pretty. There were bedsheets on the ground just outside the barn and the cattle were gone. The bedsheets were torn, must’ve been where they stored Bill’s son Tom as they burned the home in front of him. Whoever these rustlers were didn’t want the livestock, they left the cows grazing across the road.

I ran inside the still burning barn to check to see if the horses were still alive. Two of them were panicking in their stalls, the rest were on the ground or cooking. I set the two horses free and called the ranch hands in to pull the unconscious horses out to see if they could be saved. The fire clearly started on the roof, meaning they had to have thrown some sort of fire bottle or torch up there to start it. Bill would use that method as leverage, threaten a man’s livelihood and he’ll do just about anything for you.

The burnt walls in the front and the chimney in the middle were all that remained of the house. I put my bandana over my face to protect me from the smoke, the fire was nearly burned out so I decided to examine the scene. There was a very large pile of coals and burnt furniture near where the bedroom door once was. The rustlers must’ve gotten into the home and trapped both of the Calaway’s in their room. The bodies were roasted next to each other. Neither of them were recognizable but one of them was missing half their face. Clearly shot before they were burned.

“This was planned” I said to Peter, a ranch hand, “Whoever did this had a purpose”

Peter said, “May have been them rustlers, must’ve been stirred up yesterday when one of them treasure hunters fought them off”

“I heard he killed all of the rustlers”

Peter corrected me, “No, Ms. Hadley, he let one live, we turned them into the law”

“Must’ve aggravated the rustlers”

“What are we going to do?”

“See what money we can find, then we’ll go back in town and look for a new job”

He was surprised at my coldness, “That’s all we’ll do?”

“It’s what I’m doing”

I left the remains of the house and barn. I had my own problems to deal with, if the ranch hands had something they wanted to do about it let them. One thing that was odd is that the Calaway’s stash was missing. The only ones that knew about that treasure were me and the Calaways, everyone else in the gang was killed. I never got to see the man that killed their gang but it couldn’t have been him, Bill seemed to be certain the man had a change in conscience.

Bill’s the only one who saw his face. He said that his gang had finally messed with the wrong man. He was apparently out to kill Bill for doing something similar to his family as was just done to Bill’s. The man killed everyone in their gang that was there except for Bill and his family. Bill says the man must’ve just gotten sick of killing, but he gave Bill something to remember him by. The man took Tom while he was still little, and he gave him a burn just under his eye.

Bill never liked to talk about it. He said he still got nightmares of the man’s face. If it weren’t for Tom, Bill would’ve gone mad and killed himself. He became religious after the gang died off, he said he did it for Tom, so maybe it’d lead Tom away from his old life. Elizabeth was another story.

When Bill was younger and more savage he took her as a hostage. Bill began to get feelings for Elizabeth around the same time my former husband started working for him. My former husband was a good man, he wasn’t in it for anything other than to start a life for us. Elizabeth got pregnant with Tom while she was young, I was just three years older than her, nobody ever knew if Tom was Bill’s or not, but he demanded she kept it. That’s when Bill started changing. People said all that killing finally got to him. He started talking about leaving and how he realized life was more precious than anything. Bill also tried putting me to work in saloons but I wouldn’t have any of it, that’s not the way I am. He learned quick when one of his boys tried getting funny with me and I shot him down and presented his head to Bill.

Next Chapter: Jay Chapter 14: Fool’s Gold