The Floating Outfit 42: Buffalo Are Coming! Read online

  The Quest for Bowie’s Blade

  Beguinage

  Beguinage is Dead!

  The Rushers

  Buffalo are Coming!

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  [1] How this happened is described in: GOODNIGHT’S DREAM, FROM HIDE AND HORN and SET TEXAS BACK ON HER FEET.

  [2] ‘Cowtown’: colloquial name for Fort Worth, Texas, on account of its long connection with the cattle raising business.

  [3] Crews handling smaller trail herds, which needed less men, carried all their property as well as food supplies and utensils in just a chuck wagon.

  [4] ‘Maverick’: name given by Texans to an unbranded animal, particularly one whose ownership was unknown. It derived from a distant kinsman of Town Marshal Kail Bearegard, Toutant de Beauregard, taking over a neglected ranch which a San Antonio lawyer, Samuel A. Maverick acquired as repayment of a debt in 1851. Knowing such a thing had not been done for some years, de Beauregard held a roundup and told his cowhands to consider any unbranded animal they found to be a ‘Maverick’ and mark it with his brand.

  [5] Because ‘Arbuckle’s’ was the brand name most frequently seen throughout the Old West, cowhands in particular rarely came into contact without any other kind and used it to mean coffee. However, if a green hand on a ranch was referred to as an ‘Arbuckle’, it implied he was useless and the boss must have sent off Arbuckle’s coffee premium stamps to pay for obtaining his ‘extraordinary’ services.

  [6] In 1866, having located a pass through the Raton Mountains which linked Southeastern Colorado with Northwestern New Mexico, Richard Lacey ‘Uncle Dick’ Wootten—sometimes erroneously spelled ‘Wootton’—was granted as recompense a charter allowing him to charge everybody a toll for themselves and their livestock when they used the twenty-seven miles of rough-graded road he had constructed through it. It is claimed that, wishing to avoid loss of revenue, he offered to pay Colonel Goodnight to keep secret the alternative route but was refused.

  [7] Some of what happened to Chief Ten Bears at Fort Sorrel is told in: Part Two, ‘The Invisible Winchester’, OLE DEVIL’S HAND AND FEET.

  [8] The ultimate fate of Pohawe is described in: GO BACK TO HELL.

  [9] How and why the sobriquet came about is told in: THE DEVIL GUN.

  [10] Upon their recovery the following day, the young Easterners agreed with Dusty Fog’s suggestion for the disposal of the buffalo. Before returning to their respective homes they helped the Wedge trail crew take the buffalo to Rio Hondo County, Texas. There, under the protection of the Hardin, Fog and Blaze clan, it survived. To keep the size of the herd compatible with the available terrain, small numbers were given to other ranchers who were interested in starting breeding groups. The descendants of the group, supplemented by new blood to prevent in-breeding, can still be seen on the OD Connected ranch to this day. Nor were Stone Hart and his men the losers as a result of the thwarted conspiracy. On being informed of how their well intentioned scheme had been perverted and the eventual outcome, the Society for the Preservation of the American Bison had insisted upon paying the full sum promised by Walter Johnson for transfer of the herd. We do not know the identity of the men behind the scheme, but Alvin Dustine ‘Cap’ Fog claims—while he will not disclose anything further—there are strong suggestions that the associates of the New Englander took revenge upon some of them for the murder.

  Table of Contents

  Publisher’s Note:

  One – Can It Be Done?

  Two – Our Business is Most Confidential

  Three – They Can’t Talk if They’re Dead

  Four – Somebody’s Shot Lon!

  Five – They’ve Got Dusty As Well

  Six – That’s A Mistake

  Seven – They Call Themselves ‘Bohemians’

  Eight – Cowhands and Dudes Don’t Mix

  Nine – They Could Use Some Help

  Ten – Get Her Done, Wedge

  Eleven – We’re Heading for Texas

  Twelve – Head ’em Up, Move ’em Out!

  Thirteen – Is-A-Man

  Fourteen – Buffalo Are Coming

  Fifteen – It Will Mean All-Out Bloody War

  Sixteen – Save My Buffalo

  Seventeen – No Buffalo Are Coming

  About the Author

  Table of Contents

  Publisher’s Note:

  One – Can It Be Done?

  Two – Our Business is Most Confidential

  Three – They Can’t Talk if They’re Dead

  Four – Somebody’s Shot Lon!

  Five – They’ve Got Dusty As Well

  Six – That’s A Mistake

  Seven – They Call Themselves ‘Bohemians’

  Eight – Cowhands and Dudes Don’t Mix

  Nine – They Could Use Some Help

  Ten – Get Her Done, Wedge

  Eleven – We’re Heading for Texas

  Twelve – Head ’em Up, Move ’em Out!

  Thirteen – Is-A-Man

  Fourteen – Buffalo Are Coming

  Fifteen – It Will Mean All-Out Bloody War

  Sixteen – Save My Buffalo

  Seventeen – No Buffalo Are Coming

  About the Author