THIEVES
The Old Man was living on the Spear S Ranch north of Phoenix, up near the New River country, when the thieves hit the place. The Spear S was an old ranch and typical of the times and the country, most everything was just left where it happened to light. Doors were not locked and trouble was not expected. Expensive equipment was parked in a barn that would have been futile to lock anyway, seeing as you could walk through the walls in places.
The Spear S Ranch proper was over 12,000 acres..... a small spread in this part of Arizona. It had almost 400 acres of patented land however that made it pretty valuable. There were good wells on the ranch as well as man-made and natural tanks. In a water-deprived country that was as good as gold.
In a good year the ranch would support about 400 head of cows. Most years weren't good. Some years you did not want to run 100 head on the place. The ranch had been sold off years before by the family and different "investors" tried to make a quick buck off it. One guy ran 600 head of Corientes onto the place and lost them all. Years later you could still see their carcasses and bones bleaching on the dry desert.
The Old Man had been living in town and was looking for a better place in the country. The current owner of the Spear S asked him if he would like to live on the ranch. He could have the run of the place and help keep an eye on it. Seems people had been raiding the ranch and just helping themselves to whatever they found. The cows were being worked by a couple of nice wetbacks by the names of Joe Rivers and Joe Brown (Jose Rios y Jose Moreno) from down Chihuahua way. They would disappear if any strangers happened to come onto the place, but were top hands when it came to breaking horses and doctoring the cattle. The two Joe's lived in a little shack near the barn, worked hard, and sent most of their money home. The Old Man and his wife quickly became close friends with them and sort of adopted them as their kids.
The first month on the ranch The Old Man stayed busy killing rattlers and scorpions. There were huge tall Tamarack trees around the house which shed their needles all the time. The needles had never been cleaned up and were 6 inches deep in places. Scorpions loved it as it gave them a warm, moist nesting place to raise their young. The first night The Kid came to visit The Old Man he was stung twice as sat in the yard talking.
And there were rattlers everywhere. The Kid shot 3 with his .45 Colt in the first week. One was between the front legs of his sister's Arabian mare. The mare was intent on eating her grain and when The Kid tried to move the nag she tried to kick him through the barn wall. Never one with a lot of patience The Kid just pulled his .45 and shot the rattler as it lay coiled between the horse's legs. The mare never flinched. She just laid her ears back and kept working on the grain. They waited until she was done eating to retrieve the snake.
There were several close calls with people and rattlers including one that struck at The Kid's wife. So The Old Man decided enough was enough. In town one day to collect the mail he found a young boy who was giving away kittens. He told the boy he would take them all. When he got home he found he had 14 cats and proclaimed it was a good start.
And it was! Within a short time the scorpions were gone. The cats ate them. They would play with a scorpion, tease it awhile, then kill it and eat everything except the last few segments of the tail... the part where the poison was. And it wasn't long that the rattlers learned to stay in the hills also. The cats would attack a rattler that came crawling into the yard. The Old Man never lost a cat to a rattle snake either. Several got bit. They would swell up and lay around for awhile but none ever died from it. For the rest of his stay on the ranch The Old Man never had problems with rattlers or scorpions!
It was the humans that caused the most problems. And he solved that also
The Old Man and his wife were met by "the Joe's" one day when they pulled into the ranch yard. Seems someone had come while they were gone and stolen a bunch of stuff from the barn. The boys had hid (as they normally did when strangers came around) but had watched what was going on. The thieves had taken equipment, saddles, tack, and other stuff, loaded it into a truck and driven off.
From the description of the truck The Old Man had knew who the thieves were. There was a motorcycle club in the town and while many of them were good folks, there was an element in the group that ran the wrong way. The truck described belonged to one of the guys in the motorcycle club... there weren't two like it in the country. The Old Man knew some of the leaders in the club and in fact, worked with them on some construction jobs. They knew him and knew what he was and what he stood for, and many of them respected him. His ability with a gun was well-known also. What they may not have known was that The Old Man believed in riding for the brand. If you signed on, you laid it all on the line for your boss. While he was not working the Spear S as a cowboy, he had taken on living there with the condition that he would keep an eye on the place. He took the robbery as a personal affront.
He waited until he knew that most of the group was at a particular place. Then he stuck his .44 in his belt and paid them a call. He drove up, walked up to the front door and the leader of the group called him by name and said for him to come on in. The Old Man said, "I am not here to visit. Someone stole some stuff from the Spear S Ranch. I know who it was. I am here to tell you that if it is all returned by tomorrow there will be no trouble and nothing further will be said. If it isn't back I will come looking for the ones that did this." and then he turned around and walked out and got in his truck without looking back.
The next evening "the Joe's" reported that the same truck came to the ranch and unloaded everything that had been taken. It was all returned and put back in it's place.
The Old Man worked on the same crew with the people involved for another 2 years and never said a word about the incident. As far as he was concerned it was past and gone.