The Letter Worth Dying For
UnforgivingVortex7620 playing Desperados
Story So Far
Chapter 1
Clara Voss reached a burned stagecoach on a desert road, found a warning carved into it, heard a survivor inside, and was ordered at rifle point to abandon her satchel. A standoff followed beside the burning coach, with a rifleman hidden behind boulders on a high slope warning her the letter was not hers to deliver and that the sender did not know what they had started, while a voice from inside the coach told her not to listen. She fired at the glint of the rifle barrel, spent one of twelve revolver rounds, hit the rifleman who grunted and dropped behind cover, and the survivor shouted not to let the rifleman take the letter. The rifleman, hurt but still armed, warned she had made things complicated, and she identified three possible covers: the canted stagecoach in the wash, a cracked iron-banded oak strongbox by the road, and a bend south that broke the sightline.
She dropped into the wash and pressed to the far side of the coach while the survivor inside spoke to her and the wounded rifleman stayed behind the rocks. The survivor told her a double-barrel shotgun was under the front left bench and a box of .44 cartridges was in the right door pocket. She slipped through the splintered door, retrieved the warm shotgun and the cartridge box, backed out to the far wall, and called up to the rifleman, who answered he was still there, barely. The rifleman rose above the boulders clutching his ribs, offered to drop his rifle if she pointed the scattergun elsewhere, and proposed they ride together to Caldwell for a doctor and leave the letter with her until they were square. The survivor, who had a bad ankle and possible cracked ribs, said he could walk slowly and asked about a horse, and the rifleman gave permission to take one horse. She held the double-barrel on both men, directed them to horses tied in the shade of an overhang to the north, told them to take the horses and not cause trouble, and stayed by the burning coach with the shotgun up as they rode east.
The group had no water, the last spring was two miles behind, and Caldwell was four hours ahead. She ordered both hurt men to mount and walked on foot while they rode, and they reached Caldwell by the first buildings, livery, trough, and the Caldwell sign with dust-caked boots and dry throats. At the livery a boy pointed out the doctor, and the three made a slow walk down the street. At the doctor's office she took the rifleman's rifle, propped both long guns by the door, and told the doctor the men must be able to talk when he was done. The gray-haired doctor pointed the rifleman to a chair and the survivor to a cot, confirmed the rifleman had cracked ribs and would live, and told her to sit.
Keeping her back to the wall, she quietly opened the satchel and found routine post for Caldwell and points east, an unnamed folded paper sealed with plain red wax, and an oilcloth-wrapped document resembling a deed for Reyes County with the grantor line left blank. She examined the deed by window light, found the paper grain running the wrong way and the county seal stamped in ink rather than embossed, and identified it as a forged Reyes County deed that could transfer the eastern creek parcels. The survivor on the cot watched her with his jaw set. She asked the rifleman whether Aldridge had hired him or he had come on his own, and the rifleman said Aldridge's foreman had sent word east and he was the word that came back. She confronted the survivor, who said he had been paid to carry a bag; she said it was a forgery to steal creek land from a rancher, and the survivor said Aldridge had run cattle across the survey line for six years and the company had found a faster way to settle it.
She delivered the legitimate post around Caldwell, leaving the two men to rest, and returned to the doctor's office with the satchel holding only the deed, the unsigned red-wax letter, and an urgent envelope addressed to the Federal Recorder's Office in Tucson. She considered burning the deed but recognized it as evidence and that the land company could send another courier and deed. She concluded the deed must reach Tucson intact with a witness who could testify how it was found and what it was meant to do. She recalled that Harlan Pruett, a Mesquite Crossing lawyer, had signed for a registered land-dispute letter three weeks earlier, had asked about the postmark, and had tipped a dollar, and she noted an unclaimed parcel at the Caldwell general store addressed to Pruett's office.
At the general store she copied the one-page deed with its forged seal, blank grantor line, and Reyes County creek parcels, marked the copy as a forgery for H. Pruett, Atty., Mesquite Crossing, and tucked it into Pruett's parcel. She kept the original deed in oilcloth in her satchel. After a sleepless night watching from the store window with the rifleman's rifle, she crossed at gray dawn and sat between the two cots. The rifleman, identified as D. Crale, agreed to join her plan; the survivor, identified as Emmett Holt, said he was now a loose end and asked the plan, then nodded. The doctor said nobody rode for two days minimum, after which Holt was to ride with her to the federal land office in Tucson to testify with the deed as evidence, and Crale was to give the foreman's name in writing.
At the store counter, Crale wrote his account and signed it, and Holt wrote the land company, route, and blank grantor line. She wrapped both statements around a deed copy, tied them into Pruett's parcel, marked it for the Federal Land Office in Tucson, and sent it with the morning post, keeping the original deed at her hip. She took work at the livery for a dollar a day and space in the hayloft. Over two days she noted three westbound riders, one of whom asked about Tucson land-office mail before riding on and showed a double-bar A brand, meaning Aldridge had sent a man to look. She reported this to Crale and Holt; Crale identified the double-bar A as Aldridge's own brand, not the foreman's slash-A. She checked the satchel and found three letters remaining, including the unsigned red-wax letter and the urgent letter to the Federal Recorder's Office in Tucson.
She had eleven dollars and fifty cents, and the doctor said Crale and Holt were fit to ride the next morning. They debated stage versus horses; Crale said the stage was an easy target because Aldridge's people knew the route, Holt said three riders would still stand out, and the doctor told them to leave on horses at first light. That evening she took a worn gray watch from her coat, opened it, and found R. Voss. Reyes Co. Sec. 14 scratched inside, identifying it as her father's Reyes County homestead and linking Section 14 to the deed and to whoever had mailed it on her route. Before dawn she paid six dollars for a calm gray and a short-backed bay, bought filled canteens, hardtack, dried beef, salt, and .44 rounds, and had thirty cents remaining. The three rode out of Caldwell at sunrise, passed Saguaro Narrows at midday without seeing a road watcher, reached Tucson, and set the oilcloth parcel on the Federal Recorder's counter, identifying it as a forged deed and presenting Holt and Crale as witnesses before the clerk took it.
The clerk returned with a receipt, said the deed was disputed evidence, offered a free claim sheet, and told her to file while the deed was in custody. She signed beneath her father's name, and Section 14 was held pending investigation. Crale asked what lay east of Tucson and she answered creek land, cattle grass, and a house needing work. Holt shook hands and noted Aldridge's foreman was still free, and she said a federal file now bore her name. At dusk Holt named the creek-survey homesteads of Farris, Odum, and Teague as also at risk, and she stopped the clerk from locking up, learned no claims were filed on those parcels, and took three blank claim forms. Crale said he would ride to Farris, Odum, and Teague so they could come to Tucson and file before a deed surfaced.
Outside the clerk's office she recalled Pruett's earlier interest in the Section 14 dispute and told Crale and Holt that Aldridge's people might have a lawyer positioned or Pruett might be working the other side. She rode to Mesquite Crossing to find out. Pruett opened his office door before she knocked, read the deed copy on his desk, and heard that the original was in federal custody and Section 14 was filed. Pruett removed his wire spectacles, said they were asking the wrong question of a lawyer, and revealed that the Odum family had retained him over a forged filing on the creek parcels and that Aldridge's Santa Fe attorney had also probed him about Section 14. He confirmed the forged seal matched the copy and said Holt needed to be somewhere Aldridge's lawyer could not reach him. Pruett named Marrow Creek and Father Ibarra's church there, said the Odum place was off the main road and its family knew what was in the deed, warned that Aldridge's riders passed Marrow Creek on a schedule, and insisted Holt should wait at the Odum farm with a letter sent ahead. Pruett began writing that letter.
She rode back to Tucson, told Holt they were moving to the Odum farm and that Pruett was sending a letter ahead, helped Holt to his horse, and they rode. She and Holt reached the Odum farm before dark, where Crale was already there and a woman came out with a lantern. Mrs. Odum noted Holt's wrapped ankle, said Pruett's letter had come that morning, and showed Holt to a room. At the table Mrs. Odum served supper while Crale sat across and Holt took a chair near the wall. She learned that Teague trusted the Odums and that Farris already suspected trouble after his fence line had been cut twice. She said the other creek parcels must be filed and witnessed before the formal
Chapter 2
Dunbar's lease money and courier runs between Tucson and Mesquite Crossing kept the Voss woman solvent through a hard year while she and Holt mended storm damage and Crale stayed away. In late April a freighter stopped at the farm road and reported that a man in Caldwell had been asking specific questions about the creek parcels, the original Section 14 claim, and who was related to the original filer.
At Mrs. Odum's kitchen table the narrator wrote two plain notes about the Caldwell questions and the Section 14 filing, gave Graves's note to Holt to deliver to Tucson that afternoon by the Recorder's Office side street, and sent Pruett's note by the morning post rider so Pruett would have it by Thursday and Graves by that night. At the same table they counted $112 three times, weighed the cost of two broke mares at $60 to $100, and noted the Caldwell inquiries, deciding the horses could wait until the meaning was clear; the watch engraved "R. Voss. Reyes Co. Sec. 14." was left on the table where it could be seen.
Holt returned from Tucson before supper with a folded paper from Graves reporting that Edmund Aldridge had checked filings and was pursuing a succession challenge, and Pruett's reply confirmed Edmund had counsel and the survey was settled. Graves told Miss Voss to speak to Pruett before riding anywhere, and Pruett told her to bring the watch and the original claim form to Mesquite Crossing. The bent staple went into Miss Voss's coat pocket and the watch stayed in her hand.
They asked Holt for the stage schedule, learned it ran Tuesdays and Fridays at eight and that the next day was Friday, and arranged for Holt to have the gray ready at five so they could ride into Tucson at first light to buy a ticket; both letters were tucked into the coat beside the deed. Before dawn Holt had the gray saddled, and the narrator took the Friday stage west to Mesquite Crossing, climbed to Pruett's assay-house office with the watch and the claim form, and learned that Edmund Aldridge's lawyer had filed a succession challenge that morning, leaving ten days to answer.
Pruett reviewed the watch inscription and the witnessed stamped claim form and said together they tied the successor to the claimant and answered the challenge, but he also required a sworn statement on where the successor was when the father filed and how the watch came to them, and wanted Crale to sign a second witness statement. Pruett then disclosed that Aldridge's Santa Fe attorney had offered him a fee six weeks earlier to find irregularities in the Voss succession transfer, that he had refused, and that Aldridge's lawyer might claim a conflict and attack his response, leaving Crale's statement as the key witness account.
From Pruett's upstairs window they spotted Crale's roan tied at the feed store rail, but Pruett stopped the narrator from going down because a man in a canvas vest on a bench by the feed store had watched the staircase all morning and must not see them moving fast. The narrator whistled a newsboy up, had him repeat the message "Odd Fellow's Rest, midnight," paid him two bits, and sent him around the back of the assay house to reach Crale without passing the bench-watcher.
The narrator sat with Pruett and gave a sworn account of riding freight between Tucson and the Crossing when the father filed, the father dying of fever and leaving the watch and a note naming the parcel, the succession transfer filed at the Recorder's Office with the original claim form, and the note being lost when Aldridge's men cleared the house; the narrator read and signed Pruett's statement, and Pruett folded it into the file. Late in the day the bench-watcher watered his horse and led it around the far corner without returning, and Pruett confirmed midnight still stood.
At midnight in the Odd Fellows room the narrator told Crale that Aldridge's attorney had asked Pruett to find irregularities, that Pruett had refused, and that Aldridge might try to strike Pruett's response; Crale said it came down to him and that they had better decide what he would say and to whom. By candlelight Crale produced a stamped federal receipt naming Farris and Teague, then wrote and signed a statement naming Farris and Decker, describing the creek bank, the pulled stakes, and the date, and told the narrator to get the paper to Pruett before the bench-sitter reported in and not to let Pruett lose it; Crale said he would be on the road by first light and went out the recessed door into the dark.
The narrator kept to the shadow side of the street, climbed the open stair slowly, and slid Crale's folded signed statement under Pruett's door; a chair scraped and Pruett crossed the room to retrieve it. The narrator returned to Odd Fellow's Rest through the still-unlocked recessed door, found the chair by starlight, and slept there lightly in coat and hat with the revolver at the hip; before dawn he was awake with stiff shoulders, the watch in his pocket, and the ten-day window still open.
In full daylight the narrator went to the nearby Drinks and Meals, played cards with two freighters, drank three cups of black coffee, and was summoned back to Pruett's office by a boy of about twelve. Pruett showed an overnight motion from Aldridge's attorney that dropped the succession fight to claim instead that the father had never occupied Section 14 and the filing was made in his name afterward, and said Crale's statement only answered the stake-pulling; Pruett needed a living witness who could place the father on that land before the filing date. Pruett also noted the motion was filed before Crale's statement reached him, meaning someone had tipped the attorney that Crale was in town, and warned that ten days was too short to build a character case.
The narrator produced a receipt naming Farris and Teague from Aldridge's competing federal claim; Pruett held it to the window and said it, combined with Crale's statement naming Farris as the man who pulled the creek stakes, could support a motion to compel Aldridge's attorney to disclose who retained Farris. Pruett told the narrator to ride to the Odum Farm, ask Mrs. Odum what she remembered of the father before the filing date, and bring it back in writing if possible, then slid the receipt back across the desk.
The narrator paid the feed store man $1.50 and a $5 deposit for a short-backed sorrel and rode east at a steady trot toward the Odum farmhouse with the watch against the ribs, the deed and receipt in the coat, and the sorrel under him. Mrs. Odum was digging in the kitchen garden; they went inside to the kitchen table with two tin cups of water, and she said the father had been there in spring of 1881 asking about the creek and later driving stakes with blistered hands, with her husband at the south fence rail. Pruett needed the account written and signed, and Mrs. Odum said to tell her what words were needed and she would write them.
Mrs. Odum wrote a plain statement naming the season, the year, two visits, the creek question, the post maul, the blistered hands, and her husband at the south fence rail, spelled cottonwood correctly, got the year at once, read it back, signed it E. Odum, and pushed it across, saying every word was what she saw. The narrator folded the statement into the coat beside the deed and receipt, making three documents, and rode back west through Tucson to Mesquite Crossing as the sun dropped low.
Behind the feed store the narrator returned the sorrel and got the five-dollar deposit back, then went up to Pruett's lit office and laid down the folded statement naming E. Odum and the 1881 fence-rail visits; Pruett read it and said it answered the motion. Pruett said federal acceptance would end the legal fight and prevent Edmund from refiling that motion, then warned that Edmund used lawyers first and might already be turning to other means, and told the narrator to get Crale off the street before dark and send word to Holt at the Odum place to keep the lamp low and the door latched.
Pruett said Crale was at the feed store with the roan still at the rail; the narrator found Crale inside with a grain sack, and they rode east together out of Mesquite Crossing toward Tucson and pulled up at the Odum farm road gate by the dark farmhouse with Holt inside. Crale led the roan into the corral, and the narrator took watch on the porch with the lantern out, gripping the revolver twice when the roan shifted in the night; Holt brought cold coffee, and no riders or stray lanterns appeared on the road. At first light Crale stood in the doorway with his hat on, Mrs. Odum started the cook fire, and the road east toward Tucson stayed empty.
Over nine days at the farm Dunbar's lease money arrived, courier runs added pay, Holt repaired the south fence, Crale worked nearby, and Mrs. Odum fed the house. On the ninth day a boy brought Pruett's sealed letter to the porch; it said the succession was confirmed, Aldridge's motion was denied with prejudice, Farris was named in the federal record, Edmund's attorney had withdrawn, and it was done, and Pruett told the recipient to buy the horses.
The narrator folded Pruett's note into the coat, rode to Caldwell, inspected three mares, and paid eighty dollars for a dark bay with a white sock and a compact grulla, then led them east to Section 14 and turned them into the draw by the running creek. At Section 14 the adobe walls and the north fence needed work, the father's stakes were gone, eighty dollars was spent, and the narrator sat against the warm wall by the creek on land confirmed as his own. The narrator named the dark bay Rosie, after his mother, and named the grulla Dust; Pruett's warning that Edmund Aldridge, his motion denied with prejudice, might not send lawyers a second time remained unresolved as the narrator stayed in the draw until the last light went.
Chapter 3
This chapter is still unfolding...
Ready for your adventure?
Members can create their own tables, publish public stories, and unlock unlimited storytelling possibilities.