Original Work The Stuarts of Texas

Col Stuart completed the basic list of clothing his wife would need on the trip to Texas. Knowing without a doubt that she would consider it totally inadequate and try to at least quadruple the amount. Calling Samantha in, he handed her the list and watched with amusement as she scanned the list, looked bewildered, and read it again.

With color rising in her cheeks, she asked. “What is this supposed to be? I thought we were taking as much as we could to Texas, this isn’t even enough for a week much less a long trip into the wilderness!”

“It’s what we will have to get by with for the time being.” He said with a slight smile. “Besides, we can get more when we arrive.”

“What about my gowns, frocks, shoes, hats, furs, and unmentionables? I do not see them on the list, and again, this is only enough for a week or so, NOT a long one way trip to another state to take up residence. This list is unacceptably short!” She fumed.

“Look my dear, this is more than you will need until we reach Texas. Once there, we can send for all your other things to be shipped out there. And as I said, we can purchase new items once we get there.”

“It will take months for us to reach the Texas border, and I absolutely cannot make do with this meager supply of clothing. I will decide what I’m bringing along as you do not understand a woman’s needs” Samantha said.

“Dearest, you must trust me. We will be traveling very light, and making very good time. You will not need more than this. Please keep your dark green dress ready for wear, as that is what you will need when we leave.”

“I will not wear that drab dress anywhere, much less when we leave. I’ve been planning on wearing my gray riding outfit on the first day then daily changing clothing as the mood or situation suits me.” She replied with a pout.

“We can’t do that. Everything on that list covered what you will need for the trip and you simply must wear the green dress. I can’t tell you why, you have to trust me on this. Have I ever done anything that wasn’t in your best interest?”

Samantha stood pensive for a moment then searched her husband’s eyes for any hint of more information. None was to be had. “What is to become of all my beautiful clothes?” She asked.

“Like I said, we can box up everything and have it shipped to us later. What is on the lists is more than what we will need for the trip. I can’t tell you anything more than that. Everything must be done with the utmost secrecy, even our destination must be kept secret lest an accidental slip be the ruin of us all. Please pack all of your and Angeline’s stuff into the smallest trunk you can, and I will pack for my self and the boys.”

 

Rummaging around in the plantations hidden Arms Room, Col. Stuart found what he needed, a heavily used and a bit rusty Colt’s .36 Navy revolver. Rotating the cylinder, he inspected its condition and found that it would suit his needs. The good Col. then placed the cylinder open end down on a piece of paper and traced the circumference with a pencil and placed the tracing in his pocket. Picking up a small file, an awl, and a piece of fine wire he went to the table and disassembled the pistol. He then made a single wrap around the cylinder at the alignment notches then held it up to the light for inspection. Finding the wire wrap acceptable he took the awl and made a scratch around the circumference, carefully inspected it, then removed the wire and began hand filing a groove around the cylinder. It took the better part of an hour to accomplish this to his satisfaction.

Next came the hard part. Col. Stuart removed the cap nipples, two on each side leaving them separated by nipples on opposing sides. For the better part of 30 minutes, Stuart vigorously filed the back of the cylinder over the two sets of nippleless cylinders leaving a space that would expose the replaced nipples making them very easy to strike all at once.

Col. Stuart then took the long length of wire leaving the end about six inches long, began to wrap it around the cylinder into the groove and did not stop until the wire wrap formed a ring about 1/4” wider than the cylinder. He then cut the excess wire off and tied both ends together firmly. Testing the wire ring to ensure its rigidity and finding it satisfactory, he clipped the ends short then laid the cylinder on the table.

Going into the kitchen, he picked the two worse looking cast iron Dutch Ovens and carried them out to the blacksmith’s shop where Bart was busy making iron tires for the wagon wheels stacked up outside against the wall.

“Bart, do you have time this week to do a small favor for me?” Asked Stuart.

“You know I do Colonel, anything you want.” Replied Bart.

Lifting the two Dutch ovens to a work bench Col. Stuart said. “ I need you to hammer these two pots into small pieces no larger than about 1/4” or so in size. Not going to hold your feet to the fire on this, just get them uniform as you can without spending more time than needed on it.”

Withdrawing a folded diagram from his pocket, Col. Stuart handed the paper to Bart and said. “I also need you to make this for me, either from iron or steel. It has to be strong, and that bottom should be forged welded onto the upper but no gaps allowed. I want it to be roughly the size of your moonshine jug without the handle. It will need an inner liner made from just about anything but leaving 1/2” space between the liner and container wall all the way around. Please leave a hole in the top the diameter of this circle, and make an identical top the diameter of the container containing the same diameter hole in the center.”

Bart looked at the diagram for a moment then looked Col. Stuart in the eye, and said.” I can have these jobs completed in a week with all the stuff I have on hand now. Looks to me like you are planning something for someone.”

“That will be our little secret.” Said Stuart with a wink as he turned walked away heading for his next project.

 

That project sounds real interesting! I know what I'd do with it, just add two more items to make it complete and then SUPRISE! Very interesting indeed!

 

The Col. went to his basement and removed the junk that was in front of the cluttered book case, and swung it open on its hinges to reveal a hardened door that lead to a safe room. He entered and began carefully breaking down part of a brick interior wall on the backside of the safe room that had been constructed long ago when the mansion had been first built Col. Stuart carefully removed the bricks and stacked them along the side wall of the safe room. Inside the wall was revealed a strong box, heavily padlocked and sitting on a layer of bricks to protect the box from water had it entered the wall, which it did not. Hauling the strongbox out, Stuart placed it on a table then unlocked the padlocks. Flipping the lid up he examined the contents and was glad he had traded almost all of the silver for gold when the first rumblings of war began. He’d left only enough gold and silver for this possible emergency. The bulk of his fortune had been shipped to French banks and secured from the reach of the Federal govt. A trusted friend and lawyer in France had operational control of his shipping and business interests.

The Col. then removed the 50 lbs of gold ingots and replaced them with bricks. Then replacing the padlocks, shoved the strongbox back onto the stack of bricks. Carefully securing the area, he pushed the hinged book case back against the wall and laid dusty boxes and junk in front of it. Satisfied with his work, Col. Stuart dusted off his clothes and went upstairs to change clothes.

 

Not advocating or condoning any illegal or immoral activities, or the killing of protected species. Totally fictional events and people.

This is a jump forward in time and a bit of a test to see if it is interesting enough.

One year prior to Present Day Cross Roads, Texas.

The family reunion was going well, and everyone, family, friends, and a few associates were having a good time at the Stuart ranch. Being the first week in October made the weather pleasant and clear. The BBQ pits had been running constantly for the last three days and would continue until the week had completed. A Bluegrass band was in full swing with several people dancing, especially the children who seemed to take great delight in the tunes. Bagpipers would come later during their break.The dance tonight would be the standard Country music mixed with a little classic rock so everyone could have a varied experience. Morag, Charlie’s mother was the official hostess with backup from his sister Eileen, and cousin Kathy. Charles Jr. Charlie’s father was official host and was occupied with the male guests drinking coffee and discussing things like cattle prices, rodeos, and military subjects. Most all of the men were prior or current military service, and most were combat arms. Charles Sr. The patriarch of the family was holding court with the ranching oriented members in attendance.

Charlie disengaged himself from some of his idolaters and walked over to a shaded area and lowered his muscular frame into a chair. Seeing Eileen watching, he tilted his hand near his mouth requesting coffee. She stepped to the outdoor sink and poured a cup, eyed it dubiously then tasted the coffee. Finding it bitter and burnt she poured it out and started another pot, then turned and looked at Charlie tapping her watch. He nodded as he was very familiar with the Stuart women’s trait of testing everything to see if it was good enough to serve the recipient. The respect went both ways.

Charlie’s cousin Sean was dark where Charlie was blonde but also ruggedly built from the outdoor life came sauntering over and dragged a chair next to Charlie.

“How’s it going cuz?” Asked Charlie.

“Not bad, just been loafing around waiting for my next assignment.” He replied.

“How many did you get?”

“Took out three packs, totaling forty three, and got almost a dozen coyotes.”

“Good, that ought to help the elk population. Did anyone stay up there for the winter?”

“You know how Elmer hates the cold? Danged if him n Luke didn’t volunteer to stay thru the winter. I hate them Canadian greys too, but not enough to wade thru that snow all winter to kill ‘em.”

“Do they have enough supplies and money? We can send whatever they need. What about the Park Service, are they on to what’s been going on?”

“They have everything they need, and we linked up with that army buddy of yours so they have a place to stay when they need to thaw out. Outfitters and ranchers have been keeping tabs on the Park Service busybodies. I’m beginning to think they hate ungulates as they don’t seem too worried about their survival, just those damned wolves. I killed three wolves that were out killing fawns for fun. It kinda surprised me when the rest of the pack started coming my way and began encirclement.”

“What did you do?” Charlie asked in amusement.

“I stuck a fresh mag in the rifle, checked my pistol and changed position so they couldn’t get around behind me. Then stood up with my rifle at low ready”

“I assume you weren’t eaten.” Charlie calmly replied.

“Nope! The Alpha and Beta males came on like gangbusters followed by the pack and I dropped ‘em in their tracks. The rest of the pack scattered. Both those old boys weighed close to 150 lbs. Looked like 250 when they were running at me.”

“Police up all your brass I take it?”

“Yep, every piece. You were right about the .243 with special loads, I hit one at close to 1,200 yds as per the rangefinder. Most of ‘em were Bang Flops.”

“Good, while I don’t like to see anything suffer, I don’t like to see a joyous killer escape either.”

“Eileen is watching us.” Sean remarked while not looking directly at her.

“Yeah, she’s making some coffee, but is probably nosey concerning our present confab. I expect she’ll bring over two cups when it’s ready. She knows I’m not just taking care of regular business and it’s really bugging her as to what kinda monkey bidnez it is.” Charlie smiled.

“Speaking of which, you got anything for me to do?” Sean asked.

Charlie thought a moment before answering. “You’ve been pretty busy this summer between hauling livestock, recon, and shooting. Why don’t you and the boys take a couple of weeks off? Do some fishing, BBQing, drinking n chasing wimmin? The rest would do you good, as you’re starting to look a might feral right now. Non family members are starting to get a might nervous around you, especially the cops.” Charlie said pointedly.

“And here I was smelling flowers, thinking rainbow thoughts, and giving everybody the peace sign to no avail.”

“Pretty much.” Agreed Charlie.

“What’s going on down on the border, any news?”

“Much the same. Illegals and drugs flooding across worse than ever. Had to have been millions of them by now.” Stated Charlie.

“The boys told me that they’re ready to hit the border any time. We feel like we’ve been on vacation anyway.”

“I’m sure you do, but right now the Feds are on the lookout for Homegrown Vigilantes. You gents would stick out like rat sh—t in a sugar bowl. We need to let our gents from San Antonio handle it.”

“Makes sense, but I’d still like to head down thataway. Might be that something could pop up so to speak.” Sean said looking at Charlie with a hopeful eye.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but we have to be careful. There is more at stake than our vanities. Low key, slow and easy, then let ‘em try and figure out what exactly happened and who might have done it. It’s the only way.” Charlie finished.

“I understand.” Sighed Sean. “Unchecked speed would be the death of us all. Had to ask though.”

“I will have something for you some place below Austin in a couple of months. Narcos filled the vacuum we caused last spring, and we need to do a little background on them prior to contact. Once we get what is needed, you can take in a mix of old and new guys for the operation, it should be good experience.”

“Are we gonna take ‘em or something else?” Asked Sean.

“Take ‘em if you can, we need the info, at least two if possible. The rest can be left secured with the drugs and weapons for the cops, we’ll take the cash. Money is needed to cover operations so….”

“And here comes the coffee!” Said Sean.

 

Still Rebels!

 

And flying the flag too.

 

Col. Stuart sought out Flavius, his carpenter and general repairman. Flavius was a steady solid man that could be trusted to work alone and always got the job done and was very good at saving Stuart money from waste. With a sharp eye out for things that needed fixing Flavius was always busy. Stuart found him busy repairing a bad place on the utility shed roof. “Flavius, do you have a moment?”, asked Stuart.

“Be right down Colonel.”, came the reply. Flavius bounced down the ladder and stepped up to Stuart. “What can I do for you Colonel?”

“Flavius, I have a possibly dangerous job for you if you are interested. It contains a measure of risk, but has a nice payoff if you are interested” said Col. Stuart.

Flavius’ face lit up with a smile. He was always looking for extra money and had saved quite a nest egg. “Danger and a nice payoff huh? How much of a payoff will this be?”, he asked.

“It’s worth 100.00 to me if you can do the job right, and I will pay you in advance.”, said the Colonel.

“You wanting me to kill somebody?” , Flavius asked with a dubious look on his face.

“No, I want you to accidentally deliver some information to the Yankees for me. You may well get roughed up for your trouble though, and I want to make it worth your while.”

“OK, what do I need to do?”

“You and Bart will go to town in ten days, get “drunk” and sit under a certain window and hatch a plot against me. I have it all written out and you need to rehearse this until it sounds natural”, he said handing some papers to Flavius. “You gents need to practice this on the sly where no one can hear you, and get it down perfectly as my life and that of my family may well depend on it. You will notice that there is mention of hidden treasure in the house, but there is none there at all. Nothing. The Yankees won’t know that, and that’s what will count. If either of you go digging around something of great misfortune will happen to you I assure you. The carpetbaggers and some locals think I kept a great deal of money at home, and they will try and get it, only it ain’t there. Only a very nasty surprise awaits anyone foolish enough to go snooping around. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yessir you do. You’ve always been a man of your word, and I don’t expect that will change now.” , said Flavius.

“Good, I’ll get with you in a couple of days and work out some details and listen to you rehearse my little play.”

The men shook hands on the deal, and went their separate ways.

Note.
I did a minor change to post #93, next to last paragraph at the end so it would match up better to the direction I’m taking.