Welton Novels

Harmon Bell "Texas Ranger"

 Published at Publishamerica.com

 

Harm had been working for the railroad from the time he was fifteen until he was laid off at the ripe age of twenty. Harm and a friend, he worked with on the railroad, decide to move west in Indian Territory of Oklahoma and take up homesteading. A simple move for him and his friends wagon ended up with a wagon train of folks moving with them. A man he helped in a time the man was hurt. Turned out to be an Ex Texas Ranger. Also the Ex Ranger had two friends that lived near him decided to go with Harm to the west. With a lot of problems along the way. The rescue of two women that had been taken by outlaws and the old Texas Rangers had rescued.

Harm made friends with a Comanche Indian, on the trail west, who has taken his family from the reservation at Fort Sill. Harm latter married one of the women from the stage holdup. Along the way Harm made friends with other Rangers and when Harms wife was killed, during a bank robbery, he took the trail to get vengeance. Some of his Ranger friends caught up with Harm and TA Noaks, swore the two men in as Rangers to up hold the law. Latter Harmon Bell and Tanner Oaks (Ta Noaks a full blood Comanche Indian) were sworn in to carry both the Texas Ranger Badge and The Deputy U.S. Marshals badge.

Harm and Ta Noaks followed the Wilson gang to the last man. He was asked to take the honor of being a member of the White Bear Clan by two of the oldest members of the clan, Lem Dew and John O�Leary.

Harm married an Irish girl and became one of the largest land holders in Texas at the time. He raised horses and let the Comanche Indians, which were called hold outs because the slipped off the reservations, live in peace on his land. Indians were starving, on the reservation, from either bad food or no food.

  

Harm awoke that morning and it took a few minutes to figure out what had caused him to wake up that morning. Then he heard a horse walking softly through camp. It wasn�t quiet daylight, but enough light to make out Ta Noaks and a horse coming through camp. It was time to wake up anyway because he had to go take a piss and bad.

As Harm led the horses past the camp Tom was up and they staked the horses out on the prairie so they could graze awhile. By the time Harm and Tom came back to the campsite Betty was up and starting a fire. She had already set the food and coffee pot on the campfire. She must have made them ready to heat because there wasn�t much wood left that she had insisted on bring with them.

�Betty, how about fixing a biscuit or two for Ta Noaks for when we meet up with him later on?� Harm asked as started rolling the bedding up from where they had slept the past night. Harm got to thinking that last night had been the first night that he hadn�t got any puntain since him and Betty moved in together. Maybe she had got enough to last till the horse hunt was over and they got back home.

It was almost noon when Ta Noaks came back to where they had stopped to let the horses rest for an hour and graze some on the tall dried grass. Betty gave Ta Noaks a small bundle, which had a biscuit, and slice of pie inside, for his morning and noon meal.

Ta Noaks managed to say in Comanche horses up ahead as he chewed on the pie. About that time, in the far northern distance, could be heard the sound of running horses. After Ta Noaks had eaten Harm and Tom pulled the cinches tight and set the two panders back on the pack forks. They headed on to the north for another mile.

Ta Noaks varied to the east and motioned them to follow. It took them about an hour and Ta Noaks lead them into a small canyon and up to the far end. There was a spring and a lot of graze for the animals. That is where they set up camp. Harm noticed that there were only deer, antelope, wolf, and rabbit tracks around and none of the wild horses.

After unloading the pack horse and staking him out Tom, Harm and Ta Noaks left going out the end of the small canyon. They left Betty in camp to finish setting it up for them and the big red dog stayed with her. They all knew that Betty would be all right to be left by her self for a while and the red dog was mainly staying because he was keeping an eye on the other pie.

It took an hour for them to get to where Harm could see a big gash in the ground that must run for over a mile and must be half a mile wide out about the middle. Ta Noaks led them down a trial, which was well worn an used a lot, into the bottom of the big gash. As they neared the bottom Ta Noaks pointed out the large rocks at the nearest part of the trail and then they rode up the gash until almost at the far end before stopping.

After looking over the place Harm found that the other end of the gash was a narrow trail that they would stop up and the only other way out was where they had entered. The main water hole was about twenty feet across and looked deep out toward the middle. There were several trees around with a lot of brush and tree limbs lying on the ground near the trees. After looking over the gash they rode back to camp, arriving just as the last light was fading from the sky, to find that Betty had another of her fine tasting suppers for them.

Being able not to see much of the camp, because of the failing light, Harm was still able to see that Betty had accomplished a lot while the men had been gone. She had cleaned out the spring and dug a good size hole below it for the horses to drink. She had also fixed places for them to sleep near the wall under a large rock sticking out of the side of the dirt bank. Harm was wondering why they had camped so far from where they were going to trap the horse. Then he remembered that all he had seen, while gone for a place to camp, was where the horse trap would be.