Cast of Characters:

Wyatt - young cowboy for the Bar JS ranch and narrator of this story

John Shelton and Verne Alexander - co-owners of the Bar JS ranch

Ernestine Eloy, Jed Brownstock, Laurel Cordova, and Bud Gilbert - stagecoach passengers

Morgan Eloy - Ernestine Eloy's husband

Hayden Kearny - engaged to Laurel Cordova


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Verne knowed the Bar JS wranglers were people of the horse. He and Mr. Shelton had settled in Pecos Valley thirteen years earlier. The ranch they'd acquired was so worthless in value neither one of them would feel unjustified in riding off from it like they were.

Mr. Shelton knowed Verne would not be satisfied rustling Mexican cattle forever. His eyes scanned west across the dusty flats. Mr. Shelton knowed the country like Verne knowed his whores. As Rangers, they'd made the Arizona Territory safe for white settlers in the land of the injuns. Now, summoned by the Governor, they were in pursuit of a gang of killers.

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"A lot you know about nothing," Ernestine Eloy said as she glared at Jed Brownstock, "what about the wagon train that went into the canyon and never came out again? Or the three side-by-side graves?"

Conversation tailed off and Laurel thought, "What if Hayden is what these strangers tell me he has become?'

Still, she could not bring herself to believe the man she loved was a cold-blooded killer, not with his clean-shaven face, bright eyes, and flashing smile.

Suddenly, a shot rang out and the stagecoach growled to a halt. A shrill voice followed and Laurel looked out the window. A man laid dead in the middle of the trail, a .45 was by his right hand and blood stained his leather vest.

Four mounted riders sat on the opposite side of the trail with their hands in the air. A young man with wavy black hair faced them. His chaps were badly worn, his boots scuffed, and he wore a red and blue-checkered shirt. In his hand he held a smoking six-shooter.

"You come hunting trouble and you found what you were after. Now, gather up your man and ride out of here," the armed horseman told them.

Laurel softly gasped, "Hayden. Hayden Kearny."

"Is that your man?" Jed Brownstock wanted to know.

Unable to vocalize her thoughts, Laurel replied, "Yes, and he just shot that man dead."

One of the four riders grabbed the reins of the riderless horse. Two of the others dismounted. They loaded the corpse across the saddle of the bay.

As they remounted their steeds, Hayden Kearney said, "Ride on. I've no use for any of you waylaying marauders."

Ernestine Eloy stated, "What did we tell you, missy?"

"So unfortunate you had to witness this, Miss. Cordova," Bud Gilbert chimed in.

Laurel placed her hands over her face. Horror filled her. All she could see was the deceased's still, limp, body that Hayden Kearny killed.

Admiringly, Jed Brownstock said, "Your Hayden's a right handy fella. Appears to me you picked a good one. He stood off five of them, he did. Any one of them would of killed him iffen they had a chance. But, no way they wanted no part of him. No siree!"

The stage began rolling forward. All Laurel could think was, "Hayden, her Hayden, was a cold-blooded killer." She was peaked.

As the stage rambled out of sight, Hayden Kearny picked up the dead cowpoke's gun. He never saw any use in wasting a good Colt. He also feared he may have a need for the six-shooter if events played out like he suspected they would. Kearny took a quick glance around and headed up Cochise Canyon.

Kearny knowed working as a cowhand would not let him save enough pesos to build a home or marry a wife. And, Laurel Cordova was all he could think about. So, from the moment he first eyed Cochise Canyon, Kearny felt it was all he'd dreamed about.

Falling in a series of miniature cascades, Elk Stream, with its rushing rapids, plunged into a capacious basin surrounded by colossal cliff walls. Coming out of the basin, the stream followed a wide meadow and several acres of good grazing grasslands. Blue spruce and aspen trees dotted the country. A long valley laid below the flatland. The narrow passageway bottlenecked into timberland then bordered the Sonoran Desert.

When Hayden Kearny first arrived at Cochise Canyon he found no trails of horses or cattle in the area. Choosing a homesite, he built his cabin and corrals. Then, he journeyed into Fountain Hills. There, he was confronted by Ernestine Eloy, a woman of superstition and prejudice. She had come to the town from Omaha and married a Camelback Mountain Trailboss named Morgan Eloy.

The mountain resembled the head and hump of a kneeling camel. Brittlebushes, lavenders, sunflowers and other colorful wildflowers grew in abundance in the area. A cave on the north side of the mountain was a hidey-hole for weary renegades, outlaws, and stagecoach robbers pursued by posses. Fierce Apache, Navajo, Hopi, and Paiutes used the cave for shelter.

Morgan Eloy withstood her constant nagging before their difficulties came to a head. He left her after a final dispute over another woman became public knowledge. Shamed by his transgressions, Ernestine Eloy began her boarding house and searched for a new husband. It was upon his first arrival in Fountain Hills, to purchase supplies for his cabin, that Ernestine Eloy set her sights on Hayden Kearny. He was thirty years younger than her.