The Light

By Ben Rolphe

This challenging story, filled with humor, danger and intrigue, compels the reader to follow the exciting saga to its dramatic conclusion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carpenter's Son Publishing
• Release date: Aug 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9780983557128

Book preview

non-existent.

Introduction

This nature of this book may perhaps convince you, the reader, that I am a true fan of Cervantes’ book, Don Quixote. His writings are believed to be the first works of fiction ever produced. Consistent with Cervantes’ writings, it is my belief that it would be, a far better world, if everything were as it should be, rather than as it is.

This book is a fiction novel. Some will refer to it as science fiction while others may choose to call it a book on philosophy. You be the judge.

This introduction won’t tell you a whole lot about the book; you will have to read it if you want to know what prompted me to write it. It was a fun book to write, and I enjoyed every moment involved in the creation of these writings.

Much of the research came from recalling my own life experiences. The story takes place in Oregon and Montana. At one time, I called both of them my home state.

Parts of this book could very well have been included in my biography. It is fair for me to say that I firmly believe that although it is fiction, it’s a real shame that it is not a true story.

One last paraphrased quote from my friend, Don Quixote; "Perhaps too much sanity, could indeed be, madness."

1

Dan Branson slid over in the saddle and hunched his shoulders a little more to the right. It felt good to find a new position, which, seemed to immediately relieve the tingling in his left leg. Earlier this morning he had headed up a different trail. Now, six hours later, he was heading back to the ranch.

The last two days had been spent riding every trail and path near the area where they had located the main herd. Last week marked the completion of the annual cattle roundup that occurred every fall in September. According to the head count he had made two days before the roundup, he was missing two calves. Now, it was Dan’s responsibility and sole objective to locate those two missing critters.

Nearing the end of September, it is the time of day when the temperature drops quickly as the sun slides down over the horizon and behind the snow-capped peaks of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains.

He loves this time of year. There is a calm stillness and soft breeze in the air that brings back memories of numerous summers spent in the saddle. Many of those memories were from when he was just a young boy.

Dan had taken the job as general manager and head wrangler for the Triple Peaks Ranch nearly four years earlier. The former head wrangler had decided to retire after twenty-five years on the ranch. He and his wife made the decision to head south and retire in Arizona, now that their two grown kids were out on their own.

The Triple Peaks Ranch is located very close to the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, just a few miles from the small central Oregon town of Sisters.

At first, Dan was reluctant to move to Oregon, however, for various reasons, it seemed to be a good opportunity to clear his head and get started with a totally new life.

His entire Montana family had encouraged him to accept the offer to assume the job of head wrangler for the Triple Peaks Ranch.

Dan discovered later that he was one of nearly thirty wranglers who had applied for the job through the Cattlemen’s Association. He believed that it was the recommendations of not just one, but according to his dad, five highly respected cattlemen that helped him land the job.

Dan, a native of Montana, was born and raised just north of the area between Bozeman and Livingston on a small spread still owned by his parents. His parents’ property consisted of a quarter section of land. The one hundred sixty acres consist of about half open pasture and half native timber, mostly Ponderosa Pines, intermingled with a few Western Larch. Many of the locals call the Ponderosas, ‘Bull Pines,’ and the Larch, ‘Tamaracks.’ However, the identities in both cases are synonymous.

The family’s farm/ranch operation included eighty acres of fenced pasture. Their livestock consisted of three cows, two quarter horse brood mares, and a dozen chickens. The mares represented good blood and had a reputation of foaling outstandingly strong, future trail horses.

Robert, Dan’s dad, had worked for nearly thirty years as a district representative for the New Holland Farm Machinery Company. Obviously, all of the Branson’s farm machinery and equipment bore the name of either Ford or New Holland.

Margaret, Dan’s mom, always maintained that it took nearly full time to manage the family. She did, however, spend nine months of the year working at the local elementary school serving hot lunches.

Dan and his twin sisters, Mary and Molly, both five years younger than Dan, rode the bus into Livingston during the school year. While they were living at home, all three of the Branson’s children helped with the farming and livestock. Without exception, each managed to land good summer jobs at nearby popular resorts and dude ranches.

Dan, as a teenager, spent every summer in the saddle as a wrangler and guide for the area’s most popular dude ranch. His designated job and primary responsibility, which he actually enjoyed the most, was teaching young kids how to ride.

During his high school years, he was dedicated to physical fitness and spent a great deal of time working out, utilizing all the school’s fitness equipment. His only school sports activity was participating as a long-distance runner on the school’s track team, as he loved to run.

He spent the majority of his free time alone, concentrating on his studies, ultimately graduating number two in his class. Following graduation, he was granted a full scholarship to Montana State.

Dan quickly took advantage of the scholarship and enrolled for the upcoming fall semester at the university located in Bozeman just twenty-five miles from his home. He chose to major in livestock and forestry, as it seemed to him that his future life was already pretty well defined.

Dan sought to commit each day of his life to achieving his lifelong dream of becoming a rancher and a cattleman. Over the years, he became an expert horseman. He was obsessed with the dream to spend his life ultimately managing a herd of cattle.

His college years were uneventful in that he primarily dedicated himself to his studies and sought constantly to achieve the highest grades. He also chose not to participate in any college sports, fraternities or social life on the campus.

Because it was a short drive from his home to the college campus, he elected to live at home with his family, helping with daily chores to help pay for his room and board.

Dan was somewhat different from most of his peers in that he had already made decisions pertaining to his future. His primary objective was to gain a good education and then get on with his life as a rancher.

Dan dated a few times during his college years, but none of the relationships ever turned into a romance. There was one girl, Becky, which he really liked, but she fell in love with a basketball player named Oscar. She and Oscar dated for a few months and then, during their junior year, they made the decision to get married. Both of them continued to be Dan’s best friends.

It was during his second year at the university that he was encouraged by a good friend, Sam Barton, to sign up for the Air Force ROTC Program. He soon realized that he was fascinated with aeronautics and totally enamored with the idea of becoming a pilot.

Dan graduated with honors from Montana State at age twenty-two, receiving two degrees, one in forestry and the other in aeronautics. He joined the Air Force a month after graduation and spent the next year in pilot training at Sheppard Air Force Base located at Wichita Falls, Texas.

For some reason, flight training, and all of the associated studies, seemed to come to him naturally. He loved every minute of his pilot training, even when his flight instructor occasionally seemed to lose patience with him, as he struggled to grasp the techniques of piloting an aircraft.

2

Sam, Dan’s horse, suddenly let out a loud snort that quickly brought Dan back from his wandering thoughts of the past.

The horse not only snorted, he had his ears laid back and was shaking his head. This was an indication that he didn’t approve of something on the trail just ahead.

Sam, a seven-year-old sorrel-colored quarter horse, had a white blaze on his face as well as white socks on all four of his legs. He’d been Dan’s personal horse since he was purchased as a three-year-old at the annual horse auction held at Pendleton, Oregon.

Dan’s horse had always been high-spirited, but he did settle down some after being gelded. He had actually turned into a great trail horse. Sam was the name that Dan had chosen for his horse because it reminded him of one of his closest friends from his college days.

The young horse actually came from a very famous bloodline of quarter horses. His granddaddy was none other than the famous Joe Reed who, for some time, was rated as the fastest racing quarter horse in the nation.

As he rounded a bend in the trail, Dan immediately saw what had apparently spooked Sam. There, alongside of the trail, was what was left of the two missing calves. It was obvious that some poacher had shot the calves, gutted them, and then stripped out all of the better cuts of meat.

Dan pulled Sam to a halt about fifty feet from the carcasses, climbed down from the saddle, tossed the reins over the lower branch of a young Juniper tree and walked over to the remains, now covered with flies. He instantly picked up the stifling odor of the decaying animals.

Unfortunately, this type of poaching happens quite often to ranchers who choose to range their cattle in the mountains. Cattlemen always run the risk that someone will take down one or two calves prior to the roundups.

It takes a large number of acres to range cattle in the Cascades. According to the ranch records, it required approximately fifteen acres per critter to run a herd on the ten sections of land that had been allotted to the Triple Peaks Ranch.

It is virtually impossible to have an eye on the herd twenty-four hours a day. However, it was Dan’s main responsibility to keep tabs on the herd and to check on its position every day. Dan had spent many nights camped next to the herd during the summer ranging season.

Dan stared at what was left of the butchered animals, then leaned down and cut off each of their numbered ear tags with the knife he always had strapped to his waist. He shoved the ear tags into his Levis jacket pocket, turned and headed back to Sam. He knew that what was left would soon be consumed by the coyotes and such other critters that roamed along these trails.

As he was heading down the trail back to the ranch, he began to parallel the road that ran from the small town of Sisters up into the mountains to the Three Creek Lake area.

A brown Dodge pickup slowed to a stop and a window rolled down. A man of about fifty stuck his head out of the window and yelled, Hey, Branson, haven’t you had enough of that saddle for this year?

It was Buck Buckingham, who had a forty-acre place a few miles up the road. He wore a friendly smile as he stopped and began asking about the completed roundup. Dan sensed that he had to cut him short, as he had to get down the trail before dark set in.

Dan took another minute to thank Buck for stopping and then told him he had to get moving back to the ranch. Dan turned Sam back to the trail, waved, and headed back down the trail.

Buck, also a good neighbor, smiled, gave Dan a wave, shifted the truck back into gear and sped off down the road.

Everybody knew the roundup had come to an end and that those who had participated were aching for a long needed period of rest and relaxation.

Sam had lowered his head and was trying to break into a cantor, but Dan held him back, knowing that you never allow a horse his head when you were heading for the home pasture. Additionally, if a horse senses that his job is finished for the day, it had a real motivation to quicken the pace. Sam knew better, but he also knew that his attempt would be thwarted by his master. Being high-spirited, Sam constantly challenged Dan’s control.

Once they had arrived back at the ranch and into the corral, Dan stripped off Sam’s saddle, blankets and bridle. Immediately, the horse turned and walked to the watering trough. He drank heavily as it had been a very long day and even longer trek home.

Dan picked up the bridle, saddle, and blankets and headed for the tack room. After placing his well-worn saddle on the saddletree, he threw the blanket over the top of the saddle and then hung the bridle on a nail above the saddle. As he exited the room, he grabbed a currycomb and brush from the shelf by the door.

Returning to Sam, he brushed his back and then went to his shoulders and rump. Sam loved this special treatment and stood completely still while Dan was grooming him.

Dan went back into the tack room, grabbed a feedbag, filled it about a quarter of the way full with oats and returned to Sam. The horse was waiting patiently as he had sensed what Dan was doing. The horse somehow knew that he would soon be munching on molasses-soaked oats. Dan placed the feedbag over Sam’s snout and then brought the strap up over his head and placed the strap behind the horse’s ears. He stood back to watch Sam consume every last morsel of grain in the bag.

Removing the feedbag from Sam’s head, Dan knew that his job for the day was done. He returned the feedbag to the tack room, closed the door, and headed in the direction of his log cabin.

On his way, he stopped and leaned against the rail fence that encircled the corral. The tip of the sun was just beginning to touch the highest peak of the mountains. Dan wanted to watch the sun as it moved slowly down behind the snow-capped peaks.

With his arms hanging over the top rail, he surveyed the beauty and grandeur of the event taking place before his eyes. He knew that in just a few minutes, this spectacular scene would cease to exist.

As he studied the skyline, he couldn’t help but notice the flash of a bright light that seemed to appear every few seconds from the saddle between the South and Middle Sister Peaks.

Dan knew that section of the mountains very well and also knew there were no maintained trails to that area. The Forest Service trail ended at Camp Lake, which is located well below where he saw the light. Dan also knew that the terrain beyond Camp Lake is rocky and extremely difficult to navigate for hikers as well as trail riders.

Dan calculated that the light appeared to have come from the center of the saddle between the mountains, in an area known as Chambers Lakes.

He studied the spot for a few more minutes and then noted that the brilliant light ceased to appear. He shrugged his shoulders, wondering what it was that he had just seen.

Dan scribbled out a note to Ron Morton, the ranch’s foreman, describing what he had found on the trail regarding the dead calves, and hung it on the door to the cow barn. He knew that Ron would be coming down early in the morning to check on the cows.

The Hendersons, Pete and Gracie, have owned the Triple Peaks Ranch for over thirty years. The ranch has been in the same family for three generations. Pete took over the ownership and management of the ranch when his dad passed away in the late 1970s.

Pete and Gracie departed right after the roundup for a month’s vacation in Spain. The couple had raised two girls who are now grown and raising their own families.

Dan had recently heard rumors that the Hendersons were talking about putting the ranch on the market for sale. Neither of their girls nor their husbands had ever shown any interest in ranching; therefore, it was obvious that the ranch would someday have new ownership.

The current economy was in such a depressed state that Dan thought it doubtful that they would soon see much of a demand for a spread as large as the Triple Peaks Ranch.

The main house is a grand old ranch-style home, constructed in the early 1900s by Pete’s grandfather. The main floor exterior is cedar board-and-batten siding, painted dark brown, whereas the upper floor has an exterior facing of natural red cedar shingles. The roof is heavy, hand-split cedar shakes. The house contains nearly 7,000 square feet of living area.

The spacious main living room walls, along with the adjacent dining room, are faced with knotty pine. Both of the room’s ten-foot ceilings boast huge hand-hewn wooden beams. The large oak table in the dining room will comfortably seat twelve guests. The rock-faced fireplaces in both of the rooms were originally constructed using local, native river-rock. The living room fireplace is large enough, according to Dan, to hold a Volkswagen.

The walls in virtually every room of the large home display old oil paintings depicting the early west, including horses, cowboys, and cattle drives. A few of the paintings depict the early American Indians in their full-feathered attire, including Indian braves with painted faces.

There are five large bedrooms. Three of the four upstairs bedrooms, including the master bedroom, have their own individual fireplaces, and are furnished in early 1900s’ style with four-poster beds. These three rooms are very elegant in design and furnishings and radiate a definite feminine decor.

The fourth upstairs bedroom, also with its own fireplace, has a much more masculine motif. It was probably originally designed and furnished for a young boy. A large guest bedroom, with a private bath, is located on the main floor.

The house, now completely deserted, will remain that way until the Hendersons return from their vacation in Europe.

The entire ranch consists of two sections of deeded land representing twelve hundred eighty acres. There are five hundred acres of alfalfa and three hundred acres of peppermint. Both are good cash crops and have always managed to keep the ranch in a profitable position. There are several outbuildings, including three barns, the workshop, equipment sheds, the foreman’s house, a small bunkhouse, and Dan’s log cabin.

In addition to the