Page 164 - Tamale Ridge_113017

162 Tamale Ridge by: Chuck Cusimano

We boarded the train in El Paso and said good-bye to the large crowd that hailed a farewell.

Ramon, Raul, Vincente, Carlos, Contesa and a couple more. I invited the whole bunch to come

visit us anytime.

We had two cars just for the horses and I had bought three tickets. One for Rosemarie, one

for Olivia and one for me. I promised Olivia a job and a chance to be a part of the family. I

knew it would be no time at all and she would save me a ton of paper work. On the way back, I

told her and Rosemarie how I wanted to keep records of the bloodlines for each and every colt

or filly we raised. We stopped in Las Vegas for two days to let Olivia visit with her brother. I

introduced my new bride to Sheriff Joe Andry and jokingly told her how he made me drink the

worst coffee I ever tasted.

“Well, I can offer you some good coffee now,” he said.

“Sounds like a good idea, I’ll take these two lovely ladies to the hotel and then I’ll come over

for a visit.”

I paid for two separate rooms and after putting the luggage in the rooms, I headed down to the

Sheriff’s office and a visit with my friend.

“The reason I wanted to get you alone, was to let you know what happened after you boarded

the train,” he said.

“That brother of the youngster that Sims killed went and shot Sims and we sent him to Raton.

It was a cold blooded killing, all planned out,” said Joe Andry.

“That whiskey that them boys drank that night has put some good men underground. I guess

this feller, Sloan, will be the next one. I can hardly believe it. I figured him to be resigned to his

brother’s fate. That sure is some bad news,” … I paused and said,

“It could’ve all been avoided if they hadn’t been drinking and acting like fools.”

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