Toledo Steel

Somewhere NW of Bents Fort CO

4th Generation Cottonwood

Creek Cousins

Summer was still a lonnngggg way away on a blustery Saturday out at the w\< ranch in the southern quadrant of Colorado. Caddo Creek was getting a real nice April showers flood and the two cousins Seth and Willie Chet Branson were out on the prairie near the Old Santa Fe Trail. April was raining icy cold drizzle down the back of their necks, neither one remembered slickers tied to the backs of saddles. So far today they had found two old glass bottles deep violet from being in the sun since the 1800's and a couple of dusty mexican size rowels from some old vaquero's spurs.

They speculated about banditos and how how one could have lost moving parts of spurs, finally deciding he had maybe had his horse shot out from under him by a posse or ranch crew, and was on foot. The rowels would have made it impossible to walk or run at any speed. Unlike cowboy spurs the mexican style was a much larger diameter.

'Say, lets see if the old bandido hid some loot around here.'

'Chet, that's a plumb crazy idea but I'm for it!' hollered Seth.

William Chester was named with first initials WC as a family tradition of first sons names on the family tree of a local pioneer family. He got his middle name from the TV show Gunsmoke. Chester was Matt Dillon's deputy on the show, and he reckoned he would maybe go into law enforcement himself someday.

Seth figured Chet's lanky good looks would get him just about any job he wanted since he was also half smart and could shoot anything he aimed at without wasting bullets. Seth intended to go into the military. He thought the Rangers sounded like rough tough fellas he could stand with on any field of conflict.