Mel's Arc

Chapter 17 of 36

Three walls stood, but the fourth stayed open. Mel woke to gray sky and a wind that cut through her coat. Her herd stood in the frame's corner, packed tight against the cold. The last wall gaped wide, and no boards covered the roof. Frost stiffened the grass. She knew the first snow would find her cattle with nothing over their backs. She had the crew. She did not have the roofing. Ted rode up on his black horse and swung down beside her. He looked at the open frame and the empty rafters. "We're short," he said. "The lumber went to the walls. There's nothing left for the roof." "Then we find some." Mel counted the money in her head and came up empty. "The store won't sell to us. The mill won't either." Ted rubbed his jaw. "The old rancher's barn. He tore down the old one last fall. The tin's still stacked behind it." They rode out together through the wind. The old rancher stood in his yard, loading his wagon. When Mel told him what she needed, he set down the crate in his hands. "A Caldwell rode past my place this morning," he said. "Slow. Made sure I saw him." He looked at her a long moment. "Wanted me to know they're watching." Mel's stomach dropped. "Then I won't ask you to give me the tin. It's too much." The old rancher spat and almost grinned. "I already picked your side. Might as well pick it loud." He waved at the stack behind the barn. "It's rusted at the edges but it'll turn snow. Take it. My boys and I will haul it over." They worked until dark. The men lifted the last wall on the count of three, and it dropped into its notches. Ted drove the braces home. Then they climbed the rafters and nailed the tin down sheet by sheet. The metal banged in the wind. Mel handed nails up from below, her fingers numb. By full dark the roof was closed. Mel opened the wide door and drove her herd inside. The cattle crowded in out of the wind, and the banging tin went quiet above them. She stood in the doorway and felt the still air. For the first time, the barn held warmth. Ted came and stood beside her. "It's done," he said. "Whole barn. Walls and roof." The old rancher wiped his hands on his coat. His face had gone serious again. "You should know something," he said. "That tin was mine to give. But the Caldwells will hear I gave it. And they own the note on my grazing lease." He looked at Mel. "They can call it in whenever they please." Mel looked at the full barn and then at the old man who had saved it. She had closed her last wall before the snow. And she had just cost the one man brave enough to help her his own land.