My Master's call A story

Gumberto Garza looked to the west he was concerned with what he saw.  Above the tan hill just beginning to show hints of weak light  almost lime green was a swirling line of massive thunder heads.  They looked like the backside of old Spanish galleons with their stern castles approaching.  He knew what they were a cold front was approaching and the air humid was going to provide fuel for them.  They were puffy and he could see lightning flashes within them as the wind was starting to pick up from the south and east he knew cold biting air from the north was approaching he was glad he had his horse in a warm stable it was going to get nasty out there tonight. Ranger Robbins gave no hint of his arrival.  He just  walked up from a livery stable badge on his chest and a smooth easy gate he walked right up to office. Ranger Robbins was a short man muscular his face looked a bit worn.  He was a stout man and still in his youth.  He then said "There is going to be a herd of cattle rustled from the XO and supposedly down this way to Laredo for sale in Mexico"  Sherriff Smith said "Why isn't Kerr's boy going to handle it?"  Ranger Robins replied "He's got his hands full right now and they will be going through your jurisdiction it is a whole lot easier for you to get it then it is for him.  It was a direct answer.  Ranger Robins said "We ride out north east tomorrow I am not even going to risk it with this storm approaching"  Sheriff Garza checked his watch he reckoned he would have an hour and a half at the most before the storm hit his limestone office with its cedar room and tin siding on top.  He could already feel the wind coming off the rain pounding a distant hill.  In the future they would call it outflow.  When the rain so chills the air around it,it becomes cold and dense the air it self plunges in the warm around around cascading then when confronted with something solid like the ground goes out like a wall.  This outflow was occurring on a front three hundred miles long and about 5 to 15 miles wide.  Ranger Robbins had a history had come from Brownsville he had worked for Mr. King and then headed north and west.  He took a liking to the German settlers of Fredericksburg and had briefly taken up arms against the south narrowly avoiding the slaughter at Ft. Stockton he quietly came back to Real Country and had been made Sherriff after the Union reconstructed the area and had managed to stay in office.  What struck him about this hill country was the extreme violent nature of the land.  It during this time of the year harder to figure out then a woman calm one minute violent the next warm then bone chilling cold then warm again.  Tonight God was going to show how weak man was he thought.  Little did he know a lost sheep would hear his masters call 18 miles away. 

Sherriff smith got some coffee and put it on a pot as he put an oak log into a wood burning stove.  He asked Ranger Robbins if he wanted some coffee with heavy cream and honey.  Robbins said "Much obliged thanks" and as he did he put a pair of small chairs outside the office.  He noticed a small box filled with ice and what appeared to be a bottle cream that had been kept cool in some ice collected from the last freeze along the Frio river about two weeks previous.  The wind was started to gust outside.  The coffee was ready.  The two men drank from ceramic cups as the wind shifted the large rain drops fell.  They stood out for a while but the howling wind out of the north drove them inside to blankets made out of angora hair.  It was heavily diluted with cream since the two men knew that they would need there sleep soon.  They got outside right when the rain started falling in sheets and the thunder roared.  The two watched as the rain fell on the tin roof.   Lightning punched through the night with flashes then sun had set thunder roared.  The drum beat of heavy rain on tin was loud a collection of staccato beats played by a mad drummer.  The coffee in their hands was relaxing it was warm.  They had sweetened it with a local bee keepers honey.  Gumberto said "Majesty worship his majesty."  Ranger Robbins looked at the well worn bible near the bunk.  He asked "You read that book much?"  Garza responded "I would love to have it memorized we bear the sword after all."  Ranger Robins commented "So I guess we both bow down to the one who walked out of a grave in Jerusalem."  He nodded.  Without a thought both of them managed to bring up "May God have mercy on those rustlers I feel sorry for them in this weather"  The two were stunned both of them had the same set of words a prayer that had come out amazed  they both said amen.  In the darkness 13 miles north north east their prayer was being answered.   

The morning came cold and dry despite the fact it was early April.  Fresh eggs and bacon were quickly cooked on the wood stove in the stone Sheriff's office.  The two men quickly ate and strong coffee was brewed.  Before the sun got too high in the sky the two were horseback heading north.  They walked quickly in their leather chaps cotton pants and heavy woolen shirts beneath buckskin and wool jackets to the stable where they quickly synched their saddles on to the horses that  had been fed a large ration of oats and alfalfa hay the night before.  The meal was heavy in both men's stomach but the two knew they would need it. The two mounted up.  Ranger Robbins had a stout quarter horse fifteen hands  broad legged.  Sherriff Garza had a painted horse fourteen hands high likewise stout and able footed from walking these routes and at times in hot pursuit of criminals. 

The river was up yet they found a place where they could cross.  The horses tread through the deeper sand limestone and quartz.  The river was wide and shallow at  a given point the water was flowing fast over a hard limestone bottom.  The horses gingerly crossed and then it was back to a trot.  They were on the low side of ridge that separated the east fork from the west fork of the Frio river.  They were riding along the east fork of the Frio.  The valley was climbing narrowing it was a sight to behold.  The two men looked at each other they were amazed at the beauty.  The  grass was coming up near the knees of their horses light green in color  the sky was clear and the reins felt sharp in their leather wool lined gloves.  The wind cut at their pants that were covered with leather chaps.  The single action colts at their side.  The plan was to take the east fork of river up and hopefully un across the point where the cattle had been driven.  They also surmised there had been a stampede in the night.  It was a couple hours through this country when they decided to make a crossing they looked up river and saw the first of cattle carcasses.  Both of them though roughly familar with the beauty were always in a state of awe of it.  To both men it told and unerring tale man's smallness God's greatness God's love for man for while the land bore the punishment of Adam's transgression as surely as the human race remnants of Eden were visible and the realization that the might displayed in the land they were on intimate terms through Christ the holder of the might.  The thought was never far from their minds it both humbled and uplifted them.  The east fork of the Frio makes a hard turn to the south from a near westerly heading on one side there is a very steep rock outcropping two hundred feet near vertical drop.  About fifty head of cattle had scattered and run off the cliff.  The two crossed the wide shallow river proceeding slowly at this point. 

A rider's head and shattered horse was near a strangely curved outcropping rounded by flood carved out from the inside on the broken face a look of horror.  One soul would never find rest maybe he would ultimately they knew it was not their department. The two split to better cover this small wider section of the valley.  Sherriff Garza slowly scanned through a pair of binoculars from a high point the scene.  The cattle had broken up into two groups one on side the other on the other side.  Smoke rising from a few trees marked where lightning had been.  

Ranger Robbins sped walked out ahead their was rumor of a shallow rock out cropping a tall cypress near the area.  He rode slowly now in the midday sun not knowing what to expect .  He came across a half circle of dead cows and a stunned individual walking around.  The second he saw the light glint off the Ranger's badge his hands went up.  Robbins was surprised.  He tied his hands up and went on horseback.  The story was told the lightning bolts and the dead carcasses that surrounded him electrocuted by the lightning the rock that protected him from above and behind far enough away high enough from the rising river. The lightning strikes the visions the voice the call.  He beheld the rock out cropping where the thief was sheltered. Ranger Robbins shivered not from the cold but from the timing.  He fired a signal shot.  He was joined by the sheriff shortly. 

The captive Eddie Butt told the story again.  The two men were now convinced that their prayers prompted by thinking of their heavenly father had been answered in real time.  The two knew it was time to eat and looked at their captive.  The front was still strong the weather would be nasty if they continued the climb up the plateau the meat was near frozen.  The cattle were dead.  Garza said "We might as well camp here I know of a protected area close to the river but surrounded by bluff which would be a good camp site.  It was a rounded indention the rock about 200 feet across at the widest point it was surrounded on three sides by a very steep hill extending one hundred fifty feet.  There was a larger boulder near where the two men decided the three should sleep.  This offered protection from the bone chilling wind which was coming off the Edwards plateau without let up.  Robbins decided to set up camp he got a fire going what had been nice a mesquite tree had practically exploded from one strike and an older oak lay smoldering.  The two would make a good cooking fire.  There was plenty of cedar near a cliff left untouched. 

Sherriff Garza fetched with his small hatchet and large knife a large leg quarter out of a female long horn.  He knew being outdoors would be rough but the captive was no shape for travel the front would go on for a few more hours and the horses needed rest.  The river valley had lots of good grass for grazing.  A large portion of meat and a good fire would make the three ready for travel the following morning as they would climb the Edwards Plateau and to head to XO ranch headquarters near Mountain Home.  He cut off what amounted to eight pounds of  beef from the dead cow.  He brought it back to the camp site.

The bible was brought along and Sherriff Garza read from Romans

5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time ^F16 Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. ^F17 12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that ^F18 all have sinned: 13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. 15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

The meat roasted over the fire as the men talked.  Eddie was prepared for the hangman.  The cedar was put on the cooking fire and the heat warmed that back corner of the Frio valley the sun began to set and the men rested it would be a long day tomorrow.  The winds died down that night the three men looked up at the star filled sky as the embers died in the camp fire.  It was clear the sky was full of stars and bright lights.  The blackness punctuated by thousands of points of light from many places.  Eddie Butt prayed "Thank you Lord Jesus Christ .....master"  he did not feel like a condemned man but a man loved he felt for the first time intimate with the one who made the heavens and the earth.  He drifted back to sleep.   

Morning came and the trio headed out they made the climb up the valley and then along the high plateau.  A couple riders stopped them.  One of them was Captain Schriverner himself the other was a deputy of Sherriff Kerr.  Captain Schcrivner had felt guilt about ordering the death of his own son at Ft. Stockton at the start of civil war.  Upon seeing the young man the former confederate captain now store asked that Mr. Butt has he called him be released of the rope and that he was not pressing charges.  Ranger  Robbins and Sherriff Garza were surprised but pleased.  Sherriff Garza was asked to stay the night at the XO. 

It was a leisurely ride as the sun had already started heating the top of the Edwards Plateau.  This draws were mild this high up and the terrain flat.  The conversation seemed light and easy.  The Captain had a small office at the head quarters.  He had lost a couple hundred head but there were still plenty more head to run up to Kansas.  He needed hands.  Mr. Butt as he called him was humble and was already making an effort to clean up his mouth.  The official paper would be written and sealed in the office freeing Mr. Butt a job offer was also made. 

It was late evening when they arrived at the headquarters of the XO ranch.  It was all formality.  The paper was signed the Captain got him a hand for the drive to Kansas Mr. Butt would go back to Tennessee the story would be passed down in the Robbins family.  Eddie Butt would have a wild daughter who would leave an orphan before she bowed to Christ. The kid's name last would be Sullivan.  Eddie Butt's later son would leave a long line of heirs.  Garza lived a quiet life in the town of Leakey.  The true events would be lost to time for a while yet God would bring some of the family's together again.  The acreage where Mr. Butt heard his master's call God would use again.  A couple generations from Eddie the land where Eddie met Christ would be in the Butt hands.  Sheriff Garza's descendants would maintain the camp one would be a counslor at the youth camp.  A descendant of Eddie Butt's daughter would weave the power of the redemptive grace of Christ.  One of the first one's who saw the gospel lived out and heard Christ's call was a descendant of the man who showed him mercy.  In the late 1990s those whoose linage went to the Texas ranger that made eye contact with Eddie Butt were the prototype's the camps second phase of life.  The Master would ordain more then a few tales of his amazing grace Eddie's was the first and continues to this day.

Back to the Buzzard's roost