Rusty Lard Bucket and One Spur
Rusty Lard Bucket and One Spur
By Hal Haralson
Gus McCall was 88 when his wife died. Gladys was 84. They had been married over fifty years.
Most of those years had been spent on their Big Bend Ranch. Gus took care of the cattle and Gladys cooked and "cleaned house."
There were always two or three cowboys in the bunkhouse but mostly they lived alone.
It was a lonely life. The trip to Ft. Davis was made once a month. It was over a hundred miles, round trip.
The kids had grown, married, and had children.
Gus and Gladys were frugal and saved their money. They had done well.
All was rather smooth `till Gladys died. Gladys left a will .
Gus sat in the lawyer`s office and listened in disbelief as he was told that Gladys left her half of the "estate" to her grandchildren.
"What half?" "She never done nothin` but cook."
The term "community property" was new to Gus. He listened as the lawyer explained that half of everything they had belonged to Gladys and she left it to their grandchildren.
Gus stumbled out on the street. At eighty-eight he was nearly blind. He kept a room in a boarding house in Ft. Davis but preferred the solitude of the ranch.
That day, $300,000.00 worth of municipal bonds (the kind anyone could cash just by signing) disappeared from their lock box at the bank. Gus got a ride to the ranch and no one saw him
for a month.
Gus was too blind to drive but knew the ranch so well he got along fine once he got there.
Three years later, the father of two of Gus`s grandchildren sat in my office and asked me to represent his children. It seems the $300,000.00 had not been found and none of the land had been divided.
As far as he could tell, it was all in the hands of a "big law firm in Odessa" and nothing had been done.
I agreed to take the case. I filed my suit and gave Gus McCall notice I was taking his deposition in Odessa on March 18 at 2:00 o`clock. No one had deposed him since Gladys died. Nothing had been done to find the $300,000.00 in bonds.
When I got to the conference room of the "big law firm in Odessa" there were five other lawyers waiting to hear what Gus had to say.
He was nearly an hour late. I could hardly believe what I saw when he came into the conference room.
His felt hat had grease and sweat all over it. It must have been fifty years old.
His Levis and shirt were covered with dust and grime and did not appear to have been washed in months. There were patches on the patches.
Most noticeable were his run-down/worn-out boots and the one spur he wore.
After the usual introductions, I identified myself as the attorney representing his grandchildren.
His look became sullen and his half-blind eyes squinted as he tried to make out what I looked like.
"Mr. McCall, I`m going to ask you some questions and the court reporter will take down your answers, just like you were in court. Understand?"
"Yup."
"Mr. McCall, (this was my misguided effort to "soften" up the witness before I really got down to business) I notice you only have on one spur."
"Yup. "
"That`s rather unusual. Would you mind telling me why you are only wearing one spur?"
He looked at me as if I were a complete idiot.
"You ever put your foot in the wrong boot?"
Without waiting for an answer, he exclaimed, "Hurts, don`t it?"
"If you just have on one spur, you know which boot that foot goes in."
That logic was a little fast for me, so I decided to go for the heart of the matter.
"When Mrs. McCall died, there were $300,000.00 in municipal bonds in your lock box at the bank. Do you know anything about that?"
"Yup. "
"They disappeared. Do you know anything about that?
"Yup."
"Did you take them?"
"Yup."
Are you going to tell me where they are?`
"Nope," he grunted. “When you lawyers and judges back off and leave me alone, they`ll turn up."
I decided to play a long shot.
`What did you do? Bury them on your ranch?" The surprised look on his face told me I had guessed right.
"Yup, but you`ll never find them."
"Mr. McCall you are nearly 90 years old. Has it occurred to you that you might die and no one will know where the bond`s are?"
"Yup, I thought about that. They`ve been hunting for that lost gold mine on my ranch for years. Someone will find `em."
I knew what I wanted to know. I brought the deposition to an end and dismissed Gus McCall.
The other lawyers left. They knew what they wanted to know. I never understood why no one had bothered to ask for 3 years.
Two weeks later, Gus`s attorney called and said he had brought the $300,000.00 worth of bonds into his office in a rusty lard bucket and dumped them on his desk.
I suspect Gus`s lawyer told him after the deposition that now that he had admitted taking the bonds, he could either bring them in or the judge would carve out $300,000.00 worth of land from his ranch and sell it. Either way, the grandkids get what Gladys left them.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust doth corrupt".
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