It had been already a tough winter and now the harvest almost was about to fail. The last summer was rained away which made the harvest fail. Clark Kendall was looking at the future with dismal. Despite the fact that he worked hard to keep his ranch going, the problems kept on continuing piling up. Good personnel that wanted to work for a few dollars was very hard to find or not at all.
Clark was not the only one who had to deal with problems. Other ranchers had to deal with failed harvests and to less personal. Then they usually moved to another area to try it there again. Clark wouldn’t think of that idea. He was here too long to start anywhere else again. Besides that he wasn’t one of the youngest either. His only son Joe worked also at the ranch, but he also didn’t see away out.
Each day was a fight for living or dying for the Clarkes. They hadn’t foreseen on what sort of disasters the near future would bring them. The previous summer was wet, this summer was extremely dry.
One evening Clark said, “It was a hot summer, son.”
“I hope the harvest won’t fail this time. What must we do then?”, was the reaction of Joe.
“I don’t have a solution for that so fast”, his father said worried.
The next morning , when Joe was at the land, he suddenly got shot by the Apaches. By the shots Clark knew what has happened. He quickly went to the land. The Apaches had rode away already. At the moment that Clark found his son, Joe had passed away already. When he had buried him, Clark saw flames close by. Directly he knew that it was his harvest which got destroyed. The harvest couldn’t be saved anymore and hereby the rancher lost every strength to keep on living. The death of Joe and the burned harvest were the last straw that broke the camel’s back for him. Clark decided to set his ranch ablaze and to kill himself with a bullet from his colt.
So said, so done.
Quite soon there was a sea of fire to see and to hear and in the middle of the flames was there a gunshot to hear which killed Clarke. Only there was nobody around to hear it.