Orland Byers tossed down the Mono News Rivalry and groaned. "My gad another season like this we may as well start panning for silver. This business is too full of green crews with a team, a top-heavy wood box on wheels and a hankering for beans." He addressed his younger brother Justin. "You would think thick-headedness was a virtue." He pointed to the newspaper, now resting among cups and papers on the large wood table, which filled the kitchen and served as company business center and dining area. "Those stupid mutts took off with loose felloes and busted canvas brake shoes, I'll bet you!" Orland, oldest brother of the five Byers brothers at thirty-eight was already slightly grey. A man with a business head, he was also the bookkeeper for the small family-owned freight company.

The outside temperature was a brisk thirty-six degrees but warm for an early December day. The weather was calm, dry, and smelled of winter's pine and sage. Life on the home ranch east of Sonora Pass was mildly relaxed with overtones of desperation. The times called for action or a very long and spare winter.

Justin dumped a handful of coffee beans into the grinder and cranked. The fresh nutty odor invaded spaces, mingled with the smoky atmosphere of the large woodstove in the kitchen. Mainly used for cooking, it was also the single source of heat in that area of the rambling ranch house. Elsewhere in the downstairs, warming fires burned in the living room fireplace and the spare bedroom potbelly stove as well. Blended together these strong aromas lent a tang which served to lighten the mood.

"Hmmm," Justin had his mind on a much greater prospect than either silver mining or freight hauling. He had seen the results of photography pioneer George Eastman and his mind was filled with Daguerreotypes and such things as silver tinting and sepia tone. Justin wanted to get to "civilization" and see one of the new dark box Kodak cameras. He was an artist, a photography student, if only by book knowledge, but his dream was to own a camera and study nature on film.

"Soooo, what do you think?" Orland asked the air in general.

"What I think is we need a pot of coffee, drayage customers and money to put new spokes on our number-two wagon." Although he was the youngest of the five brothers Maurice successfully ran the company's physical operations. "We need a contract on paper with orders to take one more load over the top before the heavy snows fly." A long speech for Maurice Byers.

An organizer by nature, Maurice had just naturally become the physical manager of the family freight-hauling company. Inside his brain, organization was a normal everyday thing; a safe of information, while the outer shell appeared a bit large and slick. His head, shaped rather like a melon, was going bald prematurely, but his looks failed to hide the fact that he was the man who made things happen.

Right now nothing was happening in Mono County and times were tight. Their business, The Byers' Freight and Drayage Company, was at a standstill, and while this was not unusual for winter months, weather was still mild enough for the wagons to run and make an income for the brothers. Although money was not coming in, horses still needed feed, men needed three meals a day, wagons and tack still wanted maintenance. "Hmmm." Maurice chewed the air and stewed while Orland brewed the pot for breakfast.

Their business was an exception in those years of one-horse freight operations go