The Cattle Thief

High in the north Under the mountains' gaze Two bodies still hang It was there by the blood fevered hands of men She they called the cattle thief was slain 50 men in black coats Ride in from the south It is not justice that fills their hearts Or foams at their mouths The queen of the mavericks Daughter of the plains Her corpse hangs for rumor Her corpse hangs for company aims This land bestowed upon the barons Every grass every straw We will draw lines across the open range By order of law A reckoning comes From those branded thieves Driven to desperation And disparate means Sound out the bells of war Within the county line Here in the wake of the thaw In a young nation blind It's war they've waged It's bloodshed they crave They come bringing fire They come bringing siege A note on the corpse of the people's men "Thieves beware" it would read Beware! The gods of men are he who holds The gunpowder and the gold Beware! The company kills for company men If you should find your name upon their list But beware thee Oh men of the company Beware the ghost of Cattle Kate Beware what you create They're riding out Through the dusk, to the north They bring menacing Blind in rage And endless violence The lost men ride Into the fray Fifty men rode in Under promise of pay Seventy names on a list Fifty dollars each name A shadow creeps over The range's first light Fifty head in the fields Cower in fright Oh thee men of the association Who murdered in profits name Absolved by your own You carry on in prosperity Devoid of shame But there remains A shadow on the range The ghost of the cattle thief Whispers her claim Sixty years aged Or just six years young I will return for you and yours For all you have done I heard you seen her now A dream or not she'll wander The county round Until the end You sure that what you fear is gone? You blindly hope I heard you crawl from her now Endlessly You are never alone