15 Western Short Stories — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A PLACE OF HiS OWN planet, steelshod hooves flailing the air. Then somebody’s rope tightened, and the horse came down, but not on | eff. Jeff limped over to where Tim Black held the gray horse, snubbed to the saddle horn, and doggedly re- mounted. He choked the saddle horn from then on, but in spite of all pre- cautions, he had been thrown twice more before they reached the Mogol- lon Rim, where the day’s work would start. Jeff looked by then like a man who had been petting a wildcat, and he was plenty mad. He knew whv Siack had given him the gray horse, of course. That way, Without saying a word, Tim would be telling the Old Man, “See what I mean? Weaver's as useless as teats on a boar hog. He can’t cut the buck!” Since Jeff had outbidden the Lazy H foreman on fifteen head of yearlings a few months before, Black had had it in for him, and the foreman was a hasty tempered man who nursed a grudge. Arriving at the Rim, the Old Man and Black divided the cowboys and Jeff found himself in Tim’s bunch. He wondered if Black had asked for him. The men didn’t talk much. Black gave his instructions quietly and ef- ficiently, when he dropped off men to work back to the wagon, and even though Jeff was new to the business, he could appreciate the way Black took advantage of the rough country, keeping his men on the ridges, so any cattle they spooked would hit for the draws, to be picked up on the re- turn trip. Black saw, and pointed cut, cattle so far distant that Jeff could find them only with difficulty, even after he knew where to look. As they worked on, Jeff found himself being forced into a sort of reluctant admira- tion for the big foreman. Black had the disposition of a sidewinder, but he knew his job, and could handle men. MINALLY Wiggins and Jeff were detached, to hold a bunch of cattle in a clearing near the edge of the canyon, to wait until other men brought stuff out from below the Rim, to throw in with them. It was warm, there in the cedars, and the warmth brought out swarms of gnats 19 to buzz around Jeff's face. On the other side of the herd, he could see Wiggins slapping at them also. It seemed to Jeff that he had been fight- ing gnats for a week when the sound of rolling rocks directed his attention to the mesa above him, and he saw the first of the wild cattle. come out of the cedars, in a long, swinging trot. He heard Wiggins yell at him to head the cattle, where the trail forked. Jeff cautiously let the gray horse have slack, and headed for the trail fork. He had the right idea, but he hadn’t known that anything so clumsy as a cow could move with such speed. The cattle came with a rush. They came with a whoosh, and a clatter of spurned gravel, and they beat Jeff to the fork by fifty yards and were long gone. Jeff was still staring after them when Tim Black rode out of the ce- dars on his lathered sorrel. Black’s face was lumpy, and his jaw stuck out. Jeff braced himself for a bawling out, but when the foreman started talking in his ordinary everyday voice, Jeff felt guilty and deflated and he didn’t know for sure whether Black was being sarcastic or not. “Next time, stay on the downhill side of wild cattle, Jeff. Then they can’t get around you. You've got to keep your eyes open, around these cattle. And you can make that gray horse move faster, by jerking down your rope and working on him. You'll never do any good by easing him around.” Black’s horse showed plainly that the foreman was a man who could take his own advice. The sorrel’s sides were heaving, and his wet, dusty hide showed deep spur tracks. Jeff sup- posed that it was necessary, but he hated to see it. He’d always had a soft spot in his heart for animals and he didn’t like to see them abused. Black had the reputation of being a top- notch cowboy, but mighty hard on horses. Jeff said, “Well, it’s my fault, and I guess I'l] have to admit it. Pll try not to let it happen again.” “That’s all a man could ask. Just keep your eyes open—you’ll ketch on to it. Fact is, I wouldn’t have said anything about it, only the Old Man seen the whole thing.” Tim flirted a cCoMmiclboo S (CO