15 Western Short Stories — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

A PLACE OF HIS OWN complained, although she’d had no more than a hand-to-mouth existence, with plenty of hard work, since she'd married Jeff. He thought of the way her eyes would shine if he just walked in and casually announced that they had a place of their own. Lawton stirred restively. “Well, I'll think it over, Jeff, and let you know. Don’t get too set on it, though, be- cause I think there’s one thing you’ve overlooked. I’d be keeping maybe a couple hundred cattle down there. Be lots of riding to do, branding long- ears, and doctoring and such. I couldn’t afford to send a man from the ranch every few days.” “T don’t expect you could,” Jeff said. “I was scared you’d bring that up. I ain’t a cowboy, and naturally you'd doubt that I could handle that part of it. Well, I can. All I. ask is a chance to show you. Give me a year, and if I don’t show a profit for you, you can always run me off.” i horn OLD MAN stood up in his stirrups and stared down the can- yon, “Cattle coming yonder,” he told Jeff. “Now, I’m going to cut off from you here. Follow these cattle up on top. You'll see a big butte off to your right—that’s the Tanks. Take your stuff there and hold them up. We'll throw in with you. Don’t lose any, if you can help it. If you do, they’ll dou- ble back under the Rim again and we'll have another day’ s work digging them out.” Trailing the bunch out of the can- yon, Jeff felt better. At least he'd put his case up to the Old Man. Law- ton was a hard trader, but fair, and if he could be convinced that Jeff could handle the cattle part of it, that ought to clinch the deal. The flume and the feeding angle were high cards in Jeffs hand. If Lawton would give him a year’s trial, Jeff just knew he couid make the grade. The cattle moved steadily ahead of Jefi, up the canyon. He didn’t antici- pate any trouble, getting to the Tanks with them, because he knew they’d be getting dry by the time they topped out, and would want to go to the handiest water, and they did, ar- riving at the water about two o’clock, as near as Jeff could tell from the ve | sun. His bunch was the first in, al- though there were twenty or thirty head already there, lying around the salt ground. Jeff knew that all he had to do now was to keep an eye on them, to pre- vent their leaving. He rode down to the lower end of the tank, to get a drink of water, and that was how he came to find the bogged cow. She was about fifteen feet from the earthen dam, bogged in the gooey, black mud so that only her head and the upper part of her back showed. Jeff thought she had probably been in the bog two or three days. She was too deep for him to see the brand, but her ear- mark was a swallow fork and under bit, with an under-slope in the left. That made her one of Lawton’s. She rolled her eyes at Jeff in mute appeal when he rode up, and he knew that he had to get her out somehow. Ele couldn’t ever stand to see an ani- mal suffer. Any cowboy could have told Jeff that his work would be wast- ed. The cow would die, even if he got her out, because she'd be too weak to make a living. But even if Jeff had known this, it probably wouldn’t have made any difference to him. He looked at his cattle. Most of them were lying down now. It looked to him as though they’d stay around the tank with hittle or no supervision. Anyway, he could keep his eye on them while he worked on the bogged cow. Bog-pulling was an unpleasant but necessary part of every cowboy’s work, but naturally Jeff hadn’t done any. However, he had a rope, and a stout horse. It looked like the only other equipment neces eae was a strong back. And a weak mind; and Jeff told himself he sure had that. He waded out toward the cow, rope in hand, There was no bottom to the clinging stuff and he found that he had to move along pretty steadily to keep from get ting bogged, himself. He finaily got out to the cow, and looked her over. It was obvious that he couldn’t pull her out by the head: Somehow, he’d have to get his rope worked down, alongside her, until he got it under her front quarters. He tried digging with his hands, but the stinking muck oozed back as quickly CO Al COmiclbooks