2-Gun Western, February 1954 — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

breakfast. She knew he wouldn’t be able to eat it except maybe drink a cup of coffee, but she had to try and he had to toy with the egg and bacon, a pretense that didn’t fool her at all. She didn’t fool him, either. She was close to crying every time she took the tray, a fact that gave him deep satisfaction. She was the one person in the world who cared about him. Now, after all these years, when it was too late, he had things straight. The only thing that mattered was a woman’s love; it was the only thing that gave a man any real contentment. He had accomplished everything in his fifty- two years that he’d set out to do, but he did have one regret. If he had met a woman like Sally a long time ago, a lot of things would have been dif- ferent. He'd never had any time to just sit Cattle-wise, sure, but not much of a man, Marty Daren. Or he'd never have wife look at his range boss like thet... 23 and think. In fact, he’d always been contemptuous of the thinkers, men like the preacher and Doc Sanders and the teacher in Shavano. He’d been a do-er. He’d been sixteen when his folks had died and he’d gone to work to support his.younger brother and sister. Then, after they’d grown up, he’d set out to make his ranch an empire and he'd succeeded. A thinker let his Marty waved his gun; he yelled like a crazy man, "Give me a chance to get away. wouldn’t have done that. Outside, Marty Daren was giving the orders for the day. Marty wasn’t much good in some ways, and if it hadn’t been for Sally, Morgan wouldn’t have made him foreman three years ago. He knew cattle and he knew the cattle business, and the ranch had prospered, even when Mor- gan had gone East to the clinics and GO NOOK (C@