2 Gun Western, May 1957 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

20 2-GUN WESTERN and most of the rest of the O-X crew. The difference was, Gus being the ramrod, he could say things to Curt without their being fighting talk. Curt Little was the kind of ranny that makes everybody want to take a poke at him. Everybody seemed to be just waiting around for an excuse to do this. And the funny thing about this kind of ranny, about Curt, is that it isn’t anything in particular that they do exactly, or say, or any- thing, it’s what they don’t do that riles everybody. That self-sufficient way they have, as though they don’t know you're alive, and care less. Ordinarily they'd have been taking another herd north and all hands would have found themselves too busy for such insignificant personal matters, but a legendary old guide and trapper who'd never even heard of Curt Little, had changed all this. Old Ted Tollant had finally de- cided to make a piece of change for himself instead of forever steering others to their fortunes: he’d dis- covered a_ shortcut through the mountains, and spread word of it far and wide, and so all the cattlemen aimed their drives for good-natured old Ted’s new pass through to the Blue River watershed. The pass was there sure scat when they arrived, and so was good- natured old Ted, big grin and all, but so tco was the scattergun across the graybeard’s knobby knees. Ten cents per head, the oldster wanted, whether steer, man, or wagon, to go through. And te the stunned cattle- men’s amazement, old Ted was pre- pared to make his edict stick: he had secured legislative authority from the State to collect his toll. The boss of the O-X had been one of the first to run into Ted’s road- block. He’d debated shooting the wily old guide, but in the end paid the four-hundred-odd dollars de- manded. Not, though, without vowing never to put another herd through old Ted’s tollgate, and swearing he’d find another route west here if it took him the remainder of his life and he never sent another cow north. That was what had the O-X bhot- tled up now, cattle and tempers both. The base had been off for over two aad months now on his furious quest. The big crew was getting paid reg- ular and working little, and at first this seemed fine and dandy, but late- ly it had begun to pall. A man wanted to do a little work for his money, what the hell, So Gus Ball, who’d been left in charge, of course, was feeling his oats. And beginning to shove the men around, So naturally one of the first - ones he began roweling was Curt Little. “What are you, deaf or some- thing?” he nagged Curt. Because Curt hadn’t moved a hair. Curt had this job of whittling he was doing. “Look you damned fool, I ain’t asking you, I’m telling you.” Gus’s lean, sweaty face was bloated a bit, with the edge of rage in him now. “Now get the blazes down the hill and help them with them fence- posts.” Curt gave the half-carved chunk of wood a couple final licks with his snap-blade knife, which he shut and tucked in a hip pocket of his skin-tight blue jeans. He managed not to meet the foreman’s eyes, ris- ing. That was one of the character- istics that got under the men’s skins, for example. You sometimes won- dered how Curt Little kept from bumping into people, he noted their presence so seldom. Curt was built well, but not extra- muscular nor extra-tall. Even, in other words, his build irritated, made men want to test it, take this cuss apart and see what made him tick. Most men, for cripes’ sake, you could look at them and size them, decide that this was one you could take or couldn’t take. Curt Little you couldn’t size like that. None of which would have mattered a whit, as has been stated, if the. O-X boss hadn’t gone off looking for that new pass through the moun- tains. Nor if the girl up at the house had returned Gus Ball’s esteem. In- stead of fastening her favor on Curt Little... HE WOULD come down, like this morning, and watch the men. work. She was the boss’s niece or ward or something, from the East. COMME OOO KS CONN