Evening star., 1936-02-09


thought. The tips. the soft soap
handed out attracted lot of musical
comedy cowboys. Well. he'd pick the
one who was least drunk.
Slim felt his consciousness slipping
away and forced himself to stand up.
He looked at his watch. 1t was half
past twelve. The boys usually got back
by one o'clock. He would have to keep
awake another half hour.
It occurred to Slim that Sandra
might have stayed awake to watch
the weather for him. The idea started
a line of thought which annoyed him.
and he sat down at the table to figure
the thing out. He didn't want to blame
her for anything. but staying awake
was the one thing she could have done.
She was always trying to do the things
she couldn't and then falling down. 1t
was all hopeless, he thought. They
couldn't 60 on like this. His head
sagged down upon his breast. He fell
asleep.
Slim awakened with start. He
wondered If he had been asleep long.
what had awakened him. He looked
at his watch. 1t was after four. Four
hours he'd been asleep. and God alone
knew how much snow had fallen. He
listened. There wasn't any wind. That
was a break.
Slim ran out of the ranch. His feet
sank into a moist, white blanket
scarcely three inches deep. But big
fakes of snow were falling in what
seemed to be solid mass. The snow
on the ground lay evenly. There'd be
no drifts. If he hurried, he could still
save the calves.
But fifteen minutes later, riding
hard up the trail from the main stream
to the back pasture. Slim felt sud-
den icy blast of wind in his face. Snow
whirled about him in binding mass.
He knew what it meant. Starting like
that. the wind always built up into
gale. There was only one hope now:
if the wind blew from the west. the
mountain on the far side of the back
pasture would break the force of the
blizzard. But if the wind blew from
the north down the valley. He
would not know its direction until he
reached the top of the mountain.
Slim nudged his pinto with his
spurs, and the little pony increased her
efforts to climb the slippery stream
bed. The damp snow on the rocks
made the footing treacherous. Slim
hurried his pony as much as he dared.
The moment he rode out into the open,
Slim knew it was all over. A blast
straight from the north lashed him.
Refining in, he swung the pinto around
with her rump to the wind. Her name
and tail stood straight out with the
wind as she turned. Slim wondered If
there was any use in riding on down
into the pasture.
He knew what it was like down
there. The gullies would be full of
snow. Everything would look level. II
moved, the calves, even the steers,
would drop into the gullies. He had
seen it happen before. They were there
one moment and the next they were
gone. And then when the thaw came,
they were found, as if they had been
put in cold storage.
The pinto moved restlessly and
started down the mountainside. Slim
let her 60. He didn't care much now
what happened, He had done all he
could, but it hadn't been enough. The
results of several years work were
wiped out.
He knew where he would find the
herd. The cows would have sought
shelter in a strip of pines at the north
end of the valley. And he knew what
he would see there. The cows would
be down with their calves snuggled in
under them to the lee of the storm. He
wn,ldn't see the calves because the