Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-03-31
w.N.u. RELEASE

little light began to show his world.
1t was suddenly as if fatigue had hit
the cattle on their bony heads. They
seemed to halt between one step and
another, with only their painting
breath rising and falling over the
dark mass.
He let them rest while daylight
came on, until he could estimate
four or five hundred in this bunch.
They were as gaunt as wolves from
the nights run. Tongues lolled and
their big eyes bulged in their SOCK
cts. 1t would take weeks to get
back the pounds they had lost in
these few hours.
The morning star was up, large
and yellow, straight ahead and dawn
was green in the sky when he saw
the first of other punches coming out
of the hills to the south. There
were more along the river, north.
He felt better. And as those stray
Cling lines converted with his on
the flat shelf and he could see men
with each one that dread left him.
Joe Wheat, Ash Brownstone and
Charley Storms were the first to
join their cattle in. They rode back.
He saw that Charley hadn't stopped
for his pants but had ridden the
night in his long-legged underwear.
They trailed behind the herd. Far
Their on, when Quarternight and
Moonlight Bailey angled in from the
river with their strays, he rode up to
shape the point with Rebel John.
The herd was growing. Ahead, Neal
Good waited with a smaller bunch.
-Four men were still missing, Clay
and Ed Splann, Steve and Tom Ar
mold.
The longhorns' run had taken them
far west, and it was not until after
two hours of steady, speeches. rid
ing that he saw Owl-Head Jackson's
camp smoke lift from the junction
OF the river and its tributary creek.
He searched along the creeks
growth for the trampled part where
the herd could cross. Something
halted his drifting gaze. He brought
it back. An icy GOODNESS crept over
his skin.
John" he said and pointed, "T'd
better 60 look"
1t was riderless horse. Even
from half mile off he knew by the
way the animal was standing, crook
eddy, with tired patience, that it
had broken a leg. Closer, he saw
the saddle under its belly. Its head
raised little as he approached but
dropped again. He drew his gun
and put the muzzle close behind one
pointed ear and felt sick as he pulled
the trigger.
Dragging tracks led toward the
creek. He followed them, steeled
against a thing he had looked upon
before and yet chilled even by those
memories. His shot had brought two
riders starting out of the distant
river trees near camp. He couldn't
tell who they were. Then suddenly
his horse snorted, spread its legs
and stopped. The trampled swath of
creekbottom willow lay beyond the
low bank. He looked where the ami
mails ears pointed and in that first
moment felt no shock. All of his
senses seemed to have gone dead.
In that strangely suspended feel
ing he turned back, fired his gun in
the air and waved the men on from
the herd. They loped toward him.
When they saw the horse he had
shot no one asked for the rider.
He said, Its Tom," and saw
their faces, haggard from the nights
work, only set little more.
The two from camp were close
now, Clay and Splann, hurried on by
his second shot. 1t struck him that
they didn't look worn out like the
rest of the men. Clay pulled in be-
side him. who is it?"
He jerked a nod toward the
creek. Over there"
Clay rode over and sat there and
took his time about coming back.
All expression on his full, ruddy face
was yelled by an oddly smoothed-
out look. He shook his head.
Tough. I'll go in, Lew, and tell
JOY"
NO." he said, mot yet"
Clay's huge body Strengthened up
in the saddle. "Why not?" His voice
carried a new power.
There's no use," he said. mot
till afterward. We're too far from
civilization to go in for that kind of
a burial. 1t will have to oe here,
right now. Let Joy have some other
memory. Where's Steve?"
In little silence, with his question
unanswered, he knew something
was coming that had been shaped
already in his own mind. But he
hadn't expected it would come so
soon.
Then Clay said, "Steve's in camp.
I'm going in. This makes a differ
ence, Lew. A big one. You might
as well know that
mot one Bit" He swung his horse
over close. "What you're figuring
on hasn't happened. You'll take my
orders till it does" An outraged
copca f,,rpa5 bi,,, l..l