15 Western Short Stories — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

PLACE OF HIS OWN by K. CLAYTON ALKING over to the horse herd, Jeff Weaver decided it was the weather, rather than the veiled hostility of the Cienega cowboys, that was making him cold and uncomfortable. May, in northern Arizona, can be a chilly month. He hadn’t needed Wiggins’ nudge, as foreman Tim Black led out the big gray horse. Tim’s smile said plainly to Jeff, “Okay, boy. You've asked for it and you'll get it.” Jeff’s stolid, brown face didn’t change, and his trace of Cherokee blood kept his flat, black eyes unread- "You poor fool, drag out an old cow while you let fifty head get away!" Black shouted. as i a = =. ; — ~~ The cow would die, if |Lawton would know he didn't savvy cattle ranching —————————= then... got her out. And Old able, but he was doing a lot of figur- ing and getting nowhere. He knew the horse was bad, but he needed that month’s work with the Lazy H wagon. Most important of all, Jeff needed Old Man Lawton’s good opinion. He had finally nerved himself to ask Lawton for the Cedar Springs place and all his plans hinged upon his get- ting it. Black, as the Old Man’s fore- man, naturally had the say-so where horses were concerned. If he took ad- vantage of it, to pay off a grudge, eve- rybody around Cienega would hold him to be within his rights. - ame ew _ . . * ——— - —_—_—e eS OO > -_ = cCoOmiclboookx C© in