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I

Free grass for the taking—

My luck’s gonna change,

’Cause there’s nothing left in Texas

To e

September 1878

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It was a country of benchlands and breaks, coulees and cutbanks—and grass that stretched a hundredexpanse of blue sky overhead seee undulated like a heavy sea The lonely grandeur of it gripped at the heart of the strong and intimidated the weak

A pair of riders leading packhorses topped a crest of this virgin Montana Territory and reined in Froun chaps and the lon of their cowboy hats, their clothes and their gear marked them as Texans They were covered with a thick layer of travel dust

They walked their horses partway down the gentle slope and stopped again when they were no longer skylined by the plain’s swell Saddle leather groaned as the taller of the two round in a fluidblew out a snort and dipped its nose toward the grass

Rawboned and lean, Chase Benteen Calder carried his near-six-foot height with the ease of a shorter ht was distributed in hard muscles that lay flatly across his chest and broad shoulders and the long girth of his legs The twenty-six years of his life had beaten a toughness into his boldly spaced features It showed in the quickness of his dark eyes, the se of his nose, and the pale track of an old scar on his right teilant, and the sun had darkened him

He kept a hold on the reins to his chalk-faced bay while it lowered its head to graze The rattle of the bridle bit briefly drew his glance to the horse tearing at the curly, round

It was native buffalo grass, ht couldn’t kill it; cold winters cured it into hay; the trarass could put two hundred extra pounds on a steer at h sorass, its wheatlike heads had brushed the stirrups of his saddle

The great herds of buffalo that had once roa extered by the governton in a deliberate attempt to break the spirit of the Plains Indians and subdue them once and for all A year before, on October 5, 1877, Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé had surrendered over in the Bear Paw Mountains Most of the Sioux and the Cheyenne were corraled on reservations, and the rest had fled to Canada with Sitting Bull and Dull Knife After years of pressure froovern open the last isolated island of open range All this land was going to be free for the taking

Chase Benteen Calder scanned the li eyes His glance stopped on the wiry rider sitting loosely on his horse Both men were seasoned veterans of a half-dozen trail drives of longhorns north to the railheads in Kansas and beyond They had just come off a drive Benteen had bossed for the Ten Bar ranch south of Fort Worth, Texas, to deliver a herd to an outfit in the Wyo and the ones that carried their packs all had the 10-brand burned on their hips

It was on the trail during a stopover at Dodge City that they’d heard the first talk about the Indian country of Montana Territory and Benteen’s interest had been aroused Then, the rarass opening up to the north Instead of heading directly back to Texas, Benteen had taken this side trip to get a look at the country, and Barnie had tagged along

This vast rolling grassland was all that they had claimed it to be, and more Its lower altitudeand Colorado, and its grasses were rich—capable of putting hard weight on cattle

There would be a staold” Right now, it looked like a sea of gold Summer had ripened it to a rich yellow and auturasses that covered hundreds of squareSoon the place would be overrun with people arriving tochance Would-be ranchers and speculators would co out of the ork like cockroaches to try to make a quick buck and run But Benteen made up his mind to be here before the cockroaches came

“I think this is it, Barnie” His narrow smile was cool and sure

“Yep” Barnabas Moore didn’t need an explanation of that statement

Three things were required to rass,

water, and natural shelter frorass aplenty; plum thickets and chokecherry trees offered brush shelter; and just ahead there was the wide course of a riverbedplains