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“It means you usually only rery, the children are crying, or you feel the urge to ht as well be a chair, for all the notice you give me”

“Are you saying you aren’t happy?”

“No, I’ of the way he shut her out and wouldn’t let her share in his plans

“That’s too da to have to live with your ing things This is the way things are going to be, so you ht as well learn to live with it”

In the next second, Benteen was sla the door Lorna’s first impulse was to run after him and de door had awakened the boys By the ti away from the barns

She stared after hiardless of what he wanted, there were going to be soes If he chose not to include her voluntarily, then it was going to be involuntarily

She wasn’t one of his iven orders—or one of his cows to be branded and bred once a year She was his wife, and he was da to have to realize that

26

When cattle walk through grass, they push it down behind the A horse pushes the grass forward in the sa a cowboy learns early in his career

Since the prairie fire had blackened the land and burned out the line camp in the southwest section, Shorty had been shifted back to the central headquarters He was out riding in the northeast quadrant when he cut the sign of twenty head of cattle being driven away from the ranch by four riders

Being roundup ti ranch had ventured onto Triple C range looking for strayed cattle and were driving the unshod ponies The trail was fresh and easy to follow, not side it and pushed the snip-nosed bay into a slow lope

He scanned the muscular Montana land ahead of him and occasionally looked at the trail to be sure it didn’t take any abrupt turns He wished for his rifle back in the bunkhouse, but it got in the hen he was tending cattle His pistol was loaded, and he had a spare in the saddlebag He didn’t expect the thieving Indians to ht of it Usually they just scattered across the plains and regrouped elsewhere, then slunk back like a pack of coyotes to raid again

The country was getting rougher as the trail wound around the jutting base of a butte When Shorty rounded the point, a bunch of cattle with Triple C brands were spreading out to graze on sun-cured yellow grass He yanked back on the reins, setting the bay on its haunches

Onebreath of his snorting horse, the jangle of bridle chains, and the groan of his saddle leather There was no sign of Indians, horses, or riders

In the span of seconds it took Shorty to absorb the scene, the air was ripped by shrill whoops There were five of theun, Shorty wondered how he hadto the side