Free to Tame a Land (1955) by Louis L'amour Page B

open country, broken and rugged. Ranche s were scattered, and some of the small ones were merel y rawhide outfits without enough cows to bother with.
    The air changed and it began to look like rain.
    By nightfall the clouds were hanging low and they wer e spitting a little rain, so I started the gray to moving alon g and dug my slicker out of my bedroll. I'd taken to wearin g both guns, but only one in its holster. The other I tucke d behind my waistband, the butt out of sight under the edg e of my coat. It was added insurance, because I was carrying another man's money and was never one for trustin g to luck. I'd helped bury a few men who did.
    This was rough country in more ways than one. During any day's ride a man would come up to several horsemen, mighty hard-looking men. Most of them, by the loo k of them, had been up the creek and over the mountain.
    The wind was blowing, splattering rain ahead of it, an d I was thinking of something to crawl into when I hear d cattle. Just the restlessness of a good-sized bunch, an d some lowing from cows. Then I saw the hard outline o f a roof gable, and just off the road loomed a large house.
    In a flash of lightning it showed itself square and solid , built of sawed lumber.
    To one side there were corrals and a lean-to, and beyond, in an open place that was walled on three sides b y bluffs was the herd. Catching glimpses by the heat lightning, I saw the steers were big and rangy, and they looke d like young stock. It was a herd that might run to six hundred head.
    And then the rain hit. She swept in with a roar, th e solid sheets of water striking like blows on a shoulder , and I raced the gray to the lean-to and swung down.
    Here, partly out of the storm, it was quieter except for th e roar of rain drumming on the roof. The lean-to wa s partly faced, and there was shelter for several horses. I f ound a place and tied the gray, and then I slopped, hea d down against the rain, to the house.
    There was a light gleaming faintly behind a shutter, s o I banged on the door.
    Nothing happened.
    I was standing in the rain, as there was no porch, onl y a slab of rock for a doorstep. Dropping my hand to th e latch, I pressed it and stepped in, closing the door. I wa s about to call out when I heard voices. I heard a ma n saying, "You pay us now or we take the herd."
    "You've no right!" It was a woman's voice, protesting.
    "You were to be paid when the herd was delivered an d sold."
    Outside rain drummed on the roof. I hesitated, feelin g guilty and uncertain of what to do, but the conversatio n held my attention. It was also my business. This was co w talk and I was looking for cows.
    "We done changed our minds."
    In the tone of the man's voice there was somethin g hard, faintly sneering. It was a voice I did not like, an d quite obviously the voice of a man talking to a woma n with no man standing by.
    "Then I'll simply get someone else to handle the herd.
    After they're sold, you'll be paid."
    "We ain't gonna wait." The man's voice was confident, amused. "Anyway, who would you get? Ain't nobody gonna handle them cows if we say they ain't."
    I felt mighty like a fool, standing there. But this woman had a herd to sell, and it looked mighty like I'd b e doing her a favor to buy it right now. But it was not goin g to make me any friends among those men.
    "Anybody to home?" I called it out loud and there wa s silence afterward, so I walked through the door into th e lighted room.
    There were two women there. One I guessed it wa s the one who had been doing the talking was standing.
    She was young, and, in a plain sort of way, an attractiv e woman. The other woman was older. She looked frightened and worried.
    There were three men, a rough-looking outfit, unshave d and dirty. All of them were looking at me.
    "You didn't hear me knock," I said, taking off my ha t with my left hand, "so I took the liberty of coming in ou t of the rain."
    "Of course. . . . Won't you sit down?" The young woman's