Free the Strong Shall Live (Ss) (1980) by Louis L'amour

a buckboard left Mirror Valley and bounced over the stones and through the thick gray dust toward Willow Springs and the turnoff to Merrano's tunnel. Clyde Mayer had made a decision, and he was following through. He knew nothing of the action taken by the ranchers at the TD ranch. He was threatened by foreclosure by the wholesalers, and in this emergency he was turning to the one man in the valley who seemed to have money.
    The tunnel was unguarded, and he turned in hesitantly. When he emerged into the bright sunlight Barry Merrano was standing in the door of his house. The sound of hoofs in the tunnel was plainly audible within the house at any time.
    Mayer pulled up in the ranch yard and tied the lines to the whipstock. He got down carefully, for he was not as agile as he had once been.
    "Howdy, son!" He peered at Barry over his glasses. "Reckon this visit's a surprise."
    "Come in," Barry invited. "I'm just back from patching a hole in a dam. A badger dug into it, and the water started to drain out."
    "My, my!" Mayer looked around slowly. "Your mother would be right proud, young man! Right proud! She was a fine woman, your mother was!"
    "Thanks. That's always good to hear from somebody else. She was a good mother to me."
    When they were seated over coffee, Mayer said, "Son, I've come to you for help. The wholesalers have shut off my credit, and they are demanding money. I am low on stock, and the ranchers will be coming in for supplies."
    "How much do you need?"
    "An awful lot, son. I'd need five thousand dollars. I'd sell you a half interest in my business for it. I know I've been foolish to extend credit, but these are good men, son, and basically they meanwell. Every one of them will pay off if it is the last thing they do, but that won't help me now ... nor them."
    "If you don't get the money, you go broke?"
    "That's right."
    "Then what happens to the ranchers?"
    "They'd starve or get out. The drouth's hit this country so bad there isn't a head of cattle fit to sell. It will take two really good years to get them out of the hole they're in. They'd never be able to stick it out. They have no food, no feed, no water."
    Merrano stared into his cup, his brown, wind-tanned face thoughtful. After a moment he said, "All right. I'll buy a half interest in your store on one condition. I don't want anybody to know about it."
    Mayer hesitated. "What about credit for fee ranchers? They are my friends, and I'd hate to turn them down."
    "Don't. Give them what they need. Somebody has to have faith in this country. Maybe after this they will learn their lesson and handle their stock sensibly."
    Mayer stood up, his relief obvious. "I don't mind telling you, son, I was scared. I hadn't anywhere to turn."
    He started for his buckboard and paused before getting into it. "Son, you be careful. That Joe Stangle is a mighty mean man, and so is Dulin,"
    "Thanks. I'll keep my eyes open."
    After Mayer had gone Barry returned to the house and got his Winchester. Then he slipped on his gunbelt. It was time to begin moving the cattle off the Long Valley range and back into the basin. No use to let them feed there too long. In a few weeks he would take thirty head over to Aragon for sale. It would save on feed and water and give him a little more working cash.
    He had saddled up and was about to mountwhen he heard a rattle of horse's hooves. It was Candy Drake.
    At her expression he caught her hand. "Candy? What's happened?"
    Swiftly, the words tumbling into one another, she told him of the meeting and its result. "Please, Barry! Don't think too hard of Father! All he can see now is his cattle dying!"
    "I know," he agreed. "The trouble is that the little water I have wouldn't help much. With that mass of cattle coming in, my smaller pools would be trampled into mud within hours and the bigger pools behind the dams would last no time at all. It would simply add my ruin to the rest of them. Believe me, Candy, I'd like to help.
    "There is a way, if they