Free Riding for the Brand (Ss) (1986) by Louis L'amour Page B

only recently become involved, for recently there had been a change. Larger bunches of cattle were being stolen, and more care was taken to leave no trail. The carelessness of Vorys had given way to more shrewd operation, and Casady overheard enough talk to know that Stockman believed a new brain was directing operations.
    He heard much of Pete Vorys. He was a big man, bigger than Rock. He was a killer with at least seven notches on his gun. He was pugnacious and quarrelsome, itching for a fight with gun or fists. He had, only a few weeks before, whipped Sandy Kane, a Three Spoke hand, within an inch of his life. He was bold, domineering, and tough.
    The hands on the Three Spoke were good men. They were hard workers, willing to fight, but not one of them was good enough to tackle Vorys with either fists or gun.
    Cat McLeod was scraping a hide when Rock rode into his camp in Blue Spring Valley. He got up, wiping his hands on his jeans and grinning.
    "Howdy, son! You sure are a sight for sore eyes! It ain't no use quibblin', I sure get my grub on time when you're on that ranch! Hope you stay!"
    Rock swung down. He liked the valley and liked Cat.
    "Maybe I'll pull out, Cat."... He looked around.
    "I might even come up here to stay. I like it."
    McLeod glanced at him out of the corners of his eyes. "Glad to have you, son. This sure ain't no country for a young feller, though. It's a * huntin' an' fishin' country, but no women here, an' no likker. Nothin' much to do, all said an' done. bar Casady unsaddled in silence. It was better, though, than a run-in with Vorys, he thought. At least, nobody here knew he was yellow. They liked him and he was one of them, but he was careful.
    "Ain't more trouble down below, is there?
    That Vorys cuttin' up much?" The old man noted the gun Rock was wearing for the trip.
    "Some. I hear the boys talkin' about him."
    "Never seen him yourself?" Cat asked quizzically. "I been thinkin' ever since you come up here, son. Might be a good thing for this country if you did have trouble with Vorys. You're nigh as big as him, an' you move like a catamount.
    An' me, I know "em! Never seen a man lighter on his feet than you."
    "Not me"... Rock spoke stiffly. "I'm a peacelovin" man, Cat. I want no trouble with anybody."
    McLeod studied the matter as he worked over his hide. For a long time now he had known something was bothering Rock Casady. Perhaps this last remark, that he wanted no trouble with anybody, was the answer?
    Cat McLeod was a student of mankind as well as the animals upon whom he practiced his trade. In a lifetime of living along the frontier and in the world's far places, he had learned a lot about men who liked to live alone and about men who sought the wilderness. If it was true that Rock wanted no trouble, it certainly was not from lack of ability to handle it.
    There had been that time when Cat had fallen, stumbling to hands and knees. Right before him, not three feet from his face and much nearer his outstretched hands, lay one of the biggest rattlers Cat had ever seen. The snake's head jerked back above its coil, and then, with a gun's roar blasting in his ears, that head was gone and the snake was a writhing mass of coils, showing only a bloody stump where the head had been!
    Cat had gotten to his feet gray-faced and turned. Rock Casady was thumbing a shell into his gun. The young man grinned.
    "That was a close one"... He had said cheerfully.
    McLeod had dusted off his hands, staring at Casady. "I've heard of men drawin' faster'n a snake could strike but that's the first time I ever seen it!"
    Since then he had seen that .44 shoot the heads off quail and he had seen a quick hip shot with the rifle break a deer's neck.
    Now his mind reverted to their former topic.
    "If that Vorys is tied in with some smart hombre, there'll be hell to pay! Pete was never no great shakes for brains, but he's tough, tough as all get out! With somebody to think for him, he'll make this country unfit to live