the Daybreakers (1960) by Louis - Sackett's 06 L'amour

and Buck to a frazzle, and ended up riding Montana horse who was turning into a real cow horse.
    This was rougher country than before. We combed the breaks and drifted the cattle into a rough corral. It was hot, rough, cussing work, believe you me.
    Here and there we found some branded stock, stuff that had stampeded from trail herds further east, or been driven off by Indians.
    "Maybe we should try Abilene this time," I suggested to the others. "The price would be better. We just happened to be lucky in Santa Fe."
    Seven hundred head of cattle was what we started out with, and seven hundred head can be handled by four men if they work like dogs and are passing lucky.
    As before, we let them graze as they moved. What we wanted was fat cattle at selling time. In that box canyon they had steadied down a good bit with plenty of water and grass and nothing much to do but eat and lie around.
    First night out from the Purgatoire we bedded down after a long drive with the cattle mighty tired. After awhile Orrin stopped near me.
    "Tyrel, I sure wish you and Laura cottoned to each other more'n you do."
    "If you like her, Orrin, that's what matters. I can't be no different than I am, and something about her doesn't ring true. Orrin, the way I see it, you'd always play second fiddle to her old man."
    "That's not true," He said, but there wasn't much force in it.
    After awhile we met again and stopped together. "Ma's not getting younger," he said, "and we've been gone a year."
    A coyote made talk to the stars, but nothing else seemed to be stirring.
    "If we sell this herd we'll have more money than any Sackett ever heard of, and I figure we should buy ourselves an outfit and start ranching. Then we ought to get some book learning. Especially you, Orrin. You could make a name for yourself."
    Orrin's thoughts were afar off for a minute or two, gathering dreams somewhere along tomorrow's road. "I've had it in mind," he said finally.
    "You've a talking way with you, Orrin. You could be governor."
    "I haven't the book learning."
    "Davy Crockett went to Congress. Andrew Johnson was taught to read and write by his wife. I figure we can get the book learning. Hell, man, if youngsters can learn we should be able to throw it and hog-tie it. I figure you should study law. You've got a winning way with that Welsh tongue of yours."
    We drove through Dodge on to Abilene, and that town had spread itself all over the prairie, with saloons side by each, all of them going twenty-four hours to the day, and packed most of the time.
    Everywhere a man looked around the town there were herds of Texas cattle. "We came to the wrong market," Cap said dourly, "we should have sold out in Dodge."
    We swung the herd into a tight circle and saw several riders coming toward us.
    Two of them looked like buyers and the other two looked like trouble. Orrin did his talking to the first two, Charlie English and Rosie Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum was a stocky man with mild blue eyes, and I could tell by the way he was sizing up our cattle that he knew beef.
    "How many head have you got?" he asked Orrin.
    "Seven hundred and forty, as of last night," Orrin said, "and we want a fast deal."
    The other two had been studying our herd and sizing us up.
    "I should think you would," one of them said, "those are stolen cattle."
    Orrin just looked at him. "My name is Orrin Sackett, and I never stole anything in my life." He paused. "And I never had anything stolen from me, either."
    The man's face shadowed. "You've got Two-Bar cattle in that herd," he said, "and I'm Ernie Webb, foreman of the Two-Bar."
    "There are Two-Bar cows in that herd, and we rounded them up in the Colorado country along with a lot of wild cattle. If you want to claim them get your boss and we'll talk a deal, but he'll pay for the rounding up and driving."
    "I don't need the boss," Webb replied, "I handle my own trouble."
    "Now see here," Rosenbaum interfered quietly. "There's no need for this. Sackett is reasonable