Longarm #398 : Longarm and the Range War (9781101553701) by Tabor Evans Read Free Book Online Page B

. . . I’m not sure exactly what . . . but he’s tough as whang leather and twice as steady. Smart too. I saw him get his foot in a wrap of loose wire once. Most horses would panic and try to pull away. Pull their feet clean off if they tried that. This little guy stood there like a rock, like he had as much sense as a mule. He waited for someone to come and unwrap that wire from around him. Right then and there I decided to buy him, and I’m still glad that I did. If it tells you anything, he’s the horse I ride myself when I go up in the hills hunting.”
    â€œYour recommendation is good enough for me,” Longarm said, going around the horse and checking his feet one by one. The little dun gave his feet without a fuss and stood steady until Longarm was done with each.
    â€œTurn around,” DeCaro said.
    â€œAll right, but why?” Longarm asked as he turned to face away.
    â€œI’m not trying to admire your butt, marshal. I’m trying to decide what size saddle will you need.”
    â€œOh, I won’t be needing a saddle from you. I brought my own. Left it at John’s place, though, to avoid havin’ to lug it over here. But I will be wanting the use of your bit and bridle. Whatever the horse is used to.”
    â€œHe has a soft mouth. A snaffle is all I use on him, though some customers demand a curb bit. No spades though. I won’t permit a spade bit on any of my animals.”
    â€œA snaffle is fine,” Longarm said. He normally used the army’s tack on borrowed remount horses. The army used fairly harsh curb bits on all their horses. But then nearly all of their horses were rough and needed the extra control that the curb gave.
    â€œLet me get one.” DeCaro stepped into the tack room of his barn and emerged moments later carrying a very handsome bridle and bit made of a deep red cordovan leather and decorated with German silver brightwork.
    â€œYou give your customers fine tack to use,” Longarm observed.
    DeCaro smiled. “It’s my own,” he said. “He’s used to it.”
    â€œThanks for trusting me with it.”
    The hostler shrugged. “John sent you. If he trusts you, so do I.”
    â€œI’ll give you a voucher redeemable from the federal government for the use of him. He’ll be stabled behind the sheriff’s place. I’m sure you know it.”
    DeCaro nodded. “That’s fine. I’ll bring over some feed for him. That will be on my bill too. That way he won’t be eating up what John has there.”
    â€œFair enough,” Longarm said.
    DeCaro slipped the bridle over the dun’s head and let him mouth the bit for a moment before he turned the reins over to Longarm. “I named him George, but of course he doesn’t come to it no more than any other horse would. One thing he does well is ground rein. I wouldn’t do that with any other animal I got here, but you can trust George on a ground rein.
    â€œThat’s good to know,” Longarm said. He arranged the reins, then sprang onto the little horse’s back. Touching the brim of his Stetson toward DeCaro by way of a salute, he nudged the dun in the side. As soon as they were out of the barn, he touched the horse again and lifted it into an easy trot back to the Tyler house to pick up his gear.
    It was still fairly early in the day, plenty early enough to begin speaking with whatever herdsmen he could find in the valley.

Chapter 16
    A wisp of pale smoke was visible above a fold in the land about halfway up the west side of the valley. Longarm reined the dun away from the stream and nudged it into a trot. The horse crested the top of the rise, and Longarm could see a moving sea of woolly sheep—albeit a small sea—white against the brown and green of the rocky hillside.
    A wagon, covered with canvas but with tall, wooden sides, sat on the uphill side of the sheep. A clutch of men squatted around a fire