THE BRONC PEELER 14

for the next few days bill, when he left to go ride through the cows carried a rifle. kate agreeded they coulnt have a pack of wolves working on their cows.on the morning of the third day kate decided she felt well enough to go along. she was still a bit pale but bill thought the sunshine might help tht a bit. they hadnt seen or heard from jim. but they started leaveing a lot of horse tracks on the range. just being there would make the wolves nervous. maybe even leave the area. but bill was ready with the rifle if he saw one of the wolves.when asked about how many cattle the ranch had, kate simply said she didnt know. no one had told her a number. the range wasnt hurt, the grass had a good foot hold and the cattle wernt degradeing it any. but almost daily they found cattle that bill hadnt seen before. he and kate rode some big circles mainly giveing themselves a good chance to see a wolf. but nothing appeared. they talked about finding a extra man or two for round up and branding. there were lots of unbranded calves. the cows got gentler as they rode through them daily. one thing that bill noticed and spoke of it to kate was there were a few yearlings and two year old steers scattered through the herd. kate explained that when her husband had been killed they were in the process of starting to gather the cattle and to take the yearling s and bigger animals to market. when don had died everything had come to a screeching stop. kate stated she felt that jim would like to see the cattle cleaned up.. if they hadnt sold the broncs they may have run short on money. every day they watched for the herd of bought cows to appear. kate had said she thought they needed to be located at the horse camp. and not comingle them with the established herd. on thinking it over bill agreed. every day they watched the road for either jim or the herd of herford cross cows and bulls. one day as they rode along talking about the cattle and breeding, makeing plans on getting a better bunch of bulls for the existing herd it suddenly hit him, bill realized he wasnt any longer talking like a bronc peeler, but now he was talking like a cattleman, a rancher. when he looked at kate she was looking at him with a unasked question on her face. he smiled and told her he had surprised himself. but left the subject there. he could tell kate wasnt satisfyed with the answer but he wasnt ready to get anymore personal than that. on the fifth day of rideing they came on a fight, a cow was defending her calf from 4 wolves. she kept circling faceing the wolves while the calf stayed almost undr neath her. bill fell from his horse and pulled the rifle and jacked a round into the chamber. kate took his horses reins and pulled him to one side. bill knelt and shouldered the rifle and centered the sights on the biggest wolf. when he squeezed off the round the wolf had simply fell over not makeing a sound. he levered another round and took aim at the second wolf. he pulled the trigger and the wolf had jumped straight up in the air with a yelp. when he hit the ground he was dead. the other two wolves had stopped when the second wolf yelped they stood there looking at their two dead companions for a second then turned to run. bills third shot tore up the ground where they were standing and sent them along their way a little faster. the cow had trotted off to one side with her calf and was licking him. bill stood up and walked to his horse and pushed the rifle into the scabbord. . " good shooting man" kate was beaming. " i should have got them all. i aimed a bit low on the third round. we will have to deal with them another time i guess." bill was a bit embarrased. kate smilled and said it wwas still impressive. as they rode along bill explained to kate that the herford cattle wouldnt be as protective of their calves as the old horned range cows. all the natural defensive instincts had aabout been bred out of them. he hated to see the old style cows leave because of it.but he also knew that hrford cattle would produce more beef and better quality beef was the thing of the future. kate was still looking at him in a diffrent expression. he suddenly realized he had been rambling and ducked his head and shut up. but kate now realized he wasnt just another bronc peeler.