Finding Promise (The McBride Brothers) by Scarlett Dunn

Author:Scarlett Dunn [Dunn, Scarlett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zebra
Published: 2015-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Riding slowly at dusk, Colt and Strait heard the cattle before they saw them. Within minutes, a large herd of grazing cattle came into view. Colt felt certain that this was Jake’s drive, and he caught sight of two men riding the perimeter. Colt could tell even at a distance that neither man was Jake, but one of them looked like Cole Becker. Colt’s attention was diverted by a group of eight men riding toward Cole and the other cowboy.

Colt didn’t like the looks of this face-off. “Strait, let’s go join this party.” When they reined in, every head turned to them. Colt gave an imperceptible nod in Cole’s direction.

“Mister, I suggest you and your friend keep on riding,” the leader of the group of eight said.

Colt gave him a hard look. “I didn’t ask for your suggestions.”

The man glared at Colt before turning his attention back to Cole. “I warned you drovers once. Mr. Schott doesn’t want free grazers on his land.”

“Like I told you before, we’re on open range and we will be moving on in the morning. Not before,” Cole responded with a hard edge to his voice.

“You work for Schott?” Colt asked. Colt had met Schott before.

“Yeah, we do. Mr. Schott owns the largest ranch in Colorado,” the man replied. “What’s it to you? You riding with this outfit?”

As a rancher, Colt understood how cattle grazing on open range could leave an area bare, but he also understood cattle had to eat. “Schott knows this is open range.”

“Mr. Schott was here long before anyone else, and his cattle graze on this land, so that makes it Schott land. He don’t tolerate free grazers.”

“As the man told you, they are moving on in the morning,” Colt said.

“You’re wrong. They’re moving on now,” Schott’s man replied.

“Maybe you lost some of your hearing. We’ll be moving on in the morning,” Cole said.

Colt watched intently to see if any of Schott’s men were thinking about going for their guns. Seeing a few hands inch toward their holsters, Colt warned, “I wouldn’t.” He moved to Cole’s side, with Strait following his lead.

The leader of the group wasn’t sure he wanted to do battle with Colt. It was more than his size that intimidated him; he had a hard edge, indicating he was a tough hombre who could back up his words. “You heard what we said. We’ll be back with more men,” he said without looking directly at Colt.

Colt moved his horse forward until he was side by side with the man doing the talking. He leaned over in the saddle until his face was inches away. “I’m Colt McBride, and these cattle are headed to my ranch. If one man on this drive gets so much as a hangnail, or one steer trips and hurts himself before they leave Colorado, I will hold you personally responsible.”

“A lot of men work for Mr. Schott. You can’t take us all on,” the man boasted.

“I’m not worried about how many men Schott has.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.