A Story

Bright wooden splinters lay smashed into the dust. Sam Morgan knelt in his neighbor's empty corral, studying the prints.

"Wilma and I stayed in Kirby with her sister last night," Orville Wilkins said. "All I can tell is something scared my horses through the fence. Cougar, maybe."

Sam stood, brushing dirt from his knee. "Maybe." He had only seen horse tracks, but a cat would scare them without entering the corral. "Tough break." He looked down the draw, trying to guess where they might have gone, and saw a man on a horse.

Orville nodded, his brow wrinkled with worry, then paused as the rider stopped at the edge of the corral.

He cocked one leg over the pommel and tipped his hat back, revealing a hard set, yet handsome face that showed he'd spent a lot of time outdoors. "Heard you lost some horses. I got a pair of brothers and we're kicking around the west right now, looking for excitement. My brother Joe's a pretty good tracker. We'll find your horses for you."

Orville smiled and held out his hand. "Orville Wilkins, glad to know you son. I'm afraid those horses have run clear to Canada, but I'll be glad to let you look."

"Ron Casady," the rider replied, returning the handshake. "We'll be glad to do it, for a finder's fee. If we don't find 'em, you don't owe us a thing."

Sam frowned, watching his neighbor and the drifter. "Now how did he know so fast," he mumbled to himself. He watched Ron Casady turn his horse around and vanish into a dip between two wheat-covered hills. "Why hire trackers?" he asked Orville. "We could find those horses."

Orville shrugged. "We have chores to do, Sam. This way the horses get found and we can get on with our work at the same time. And if they can't find 'em, I don't lose the time I'd have spent looking for them myself, do I?"

Sam stroked his bristly chin and hummed thoughtfully. "I guess not." He still felt wary of the Casady brothers' intentions and turned to argue with Orville, but his neighbor's cheerful face, clear of the worry present moments ago, changed his mind. He silently decided to keep an eye on Ron Casady and his brothers on his own....

To be continued...