The Dude Ranger
First Skyhorse Edition 2017 by arrangement with Golden West Literary Agency
Copyright © 1930, 1931 by McCall Company
Copyright © renewed 1958 by Romer Zane Grey, Elizabeth Zane Grosso, and Loren Zane Grey
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Cover design by Tom Lau
Print ISBN: 978-1-63450-066-1
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63450-085-2
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
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01
I’LL palm myself off as a cowboy!” In his excitement Ernest Selby spoke his thought aloud. Then he looked around quickly to see if anyone had overheard him. His fellow travelers paid him no marked attention and he breathed freely again.
A growing elation had been mounting in Ernest ever since the train had climbed the Raton Pass into New Mexico. Now he was fairly in Arizona. This was the West, the real West that had always spelled romance to him; and almost miraculously had come his opportunity to become a part of it.
Time and again, since he had left his home in Iowa, Ernest had pulled out the papers and letter from the lawyer in Chicago. These set forth that his uncle, Silas Selby, had died suddenly of a heart attack and had bequeathed to his nephew a certain property in Arizona called Red Rock Ranch. The lawyer went on to say that just before his death Mr. Silas Selby had decided to make a trip to the ranch to ascertain just why the revenues had so greatly fallen off. The reports of the manager, Hepford, were apparently in good order. They explained why, in the last three years, twenty thousand head of cattle had dwindled to six thousand. But Mr. Selby had felt the discrepancy warranted investigation. Now his death had put the matter squarely up to Ernest Selby, the new owner.
While the lawyer did not commit himself to a definite implication of dishonesty on the part of this Hepford, the facts were sufficiently arresting to give that impression.
Ernest had talked the matter over with his father and mother, and then had permitted no grass to grow under his feet before boarding a westward-bound train. He was extremely grateful to Uncle Silas for having left him the ranch, but still more for the opportunity it gave him to forsake his circumscribed life in a small Iowa farm community for the romance and adventure that the West promised.
But he must be sensible, he told himself; he must curb the exultant leap of his blood and make an effort to figure out the best way to proceed. He knew little or nothing about ranching, and was entirely unfitted to step in and manage a large ranch. He would have to learn the business from the ground up, to gain by actual experience the various activities connected with stock raising, to find out what was going on. He would not even know how to go about uncovering any dishonesty or maladministration.
Then had come the idea: why not, under an assumed name, ask for employment as a cowboy on his own ranch? That would certainly be one way of getting experience from the ground up. Of course, being a cowboy would be new, too; but Ernest had had plenty of experience with horses and farm work; he was strong and husky, and thought he ought to be able to overcome tenderfoot reactions in short order. In that way he could also get the inside track on the ranch management. There might be difficulty in persuading Hepford to employ him, but Ernest was inclined to meet that issue when he came to it. He felt equal to any situation, now that he was really in the West with all its mysterious and glamorous possibilities.
Selby left the train at Holbrook. Sight of several cowboys lounging on a corner opposite the station caught his attention. The cowboys were young, red-faced, sharp-eyed, lazy in movement, and garbed in the usual picturesque, big sombreros, flannel shirts, levis tucked in high-heeled leather boots to which were attached enormously long spurs.
He stepped up to the lounging group, glad that he was dressed plainly.
“Any place round here to eat?” he asked.
They eyed him without apparently seeing him. “Shore,” replied one, pointing across the street. “There’s a hotel. An’ there’s a lunch counter at the depot.
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