The Cowhand

By: Voyle Glover

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The Old West was never wilder than in certain parts of Texas and New Mexico. Men and women who went west in wagon trains, settled in country that was ruled by Comanche, Apache and other Indian tribes, as well as an environment that was very hostile. It all made life very dangerous. As the Old West settled and towns sprang up and cattle ranches began to dot the landscape, life got a bit easier for some. But, into the Wild West came other kinds of men. These men grew up with guns and many had become hardened veterans in the Civil War. Some of those men who’d fought Indians and rattlesnakes and blistering hot western suns, drought, and all that nature could throw at them became powerful and resisted anyone who threatened their little kingdom. Will Mugolo was one of those men who grew up on the frontier and knew what it was to chase cows from sunup to when the sun turned orange as it sank into the western horizon. When Mugolo got a note from an old friend saying he needed help, he left Texas on the run to help. He found his friend, James Latham, lying on a cot in a shack on his ranch. He’d been severely beaten and had a cracked rib. Mugolo learns that the fight is about water. Latham has the only water around, and there was a drought. One rancher, a man who had beaten back Indians, had battled the elements, had driven his longhorns to the market across the harsh western wilderness many times, decided he would take as much of the water as his cattle needed. When Latham resisted, he was beaten and left lying in the dirt. Mugolo hires on as a cowhand, but Latham insists he become a partner in the ranch. Mugolo reluctantly agrees. He then does something he’s done since he was a yonker, playing in the West Texas desert. He confronts the source of the trouble, Ben Tucker, a tough, no-nonsense rancher who'd been one of the early settlers, a veteran of many Indian fights, and tough as the cowhides nailed to his bunkhouse wall. Mugolo quickly learns two things while sitting on his horse just outside the front of the ranch house, talking to Tucker. Standing on the porch is a man named Batinger, famous for his bravery under fire in the Civil War. Batinger is now a hired gun, afraid of no man, and one of the most dangerous men Mugolo ever met. Batinger was a man who was said to be without fear. Some said he was an outlaw, a man who’d ridden some of the shaded, dark trails in the West. Mugulo didn’t know about that. He did know the man was fast and deadly with a gun, and he knew Batinger was not afraid of Will Mugolo. Mugolo is stunned to learn that his former wife, Emma, and Hemphill, the man she’d run off with, a man who had been Mugolo’s best friend, lived on the ranch. Hemphill hates Mugolo and fancies himself a gunman. Emma would later complicate matters by seeing Mugolo in private, then in public, knowing that her husband, who she now hates, will try and kill Mugolo. Her hope is that Mugolo will kill him instead. But, Hempshaw has his own plans about that. He hired four killers to guarantee Mugolo’s death. Now, Will Mugolo has to face Batinger, a known man killer, a gunman of no small reputation, and four killers he doesn’t know exist. They are all about to learn that Will Mugolo is far more than a mere cowhand. They thought he was a cowboy come to help out a friend. They would all come to learn that Will Mugolo is the most dangerous man they’d ever meet. Tensions mount in this fast-paced Old West, action packed, western adventure story about a man who lives by principles, and who demonstrates them in his actions. This is a western fiction novel that even the Dean of Western Fiction, Louis L'Amour would enjoy.