Summary

Chapter 1

It was late fall, 1925, on the Montana cattle ranch owned and operated by the Burbank brothers, Phil and George. It was time to castrate the bulls in anticipation of the upcoming cattle drive to the nearby settlement of Beech with Phil, more than willing to do the actual work (he even refused to wear gloves) and George content to hang back and rope the cattle in. Surrounded by the ranch hands and itinerant cowboys who work the Burbank spread, Phil, although by nature aloof, loved the camaraderie, and reveled in knowing exactly how to get people’s goat. The brothers, in their mid-forties, have worked the ranch for 25 years since Phil, with his rough and unfriendly personality, drove their parents to retirement in comfort in distant Salt Lake City. The ranch now is pretty much a bachelor world, neither brother ever married...