Top Hand

Montana was a big state in 1887, and the Broken T was one of its biggest spreads, sprawling over three counties -- a good piece of Custer County, thirty-five sections of Power River County, and a middling chunk of Rosebud County. It was big enough that a man running from the law could hire on as a cowhand and be safe so long as he behaved himself -- and as long as he never wanted to go back home.But no ranch was big enough to let a man hide from himself. And Charlie Hatch, who ran the Broken T, was a man who liked to see things settled. He wasn't about to let any hand feel really safe until his problems, whatever they might be, were solved. What Charlie did was provide a man time to come to terms with himself. But each man had to provide the heart and the guts to do what had to be done -- including killing.