Kane Canyon Ranch

<p>Recently released from the army with a medical discharge Whit Wadsworth was after a dose of Spanish flu had laid him low for almost a year. Where he had been a strapping 180 pounds he was now a staggering stumbling 150. Upon his discharge he had caught a train out of El Paso for Benson. Upon arriving there he had worked his way north along the San Pedro River. Over the course of a month or so he found himself on the banks of the Gila River. He was almost out of grub. This morning he had made a pot of coffee and fried a small slab of bacon. He figured he had one more good meal. He needed a job but knew he wasn't strong enough to do a full day's work. Well if he couldn't get a job maybe a free meal. <br>As he reached the top of the mountain he saw below him a house and barn with corrals. As he rode closer he could see a woman dressed in a denim shirt over a pair of split riding skirts. They fell to the top of shop-made calfskin boots. The woman's hair had once been a honey blonde but was now showing a little gray at middle age she still held a fair figure and a face with no wrinkles. But above all that Whit was worried for strapped around her waist was a pistol. A lump came to his throat as he approached. He fairly needed a meal and a place to sleep but this ranch woman looked hard as nails. He stopped twenty feet from the house and removed his hat. Good afternoon Ma'am is your man about? <br>No I don't have a man. Not anymore he's buried over in Globe. This is my ranch. What can I do for you? She wasn't unpleasant but still had a firm tone to her. <br>I'm just out of the army looking for a job. I've come a fair piece. Would ya have anything a man could do for a meal? Whit was leaning on his saddle horn while he spoke. <br> </p>