John Groth

Two old-timers lock horns in this lean, affecting short story set in 1923 and permeated with nostalgia for the Old West. One is gruff, tobacco-chewing Tom Bird, a Texas rancher; the other a sullen Comanche ex-war-chief named Starlight. Years earlier, they squared off in near-fatal combat. Now, Starlight and his party of eight Comanche men, on a stopover from Oklahoma, demand that Bird donate his largest bull, Shakespeare, for sacrifice. The almost...